The Four Wheel Game

[Mr Pee]

Wresting the thread back from your Nain's frozen prawns I thought I might post one of the pics I took from my lookout at the Monaco GP meeting, the Rascasse café (I've been down a few times for the first day of practice, the Thursday - only once for the race - Thursday much nicer, before the place fills up with freeloading Eurotrash for the weekend ). Anyway, here's young Michael at his exercise:

Wow, that's a great picture Caliban! You can't get much closer to the action than that!!

I've never been to Monaco, but it is on my wish list. I have been to GPs at Silverstone, Spa, the Hungaroring, and Imola before it was taken off the calendar. My favourite of those must be Spa, a beautiful, flowing circuit, with the added attraction of Belgian Beer when the day is done!!

[Nick Armstrong]

Caliban,

You've said it all for me - thanks.

Great you still follow it all, gamba! What's your perspective on latterday racing compared with what was going on when you were bowling around in your Allard/"Mercotto" ?

[gamba]

Caliban,

You call this racing !!

Come back, dear Tazio Nuvolari & show them how it should be done !!!

[Nick Armstrong]

Caliban,

You call this racing !!

Come back, dear Tazio Nuvolari & show them how it should be done !!!

I had a feeling you would say something along those lines!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hjVrLXT_RU Pau seems a very nice place for a race!!

[amateur51]

Caliban,

You call this racing !!

Come back, dear Tazio Nuvolari & show them how it should be done !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmCJvDUWXaY

Beautiful car too - an Auto Union?

[Nick Armstrong]

Wow, that's a great picture Caliban! You can't get much closer to the action than that!!
I've never been to Monaco, but it is on my wish list. I have been to GPs at Silverstone, Spa, the Hungaroring, and Imola before it was taken off the calendar. My favourite of those must be Spa, a beautiful, flowing circuit, with the added attraction of Belgian Beer when the day is done!!

Thanks Mr Pee. I've only been to Silverstone and Monaco. Unlikely to go to Silverstone again, it's as if the racing is happening in the next county, compared with Monaco. On one occasion, Montoya crashed just in front of me - I still have the piece of carbon fibre which nearly landed in my beer Not dangerous though - at that corner they are going so slow. But it takes your breath away, and it's great for pics.

But the fact that I find Thursday practice as fun as the Sunday race but without the hassle and extra expense, tends to highlight the truth of gamba's remark: call that racing?! There's just something about the cars, the precision, the balance, which gets me.

[Mr Pee]

Caliban,

You call this racing !!

Come back, dear Tazio Nuvolari & show them how it should be done !!!

Of course, it is very easy to look back with rose-tinted glasses at the racing in those days, but let's not forget the dreadful mortality rates, which really continued, with only slight improvements, right up to the 1980s.

Like everything, Formula One has moved on, and is now a technological race as much as an on track spectacle- and I find both sides of the sport fascinating. The ingenuity of the engineers and designers is as much to be admired as the skills of the drivers. And let's not pretend that in the era of Fangio and Nuvolari there weren't dull races- there were plenty!

And Caliban- I've been up to Silverstone for Friday practice, and I agree with you that it can be preferable to the main race day in some ways- you can pick your viewing spot without being crowded out, access to and from the circuit is much easier, and of course it is also a lot cheaper! Although the atmosphere on the Sunday and the roar of the engines at the start is pretty special.

(I recommend the Goodwood Festival of Speed as another place where you can get really close to an F1 car.)

When I was in the RAF, I was in the band that played the National Anthem on the grid for the British GP in 1991. I remember a few things about that- firstly, after a bit of negotiation, I managed to get a complimentary pass for the entire weekend, , then I remember marching out onto the grid right past the assembled F1 Cars and various drivers, and finally, after we had "done our bit" we made our way over the bridge which spanned the old start-finish straight, which wasn't normally open once the race has started, just as the cars were completing the first lap. The bridge itself was just wooden planks, and as the cars reached it, the sound was deafening, the wooden planks lifted slightly from the aero effect, and there was nothing more than a blurred flash of colour as they shot beneath us. I have never forgotten that moment.

[gamba]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmCJvDUWXaY

Beautiful car too - an Auto Union?

amateur51, It was an Alfa Romeo, most likely 3.8 litres.

By the way, re. your reference to Auto Union. Something ' not many people know ' - Auto Union was formed from four firms;

1. Audi
2. DKW
3. Horch
4. Wanderer

Audi now bearing the 4 circles motif, I presume in recognition of this .

[gamba]

Mr Pee,

Re. the mortality rates. It is quite incredible looking back at old pictures. Their heads stuck out from the rest of the car just asking to be knocked off !!

[gamba]

I had a feeling you would say something along those lines!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hjVrLXT_RU Pau seems a very nice place for a race!!

Caliban,

Thanks for the Pau 'clip' & for a glimpse of the great man himself - But, oh ! those Bugatti type 35s

- could anything with 4 wheels ever equal their beauty.

At least the French appreciated & adored them. I have heard that should a pedestrian in France ever be so unlucky as to be knocked down by one in the street, those standing nearby will attack the victim of the accident rather than the driver of the car.

[anotherbob]

amateur51, It was an Alfa Romeo, most likely 3.8 litres.

I believe amateur51 was correct....
The car was a rear engined Auto-Union Type D. Nuvolari joined the team in 1938 and won the Italian and Donington Grands Prix. The car was a 6.0 Litre V16 producing 520 BHP.

[Nick Armstrong]

Caliban,

Thanks for the Pau 'clip' & for a glimpse of the great man himself - But, oh ! those Bugatti type 35s

- could anything with 4 wheels ever equal their beauty.

At least the French appreciated & adored them. I have heard that should a pedestrian in France ever be so unlucky as to be knocked down by one in the street, those standing nearby will attack the victim of the accident rather than the driver of the car.

I hope you are sitting down, gamba, as I confront you with this photo: my godson's great grandmother in her Type 35... towing a caravan

[anotherbob]

[QUOTE=Caliban;142485]

I hope you are sitting down, gamba, as I confront you with this photo: my godson's great grandmother in her Type 35... towing a caravan

That looks more like a Type 40/40A. The Type 35 was a straight 8 and there doesn't look to be room for 8-in-line under that bonnet. The Type 40/40A of the same period was a 1496/1628cc in line four and this looks like one of those. I could be wrong (it happens occasionally)

[Nick Armstrong]

That looks more like a Type 40/40A. The Type 35 was a straight 8 and there doesn't look to be room for 8-in-line under that bonnet. The Type 40/40A of the same period was a 1496/1628cc in line four and this looks like one of those. I could be wrong (it happens occasionally)

Oh I think you may indeed be right! I was sent it a while back and didn't check the 'Type 35' description, and didn't check it. But looking, your explanation accounts for the rear end as well

[anotherbob]

Setting aside these Bugatti identificaton issues; I just fired up the iPlayer on my TV and wasted an hour watching the F1 highlights.
There was not a single moment of excitement or tension!
I can only sympathise with anyone who paid to watch this glorified procession on Rupert's Rip-off Magic lantern.