One of the coolest cars of the 80s

Audi S1 Sport Quattro. Possibly one of the coolest models ever from Audi, and no doubt one of the coolest cars of the decade. With it’s 2.1 inline-5 engine delivering 300 hp, this specific model was one of the 200 homologation special models for Audi’s Group B rally monster. Therefore, it’s quite rare, produced only in 1983 and 1984. And Petrolicious has a very nice video on it.

Although not a “Le Mans car”, I have a very soft spot for this one. In fact, Spark just announced they will release a 1985 Monty Carlo Rally version of the car… 🤗

New 1:18 917K from Amalgam

Thankfully it’s 1:18, therefor too big for the W-143 Garage. Because it’s EXPENSIVE – US$ 1300,00 (Classic Driver) 😲😲😲. Ultimately, however, it’s g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s! Though I’m not a big fan of weathered models, for a jewel of this caliber I would easily open an exception.

Amalgam will only make 100 models of the 1970 Daytona winner 917K, so don’t wait too long to go after yours.

“Faster” – George Harrison

I found this video on the Porsche 917 Facebook group that I follow. The author made a homage to all the pilots who lost their lives at the track, using footage from “Le Mans” to a soundtrack from George Harrison, “Faster”. Fantastic music and footage, just a shame that he accelerated the video a bit (10%?) in relation to the actual movie. One of the key aspects of “Le Mans” was that both McQueen and Lee H. Katzin did not want accelerated images for the racing scenes. At the time, a common trick to simulate speed was to speed up the camera a bit.

Still, AWESOME tune and footage.

The new 1929 Bentley Blower is coming along

Back in October last year I wrote about Bentley making a brand new 1929 Bentley Blower. The plan was to produce 12 new cars that are exact replicas of the original model. For that, a specialized team at Crewe, in the UK, took apart the second car of the 1929 “Team Blower” and laser-scanned every single part of the car. Recently Bentley showed photos of some of the new parts already made for the prototype model.

From the images that Bentley released, the new “Continuation Series” car will look absolutely fantastic. The cars are expected to be available by 2021, and all 12 are already spoken for. As I said before, sometimes it’s really nice to be rich…

Lauda × Hunt: 1976 F1 Season

I’m probably correct to assume that everyone who has an interest in motorsports in general has seen the film “Rush”. I also believe that very possibly, the film was inspired by the convoluted 1976 F1 season. It’s a very colorful story and Aidan Millward very competently resumed it in his YouTube channel. Though actual events diverge some (a lot?) from what the film shows, in essence it’s a VERY good film. In fact, I l-o-v-e it, and kick myself for not getting a Blu-ray copy when it was easily available 😫.

If you enjoyed the film, check out Aidan Millward’s very nice resume of what happened during the 1976 season.