Category Archives: Motorsports

RIP Maria de Villota

Pic from F1zone.net

On the eve of Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix comes the very sad news that F1 reserve and test driver Maria de Villota has been found dead in her hotel room in Saville, Spain. The Spanish police say that “everything points to natural causes.”

De Villota was nearly killed in July 2012 when the Marussia she was driving in straight line tests accelerated into the lowered rear platform of a support truck. She lost an eye in that accident and it cost her her dream of becoming the first female F1 driver. Since the accident and what must have been a grueling rahab, de Villota had married and was about to debut a book about her ordeal entitled “Life is a Gift”. A very sad day for all motorsports fans, Maria de Villota was a much too young 33 years of age.

 

Motorsport Movies: Rush vs. Grand Prix

RUSH-poster-new

Ron Howard’s Formula One blockbuster Rush opened this past weekend across the country to generally very positive reviews from the critics and rather lackluster box office receipts. Most people, particularly Hollywood cognoscenti, will take that to mean that straight up racing films remain box office poison and that films about the Euro-centric world of F1 are particularly lethal. The thinking will be that unless you have Paul Walker and Vin Diesel blowing things up and destroying the bad guys in stolen hot rods while crashing them into jet liners, the general public is just not going to go to a straight racing movie no matter the high profile director or the technical virtuosity on display amongst all that vroom vroom.

That’s all fine and good but the real issue is: Is Rush any good as a racing film, period? One can make a cult classic that does not attract great popular success and yet still have made something special, exciting and valuable to the cult itself. To truly evaluate Rush one has to compare it with arguably the only other really good racing film Hollywood has ever made, John Frankenheimer’s 1966 Grand Prix. (Obviously, the documentary Senna is indisputably fantastic but we are talking dramatized portrayals). Unfortunately it has to be said that in comparison Rush falls short, not on narrative but on the basis of visceral excitement.

Looking at footage from the two films is instructive of the difference between them. The trailer for Rush:

Continue reading →

What we’re watching – C’était un Rendezvous

snapshot
I thought today I’d dedicate a few lines to my favourite short film of all-time, Claude Lelouche‘s 1976 high-speed masterpiece, C’était un Rendezvous. The film is only 8 minutes and 38 seconds long, but if you love cars like I love cars, it’s one for the best films out there.
The premise of the film is simple. A camera is mounted to the front of a car and the audience is given a front row, drivers point of view as an unknown man takes to the streets of Paris just before dawn, and drives fast (and I mean really fast), through the city streets just as Paris is beginning to stir, to finally reach a street in Montmartre where we find a lovely blond woman waiting for him. Hence the title, “It was a date.” Of course what makes the film exciting isn’t the plot, it’s watching the streets of Paris whiz by at breakneck speed as the anonymous driver handles the car beautifully through every dangerous curve he encounters. It’s 8 and a half minutes of adrenaline, screaming engine, squealing tires, great driving, and beautiful scenery. Here’s a clip, showing the last 2 minutes of the film…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAg9fg_523k

After seeing this movie for the first time, I had all the questions one would expect. Who was driving that car?! What kind of a car was it? Did they block the streets or did they really just go for it, outlaw style? Now we know all of the answers. Continue reading →

Formula 1 Backgrounder: Spa Francorchamps

The most technically advanced motor racing series in the world returns to action after its 4 week summer layoff for Round 11 at one of the classics of the calendar, Spa-Francorchamps. The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa dates back to the inception of F1 in 1950, although for several years in the 1970s and 80s the race was held primarily at the Zolder track, infamous for the death of Gilles Villeneuve during qualifying in 1982. But Spa has its own deadly history to be sure. Originally an open road circuit, Spa used to encompass a blistering 14k tour through several Ardennes villages and was considered, along with the original Nürbergring, the ultimate test of a driver’s skill, not only because of the high speeds but also the unpredictable weather. But as cars became faster and faster and particularly prior to the advent of downforce, the risk factor for such a long country road course with houses, ditches, telephone poles and trees only yards from the edge of the road became extremely perilous and fatalities and serious shunts piled up.

New and Old Spa Circuits Overlaid

New and Old Spa Circuits Overlaid

Eventually in 1983, after many years of disuse by F1, the Spa track was shortened to the 7k circuit we see today. Although most of the real life hazards have been removed, the circuit is still one of the fastest and is considered a supreme test of driver skill, as it always has been, particularly the narrow uphill charge out of Eau Rouge. When you see overtaking there, you know that a driver has nerves of steel because the consequence for failure can still be quite severe. Simply have a look at this terrible crash by a very fortunate Ricardo Zonta in 1999 to see what happens when things go awry at Spa:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWFZWpbjO44

You can see the practice times for the first two Friday sessions at Spa at FormulaOne.com.

 

 

Looks like a good time–Monterey Festival

Here’s a fine article in the New York Times on the auto-related festivities at Monterey and Pebble Beach this year. I have never been–I missed out when my in-laws moved away from the area before I could attend–but I hear good things. And really, since some of these events do not require big money tickets, how can you beat the history…and the cars?

Alfa-Romeo 8C (pic sourced from http://autoworldnotes.blogspot.com)

Alfa-Romeo 8C (pic sourced from autoworldnotes.blogspot.com)

Some excerpts:

Monterey’s Festival, Rich in Tradition

The birth of this country’s classic-car Olympics took place at Pebble Beach, Calif., on the scenic Monterey Peninsula, in the simpler, quieter time of November 1950.

Genesis, in this instance, was a small sports-car meeting, advertised as “European road races,” that took place on a 1.8-mile makeshift circuit in the Del Monte Forest, admission $1. More or less as an afterthought, a car show, given the French title of concours d’élégance to maintain the European theme, attracted 32 entries, most of them new models owned by Forest residents, was added. Admission was free.

A college dropout from Santa Monica with ambitions to be a racing driver won the main event in a Jaguar XK120, despite an uncooperative clutch. In later years he would win at Pebble again and also win the concours’ Best of Show award with a 1931 Pierce-Arrow that he and his brother had restored. The erstwhile student was Phil Hill, who would ascend to the title of World Driving Champion in 1961.

Most of the action happens during the third week of this month, with the climax being the 63rd Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance, which can lay claim to being the world’s most important, on Sunday, Aug. 18. Over the years, activity has spread from the Del Monte Forest to 16 locations in the Monterey area, including Carmel’s main thoroughfare, Ocean Avenue, where more than 200 cars are expected at the seventh annual Concours on the Avenue on Aug. 13.

Shall we pack our bags?