I should spend more time in little Italian towns.
Categories
Tag: Italy
I’m betting that understanding Italian wouldn’t make this any more amazing than it already is in my ignorance.
Small displacement. Tight courses. Community involvement. Participatory spectators. Pick any one two these and apply them to a contemporary racing series and I’ll be a fan. I’m envious of these residents of Napoli that they got to have all of them.
More photos and information about Christopher Mann’s stunning Disco Volante at Goodood Road & Racing.
Categories
Factories at Work: Lamborghini 1968
If you thought that vintage track footage was hard to find, you should try digging up old tours of sportscar workshops. I can’t help imagining that this precious film is the result of an expectant Miura buyer visiting the line to check in on their purchase. Whatever the reasons or motivations for the filming, it’s a wonderful artifact of Lamborghini’s early days.
Listen to that Super-8 projector whirr.
Monza Banking. No further commentary needed.
Let’s dig back in to the scores of photos that Gary Mason sent in from his teenage years spent in Italy in the 1950s. Among them are these magnificent snapshots from a decidedly less documented location than Monza or along the Brescia-Rome route. The Asiago Hillclimb in the mountains of Northern Italy is exactly the kind of event I love seeing imagery from. This looks very much like a locally organized race for local racers—no glitz required.
Of course in classic hillclimb fashion, it’s the variety that makes these amazing shots come together so beautifully. Everything from open-wheeled formula junior cars and little sub-1000cc barchettas to big Ferraris and proto-econobox Fiats (albeit tuned by Abarth) are all well represented here. What an incredible afternoon it must have been for Gary, nestled in among the other fans atop this little wall above a switchback.
Click on through to more of Gary’s photos in our Gary Mason Archives. Another huge “thank you” to Gary Mason for sending these in. More to come.
The F40 is iconic for a lot of reasons. It was the last Ferrari to be created under Enzo Ferrari’s direct supervision. It was a perfect moment at the height of the old fashioned—some say purer—supercar (old fashioned in that it was without much in the way of onboard computerized driver aids). It isn’t bad to look at either.
When the Japanese magazine Car Graphic was asked to make this promotional video for the Ferrari F40 in 1987, they may have produced something just as unique as the F40 itself… Something we’re unlikely to ever see again. I’d bet that this is as close as we’ll ever get to a Ferrari television ad.
You know… as good as it looks, the view pales in comparison to the sound.
Categories
Period Barchetta Extravaganza Film
Wow. Just wow.