This is a shot any contemporary ad designer would kill for.
This photo has been sitting on my hard drive for years. There’s something about the mood of it that I find mesmerizing. Whether it’s the moment captured, the perfection of the composition, or simply the colors—that Jag and the Baracuta-ish jacket are almost a perfect match.
Every once in a while I try to find the source of this photo again, that mountain makes me think this might be Palm Springs, or maybe Riverside. But I must admit that I’m at a loss. I guess where it was doesn’t really matter to me, what does is how this captures a spirit, an emotion, an atmosphere that makes me want to be in this photograph.
Update: Commenters seem to unanimously think that the venue is likely Pomona, and I’m inclined to agree. Martin wrote in with, “The C-type belonged to Carlyle Blackwell, who was a CalClub racer, and that looks very much like Lance Reventlow in the red jacket.” What do you think? Is that Lance?
Amilcar de Carvalho Fernandes’ beautiful poster of muscle cars from ’60—’74 is perfectly executed. Seeing the images close-up is what really sells it for me. Often these ‘lineup’ posters leave me lacking a bit, but the quality of the illustrations is so high that it feels so much better than other posters I’ve seen that use the same basic layout. Available from Amilcar de Carvalho Fernandes’ site. Looks like €20 well spent to me.
Shane Balkowitsch’s Porsche 356 Outlaw project that we wrote about back in September has returned to the street, and looks set to turn heads everywhere it goes.
When we last checked in on the project, the bodywork and paint were complete—and stunning—but we hadn’t seen much about the performance upgrades that would boost the stock powerplant’s 95hp to an estimated 150hp (dyno test to come later). That’s a pretty substantial upgrade; thanks to a race crank, bigger jugs, and performance cam. Shane’s shared the details (and more shots of the car mixing it up with some modern Ferraris on her maiden voyage) on his project page. It’s a marvelous document of the build, and I hope to one day create something similar myself.
Congratulations again, Shane!
Have a restoration project, interesting car in the shed, or racing story to share? Drop me a line.
Marvelous video of the SCCA 2.5 Trans America Challenge effort of the BRE Racing Datsuns. I’ve long been a fan of the Datsun 510, and this video only reinforces that sentiment.
I’m sure if we catalog everything wonderful about yesterday’s track maps—of which this map of the 1952 Elkhart Lake street course is a perfect example—we could come up with some tips for contemporary track map designers. I would definitely add a few items from this map to the list. The cartoon cars traveling the track for one. The illustrations of people enjoying the recreation on and near the track. the isometric angles with the sketches of prominent landmarks (like the Blatz grain elevator in this map) that can be identified by people at the venue for orienteering purposes. The duotone color palettes. The variation in line-weight. I could go on. Absolutely marvelous.
Hey track map designers! Take your hand off the mouse; turn off AutoCAD; and pick up a brush.
Of course, part of my affinity for this particular map might be my love of Elkhart Lake in general. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad race weekend there. Just looking at this map makes me long for a Spotted Cow at the Siebken’s bar.
Porsche pits are beehives – with sportswriters from all over posing as self-styled experts during these thrill-packed seconds.
Charlie White has shared this amazing artifact of Mid-50s Porsche ephemera in the form of the Factory Sales Binder for the complete model run. These manuals, which acted partly as brochure and partly as educational tool for dealers ride an interesting line halfway between internal and external document. As we expect of a car brochure that would go to the public, there are plenty of photos of the machines in action. For dealers, though, there are plenty of straight-up tables of data of the type that contemporary brochures almost universally lack. On top of that it’s just a tremendous document of the era and the cars.
Another interesting departure from the brochures and sales literature we’re used to seeing in the modern era; there’s no universal look and feel to these documents. This is truly a “sales binder” and feels like a loose collection of scrap book items and ephemera of every type.
It’s been far too long since we’ve dug into the McClure archives for a look at California’s vibrant racing scene of the mid-50’s. This piece of film is bittersweet, as it captures the January 14, 1956 race weekend: the final race weekend at Torrey Pines before its conversion to golf courses.
John took advantage of this last opportunity to record some marvelous film of some of SoCal’s heroes of the day, Phil Hill prepping his Ferrari 500 Mondial, Jack McAfee strapping on his pudding bowl helmet and climbing into his Porsche 550 Spyder. We see the drivers sprint across the track in a LeMans-style start to begin the 6 hours endurance race. Is that a temporary flame-job on the winning Jaguar D-Type of Jerry Austin? I think he should have sprayed it on, who would have guessed how bad-ass a Jag D-Type looks with flames? The timing is also interesting for hot rod fans, January ’56 puts it right around the same time of the famous Von Dutch flame job on a Gullwing Mercedes.
Some of the most interesting shots, though, aren’t on the track nor in the pits at all. Stirling Moss was scheduled to take part in the endurance race piloting an Austin-Healey 100S. The opportunity was perfectly timed, since Stirling had some time to kill on his way back to England from New Zealand after winning the GP Ardmore in a New Zealand Porsche distributor team 550. Unfortunately, the FIA forbade him from participating for reasons that aren’t quite clear to me—anyone know more about that? Since he was in town, Stirling turned up at the track to take in the race, presumably to cheer on Bill Pringle and Ray Jackson-Moore in the Austin-Healey that Moss was to race (they ultimately finished 4th). That’s not so unusual; after all, why wouldn’t the race-mad Moss take in a race, even if only as a spectator? What makes this footage so valuable though, is that it captures Moss the tourist, donning a set of Mickey Mouse ears fresh from a trip to Disneyland with fellow British driver Roy Jackson-Moore and a pair of American drivers. They took to the Disneyland racetrack ride with vigor—with Moss falling second to Roy’s victorious wife Denise Jackson-Moore. Fantastic!
It was a busy weekend indeed for Moss, as Elaine Bond writes in the January 27 issue of MotoRacing, Moss was inducted into the Women’s Sportscar Club as a lifetime honorary member. She goes on, “he is reported to have said, ‘there is no other club I would rather belong to!’ After all, his affinity for dolls is as well known as his affinity for fast machinery and this is reciprocated on the gals’ part.” Sounds to me like Moss had a great time in California.
Huge thanks again to John McClure for sharing this footage with us, see more film from his collection here. In many ways, this is a remarkably sad piece of film. Bidding farewell to the Torrey Pines track must not have been easy for the racers, I’m glad that John captured the weekend for us to appreciate all this time later.
Again, perhaps ‘factory’ is taking some liberties, but why should we diminish Bob Carnes’ efforts by referring to his Denver facility as a mere workshop?
