[Trisha]

Most motor racing folk look back to their favourite eras from time to time because we have brains that store memories. Like all 'disciplines' motor sport, in all its forms, has gone through highs and lows, but even during troughs, we can often reflect on something that has been stored in our minds with affection.

As usual your views and images will always be of great interest. And thanks.

A few memory joggers below.

 

[Trisha]

A few more memory joggers.

 

[Kit Spackman]

LOVE that pic of Jim Clark chatting to Dan Gurney while sitting on the exhaust pipes of his Lotus 25.

I hope they hadn't been running the engine recently or we'd only be able to see his feet in the next pic!

 

[KensRedZed]

Very cool pics Laurence.

 

[stumbley]

For me, easily the 50's and early 60's. Once the wings started sprouting, cars became less interesting to me.

 

[Trisha]

A few 'oops' moments from bygone eras below in which cars and pride got a trifle dented.

 

[Trisha]

Another couple of minor 'oops' moments. 😳

 

[Ecurie Martini]

Like many things, it fits a bell curve:

First race 1895

Peak - 62 years later

and now we are 63 years beyond it!

EM

 

[Trisha]

The Auto-Union team below preparing for the French Grand Prix at Reims, 1939. The event was won by HP Muller in his Auto-Union not long before mankind entered one of the darkest periods of history.

 

[Trisha]

Looking back 65 years ago when Mercedes also dominated GP racing. Today, there are occasional aero 'upgrades', but Mercedes took a different approach in 1954/55. They went all the way and built a wholly different body. Horses for courses.

 

[Trisha]

Louis Chiron in the Lancia D50 at Monaco, a shot that shows the pannier tanks rather well.

 

[Trisha]

An Isotta en route to second place during the 1907 Targa Florio. Although the first Targa road race started a year earlier, the presence of these thundering, relatively new machines must have come as a surprise to many in Sicily.

 

[stumbley]

Trisha- The D50s are my favorite Grand Prix car. Love the panniers!

 

[KensRedZed]

Very cool photos Laurence! Thank you very kindly for posting.

I just acquired a D50 body kit. My humble apologies in advance that it won't be red.

 

[Trisha]

Stumbley and Ken

I've raced the D50 below regularly for a very long time. It almost never deslots and looks fabulous in my view.

Look forward to your D50 build, Ken. The only other authentic colour is yellow, of course, but I've often thought that the D50's styling rather lends itself to metallic silver, or even the same shade of blue used on your Type 50B Bugatti.

 

[Trisha]

A few more pics for D50 tifosi.

 

[Trisha]

More D50s.

 

[Trisha]

Le Mans, 1971. A distance record by the winning 917, and a field of powerful, fast and exciting cars.

Motor Sport gave little space for its report, and recorded that the event was dull and uninteresting - a reflection on Motor Sport rather than Le Mans.

 

[Trisha]

A few more photos from days of old.

 

[Trisha]

1934 was a busy year for Prof Porsche, especially after the launch of the first Auto-Union. In the same year an enormous German workforce began construction of the autobahn network.