Category: History

T80: Mercedes’ LSR monster

A couple of days ago, totally by accident, I stumbled upon this video. Well, it was in my YouTube suggested videos, however under the “Classic cars” label. Since it wasn’t on the front page, I almost missed it. Fortunately, that night I clicked on the “Classic cars” tab and to my surprise I saw a new video on the T80. Since the car never actually raced (when WWII started Mercedes had to halt the project) there’s not much information about it. Info is scarce and footage is even rarer. Even so, B Sport managed to unearth a lot of details and even some images that I’ve never had seen before. With that, if you have an interest in vintage LSR cars or motorsports engineering, this is a very interesting video.

Bob Bondurant and the Ford × Ferrari Wars

Yesterday morning, at 88 years old, Bob Bondurant left us 😥. Undoubtedly one of the greats, up there with Moss, Hill, Gurney and Stewart. In my opinion, his greatest feat was his participation in the so-called Ford × Ferrari Wars. Before Henry Ford II wanted to personally kick Enzo Ferrari’s ass with the GT40, the battle was between the Shelby Daytona Coupe and the Ferrari 250. In the end of the 1965 season, while Ferrari earned 71.3 points, Shelby/Ford took home 90 points, and the title for the 1965 International Championship for GT Manufacturers.

That title only came because of the efforts of Bob Bondurant 🏁.
RIP.

Richard Seaman – Britain’s forgotten ace pilot

Richard John Beattie-Seaman was more than probably England’s best racing driver of the 1930s. Despite that, his name is relegated to footnotes in history books. This 47 minute-long video by the Discovery Channel tells his story. A little bit over-dramatic at parts, and also not 100% historically factual, however a thoroughly delightful film. I really enjoyed seeing actual Golden Era race footage, specially of the 1937 Avusrennen.

All in all a very interesting window to the Silberpfeile and the Golden Era of GP racing.

The 90s’ Dream Cars

McLaren F1, Porsche GT1 and Mercedes CLK-GTR. I doubt anyone will disagree that those three cars are all dream cars. I would go as far as saying that they were THE best supercars of the 1990s. Carfection made a very interesting piece about them, divided in three parts. The first part (McLaren F1) came out on May 17th, the second part (Porsche GT1) on May 19th and the third (CLK-GTR) yesterday. From the first video above you will see links to the subsequent parts.

What make these three cars so great in my eyes is one very pertinent characteristic – race legacy. All three raced at La Sarthe and all three were winners, though the CLK-GTR elsewhere. With that, the three videos sum up 41 minutes of pure gearhead bliss 🏁.

Chris Harris and the 962

I came upon this video and thought of sharing. The great Chris Harris interviews the legendary Norbert Singer, talking about what made the 962 so great. He even gets to take the 1987 Le Mans winner #17 out for a spin at the Weissach test track.

However, specially nice for me, was to hear Mr. Singer saying “Porsche was thinking with nearly all race cars about Le Mans”. And that my friends, is why I had to add a special section just for Porsche cars at the top of the page 😋.

The quintessential hot hatch

I’m a sedan type of car guy, through and through. And I hate SUVs with a passion. However, I do have a HUGE soft spot for hatchbacks, specially the so -called “hot hatches”. The Renault 5 Turbo is one of the best examples of a hot hatch. Weighing just 970 kg but with 160 hp on tap, the mid-engine homologation special was a driver’s dream. And the car was so good that instead of the minimum 400 units Renault needed for homologation, over 3100 cars were made.

I hate to look back and sound really old by saying those were the “good old days”. However, back then we had a Renault 5 Turbo. Nowadays, it looks like of every three cars on the road two are SUVs… 😣

Legendary Porsches

Welt just released the full version (in HD!) of their “Legendary Porsches” documentary. It’s a full hour about many of Stuttgart’s most iconic cars, with interviews and vintage race footage. With all that, I would say it’s a VERY well spent hour in front of the computer. In fact, it’s so good that I’m downloading it to have it in my video library.