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 😋.

New section added

Something that was bothering me was that my “Le Mans P-Z” page was getting too long. And that’s because I have a LOT of Porsches. Not my fault that Stuttgart’s cars are popular at La Sarthe…😋 So on top of the page I added a “Le Mans Porsche” link where you now can find all my Le Mans porkers. With that, the “Le Mans P-Z” will only be for manufacturers from P-Z other than Porsche.

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… 😣

Sad news

Earlier this morning I received some very sad news. My great friend Gary Blythe passed away last night 😥

I knew Gary since around 2003. An avid diecast collector, we met through DiecastXchange, at the time the biggest diecast forum on the web, when I started to collect 1:18s. Since we were both pretty active in the community, in about one year we both became moderators on the forum. And by then we had become good friends, even though we had an ocean between us. Around 2008 I had to stop collecting, and a little later so did he. Unfortunately I drifted away from the diecast community and we lost touch. But in early 2017 I was back, but this time collecting 1:43s. Coincidentally, he also shifted to 1:43 some time earlier. Through S143 (a now defunct 1:43 forum) we got back in touch, and instantly rekindled our friendship.

Gary had a lot of health issues, but had a heart of gold. Despite the distance between us I’m privileged to consider him a friend. The Oaf (Earl of Northumberland, His Smeliness or Mr. Ugly) will be truly missed.

Rest in peace, my friend 😥.