Though this video came out last year, I only found out about it a few days ago. Unfortunately however, YouTube (or the authors?) will not allow to embed it, so you need to click HERE or on the pic above to see it. In a nutshell, it’s a 47-minutes long documentary on the Silberpfeile. Well, though the authors do a fantastic job on explaining the origins of the cars, they almost exclusively focus on the land speed record attempts of both Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union. Grand Prix racing, in theory the primary reason for Germany’s National Socialist Party funding the two companies, is barely cited. Furthermore, they pay special emphasis to Bernd Rosemeyer’s accident, and basically cite en passant the previous record attempts. Nonetheless, the research is fantastic and the historic footage is awesome.
So, though it could be seen as maybe incomplete, with no mention to GP racing and barely nothing on other LSR attempts by the Silberpfeile, it’s still a fantastic way to spend 47 minutes 😎.
A few days ago, the great John Ficarra, through VINwiki, released an AWESOME video about the Porsche 959 at the 1986 Paris-Dakar Rally. As always, John Ficarra’s ability to spin a delightful tale is just outstanding. If you have 15 minutes and have at least a minor interest in the 959, I urge you to watch it. Absolutely fantastic! 😎😎😎
I just found this article, though it was published not even two weeks ago. The Le Mans accident of 1955 has always been a subject of interest to me. Why? No, no morbid curiosity or something like that, far from it. With Le Mans being a great passion of mine, the tragedy always hits a chord within me. How something so fantastic could have been the stage for such pain and devastation? All the race stories of greatness and passion kind of pale when I think about the tragedy. That being so, I really can’t enumerate how many articles and videos I’ve seen about the 1955 race. Some truly good, yet mostly superficial or just utterly non-factual. However, today I stumbled upon this article by Darrell Hartman. His piece is one of the best I’ve ever seen – factual, well-written and just as important, objective. Unhappily, the majority of stories written about the tragedy try to deflect blame. To glaze over a few details. Hartman, however, exposes (the known) facts – and with facts you can arrive at your own conclusions. The accident happened because of a multitude of factors, however one small detail was the fulcrum to the ensuing disaster.
Nonetheless, whatever were the reasons for the accident, knowing what happened will not make it less of a tragedy. Yet, it will bring enlightenment. Therefore, knowing the facts is always a great thing. So let us be glad that motorsports have evolved enough that something like what happened in 1955 will NEVER happen again. And to ensure that it really never does, let us always be aware of the facts.
“100 Le Mans: A Century at the World’s Greatest Endurance Race” – Glen Smale
Very probably, of all the books that I have, this is one of the very few that got me anxious. “100 Le Mans: A Century at the World’s Greatest Endurance Race”, by Glen Smale, was announced in 2022. Hardcover, 240 pages, with a slip case and chock-full of photos, celebrating Le Mans’ centennial race. Has to be awesome so a must buy, right? When I saw it on Amazon I immediately put it on pre-order, and it should come out in 2023. Well, as soon as the initial euphoria passed, I payed better attention to the price. I know books nowadays are expensive, yet this one was REALLY expensive, especially factoring in shipping fees. So I thought better of it and grudgingly canceled my pre-order 🙄. Oh well, another awesome book that was just too darn expensive…
For every year there’s a small write-up on the race.
I honestly forgot about the book; the centennial Le Mans came, I watched the race and busied myself trying to decide what 2023 models would be must buys. Fast forward to July, 2024. Since Amazon Prime Day was coming, my son asked me to get him a few books. So I went to Amazon and while looking for his books, there’s “100 Le Mans”, on sale. For US$ 27,00 😲. Locally, so no oversea shipping 😲😲. When first announced, the price was over $100, plus shipping.
The pictures are FANTASTIC!
I bought it on the spot and only after paying and confirming my order was good that I remembered that I still needed to order my son’s books 😂. And as expected, I got what I paid for. This is important: do NOT expect it to be the be-all-end-all book about Le Mans. It is a (good) coffee table book, with loads of info and fantastic photographs. For every year there’s a small resume and a few anecdotes of that year’s race (the best part, IMO). Since these anecdotes were the “big” stories of that year, most of them were not news to me, however I still learned a couple new stories. This book is NOT the definitive book on Le Mans up to 2023, despite the title.
Someone doesn’t know squat about racing cars…
Nonetheless, the photography is GREAT, though, there is this caption on one of the fold-out pictures 😖. How the proof-reader could have mistaken a R18 TDI for a M3 GT2 is beyond me… Fortunately I can show the real car in question 😁. I only found that one wrong, yet specially with the older cars that I’m not very familiar with, there could be more mistakes. Honestly, a very small blunder, nothing that would condemn the book. Even so, do I recommend this book? Maybe not. Let’s start with the title. Though the name says 100 Le Mans, it covers 99 years, from 1923 to 2022. That right there tells me that this book came out before the centennial race to be a cash grab. “Let’s milk the cash cow before the centennial race becomes old news…”🤑 I’m sure this book was not intended for the hardcore Le Mans nut, but for the casual fan. Therefor, it will be disappointing for some (like me). Honestly, W-143 has MUCH more general information on Le Mans than 100 Le Mans.
The definition of a coffee table book – great photos and a lot of anecdotal information.
With all that, I would say “100 Le Mans” is more of a light & generic book about Le Mans. I read it from cover to cover (captions and all) in I think about 4-5 hours. A nice read, no doubt, with GREAT photos, yet I would like to taste more meat in my sandwich, you know? Basically, more info, more content. Bottom line, if you want a generic coffee table book on Le Mans, this is a (very?) nice buy. If you want technical statistics, pit lane stories or more detailed information, very probably this is not for you. Even if you can find it for a heavily discounted price. And yes, now I know the reason for the huge price slash…🙄
“RACING IN THE DARK: When The Bentley Boys Conquered Le Mans” – Peter Grimsdale
I have a confession to make. Until very recently, in my eyes Bentley was just a “cheaper Rolls Royce”. Yeah, they had a lot of victories at Le Mans and won again in 2003, nonetheless for the last 50 or 60 years it was just a luxury brand. Very good cars, no doubt, yet only a luxury brand. However, that view changed a lot after I read Peter Grimsdale’s book. With a fluid and enticing writing, Grimsdale showed me the story of W. O. Bentley, and his saga to make a great car. And he did – with blood, sweat and tears he made what was at the time, probably THE best sports car in the market.
Unfortunately though, financial strife ended his dream, to the point where the once great Bentley Motors became a cheaper Rolls Royce 😣. I truly loved the book – honestly, without a doubt the best car book I read in the last couple of years. A hardback with not too many photos (unfortunately), it is easily available at Amazon. Despite the title, I would say this book would be for all motorsports enthusiasts.
A few years ago, I posted the link to a short video showing footage of Fangio testing a Maserati 250F in 1957 at Modena. The video is really cool, showing El Chueco deftly handling that beautiful car. I’m bringing up this again because yesterday I found out how they made that footage. When I first saw that video I assumed that the camera had been fixed to the rear of the car, and remotely triggered by Fangio himself. However, I was mistaken, and as you can see above, it was not shot using a GoPro either 😂. Well, I therefor conclude that if pilots at that time had balls of steel, cameramen had balls of adamantium. Even though it was Fangio at the wheel, holy cow! 😲😲😲
Written by Brock Yates, I think “Four Hands on The Wheel” came out in 1970. The film is a 47 minutes look into the partnership between Mark Donohue and Roger Penske. Fantastic to see Penske’s blue and yellow Sunoco cars of the late 60s, from Camaros to Lolas. In other words, a must see for gearheads fans of vintage racing.
Found this one yesterday. All in all, 33 minutes of very nice footage of the 1968 race. As a bonus, it has an English voice-over narration (the original film is in French). And best of all, this time there isn’t that typical gut-wrenching seizure-inducing awfully terrible elevator music that you hear a lot in many of the 60s and 70s documentaries.
PS: This is the third nice film I found about the 1968 race. While from some years you can’t find zilch, for some reason 1968 was prolific.
After I found that old Grand Prix racing video I posted a few days ago, I stumbled upon this. This one is exclusively about Auto Union’s Silver Arrows. Almost 42 minutes long, the footage is pretty good. Yet, being quite old, it is far from the “movies quality” we’re currently used to. And of course, the race noises and tires screeching dubbed over the scenes are not exactly high quality…🙄 Even so, pretty nice for the Silberpfeil fan.
