Categories
For Sale Porsche

Available in the UK: John Surtees’ 4-Cam 356

John Surtees owned this car for 20 years, and I’m sure it provided plenty of smiles after his retirement (of sorts) from the track. But it isn’t the first Porsche 356 that has spent time in the Surtees stable. His first was a Super 90.

He wrote of it in his Supercars I Have Known:

“My father knew the Aldingtons at AFN, the Porsche agents, so I ended up with a 356 Super 90 that had been used as a demonstrator and had hardly any miles on the clock, It was a marvellous little car, but you had to be very wide awake to drive it, In those days we didn’t have such a variety of tyres, so we couldn’t change the handling characteristics of a car: today, people say cars of that period handle well and are fun after trying them on modern radial-ply tyres. You have to remember that our tyres were much more primitive.”

  • John Surtees’ 4-cam
  • John Surtees’ Carrera 2

It seems Surtees changed his opinion of the bathtub Porker in the years between these two experiences. Of course, perhaps the tires have something to do with it. Then again, perhaps there’s also an ocean of difference between a Super 90 and a Carrera 2. I’ve never driven either, but would love to know first-hand… invitations will be accepted 🙂
This car on offer (chassis YKE250A) is 1 of only 437 Carrera 2 variants produced. Which makes it a gem already, with the ownership history of the only Formula 1 AND motorcycle world champion, it’s quite a rare beast indeed. The car was restored in ’98 by Team Surtees themselves, which sweetens the deal in my eyes, with mechanical help from 4-cam maestro Robert Garretson (with parts supplied directly from Porsche).
Some look at the Carrera 2 and see nothing but a plain-jane 356 plus the added headache of 4-cam maintenance.

There’s something I find alluring, however, about the non-descript supercar. A bit of a wolf in—well, not a sheep—maybe a wolf in less-intimidating-wolf’s clothing aspect that feels right to me. Capable. Not flashy.

Today the car is available from the Coys showroom sales department. More info on their inventory details page.

Categories
Ferrari Video

How to Make One of the Greatest TV Ads

Making of the Shell/Ferrari ad “Circuit”:

The ad in question:

Categories
Classic Sportscar Historic Racing Photos

Is this the Allard that Ended American Road Racing?

Ex Fred Wacker Allard J2

The title of this post might seem hyperbolic at first, but in many ways it’s fair to say that the Fred Wacker Allard J2 made the American public think twice about opening their streets to road racing. The early 1950s were an amazing time for American racing; a time when both enthusiasts and local governments were having a remarkable love affair with street racing. Small towns could close their streets for a weekend, invite some barnstorming sports car drivers to town to have a bit of a race, and tens of thousands of spectators would flood the town’s restaurants and hotels. There seemed no end to the tourism and local business dollars that could be raised for little more than the cost of some hay bales and few extra police officers on duty.

The Fred Wacker Allard J2 at the 1950 running of the Watkins Glen Road Races

That romance came to a swift and brutal breakup during the 1952 running of the Watkins Glen road races, when this Allard piloted by Chicagoan Fred Wacker (a fascinating sportsman that I’m sure we’ll examine in greater depth in the future) had a brief tussle with a Cunningham. During the second lap of the featured race of the weekend, Wacker was following the Briggs Cunningham and John Fitch Cunninghams up Franklin Street as they approached the state park. Fitch began to prepare for the right hander by heading to the left side of the racing line, crowding Wacker’s Allard. They both swerved a bit when they realized how close they were to one another: Fitch back to the right, Wacker edging more to the left; closer to the throngs of spectators at the side of the street. The Allard’s back end came out slightly, clipping the curb and throwing the car’s rear into a group of people sitting on the curb(!). A 7 year old boy was killed, and 10 others were injured.

Fred Wacker and crew at the 1950 Watkins Glenn

There had been injuries at other runnings of American road races, including the fatal crash of Sam Collier during the 1950 Watkins. While safety efforts ramped up a bit, the bulk of the danger seemed limited to the drivers. If these swashbuckling racing drivers wanted to take their lives in their own hands, communities continued to allow in on their streets. Once spectators were in harm’s way, however, community sponsored road racing all but dried up overnight. The close-call between drivers and an overcorrection to avoid a crash happens dozens of times every race weekend, but the proximity of spectators turned what should have been a minor racing incident into a tragedy for the sport.

It’s easy to mourn the loss of small-town races, and easy to imagine how great they might have grown through the 50’s had this crash not spotted the entire sport in American eyes. But the truth is that spectator safety standards were so lacking that it was only a matter of time before an incident like this would have happened. Even so, it’s a shame that rather than take more gradual steps to increase safety for spectators and drivers, we saw the rapid extinction of the road race. While that extinction created the great American racing palaces that would come (Road America, Lime Rock, The Glen), I would sure like to see (legal) wheel-to-wheel racing on public roads again.

More photos at the Allard Registry, as well as this fascinating recollection of the ’52 race from an eyewitness to the crash. Thanks to Paul for the contemporary photos of the J2.

Categories
Video

Scarabs and Stingrays at Meadowdale

Categories
Historic Racing Photos

De Portago’s Life in Racing

de Portago before the crash

Seeing this color photo of Alfonso de Portago (among the last captured before his fatal crash) on Automobiliac last summer, I was inclined to agree with Bradley that there’s something haunting about it; an eeriness about how calm the moment seems, but with the dangerous proximity of the walls and the spectators and the nearby buildings hinting at what might happen when his tire catastrophically deflates moments later.

Young de Portago

Juxtaposed with this much earlier photo of young de Portago sitting pensively in his kiddie kart—before his legend as a racing driver and playboy would take hold—these bookends of de Portago’s life in motoring somehow makes the tragedy of his demise more palatable. Sure, it’s easy from my comfortable vantage point to romanticize the danger of the era and glorify those who died “doing what they loved”, but these photos of de Portago show that there might just be some truth to it.

Categories
Historic Racing Photos Porsche

Fuchs Up Front, Minilites in the Back

Flunder’s 71 911S

Browsing through Flunder’s tremendous build thread on the Early 911S Registry forums, I was struck by this interesting phenomenon of the competition 911s of the early 1970s: Fuchs 7R fronts and Minilite 9×15 rear. The combination creates a marvelous stance and an interesting big & little wheel combination. Mismatched wheels may look a bit jarring to contemporary eyes, but there’s no question that it’s a racey look. This is racing, after all, and we’re after results, not beauty. If it just so happens to be beautiful—as I think it does in this case—then all the better. Some commenters have suggested that the wider Fuchs weren’t yet available, or weren’t as strong as the Minilites.

ST 2.3 1971 Oldenkott Pipes

Flunder’s entire thread is worth a look. I was discussing with a friend recently the concept of rare parts hoarders. I’m sure you’ve run into a few, they’ll have benches full of rare race parts, mechanical fuel injection systems or period turbos wasting away in the corners of their basement. Usually I get grumpy about these folks, that they’re speculators holding onto parts for their increasing value with no intention of ever putting them into their cars.

Flunder has proven that there are still “good” parts collectors. After a 3 year search for a seemingly endless list of rare factory race parts (factory aluminum door skins, plexiglass, conrods, the works), he put together a stunning tribute to the Group 4 racers of the early 70s. “Tribute” is probably the wrong word, this thing is probably more authentic than most surviving Group 4 cars.

  • Chiquita
  • Irwin Kremer 1970 ST

Thankfully, he also went with Fuchs in front and Minilites in the rear. It’s probably going to cause some folks to scratch their heads on the street, but it’s these small acts of courage that make me enjoy the vintage sportscar world so much.

Categories
Gear Racing Ephemera

Heuer Rally-Master

From the instruction manual:
“Rally-Master.
Perfect timekeeping with the Rally-Master combination.
The combination of an 8 day Master-Time with a Monte-Carlo timer on the same back plate permits simultaneous reading of the following times:
Master-Time:
Time of day (official time) or Total elapsed time.
Monte-Carlo:
Time of trip or Elapsed time during a lap.
The Rally-Master is of invaluable help when timing check-points are to be passed free of penalties.
All Heuer dashboard instruments are designed to be mounted at no extra cost on double, triple or quadruple plates. Just order the combination desired.
Technical description of the Monte-Carlo and Auto-Rally timers:
Strong lever movement, 7 jewels, incabloc shock absorbers, unbreakable mainspring. Dials with luminous figures and hands. Case with turning bezel with luminous pointer (instruction for use on page 2).

Timing limit:
± 1/2 second p. hour or ± 6 seconds per 12 hours.
Running time:
24 hours.”

Categories
Lost Track Video

Iowa’s Greenwood Roadway 8mm

Quite a mixed field in this footage of the Greenwood Roadway shot by 8mm footage shot by the editor of the Record Herald, the late Richard C. White. Interesting that a Lotus 11, Corvette, and Porsche 550 are in the same grid.

The sweeping right hander at about 30 seconds looks terribly fun.

Categories
Lost Track Track Maps of the Past

Lost Track: Greenwood Roadway


Pebble Beach. Torrey Pines. Bridgehampton. Indianola, Iowa?
In a lot of ways, it’s the loss of the tracks of the middle of the country that is all the more tragic than the biggies on the coasts. The lack of artifacts make the memory more distant, the tracks somehow more forgotten. It’s almost as if they didn’t exist at all. Certainly history will remember Bridgehampton, and Riverside, and Palm Springs. The races at the big coastal tracks drew a lot of racefans; they drew a lot of cameras; they were well documented. The bigger racing communities have long reams of newspaper articles and magazines documenting the people and the races of California and the mid-Atlantic.
Greenwood Roadway, however, wasn’t quite as lucky. Thankfully a few corners of the Internet have collected a fair bit of documentation on the track. A track that their program says was so challenging that the national SCCA recommended dropping their drivers’ school because the track was, “too demanding for the novice.” Now whether that’s true or not I can’t say, but the track map looks like a fun one; full of weaving esses and a nice high-speed straight–90°–straight complex.
Photos from the era show that the track hosted a wide variety of events, with representation from many classes of competition. I see a lot of formula vees, but there’s also plenty of larger machines as well in the form of Cobras (and King Cobras) and Jags and 904s.
The racing surface at Greenwood—like our last look at Paramount Ranch—managed to survived somewhat in tact in the years since it stopped hosting events in 1966. Cobra fan Chuck Brandt has some photos of a group of cars touring the track in 2005. Apparently the fact that the track is somewhat isolated and difficult to access has helped keep developers from destroying what remains. I have to say, it looks neglected, but not beyond hope. I know that vintage racers have bigger fish to fry, but I’m all for preserving whatever remnants of vintage facilities we can. What do you say, Iowans, couldn’t you use another track?
Be sure to head over to Chuck’s site for more photos (including the tour in 2005). As well as some posts here, here, and here by HAMB member 3AMideaz, who has posted some photos of Greenwood that his father took. GreenwoodRoadway.com gathers more information, as well as a recent arial photo of the track.

Categories
Grand Prix Video

Swiss GP. Bremgarten. 1953

The shot here of the grid—complete with Fangio, Ascari, Hawthorne, and Lang(!)—pulling away just look incredibly close. This was no special press area either, it looks like the cameraman is just sitting in the front row. Madness.

Beautiful, beautiful madness.