Entries in Historic Racing (23)

Wednesday
Mar302011

Video of the Week: Over 8 Minutes of Vintage Racing Sexiness at Monza

I found this gem of a video in the dark corners of youtube and am thrilled to share it with you (only has 176 views as of now!).  There is so much absolutely fantastic footage of the Monza Historic Races from 2010, both on-track and in the pits.  My favorite part are the awesome powerslides you can see as the cars exit from Ascari and head down the backstraight to Parabolica. Simply magical!  Also, the low drag E-type Lightweight Coupe is pure sex on wheels.

Friday
Jan282011

Mangusta Racecars: All kinds of hotness...

As many readers know, only a paltry sum of 402 De Tomaso Mangustas were ever produced, so that makes racing Mangustas even more hyper-rare -- especially when compared to their more populous Pantera brethren who raced in various forms for many years. In fact I would wager that the 4 racing Mangustas in this article might just be the only ones ever to turn a wheel in anger. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!).  What a pity they are so scarce, because these race-prepped Mangustas are some of the meanest, hairiest looking racecars I have ever seen. Click the pics to link to the full gallery!

Photos via: conceptcarz.net, alfabb, Flickr user CJCAM

Sunday
Oct102010

Why I stopped caring about modern motorsport

Ok, so that headline is a slight exaggeration. I do still care about the outcome of some motorsports events, but as someone who is too young to remember a time when "sex was safe and racing was dangerous" to paraphrase Hans Stuck Jr., I have to say that today's cars, drivers, and circuits simply don't have the allure, the romance, and the personality that their forebears did. This point of view is already well trodden territory of course, but when I came across this photo over at Motoring Con Brio a few weeks back, it really touched a nerve. I feel like this photo really encapsulates the visceral excitement of racing that is missing today. Cars are just too sophisticated, tire technology is just too good, car setup is too computational, and drivers too polished. I think racing has utterly lost the wonderful rough and hairy edges it used to have (admittedly before I was born). What we're left with is like watching shiny plastic slot cars go 'round. Lost is the feeling that the racing car is a living, breathing beast being tamed by a supremely brave and skilled individual.  It makes me wonder what things will be like in the next 10, 20 years, and whether we'll just watch robotically controlled electric vehicles chase each other silently around Mickey Mouse circuits in the Middle and Far East while the tracks like Monza, Silverstone, Zandvoort and the rest fall into decay. Perhaps I am silly to be nostalgic for a past I never lived, but I often wonder if today's racing will leave anything to be nostalgic about when I am old and gray...

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