dailyjameshunt

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt on a...motorised vehicle of some sort. Date, location and photographer unknown

[dailyjameshunt]

Niki Lauda and James Hunt — Friday 18th July 1975 Silverstone - Practice Runs for the Grand Prix

ATV Sports Reporter Gary Newbon interviews championship leader, Niki Lauda from Austria and Britain's James Hunt, about the race and the new car they will soon be driving. In 1975 James Hunt was driving for Hesketh Racing and Lauda was driving for Scuderia Ferrari.

In the race, Niki Lauda would hold fourth place off the start, but soon a heavy shower brought a flurry of tyre changes. A wheel had not been fastened when Niki was released and fell off within 20 meters, resulting in a scramble to reattach it. He stopped again a lap later for it to be tightened properly, and rejoined a lap down.

As the track dried, he showed blistering speed: four seconds a lap faster than the rest, but then came another deluge and the field was decimated by a series of aquaplaning shunts and the race red-flagged. The official results announced shortly afterwards were based on a count-back lap, which meant that Niki was classified eighth despite being third across the line. Ferrari protested, but without result.

James hunt would make it to the final lap without major incident, before retiring along with many other drivers. His final position: fourth, was unaffected.

A miserable race for the both of them, all in all.

[Comparisons between versions and editors notes are below the cut.]

Clipped and Cropped • Colour Corrected • Removed Colour Cast • Upscaled with Artemis • Denoised • Sharpened and Enhanced • Recovered Original Detail • Added Noise and Film Grain • 60fps Frame Interpolation • Edited Gamma and Exposure • Stabilised • Audio Cleaned • Manual Cleaning of Degraded Film

• While the lower logo is a lost cause, I had a real good go at cleaning up the upper logo. Despite it being easy to remove in James' zoom sections, where it hovered and moved over the banner made the erasure too disruptive and time intensive to clean up in whole.

• I did all the film cleaning manually, therefore it's very likely I missed out on some damage. I got all the major stuff though.

• At the beginning, for god knows what reason, the upscaler has a hissy fit and throws up coloured blocks. Incredibly annoying, but I couldn't find a way to fix it.

• The video is dark at the start due to cloud cover, and it's more noticeable without the colour cast, there's better lighting by the end.

• There's much more to the original video: cars practising at the track, a later interview by Niki in 1977, and a separate one of James the same year. I cut those, so I could focus on this interview, and because the film degradation of the practice runs is noticeably severe. But, if people are interested, I'm very happy to also tidy those.

• I'm here nor there on the cleaned up audio. I wish there was an easy software where I could more manually tune it.

• I snipped off like a second of the end because the degradation got so bad it was easier just to cut it since James had finished talking by that point anyway.

Despite all this, please enjoy.

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt sitting with Robert Fearnall, Tour of Britain Rally, 6 July 1973

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt reading a copy of Autocar magazine at the Nurburgring in 1976. Exactly date and photographer unknown

[dailyjameshunt]

James at Jarama, 28 April 1974. Photo by Ercole Colombo.

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt with his then-girlfriend Jane Birbeck at Monaco, 22nd May 1977. Photo by Robert Riger

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt enjoys a post-race Heineken. Date, location and photographer unknown

[dailyjameshunt]

Ever wanted to hear James Hunt call someone naughty?

It's Jacques Laffite who gets that particular treat in this clip, for blocking Rene Arnoux. This clip is from the 1980 Dutch Grand Prix, so it was James's first season as Murray Walker's co-commentator.

[dailyjameshunt]

In honour of the Wimbledon finals this weekend, have some photos of James Hunt playing tennis in Marbella in 1976. Photos by David Phipps

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt in Monaco on 30th May 1978. Photo by David Phipps

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt in Monaco, May 1980, the weekend he first commentated on a race with Murray Walker for the BBC, creating what would become a legendary partnership. Photo by Rainer Schlegelmilch

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt with Teddy Mayer at Zolder, Belgium, 1976. Photos by Ercole Colombo. Ft. the booty shorts.

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt with Austrian journalist Helmut Zwickl, at the Austrian Grand Prix in August 1976. Photo by Rainer Schlegelmilch

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt with Princess Caroline of Monaco at the Monaco Grand Prix in May 1977. Photographer not known

[dailyjameshunt]

Murray Walker drives Niki Lauda's 1982 F1 car, coached by James Hunt.

Photos by Don Smith

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1977. Photographer fortunate but unknown

[dailyjameshunt]

James Hunt with photographers Helmut Newton, David Bailey and Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Monaco, 4th May 1978. Photo by Lord Lichfield.