History Auto racing 1894-1942

First Italian GP at Montichiari circuit in Brescia. Won by Jules Goux in a Ballot (with spares)

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/...rib/Monza/Pre-WWII/192220Goux20su20Ballot.jpg

 

Don Hartness in what appears to be a later version of his Overland "Whitey".....

 

Don't know anything about either of these photos, nor am I sure if they've been posted yet. However, the first one of the Alpha (?) is pretty amazing.

 

WOW t-head!

Thanks for the post regarding the specs on the Sir Malcom Campbell Bluebird!!

That was quite an effort and is MUCH appreciated!

That's what makes this thread so fantastic. People giving of themselves for the benefit of others.

Thanks again!

JG

 

Wizard Smith lifting a wheel in the 370 HP Rolls powered Cad 'ANZAC'.

 

http://www.welovebuicks.com/motorsports.html

 

The caption on the first one is correct: Varzi in the 1930 Targa Florio, which was really the last of the old-style road races, over unmade roads through towns and villages.

The second picture is fairly well-known. Again from the Targa Florio, but this time 1923. Also an Alfa Romeo, the RLTF model. Driver is Antonio Ascari (father of Alberto) and the guy hanging off the side is the great driver/engineer Giulio Ramponi, at that time Ascari's riding mechanic.

Ascari had been leading when the car broke down within sight of the finish line - after frantic repairs he got going, but for reasons unknown those two "helpers" hitched a ride on the back. Ascari had apparently won, but the officials insisted that he should return to the point where he had broken down and do it again legally. Some accounts of this say he reversed all the way, but I'm of the opinion that this is almost certainly a mistranslation.

Whatever the truth, by the time he had done that, he had been passed by his teammate Ugo Sivocci and had to settle for second place.

 

Now that is a GREAT photo.....

 

think that pretty much hits the nail on the head.

 

Hi, pretty new to posting on these boards... been a lurker for months....

I am producer at KCET - PBS in L.A. and am working on a documentary film based on the Harold Osmer book WHERE THEY RACED. Its all about the lost racing venues, backyard tinkerers and larger than life characters that made in sunny Southern California a motorsports mecca. From the very earliest days thru Santa Monica road races, Legion Ascot, the board tracks, Gilmore, Lions, Carrell, Paramount Ranch.... and more...

We have already shot interviews with Richard Parks (son of Wally), Chuck Griffith (ran Pomona Drag for 19 years), Greg Sharp (NHRA Museum), Judy Thompson Creach (Mickey's ex-wife), Danny Thompson (Mickey's son), Tom Malloy (his father built Carrell Speedway) and Harold Osmer (he wrote the book)...

I am ALWAYS looking for more photos and or home movies of all these tracks - the earlier the better. This thread is HUGE and filled with so many photos. Wow. Hard to find time to soak it all in.

Please check out www.wheretheyraced.com for more info or email me at [email protected] if you might be interested in helping to to 'curate' this thread for me.

 

Welcome Harry. That sounds like a very interesting documentary, hope it's shown on the right coast.

 

Welcome Harry.

Sounds like alot of hard work, especially the earlier material, but it will be well worth the effort in the end and i look forward to a great doco. Hopefully it can be shown downunder.

 

A couple of photos from Brooklands.

Selwyn F. Edge in a Spyker during a record run. I suspect this was a 24hr race of some sort.
The second photo is a mystery. Aston Martin maybe?

 

Fontane in a Lozier that went out with engine troubles during the 1912 Grand Prize Race at Milwaukee.....

 

This was a successful attempt on the 24 Hour record, carried out on July 19-20th 1922. All 24 hour records had to be set in 12 hour stints, as night running was banned at Brooklands shortly after Edge's 24-hour run in a Napier in 1907. A replica of the car can be found at the Autotron Museum at Rosmalen:

http://www.ritzsite.nl/Spyker/07_spyker.htm

 

Definitely. This is "Bunny" on a record run on May 24th 1922, when it was driven by Sammy Davis, Clive Gallop and H Kensington Moir: Davis is the chap in dark overalls next to the lady in the cloche hat and I think that's probably Lionel Martin leaning on the tail of the car.

Altogether, "Bunny" ran for over 16 hours that day, breaking 10 World and 22 class records over various distances, including some of Edge's which had stood since 1907. Edge was actually at Brooklands as well, overseeing a record run by AC, which took place simultaneously with the Aston Martin attempt.

 

At well over 5000 posts on this thread, I "tried" to see if this one was posted yet. It comes from a collection of photos of the 1921 French Grand Prix, which was won by Jimmy Murphy in one of the Duesenbergs. It is one of my favorte photos. The story of the battered and bandaged Murphy,(from waist to shoulders,) leaving (escaping?) the hospital just in time to get to the race course and proceeding to win against a seriously hostile French crowd has been covered earlier in the thread. Every time I watch a Sunday Nascar race, when they call a yellow flag for a tiny piece of debris on the track, I think of this photo, and similar photos from Alec Ulmann's collection, on the 1921 Grand Prix race. Just look at the loose stones all over that track on those OLD-style, thin tires! A stone went through Chassagne's gas tank. Boillot's Sunbeam had to change 9 wheels and Seagrave changed 14! One of the flying stones knocked out Segrave's riding mechainc for "several minutes!" Murphy took the lead after a stone went through Boyers radiator and the engine blew up. Finally, the battered Murphy, having driven though the race over that rough surface, had a stone go through his own radiator and another punctured his rear tire with almost two laps to go (11.5 miles per lap!) but somehow survived and kept running to become the winner. Not sure which of the Duesenbergs this one actualy is. But you can also see a hose coming out of the top of the radiator and fastened to the lower, outer frame. In the actual photo, you can see steam coming out of the bottom of the hose. Gives a new meaning to "Those guys really had stones" doesn't it?

 

Kurtis & noboD - yes lots of work... and even if it does not play on TV down under or n the right coast - there will always at least be DVDs. I'm only on like page 10 of this thread and page 50 something of the History of LA thread.... these boards are a major time suck!

 

Kurtis mentioned a 'Bunny' car in Paris earlier...


and I posted pics of the Lionel Martin prepared 1912 GP cars Bunnies V and IV, so it's hard to imagine this car emblazoned AM1 was "affectionately known as" 'Bunny' in 1922. Could this be the real Bunny in the middle ...and what's that closest

 

Astons aren't really my forte and I seem to have mislaid my Inman Hunter pre-war Aston book somewhere in this chaos, so I was relying on Boddy for that description. However, these two pages seem to offer at least a part explanation:

http://www.astonmartins.com/prewar/bamford_and_martin_a3.htm

http://www.amht.org.uk/a3.htm

From that we can deduce Coal Scuttle, Bunny, N***** and one other.

 

Thanks, without a period reference to an AM 'Bunny' I'm inclined to think Boddy or someone got it wrong and has perpetuated a myth and the Bunny Martin was associated with was a Singer V-twin 10 years or so prior.

edit: Singer Bunnies... http://www.motormarques.com/content/view/386/58/

not a Bunny... http://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detail/3253690/Hulton-Archive

 

I thought the board would enjoy this brief 1997 film from the Henry Ford Museum
on the winner of the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race- Old 16 Locomobile:


http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/index.php/blog/article/sunday_november_13_2010\
_film_paul_newman_and_old_16

The film by Academy Award winning producer Sue Marx was narrated by Oscar winner
and racing enthusiast Paul Newman. It incorporated historic race footage of the
1904 Vanderbilt Cup Race and 1997 footage of Old 16 being driven around
Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.


Enjoy,

Howard Kroplick
East Hills, New York

 

I happened to stumble across this on YouTube and thought everyone on this thread would enjoy it if they haven't already seen it.

A Curtiss OX5 engine running on a stand. With sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDd94xowWfs&feature=recentlik


JG

 

Not all fast cars are large

 

Only in Eastonia would they race a Model T Ford with four passengers......

 

Fantastic graphics T, Nu Man's car looks like Bowden's Flying Dutchman

+3 touring car racing, when did it die out in the states? +3 Hillclimbs were popular once too eh?

A 1905 Harlem grid and Jerry Ellis and chums with their Apperson...