Sunday morning Moment of Zen

Rolls Royce, Madison Avenue.

And now for something completely different: Bizarro Bullitt Chase Scene!

I came across this cinematic gem while trolling through youtube. It's from the 1973 film "The Seven-Ups" starring Roy Scheider. What's interesting is that not only is ace stunt driver Bill Hickman the bad guy driver in both this film as well as in Bullitt, but despite the fact that Roy Scheider is driving a Pontiac Ventura, his engine sound effects are clearly identical to those from Steve McQueen's Mustang Fastback.  I suppose the studio didn't want to waste money re-recording the sound effects!  But don't let that spoil your enjoyment of this rather good time capsule, featuring the streets of 70s NYC, the George Washington Bridge, and the Palisades Parkway in New Jersey. There is even a little Bullitt homage when the cars get airborne over some uneven NYC streets! The ending is totally insane!

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...

"Il Segno Alfa" Exhibition at the Milano Triennale

Every time I go to Milan on business, I always try to get in at least one Alfa Romeo-related activity. This year being the 100^th anniversary of the marque, there is currently a fun exhibition installed at the Milano Triennale called “il Segno Alfa,” or “the Sign of Alfa.”  The exhibit charts the history of the Milanese automaker as both a vessel and reflection of Italian culture in the 20^th century.  Each room of the show has one or two cars from a given era, surrounded by newspaper headlines and artifacts from that time period.

This exhibition is free to the public, and brings together some of the best cars from the Alfa Romeo Museo Storico into the heart of the city where more people can see them and enjoy them.  Automotive highlights from the exhibit are the incomparable 8C 2900B Aerodynamic coupe from Le Mans 1938, an Alfetta 159 GP car, as well as a Giulia Sprint GTA, a Montreal, and even the new 8C Competizione, among others.  There are some truly wonderful original vintage posters on the wall, including an original 1932 Monaco GP Poster by Falcucci – an image so often reproduced that seeing a real one in person produced that almost anti-climactic response you get from the Mona Lisa or any other over-exposed masterpiece.  Each room also had a small selection of design objects from each decade, as well as monitors showing the enormous amount of TV and cinema presence Alfa has had over the years.  It’s a fun exhibit to browse, and will be a lot easier on wives and girlfriends than going to the Alfa Museum (aka the fortress of Alfisti Geekdom).

On the negative side, I found the exhibit overly nostalgic and rather lacking in depth, and I was sort of hoping to find more genuine academic effort in tying the automobile to cultural and industrial developments in Italy in the 20^thCentury, rather than just juxtaposing various objects from the same era together.  To put this in American context, it is as if they put a ‘57 Chevy in a room with Elvis records and pictures of drive-ins, but they failed to really explain what the car meant to people at the time, how it changed their lives, or to go beyond the superficial nostalgia effect.  However, I think this exhibit might have more emotional impact for the intended home-grown Italian audience, as a reminder of what Alfa Romeo has meant to Italy over the years, and maybe as a foreigner I missed out on a little of that.

 As a collection of compelling cars and really cool artifacts, the exhibit is definitely worth seeing if you are in Milan in the next few weeks, especially for those who don’t have the time to go out to the Alfa Museum.  I couldn’t help but think, though, that this exhibit was like walking into a really tastefully done car commercial more than a serious intellectual discourse (befitting an institution like the Milano Triennale) on how the car irrevocably changed the face of Italy just as it did the USA.  But looking at special cars is always a treat, no matter what the context!

FULL GALLERY HERE.

The exhibit runs through October 10, so hurry over!  Admission is FREE.

News Flash! Pirana Surfaces in the Desert!

If you read my recent articles about the Lamborghini Espada and its progenitor, the Bertone Pirana, you will recall that this Jaguar E-type-based, one-off show car had essentially been out of the public eye since Earl's Court Motor Show of 1967 and a few subsequent shows that year. My attempts to find modern photos of the car for the article had been unsuccessful. Then all of a sudden, BAM, the car appears on EBAY, and is located in Palm Springs, CA!!

Bring A Trailer broke the story, and I am just floored to find the car still exists, though it has been repainted a rather fetching shade of Green. Any bets on how much this exceedingly rare handmade prototype will sell for?? It's times like this I really wish I was a millionaire.

Update on Monday, October 11, 2010 at 5:34PM by Bradley Price

The Pirana's ebay auction ended with a high bid of 190K, but did not meet the reserve.  Item has been relisted with an opening bid of 150K.