François Cevert was so hard to read. Half the time I look at this shot, I think he’s giving an intimidating glare. The other half of the time it looks like we’re sharing an inside joke. It has to be one of them though, right? There’s either a set jaw or a smirk behind that balaclava.
Edit: Thanks to Kev for identifying the photographer of this marvelous shot as Rainer Schlegelmilch.
Sure, you could use an engine stand next time you’re wrenching on your 4-cam Porsche engine… Or you could be a man about it and just drop it out of your 550 Spyder RS60, pop off the valve cover, and throw it over on its side.
What Makes a Winner?
A split second, driving skill, that final touch in tuning, just plain luck. Certainly all of these. And the design and engineering skill that creates a racing machine.
The Choice of Champions: Beach.
————
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Track tested stage 3 for 3 grand? Sign me up!
I know more than a few vintage Formula Vee drivers that would be beside themselves with joy to take a sweeping right through Casino Square or drop to low gear for the Hairpin.
But until today, I’d never seen photos of FVs taking to this most famous track. From 1966 to 1975, the European Formula V Championship was one of the many feeder series that aspiring Formula 1 drivers had as a platform to prove themselves—including young Keke Rosberg who was the FV champion in 1973.
By the mid 60s, the Vee Formula was already popular in the States, and had slowly been making inroads into Europe. In 1966 the Formula was actively being raced throughout Europe with two holdouts: Italy and France. It wasn’t until the French magazine l’Automobil and racing driver Maurice Trintignant got behind it that the formula finally properly launched in France a year later. Finally, the formula found its way to the promised land: Monaco.
Perhaps it sounds silly to have these little 1300cc VW Beetle powered cars puttering around Monaco. Bear in mind though, that 67’s winning average pace of 99.3 kph isn’t far from Fangio’s pace in the 1950 race and is only 16 kph slower than Moss’ 1960 qualifying average.
Werner Riedl, who would later become the Formula champion in ’68, took the race in an Austro Beach (is this the same as the popular Beach stateside?). The rest of the field was a collection of makers that have since become popular in today’s vintage Formula Vee racing (Beach, Autodynamics) as well as a few that I’m not familiar with (Fuchs, Bora, Zarp).
The marvelous California racing scene of the 1950s is storied, was a fantastic proving ground for American racing talent, and its popularity has been to our benefit. It was so highly-regarded and well-documented that there’s still plenty of information and photos and film canisters left for us to enjoy today. In fact, I think we probably over-glorify the era simply because it’s easier to find race results, images and footage to write about. The racing communities of other parts of the Americas weren’t as lucky to enjoy such a bounty of media, and an email from a reader recently reminded me that I should be working harder on representing other more forgotten racing communities.
Thankfully, George Kehler emailed me at the perfect time with the perfect solution. George has sourced this fantastic document of an under-represented racing community in Central America and sent a series of films from El Salvador, of which this footage from the April 20, 1958 running of the Santa Ana Sports and Grand Touring Races is the first example. It’s a glorious film shot by Dr. Carlos Alvarez of the Circuito Santa Ana set up on city streets near the capitol city of San Salvador.
As far as I can see, the Salvadoran racing community has all of the ingredients that make us look back so fondly on the California racing scene.
Sound unlikely? The crowd of 100,000 strong lining the streets, craning their heads out farther and farther in to the racing surface speaks to it’s popularity, but was it able to serve as a proving ground for young racers? Well, look for yourself. That Porsche 550 Spyder with the striped bonnet has Ricardo Rodriguez behind the wheel (Ricardo sat on pole and took the race’s fastest lap, but DNFed the race). The white Porsche Speedster is piloted by Pedro (at 18 years old).
It’s that Speedster, entered in the race by Roberto A. Reyes, that is the reason we’re all able to enjoy this footage now. George Kehler is the owner of that car today, and this footage is from his collection of artifacts on the car’s history. Can you imagine a better document of your car’s racing heritage than footage like this of the car winning her class with Pedro Rodriguez at the wheel?
There will be more El Salvador race footage in the coming weeks, hopefully we can help put an end to the dearth of racing footage from Central America. More on the April ’58 race at Racing Sports Cars.
If you’re familiar with El Salvador racing in this era, get in touch. George has identified the major details, but I’d love to find finishing order, programs, photographs, or other items to help document the era.
I know there are some BMW 2002 peeps out there that would pass out on the spot if they saw all of these highly-coveted Alpina performance parts together in one place like this. Heck, I know one who would be giddy to just find a complete set of the wheels with the elongated holes.
Who could blame them? Just look at all of the rare goodies collected here in this shot: performance cranks and pistons and engine blocks and brakes and sway bars and springs and headers and exhaust and…
Whew, I’m starting to get lightheaded myself.
Love this 1937 film explaining the basics of differentials.
I’m a couple of weeks late with these, but I just noticed Straßenversion’s shots from his trip to Florida for the Sebring 12 Hours. Thankfully, he arrived early enough for the running of the vintage event. Check out his writeup on the 12 Hours on his blog, and see the complete set of photos on his Flickr.
Ford challenges Ferrari on the track, agrees with him on motor oil: both pick Shell
The new Ford GT, first car ever entered in European races by a major American automobile manufacturer, aims to put an end to Enzo Ferrari’s world championship reign.
Like Ferrari, Ford puts its faith exclusively in Shell oil. Below, they tell why:
Says Ford’s Roy Luss, chief design engineer o the GT, “A lot of time and talent have gone into the building of this car. We want to be sure we’re protecting our investment with the best racecar oil we can buy—Shell oil.”
Says Enzo Ferrari: “My loyalty to Shell springs from my experience first as a racing driver, then as director of the Ferrari racing team, and finally as a car manufacturer. Thirteen world championships have been the results of the happy association with Shell.
I’ll spare you the faux engineering sales-speak that follows, but you have to envy the unique position that Shell was in at the time: able to gain by either side winning the Ford-Ferrari wars.