Categories
Classic Sportscar

Factories at Work: BMW

BMW 700s on the line

Sure it’s been overshadowed by it’s bigger brother 2002, but the 700 was a tougher competitor than you’d think. Hans Stuck piloted one to victory in the touring car class of the 1960 German Hillclimb Championship. Class victories were also achieved in the 1960 12 hours race at Hockenheim and the 6 hours of Nürburgring. Not bad for car powered by a 698cc Flat-2 (a bored out R67 motorcycle engine).

Flat-2!

Update: Over on The Chicane’s Facebook page, Jean-Jaques pointed us to this photo of Jacky Ickx in a rather inauspicious entry to his hillclimb career, also in a 700. Thanks Jean-Jaques!

Categories
Ferrari Video

GTO Ride-along

Want to ride shotgun with Mark Hales in Nick Mason’s Ferrari GTO? Yeah, me too.

Part of Into the Red, which has recently been updated as Passion for Speed.

Categories
Porsche Video

908/3 at the 1970 Targa Florio

This was the year of The Flying Finn’s 33 minute 36 second lap. There’s something equally magical and heartbreaking about a record that cannot be broken—Leo Kinnunen’s 79.89 mph average lap of the Targa will never be beaten.

Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

The Second Best Shape in Italy

The chauvinism of 1960s advertising! You love it in Mad Men, you’ll love it behind the wheel of your Fiat.

The second best shape in Italy.
at the hottest little price in the USA. You’ve seen the first in films. Now see the Fiat in person. Fiat is the hot one. The Italians did it the way they do most things. With style. With flair. With flourish. And there’s no Germanic thrift showing. This Fiat sport comes with all the extras at not a penny extra. Bucket seats, power brakes, leatherette upholstery, header, defroster, tachometer, dual electric wipers, safety belt anchors, bumper guards, self-canceling turn signals, help-lights and tool kit. And speaking of figures, you can’t even come close to a shape like this at a price so trim and appealing. At $2639, it’s the lowest-priced sports car in its class. Every family should have at least one Fiat.

Germanic thrift! Safety belt anchors! You can’t come close to a shape like this at such a low price! Every line is pure gold.

Categories
Classic Cycle

Giacomo Agostini on The MotArt

I’m really enjoying The MotArt’s posts of collected photography lately. Click on over for more from this beloved many-time world champion GP road racer. 122 Grand Prix wins, 15 World championships—the all-time motorcycle leader in career wins.

I love that “Ago” wouldn’t play second fiddle to Hailwood when he was brought on at Agusta. That took some balls. Probably even more than even a MotoGP racer typically has. Fantastic.

Categories
Video

Super Bee

Some beautifully shot footage from Vita Brevis Films. Hey Top Gear USA, put these guys on your call list. This Mopar looks like she’ll break the sound barrier.

Categories
Classic Sportscar

Pursuit

Nice little split-window back and forth on So-Sos.

Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

Giaur: I’ll Take Them All, Please

How would it be possible to choose from among the Berlinetta, 750 Sport Internazionale, and 750 Corsa models offered in this Giaur advertisement?

Berlinetta
Mod. San Remo
Carrozzeria | Lega leggera | Telaio tubolare | Motore Giannini | Mono alber CV 45 | Carburante super | 80 N.O. | Velocita km 160 | Peso kg 419
750 Sport Internazionale
Mod. Champion
Motore Giannini | Doppion Albero | A cames in Testa | CV 68 | Telaio tubulare | Carburante Super | 80 N.O. | Velociata km 170 | Peso kg 360
750 Corsa
Mod. Red Blitz
Motore Giannini | Doppion Albero | A Cames in testa | CV 68 | Carburante Miscela Ternaria | Valocita km 186 | Peso kg 300

updated to include the second page (and better resolution) from Etceterini

Categories
Porsche

Porsche Classic Restores a 911T


The team at Porsche Classic, in conjunction with the Porsche Club of America, are restoring a well worn patinaed beat to shit 1973 911T to be raffled off at the August 2011 Porsche Parade. Unlike their usual projects restoring vintage Porsches, they’re documenting the restoration and sharing it on porsche.com. The team recently posted some updates and this series of photos illustrating the gearbox spread out for rebuild are simply gorgeous. Gearboxes are notoriously fear-inducing, but when you lay everything out like this it looks like a manageable, albeit puzzling task.
via Things Organized Neatly

Categories
Historic Racing Photos Lost Track Porsche

Ricardo Rodriguez at Meadowdale

Ricardo Rodriguez at Meadowdale, 1959


Imagine the nerves that a 17-year-old (!) Ricardo Rodriguez must have felt climbing into his Porsche RSK Spyder for round 3 of the USAC Road Racing Championship at Meadowdale Raceways on May 31, 1959. Imagine how you’d have felt at 17, waiting for the start of the race, thinking of the daunting nature of the track with it’s Monza-style banking and lack of runoff areas. Now realize that Ricardo probably didn’t feel any of that because he was Ricardo Rodriguez. Even after he rolled the Porsche near the silo turn, he attempted to enlist the help of corner workers to right the car so he could continue.

After practice Rodriguez had a small incident as well. The nose was replaced before the race.
After practice Rodriguez had a small incident as well. The nose was replaced before the race.
Meadowdale, May 1959 Program Cover

The race report at Chicagoland Sports Car Club Memories sums up the performance of the then relatively unknown Mexican driver nicely.

“That young Mexican we mentioned was 17-year-old Ricardo Rodriguez of Mexico City. His astonishing ability as a driver had almost every one cheering him along as the David chasing the Goliath. Certainly all we had heard about this lad’s ability was founded on fact. He certainly proved it here at Meadowdale. It was unfortunate that he ‘lost it’ coming through a turn at the northeast corner of the track. While he flipped and completely rolled over in the car, he was able to crawl out from under with only minor bruises. Rodriguez was a comfortable second place and challenging the leader when he went out of the race.”

Chicagoland Sportscar Club Race Report