Where’s my time machine? I’d sure love some of these prices on ragtop 356s that were offered at Hollywood Way VW-Porsche.
RM Auctions‘ Automobiles of London Auction last month turned up more than a few interesting cars across the block. This one, however, really grabbed my attention.
Automobili Turismo e Sport SpA (or ATA), was a short-lived Italian sportscar and racing organization that grew out of the “Palace Revolt” exodus of top designers and engineers from the Ferrari factory in 1961. Headed up by Ferrari GTO masterminds, Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini, the ATS brand was built with one goal at the front of their minds, beat Ferrari at their own game. History seems to indicate that they failed in that goal. Looking at this 3 liter GT car though, they put up one Hell of a fight. They gathered up other rebels for their venture, Phil Hill drove for the ATX GP team after a defection from Ferrari. Former Bertone designer Franco Scaglione, meanwhile, penned this lovely road car.
The road car was at the very cutting edge of technology, and perhaps ahead of its time. With fully independent suspension and discs all around, the ATS 2500 was much more a racing car in sheep’s clothing than a grand tourer for the road. With a mid-mounted V8, she was capable of 160 mph and these remarkable lines and silhouette would virtually guarantee that you’d arrive in style. This example sold WELL below the estimated £600,000-£1,000,000 price. Such are the dangers of a No Reserve auction that allowed one very lucky buyer to take her home for £308,000. Well bought!
Complete information and more photos of this car with a very storied history can be seen on the auction’s lot detail page.
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Airborne Bugatti
Anyone know how to say, “Yee-Ha!” in French?
Here’s a Bugatti T59 being chased hard by Dudley Froy’s Bernatto-Hassan at Brooklands. F1-GrandPrixHistory.net has more harrowing photos of Brooklands’ early days here.
Marlboro Speedway, southeast of Washington DC hosted a variety of SCCA events in the mid 60s. It may have never achieved the fame of Lime Rock or Road America or the Glen, but it looks like it was a fun venue, as these photos document. This is from a 12 hour endurance held in the Summer of ’66, but I’m not able to find much additional information on this specific race. Thankfully, these photos from Cliff Rullman highlight the race in wonderful Kodachrome. I love seeing VW Bugs mix it up with Cortinas and Alfas.
See the complete series of 50 photos here.
Here you are, perched on the dash of Cameron Healy’s Porsche 908 for a few laps around Daytona at the 2007 Rennsport Reunion. This example, 908-010, has a short, but storied history with the factory. It competed in only one race; but it was a very wet Spa 1000km. It finished only 34 laps in that race; but Vic Elford drove 32 of them. After handing off the car to co-driver Jochen Neerpasch, the car quickly met with a telephone pole.
Here’s what Quick Vic tells us about the ’68 Spa race:
“The weather invariably plays a part at Spa; it is almost guaranteed to rain at some time during a race weekend. And this weekend was no exception.
After mixed weather for two days of practice and qualifying, Sunday dawned with rain. It would last all day. I drove the first stint and then handed over to Jochen as the rain continued bucketing down. After just a couple of laps he didn’t pass the pits. Since communications in those days were minimal, it was a while before we learned what had happened. On the very fast, sweeping downhill esses at Malmedy, Jachen had slid off the road and knocked down a telegraph pole, part of which then came in through the passenger side window and hit his crash helmet, knocking him out. Fortunately, the car stopped safely at the edge of the road. Jochen was removed and spent the night in the hospital with a slight concussion but no other injuries”
From that afternoon in 1968 until the late 1990’s, the car was stored in Porsche’s warehouse until sold to a US buyer and restored in time for the 2004 Rennsport. It’s now made its way out to Portland and competes along the West Coast.
More info and photos of 908-010 here and here.
Along with the map and video from earlier today, here are some photos from the 1966 or 67 road races held on the temporary street circuit along the beach in Tijuana. There’s some street action with the Formula Vees entering turn one at the end of the long beachside straight, the drivers in the production class lining up for their LeMans start, and some track shots of some MGAs and Sprites. Excellent stuff here.
Now that looks like a happy bunch of drivers.
Mexican road racing offered more than just the Panamericana, my friends. This is the temporary street course created for the 1968 Tijuana Internaccional races. The program included Formula Ford and Vee races, as well as production based classes – and even featured a LeMans style running start. ¡Me Gusta!
Hand drawn is almost always best, don’t you think? And when in doubt, add some Speed Racer-esque accent illustrations.
Here’s some video from the same venue a few years later. Fabulous projected 8mm film cans, complete with projector fan noise and voice commentary from the driver.
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Monaco 1959 in Pictures
I stumbled across some photos recently of the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix. I’m always struck when I see these how close to the action people were. On balance, of course, I’m glad that spectator safety has improved in the decades since these photos were shot. Today though, and in terms of seeing the event, you’re much better off watching a race on television than attending. Of course there’s always the excitement of a live event, and the people and atmosphere are always half the show.
The last Grand Prix I attended — the ill-fated 2005 USGP — I found myself wandering the field during what became a Ferrari practice session and could get no closer to the track than 30 or more feet. That was a spot to watch one turn through three fences and over the tope of a tire barrier; so I could see the top third of each car. I suppose it beats getting hit with debris from a crash, but neither is really a solution.
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LeMans 1966 as Told by the Drivers
This clip of 1966 LeMans highlights, which looks to have been pulled from an episode of Legends of Motorsport (where’s a Legends of Motorsport DVD box set, Speed Channel?) has some very nice details, including voice over narration from Graham Hill, Bruce McLaren, John Surtees, and Carroll Shelby.
The absolute highlight, though, has to be the footage of the go-kart racing on the carnival midway starting about 3.5 minutes in. Excellent footage of some 9 or 10 year old boys sprinting and leaping into their sportscar bodied karts complete with bucket crash helmets and miniature Dunlop blues. The voice over by John Wyer, while they race is describing the race at LeMans, but meshes very well with the karting action. Great stuff.
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Ludvigsen on Birdcage
“When you click home the ignition key on the sketchy dash of a Birdcage, a strong red light burns deep within the broad, thumb-sized starter button. To me that light became a symbol of the vast power lurking with this apparently ramshackle piece of machinery, like glowing coals in the crater of a slumbering volcano.”
So begins Karl Ludvigsen’s review of the motoring experience of the Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage for the April 1961 issue of Car and Driver. I wonder why mass market car magazines don’t review racing cars today. Maybe they do and they’ve just fallen so far off my radar that I haven’t noticed.
Veloce Today has the complete text of Ludvigsen’s review on their site: well worth a read.
Also note: the track test car is the very example we saw in last week’s Art Appreciation post.