Kickstarter – The Chicane

Help Kickstart an Alfa-Inspired Wrist Watch

This Kickstarter for an Alfa-Romeo Alfetta GT inspired chrono by Straton Watch Co has already achieved more than 7 times it’s $15,500 goal, but there’s still time to get in on it for your own Vintage Driver Chrono. Even a few of the special Backers Editions are still available. Whenever we peek into the world of watches we start to enter an environment with a fastidiousness to put Pebble Beach concours judges to shame with near religious adherence to particular movements, countries of origin, and grades of metals.
The Straton Vintage Driver Chrono uses the Seiko-developed Mecha-Quartz movement which combines quartz’ accuracy with a mechanical chronograph that represents what I think is a good compromise (at this price point) between purists and casual fans of wristwatches.

Check out the Kickstarter for more information.

Help Kickstart a Book of Never Before Published Racing Photography

You already know that I love these kinds of projects that highlight amateur and unpublished photography documenting our favorite eras in motorsport. From just the few initial shots shared on the Kickstarter project page the MotorBinder project already looks fantastic.

Even just a few years ago, this kind of project would have been impossible and these photos would have remained on a shelf in their tattered binder. If project organizer Roy Spencer were particularly resourceful, he might have shopped the idea to a motoring publisher or two. Chances are stronger, however, that these photos would have remained unpublished. We might never have been able to see greater insight into the growth in American road racing in the 50s and 60s with images from Torrey Pines, Paramount Ranch, Laguna Seca, Riverside and others. What’s more, the team plan to archive and make these photos available to other projects in the future, even those that don’t make it into the final art book.

As is customary with Kickstarter projects, there are a variety of rewards for backers at varying levels, and these are marvelous. The large format prints available to backers are worth it on their own, that you also get the book makes this one a no brainer.
More information on the Kickstarter page.

Update: with several days to go, MotorBinder has been successfully funded!