Classic Motorsport Photos

[Liquid]

EXCLUDING THE OP, PLEASE LIMIT YOUR PHOTOS TO FIVE PER POST

Some of you may be aware of my successful Photos From History Thread. I thought given that a large number of this forum's denizens are motorsport fans a similar, dedicated thread for motorsport might work too.

What This Thread Isn't:

-"Here's a photo of last week's Indy Race"
-"Here's a photo of my favourite muscle car"
-Photos of fatalities

What This Thread Is:

-The older the photo, the better
-Particularly interesting or noteworthy photos, e.g. "here's a photo from the last ever race at Riverside"
-Cool photos "here's an F1 car off all four wheels at the Nürburgring" or "here's the flames from the back of a turbo monster"

There is subjectivity in there, sure, but I trust most of you can use your better judgement.

So, to get the ball rolling...

Monza Banking Under Construction, 1922

The First Formula One Race, Great Britain 1950

Utilising The Full Monza Circuit, 1955

Hans Hermann's Famous Crash, AVUS 1959

That's Hermann on the ground, having been thrown from the car. He was miraculously unhurt and so were all spectators and trackside staff.

John Surtees, United States 1964

Driving in NART livery. A blue Ferrari!

1967 Belgian Grand Prix

Clay Regazzoni, Germany 1971

Flames Out Of The Back Of A Turbo Monster

Stefan Johannson, Monaco 1985

The Last Ever NASCAR Race At Riverside International Raceway, 1988

 

[daan]

John Cobb's Napier Railton with all 4 wheels off the ground and Brooklands in the 1930's.

Chris Amon in a Ferrari 312 at Oulton Park in 1968, in a four wheel drift, aiming for the photographer...

 

[Bo]

I've been doing a lot of historic motorsport posts in the Imports thread recently.

The first ever GC race at Sugo:

GC in 1973:

 

[Panoz]

The 1970 Spanish GP at Jarama. Eventual winner Jackie Stewart passes by the burning wreckage of Jackie Oliver's BRM after a mechanical failure sent him into the Ferrari of Jacky Ickx in the first lap of the race. Both men escape from the inferno with Ickx suffering minor burns.

Ironically 9 months before the Jarama fire, both Ickx and Oliver shared the winning Gulf-livery Ford GT40 in the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans. Beating the Porsche 908 of Hans Herrmann and Gerard Larrousse by mere seconds.

This win came after Ickx protested the traditional Le Mans start for safety concerns by walking to his car. Ickx's fears became true minutes later when John Woolfe crashed his new Porsche 917 at the end of the first lap, losing his life in the accident.

 

[Liquid]

The Jos Verstappen Pitfire

This happened at the 1994 German Grand Prix; Benetton were subsequently found to have tampered with the filters on their own fuel pumps during a season of controversy. The removal of said filter shaved pitstop times by 12.5% but ultimately led to this incident. During the subsequent investigation Benetton were exonerated due to mitigating circumstances.

Verstappen and four mechanics were burnt; none seriously. The fireproof equipment worn by drivers and mechanics alike proved their worth an infinite number of times over in this scenario.

 

[Bo]

Marc Surer, BMW Junior Team March 792 BMW, Nurburgring 1979.

 

[TVR27]

View of Fiat Lingotto Factory in 1928.

Don't know what year this photo of the race was taken.

 

[Dotini]

• 
  
  Front drive Indy-winning Miller from the '20s. Nice metal craft.

 

[Roo]

I've posted this before, but it fits here quite nicely.

Formula 3, Blandford, August 1949: Major Peter Braid was the man in command in this famous accident when competing in his F3 Cooper. You'd have thought that his military intelligence would have helped him know where he was going, especially as the circuit was laid out around an army camp.

As it was, he got it wrong, very wrong running over the crest at Engineers bend, the fastest corner on the circuit, ending up with his Cooper perched atop the roof of the guardroom, having hit a bus stop and a small tree between leaving the track and reaching his unintended destination.

 

[catamount39]

View of Fiat Lingotto Factory in 1928.

Don't know what year this photo of the race was taken.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa...hold up...they were racing on the roof of the factory?! THAT'S AWESOME!

 

[Panoz]

A Honda Formula 1 car becoming a taxi cab. Jo Bonnier and Innes Ireland hitching on Richie Ginther's Honda after practice for the French GP at Clermont-Ferrand in 1965.

Chris Amon's Ferrari sits in the pit lane during the British GP weekend at Brands Hatch in 1968.

Once again at Brands, Vic Elford and Pedro Rodriguez fighting their Porsche 917Ks out of Druids in a downpour during the 1970 running of the 1000km. Rodriguez won the race by a margin of 5 laps.

The Michelin Man makes a run for it after de Cesaris pays him a visit at Tarzanbocht in Zandvoort 1981.

Two of the most beautiful and iconic Formula 1 cars to ever grace the track. Jim Clark's Lotus 49 and Dan Gurney's Eagle Mk.1 lined up for the start of the 1967 Belgium GP at Spa.

 

[Spacegoat]

Andrew Cowan/John Mitchell, Mitsubishi Colt Lancer. 1975 Safari rally.

 

[Pupik]

Ickx's fears became true minutes later when John Woolfe crashed his new Porsche 917 at the end of the first lap, losing his life in the accident.

As it turns out, John Woolfe had not buckled his own seatbelt.

----------------------------

Manfred von Brauchitsch in the Mercedes-Benz W154, at the 1937 Donnigton Grand Prix:

Juan Manuel Fangio in the Maserati 250F at the 1957 German GP:

Start of the 1967 Canadian GP - always liked this because it's the lead photo for Grand Prix! Volume 2

Practice for the 1961 Monaco GP (okay class, line up!)

James Hunt at Fuji - 1976

 

[Roo]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa...hold up...they were racing on the roof of the factory?! THAT'S AWESOME!

The interior was one long production line, spiralling up through the building. Raw materials entered at the bottom and completed Fiats came out the top so that they could be tested on the rooftop test track for any defects. Occasionally they raced on it.

Turns out there were a couple of other rooftop test tracks: one at Imperia in Nessonvaux, Belgium, which was only partly rooftop:

The other at the Palacio Chrysler in Buenos Aires:

 

[daan]

The driver of the DB Panhard (Le Mans 1963) attempts to dig out his car oblivious to the cars that could swipe his legs off at any point.

Scanned from Sportscar Racing in Camera 1960-69 by Paul Parker

 

[Liquid]

1913 Indianapolis 500

Winner: Jules Goux, Peugeot

1926 German Grand Prix

The first German Grand Prix, held at AVUS. Here you can see the original Nordkurve. The banking was not added until 1936.

1929 Monegasque Grand Prix

Rudolf Caracciola in practice

1933 Le Mans Drivers Briefing

Hockenheimring Ostkurve, 2008

 

[TVR27]

Racing at Mt Panorama
HK Holden GTS 327 Monaro at 1968 Hardie-Ferodo 500 Monaro leads Ford, then Studebaker through the Big Dipper.

 

[Liquid]

That's cool. I didn't think Studebaker even lasted into the 1960s, let alone racing in Australia.

 

[TVR27]

1922 Targa Florio. At the wheel of the Sascha is Alfred Neubauer, accompanied by his mechanic Georg Auer. Alfred Neubauer was entered for the higher-powered category with an uprated Sascha, and completed the race at an average speed only 8 km/h / 5 mph slower than these cars, which had up to four times as much power available.

ca 1922 Ries race, Graz, Steiermark

1923 Benz RH Tropfenwagen - first mid-engined racing car. Co-engineered by F.Porsche.

1924 Targa Florio winner Christian Werner in Mercedes PP no.10. The length of the race was 432 km (4 laps of 108 km). 37 cars started. Contrary to the regulations on the colouring of racing cars according to their nationality, this car was painted red instead of white - reportedly this was meant to stop spectators from recognizing the car as a competitor's car and throwing stones at it, a common practice at the time.

 

[Cano]

Rodriguez won the race by a margin of 5 laps.

Nothing less to be expected. My dad saw him race. He sez he was impossibly good in the rain, like, absolutely fearless.

 

[20832]

Here's a picture of the very first race on the Nürburgring's GP circuit in 1984 with 20 identical Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16's driven by famous racing drivers such as Niki Lauda, James Hunt, Keke Rosberg, Stirling Moss, Alain Prost, Jack Brabham and many others. Winner of the race was a (then) relatively unknown driver called Ayrton Senna

Here you see the "Steilstrecke", a part of the Nordschleife which connected the turns "Klostertal" and "Hohe Acht", which isn't in use anymore, at least not for Motorsport events. Here you see Hans Stuck, father of the also famous racing driver and current president of the DMSB, Hans-Joachim Stuck, leading other cars down the Steilstrecke in a "drivers instruction course" down from the "Hohe Acht" and turning left to the Caracciola Karrussel. "Steilstrecke" translates to "steep stretch" and has it's name from it's rather steep incline of 27%

The Start of the 1000km race of Spa in 1985, a race with a tragic ending, because the blue car behind the Martini livered Lancia LC2, you see the Porsche 956, piloted by 27yo Stefan Bellof, who later in the race, in the 78th lap, collided with Jacky Ickx at the entry of Eau Rouge, sending both drivers into the barriers and setting Bellof's car aflame. After the help of Ickx, who was miraciously unhurt, safety workers and the pit crew of Bellof's team they were able to extract him from his burning wreckage. He was send to the hospital, where he unfortunately succumbed to his injuries about an hour later

This picture was taken in 1948 and shows the first race of a brand new racing series, which would later become the largest spectator sport in existence. This race was hosted by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, short: NASCAR. The first race was held at Daytona Beach, Florida. The first race winner was Red Byron in his #22 modified Ford Coupé

 

[Legro]

Drifting Ford Special at Eläintarhanajot.

Tazio Nuvolari driving at Mille Miglia in 1932.

Jim Clark going through Karousell in 1967 German GP.

And Dan Gurney getting some air time, with crashed saloon in the background.

 

[Dotini]

Nothing less to be expected. My dad saw him race. He sez he was impossibly good in the rain, like, absolutely fearless.

Pedro Rodriguez raced at my local circuit, Pacific Raceways, back in 1962, in a Genie Mk VIII-Corvette. Under mixed wet/dry conditions at a tricky, dangerous circuit he'd never seen before, he beat a strong field of national-level drivers in similar cars.

Huffaker Genie Mk VIII

 

[Cano]

Pedro Rodriguez raced at my local circuit, Pacific Raceways, back in 1962, in a Genie Mk VIII-Corvette. Under mixed wet/dry conditions at a tricky, dangerous circuit he'd never seen before, he beat a strong field of national-level drivers in similar cars.

Yeah typical stuff from him. I've talked with old guys that knew and even raced with and against him when he was a rookie over here, and on to international level racing, and the conclusion is always the same: he was a freaking daredevil, but also an incredibly good driver. Combine those two and you have dynamite.

 

[Hun200kmh]

What a great thread!

Let me add some rallying to it with a not -so-obvious contender

The Mercedes Benz armada (4 cars, we can only detect 3 in this picture) at the 1979 Côte d'Ivoire Bandama Rally.

With their bullet proof "limos" and an impecable preparation the Mercedes rally team, not a full on championship entrant, humiliated all others by having all their FOUR cars finish and by finishing them in, respectively, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall.

 

[daan]

Some more scans from Sportscar racing in camera 1960-69

In 1966, this Mini Marcos GT 1300 finished 15th, 5th in class. It was being passed by GT40s and Ferrari 330s that were going over 80mph faster down the straight.

And Hill, Clark, Gurney & Stewart drifting through the parabolica.

 

[Cano]

Got damn this thread is fantastic. I shall contribute something as soon as I find some time.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Miss Prudence Fawcett at the 1938 24 Hours of Le Mans (finished 13th overall)

The car? A Morgan 4/4 ...

 

[Dotini]

Miss Prudence Fawcett at the 1938 24 Hours of Le Mans (finished 13th overall)

The car? A Morgan 4/4 ...

All the guys in this pic are looking at her and grinning from ear to ear. The gals, well, they don't look too happy.

Is there more to know about the young lady?

 

[Liquid]

The 1950s In Colour

1950 British Grand Prix

Juan Manuel Fangio
Alfa Romeo 158

1955 Monegasque Grand Prix

Alberto Ascari
Lancia-Ferrari D50

1958 Monegasque Grand Prix

Graham Hill
Lotus 12

1957 Monegasque Grand Prix

Juan Manuel Fangio
Maserati 250F

1959 German Grand Prix