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 Post subject: Just wanted to share
PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 11:03 pm 
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Location: CT
For those of you gear heads who were 'born too late', here's a picture of what it was like to grow up in the 1960s and be a Formula-1 addict.

This shows Jackie Stewart leading Graham Hill (my hero) over the humps at the Nurburgring ~ IN PRACTICE. They are driving identical BRM F-1 grand prix cars, 1.5L N/A engines making about 300hp. Please note the absence of any type of guard rail btwn the 160mph racers and the very real trees which line the roadway.

I have named this "J Stewart and G Hill in a hurry, 1966".


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J.Stewart and G.Hill in a hurry 1966.jpg
J.Stewart and G.Hill in a hurry 1966.jpg [ 59.62 KiB | Viewed 4747 times ]

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 Post subject: Re: Just wanted to share
PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:04 am 
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Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2014 9:21 am
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Location: Somers CT
I wonder how long the photographer waited for that shot. :shock:

I know from the Gran Tourismo driving game that it's a tough track . . . .

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 Post subject: Re: Just wanted to share
PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:34 am 
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["..how long the photographer waited..."]

No more than 8-1/2 minutes. 8) They averaged 91mph around the 13 mile circuit in less than 8.5 minutes. The cars were often airborne, with speeds over 170mph in places.

The back of the Ring (where this was taken) was dubbed "The Green Hell" because of all the trees which had been allowed to grow up to the track's edge since WWII. Germany was devastated during the war and the Ring suffered heavily. Any money available went to repairing the road surface and the pit facilities. There was no money to remove trees until another decade after this picture.

Just such a tree situation as this killed Jim Clark at Hockenheim in 1968, during a non-championship Formula-2 race.

["...that it's a tough track..."] In terms of driver safety, it was one of the worst.

After Targa Florio and Mille Miglia were shut down due to repeated spectator fatalities, Spa Francorchamps (Belgium), Hockenheim and Nurburgring (both Germany) claimed the lives of more than a dozen F-1 racers, some of them World Champions. When Clark was killed (flying into the trees at chest-level from a straightaway for unknown cause), the drivers themselves began boycotting races. These courses were killing the best among them, so the lesser drivers realized it was only a matter of time before it was their turn, as well. When Mike Parkes and Jackie Stewart both crashed (non-fatally), they'd had enough. They refused to drive on any circuit which didn't provide at least rudimentary safety precautions for the drivers. Stewart had lain upside down, soaked in fuel under his F-1 car for half an hour, while other DRIVERS stopped the race and cut him out of the car using spectator's bumper jacks ~ because there were no medical or fire emergency crews provided for raceday.

It was thrilling to watch as a teenager, but looking back I don't think it was a smart way to make a living.

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Last edited by Frank T on Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:23 am, edited 6 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Just wanted to share
PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:56 am 
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Frank T wrote:

No more than 8-1/2 minutes. 8) They averaged 91mph around the 13 mile circuit in less than 8.5 minutes. The cars were often airborne.




So you think he got it in one take / lap then . . . .

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 Post subject: Re: Just wanted to share
PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:33 am 
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I suspect he just set-up there and photographed every airborne car that flew over those humps. Every 8.5 minutes he got to see these two teammates on another lap, both World Champions in their own years.

When I was crazy-young and couldn't die, I personally laid beside the circuit at Watkins Glen with my 'breadbox' brownie camera, taking pictures of these F-1 cars flying past so close I could have touched them. There was a short crash barrier just there, but the only reason I filmed from there was so the barrier (a single knee-high steel strand) might conceal me from corner workers as I filmed under it. My pictures came out with the car wheels looking egg-shaped.

The Targa and Mille Miglia in Italy had no way to control crowds. Those races were run over country roads and thru cities and towns. Spectators lined both sides and crowded in so closely, drivers like Sterling Moss claimed both his side mirrors were being destroyed by brushing people at over 100mph, and Alberto Ascari finished the race with ripples and dents on both sides of his car, from unknown contact. There was no room to pass another car in many places due to the crowds. Rain and darkness made it worse.

It was a thrilling and horrible time in auto racing history.


Attachments:
File comment: The Mille Miglia (1,000 mile) had no crowd control either. Speeding race cars which lost control on dirt roads flew into the crowd gathered on the outside of the turn.
miglia_crowd.jpg
miglia_crowd.jpg [ 67.2 KiB | Viewed 4735 times ]
File comment: By 1972 they gave Targa Florio spectators another chance to stay out of the way, threatening to close the race again if they stepped on pavement
Targa '72.jpg
Targa '72.jpg [ 60.57 KiB | Viewed 4735 times ]

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 Post subject: Re: Just wanted to share
PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 8:42 pm 
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Location: Philadelphia
Great pics Frank! I wasn't really a fan of the BRM P261 in 66 being only 4 years old at the time! lol I did get real interested in 67 when Dad took me to the Glen for the USGP. He'd been taking me since 65 and packing me up in the back seat of his new Ford Mustang. I do remember my favorite F1 drivers were Graham Hill and Jimmy Clark right from the start as Dad indoctrinated me with his favorites! I fell in love with the Lotus 49B!!


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4055.jpg
4055.jpg [ 436.39 KiB | Viewed 4720 times ]

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 Post subject: Re: Just wanted to share
PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 9:37 pm 
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:shock: WOW!!! That's Graham and Jimmy, Themselves!

I was at the Glen for the USGP each year from 1963-1967, so we probably pushed each other out of the way as we got closer to the pits.

I also attended a LOT of the sportscar championships there, and vividly remember watching the 'new' 1963 Ford Cobra beat the 'new' 1963 split-window Sting Ray (two words), and chase the 'new' 1963 Ferrari 250 GTOs down the back straight, hearing the "Banshee Wail" of the 3.0L Columbo Ferrari engine at 175mph.

Gee, I wish I could revisit those years, knowing what I know today.

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