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.
Videos
The really first Silberpfeil
In January last year Jay Leno released a very interesting episode in his “Jay Leno’s Garage”. I talked about this car in the second part of my Silver Arrows series last month. This is the replica of the original 1932 Silberpfeil that Mercedes Benz built in 2019, and Jay Leno made a fantastic 28 minutes video about it. In this video was the first time I heard Mercedes admit that it wasn’t Alfred Neubauer who originally coined the term.
Historical origins aside, as usual, Leno produced a fantastic video that’s really worth the watch.
Mazda 787B
This morning I came upon this video, about the great Mazda 787B. The 787B was the first Japanese car to win at La Sarthe. Additionally, and just as important, it was also the first car powered by a Wankel engine to do that. Rotary engines are basically a thing of the past, and do to emission concerns it’s unlikely that we’ll see them on the streets again. Therefore, the 787B will certainly be the one and only Wankel-powered car to ever win at Le Mans.
Gordon Murray’s T.50s
I’m not exactly the biggest fan of Gordon Murray’s cars – or in other words, the Mac F1 is not on my dream garage list. However, the new T.50s Niki Lauda is another story. Revealed yesterday and produced by Gordon Murray Automotive, the car is sex on wheels. Top speed of 330 km/h, up to 1500 kg of downforce and powered by an atmospheric V12 that delivers 711 hp (or 725 hp when the ram air induction system kicks in). AND, gorgeous. You can easily see the F1 in those lines, and it looks stunning.
GMA will produce only 25 models, at US$ 4.5 millions a pop, plus taxes. So I probably will never even see one in the metal, but I can wish Spark will make one in 1:43rd 🤯.
The coming of the disk brake
Just a few minutes ago, going through my YouTube page I found this gem, and had to share it. From what I understood, this short film was filmed in 2012, but released in late 2020. Just 32 minutes, but to hear Stirling Moss reminiscing about those “poetic times” was absolutely fantastic. And it’s not just Stirling Moss, but Norman Dewis as well. A true legend when it comes to Jaguar, he talks about how he got involved with the Jaguar C-Type and his almost victory (together with Moss) at the 1952 Mille Miglia.
The film doesn’t show much technical details about the project’s development, however the participation of Jackie Stewart, Martin Brundle and Derek Bell make these 32 minutes totally delightful.
What is the WEC Hypercar?
I just stumbled upon this video on YouTube, and it explains pretty well both the new LMH and LMDh classes. This year, since it will be the inauguration of the new class (classes?), things will probably be kind of slow. However, I’m confident that by 2022, if things work out, we may have what we last saw in the GT1 era. Just imagine: a plethora of gorgeous cars from many manufacturers racing down the Hunaudières!
Bottom line I’m really looking forward to this 🏁.
Railton-Mobile Special – one of the coolest LSR cars ever
On September 15, 1938, John Cobb took his Railton Special up to 568.58 km/h, a new world land speed record. The car was a technological marvel, with many ingenious solutions that made it basically a rocket without wings. The Railton Special was the first ever car to breach the 560 km/h (350 mph) barrier. On August 23rd, 1939, Cobb drove the car again to a new record, 594.97 km/h. After the war Cobb tried once again, this time with Mobile Oil sponsorship. On September 16th, 1947, the Railton-Mobile Special averaged 634.39 km/h. That record lasted 25 years.
LSR cars are something I always liked, and most of the famous ones are available in 1:43. However they’re really big (= take up a LOT of shelf space) and invariably quite expensive. Therefor, my admiration for them will unfortunately be limited to just knowing their stories 😏.
Ferrari 288 GTO
The great Alain de Decadent, in this Petrolicious video, talks about one of my favorite cars from Maranello, the 288 GTO. Not as polarizing as the F40 and definitively less famous than its ancestor the 250 GTO, in my opinion the 288 GTO is THE best-looking Ferrari ever made after the 1980s.
Ruf cars and Jay Leno
Last year, Jay Leno produced a video about Ruf’s CTR, also with an interview with Alois Ruf himself. Not only did he show the three generations of the CTR models, but also Alois Ruf and collector Bruce Meyer reveal very interesting tidbits about the cars. Being an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, it is a well-produced video and a very enjoyable watch.
When NASCAR Raced at Le Mans
I told this story here before, or at least mentioned it, but it’s nice to see some footage of the feat. Yes, in 1976 you had NASCAR cars racing at La Sarthe. Something that may sound utterly absurd, but as GT Rain explains in the video, at the time it wasn’t so out of the question.
Well, that was the one time NASCAR was interesting… 🤣😂🤣😂