The T80 was a 3000 hp behemoth designed to shatter LSR. Unfortunately World War II broke out just before the record attempts, so we never will know how fast it could really go.
Category: History
James May (The Grand Tour) on the Ford × Ferrari Wars
James May, on the Grand Tour (S01E06) presents a very nice account on the Ford × Ferrari Wars of the 60’s at La Sarthe. If you have 15 minutes to spare, it’s a great show.
Captain Nice’s speed record
In August 9, 1975, Mark Donohue drove a 917/30 at an average speed of 353.84 km/h (221.160 mph) at the Talladega Superspeedway, in Alabama, USA.
Nowadays the record belongs to Gil de Ferran. In 2000, aboard a Penske Reynard-Honda, he reached an average of 386.285 km/h (241.428 mph) at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
But Donohue’s car was MUCH cooler.
Le Mans 1980
A look into the historic 1980 race, when Jean Rondeau drove to victory in a car he himself had built. But what I really liked to see was pit crews working on the cars – sooooooo different from the surgical precision of today.
Modeler Michael Paul Smith passes away
Anyone remotely interested in scale cars and dioramas has seen Michael Paul Smith’s photos. He’s basically synonymous to scale car dioramas, and his models, dioramas and photography were absolutely gorgeous.
He passed away on November 19th, and many say he has finally moved to Elgin Park.
He will be missed.
The Ferrari Killer
Silodrome has a very nice write-up on the Shelby Daytona Coupe. The text also has some fantastic shots of chassis #CSX9110, so it’s well worth the visit.
1968 Millionaire: Colin Chapman
A very interesting look (35 min) into part of the life of Lotus’ founder, Colin Chapman. Some very interesting late 60’s F1 pit lane footage to be seen.
Uhlenhaut Coupe
Rudolf Uhlenhaut was the designer of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. At the time, it was one of the most advanced cars of the era, and the only reason it didn’t win everywhere was because Mercedes pulled out of motorsports after the 1955 Le Mans tragedy. So after Mercedes was out of the racing business, there were a couple 300 SLR race cars gathering dust in some warehouse in Stuttgart.
You know that expression “street legal racing car”? Well, very probably this was the first one of them all. Being director of engineering at Mercedes-Benz had a few perks, so Uhlenhaut was allowed to use one of the 300 SLR as his company car. He adapted some mufflers for the car and made the cockpit less spartan, and transformed an almost-Le-Mans-winner into his personal company car.
A fast company car, that is.
Jackie Ickx and Porsches
Yesterday Petrolicious posted a very interesting interview with the great Jackie Ickx, where he talks a little about racing the 953 and 962. If you have 5 minutes to spare, check it out.
Corvettes at Le Mans, 1960
This is way too cool! Spare 34 minutes to watch this 