Thread: Great racing cars from the past

Hi Chucaro, a few years ago while still living in the uk I had the pleasure of meeting Tony Brooks, Phil Hill, Stirling Moss and Gonzalez at an event at Silverstone I happened to have my scrap book with me (as you do) and persuaded Tony Brooks and Phil Hill to sign a couple of pics. Gonzalez refused as he hadn't driven that type of car and Stirling Moss had wandered off.

Phil Hill won the championship in that Ferrari Sharknose in 1961 I think, the same day that his team mate Wolfgang von Trips was killed at Monza. Chris Rea made a film "La Passione" a fantasy type movie about the Ferrari Sharknose, while making the movie he stumbled across a museum dedicated to Von Trips. They said he could use footage they had on condition he donated the replica sharknose he had built to the museum. A sort of trade off that benefited all

Here's a snippet from that movie

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPCmbj2iNX4]Chris Rea - Only To Fly - YouTube[/ame]

Stirling Moss says that if he were running a Grand Prix team, and could have any two drivers from history in his cars, they would be Jimmy Clark and Tony Brooks. "I suppose that my choice of Tony would be a surprise to some people, but to my mind he is the greatest 'unknown' racing driver there has ever been - I say 'unknown', because he's such a modest man that he never became a celebrity, as such. But as a driver, boy, he was top drawer."

A couple of pics from my old scrapbook of cars hopefully you can see the signatures

Thank you for the post, there were great times in motor sport.
The majority of the drivers in the 50's and 60's were top sport man people and with awesome skills to control that cars.
It will be a dream to see Fangio, Hill, Moss and Jean Behra on the new F1 cars

Great video Chucaro

Unfortunately Collins was killed the following year and then Hawthorn the year after that

This is a must see video too

Racing Legends - Stirling Moss - YouTube

Vary nice video, it is now in my collection.
Drivers back then used to died like flies, do you remember Alberto Ascari?
He was racing for Ferrari and lost his life testing one in Monza in 1955.
Ironically his father was a great driver as well and lost his life in simmilar circumstances
Alberto Ascari was one of the drivers that gave Fangio a run for his money.

Here are a couple that should be familiar to Australian motor racing fans.

What important races did these cars win?

Great racing cars? Aston Martin DB3S


This is a 1954. 3.0 litre 6 cylinder DB3S @ the 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed





This is a 1956 DB3S being fully rebuilt in Brisbane.







Is it a REAL Aston Martin DB3S ? - no, and yes, and no. Close enough.

It's really an Aston. It started out as LML-717, a DB2/4 which was found TOTALLY rusted out etc, purchased from ebay in 2002.
It is being totally rebuilt - parts of the chassis are from -717 but as it was in poor nick most of it has been rebuilt / re-manufactured.
The engine and gearbox are from the DB-2/4 and are being completely overhauled to suit the 'new' DB3S.
Some steering and suspension components are ex -717.
ALL DB3S panels, petrol tank, etc etc etc have been hand-formed from scratch by the (very talented) owner.

Originally Posted by Chucaro

Going back to the great cars of the past I think that the German Gran Prix 1957 have to be one of the most awesome races in the history of F1
I love to see how Fangio drift the Maserati and also have a look the pit stop for tyre changing and fuel.
Fangio come out of the car for a drink!!
After the pit stop he broke the lap record in almost every lap!!

1957 German GP @ the Nurburgring. Fangio's greatest drive ever

Peter Collins, in his early days with Ferrari, started getting out of the car and jumping up onto the pit counter at pit stops. This is because in one of the renowned Ferrari comic opera pit stops, the fueller completely missed the big funnel and dumped a churn of fuel into the cockpit and all over Collins. The fuel mixtures used then would just about eat your skin and trousers off.

A prominent collector and restorer of GP cars in the UK reckons there are now more Maserati 250F competing in historic racing than Maserati ever built. This has long been the case with many types of Bugatti. The Bugatti world is rife with fakes and a well known Australian Bugattiste told me that anyone contemplating purchase of a Bugatti should regard it as a fake until positively proven otherwise.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Here are a couple that should be familiar to Australian motor racing fans.

What important races did these cars win?

Looks like a Talbot Lago or a Ford at the 1953 GP, Albert Park ?
Bill Wilcox raced one.