Deadline Hollywood reports that Indie production company Vincent Pictures is undertaking a series of remakes, including Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix. I’m not an enormous fan of remakes, and in this case I think it’s a particularly daunting task. No one has adequately stepped into Frankenheimer’s shoes as being able to capture automotive footage in the beautiful, naturalistic way that is the hallmark of some of the great car chases (and races) in his work. Recent automotive films have relied on computer generated cars for the more harrowing action, which continue to look fake regardless of the budget behind it—Transformers, anyone?
I can understand the draw of remaking older films. The common sentiment is that younger viewers don’t watch old movies, which presents the opportunity to recreate a time-tested product and release it without as much of the risk. Racing geeks, however, are notoriously loyal fans to the older flicks, and continue to seek out catalog titles. The tops of the lists of greatest car flicks has remained remarkably steady over the past few decades. You don’t, for example, see The Fast and the Furious knocking LeMans off of the top of anyone’s favorites.
We’ve also had the fairly recent phenomenon of Stallone’s racing movie Winning Driven. Originally the film was supposed to, in the spirit of Grand Prix, take place in the Formula 1 circuit. Ultimately Bernie et al weren’t interested and the film was relegated to lesser series. I suspect that the same would be true today.
What do you think? Is Grand Prix remake-able? Should it be?
I’m a huge fan of projected 8mm home movies shot to video and uploaded to YouTube. I’m an even bigger fan when the film is from Oscar Koveleski collection and he narrates a lap, describing the obscured driving line, elevation changes, and corners of one of America’s great tracks. So let’s take a spin around Road Atlanta with Oscar in his Auto World McLaren M8B. I’d take his advice, this was probably filmed the weekend he took 4th in the Can-Am Road Atlanta race in September 1970.
Porsche Approaches the Higher Limit of Cylinder Capacity. Since 1967 the limit of the cylinder capacity for the World Championship Endurance races has been 3000 c.c. for sports prototypes and 5000 c.c. for homologated sports cars with a minimum production of 25 items in twelve consecutive months. Previously, the cylinder capacity of 5000 c.c. was fully utilized only in sports cars with engines of American origin. At the 1969 Geneva Motor Show, Porsche will be the first European automobile factory to present a large-volume sports car, the type 917, which is to be homologated by the F.I.A. (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) at the beginning of the current racing season for the classic endurance races. The 917 has the largest cylinder capacity and is the fastest Porsche which has ever been built. Particularly remarkable is the fact that it is not an experimental model but a real production car. This, because on March 31st 25 cars will be finished and ready to race. With a top speed of over 320 KPH, a maximum performance of 520 HP, and a body designed in acoordance with the latest aerodynamic principles, the 917 ranks among the high points of the 1969 automobile year.
Let me preface this review by saying that I’m not a fan of Greatest Hits albums. Usually when I like a band, I dive headlong into their catalog; collecting all the LPs, digging through crates for 45s with unreleased B-sides. I usually find that my favorite songs by an artist weren’t one of their ‘greatest hits’ and that the album cuts are the heart and soul of a musical act. I’ve always thought that Greatest Hits albums were for people that like the radio, not people that like music.
As more of a completist, my tastes in automotive books tend to run to the specific and detailed. I’ve always loved a heavy tome about a single make—even better, a single model—of car. On the surface, Basem Wasef’s book Legendary Race Cars seems like a Greatest Hits. Skimming the racing cars covered in the book revealed that things start off with the platinum records: GT40, Lotus 49, Senna’s McLaren MP4. This was definitely greatest hits. But then things got very interesting: The Greer-Black-Prudhomme dragster, Colin McRae’s Impreza rally car, Petty’s Plymouth Superbird, The 1937 Delahaye 145 speed record car. Now these are deeper cuts. These are B-Sides. This was something I could dig my teeth into. It is the variety and surprises in Legendary Race Cars that make this book so unexpected and fun.
Ecurie Ecosse Jags in Legendary Race Cars
Sure, there are familiar stories here: the yarn about stripping the white paint from Mercedes “Silver Arrows” to satisfy the weight restriction; the Ford/Ferrari wars; Wyer racing’s sorting of the aerodynamics that turned the Porsche 917 from a death-trap into a world beater. Of course, the reason these stories are so lasting and perennial is that they truly are the great myths and legends in the history of auto racing. When I encounter stories like Parnelli Jones’ Big Offy Baja racing rig, though, it makes the stories—even the common ones—all the more interesting for what they’ve collectively brought to our sport.
This isn’t a greatest hits album at all. Greatest hits records dive into a single artist and show a simple introduction to a single act—a single point of view. Legendary Race Cars gives us an introduction to an entire sport. Not a single point of view, not a single venue, not a single type of competition. There’s lovely choices here from every vein of auto racing; F1, World Sportscar Championship, Baja, NASCAR, Drag Racing, Land-Speed Records, Hillclimbing, Rally. Representatives from each of these disciplines each tell their individual stories, but they also tell the story of the automobile through the fierce competition that so rapidly drove its evolution.
I suppose you could call this a coffee table book, but the quality of the text and the research that Basem has put together for each of these machines elevate it to so much more than a typical coffee table book provides. Each car’s story is accompanied by a wide assortment of marvelously reproduced photography—both historic shots of these cars in action and, when possible, contemporary images of the cars as they exist today. Basem’s introduction tells a wonderful tale of his trip around the world with his wife tracking these cars down, visiting them in the manufacturer’s museum or private collections, and gathering their stories. It’s a trip that many of us have fantasized about taking, and living vicariously through this tour of legendary machines is a satisfying way to make a small step towards that promise we’ve made ourselves. You know the one, where we round the German and Italian museums, drop by Goodwood for the Revival, then wrap our way up the Pacific coast of the States, with long wanders around Pebble Beach and the Quail, as well as quick stops by the personal garages of prominent collectors. Since it’s not looking likely that this yearlong jaunt is in my immediate future, I’m glad that Basem has done the legwork for me.
Whether that trip would result in the same list for me is questionable. Whether any of us would make the same list is questionable. Thank goodness for that! As Sir Stirling Moss mentions in the book’s forward, these types of lists are always prone to argument. After reading Basem’s list and the stories behind them, I feel better acquainted with the breadth and variety of machines that have changed racing. It’s true that few can agree on what the most legendary racing cars are. But, if we all agreed on the same handful of machines, what the Hell would we debate about over pints after a race weekend? Legendary Race Cars, by Basem Wasef, would make a fine addition to any car nerd’s library, and makes for good ammunition at your next impassioned back and forth over “the greatest”.
Reconstructing lost tracks as playable environments for video games should be considered a charitable donation.
Jesse Laakso’s build of Meadowdale for play in a variety of racing simulators is just that; a race-fan community service. While the track is still under construction, it will ultimately be available for play in a variety of games, including popular titles such as RFactor and GT Legends. I can hardly wait to boot this up in GTL and take a spin around her in a Alfa GTA or 911 RSR. Jesse’s level of commitment to the details is what is really selling this for me. He has scoured the web, and reached out to the community at The Nostalgia Forum for assistance in ensuring the accuracy of everything from the iconic “PRAY” graffiti at the top of the hill, to the textures of the signage that separated the pit lane from the straight, to the construction methods of the pit garages.
Pray at Meadowdale
For a work in progress, Jesse’s track looks remarkable complete. In the hands of a lesser developer, this would be considered finished and pushed out to the racing sim community. That Jesse is reserving release until it is as accurate as possible is fantastic—if nerve racking. Keep up the great work!
Check out the Nostalgia Forum thread for an indication of the level of effort and research that Jesse has been putting in to the project; as well as how eager the vintage racing community has been in helping him along.
I bet you thought your toter-home tow rig was as good as it could get. You’ve got the tools, the clean floor, a lcd tv and comfortable bed. Compared to this open-air spartan antique, it’s a palace. Just look at this thing. No covered protection of your racing car. No kitchenette. No queen-sized bed. No Playstation. None of it.
But it’s not even worth comparing which is cooler. Not only is this transporter a living piece of history. It’ll attract more attention than 90% of the Ferraris that will park next to you at the next race weekend. Now that is saying something for a repurposed delivery truck.
Of course, when Carrozzeria Bartoletti rebodied the Fiat sometime between 1957 and 1959, it’s status as an auto racing icon and object of desire saved it from the fate of the other Fiat trucks on the line that day. This transporter hauled a whole lot of Ferrari racing machines during it’s tenure as both Ferrari Factory transporter from 1959 to 1965, and later for the SEFAC Ferrari team from 1965 to 1970. 11 years of Ferrari’s gliding gingerly up and down those ramps. 11 years of schoolboys and their fathers pressing their noses against their car windows as they passed it on the highway; a GTO or Sharknose perched precariously on her roof. 11 years of dreams. 11 years of amazing. More info—including complete ownership history from new—on Talacrest Ltd.’s Lot Detail Page.
When I posted the Lotus XI sales brochure last week, a commenter reminded me about Peter Egan’s Road & Track article about building a Westfield kit of a Lotus XI and embarking (the next morning!) on a cross country trip to Road America. Reminiscent of the types of stunts that Top Gear would later build an empire on, the article is equal parts dry journal and audacious journey. Thankfully, there’s almost none of the rubes-in-the-country-respond-to-a-racecar-with-dumfounded-confusion, and much more enthusiasm and joy from everyone Peter and his wife encounter.
The article is available online in its entirety at this link. I dare you to get to the end and not want to ring up Westfield to secure one of the (last?) Eleven kits for yourself.
Southsiders MC has published a wonderful collection of photos of 5-times Italian Motorcycle Champion (250cc/175cc) and 1928 European Champion (175cc), Alfredo Panella. The photos were scanned from a reader’s grandfather’s collection. My quick search for Alfredo turns up little information—surprising for a rider of his profile with a long career: 1924-1939. It makes me wonder what other racing drivers have slipped through the cracks of history. It’s an amazing pity to consider the number of drivers and motorcyclists that were once well-known heroes and are largely forgotten only a few decades later. This is just one of the reasons why I believe so passionately in the idea of getting films and photos out of the shoeboxes in grandpa’s closet and onto the web. Head on over to Southsiders for the complete gallery.
It wasn’t looking good for the first few weeks of fundraising, but the production team behind GT Racer has achieved its $6,000 goal to complete post-production on the footage they’ve filmed of last month’s Algarve Historics in Portimão, Portugal. Congratulations to the team! While the funding goal is complete, for the next 3 days you can still contribute $15 towards the project on kickstarter.com and receive a DVD of the completed film. That’s 25% off retail.
There was some discussion in our last post about GT Racer about the apparent irony of donating money to continue production of a show about millionaires and their very expensive toys, and while the point is well made, I for one am very pleased that the auto racing community has decided that GT Racer is worthwhile.
