klemcoll

[klemcoll]

Villeneuve at Monaco

Here is the famous Gilles Villeneuve at the Gasworks Hairpin with his Ferrari 126CK at the Monaco Grand Prix on May 31, 1981. In practice Villeneuve had some basic problems dealing with his early twin-turbo Ferrari whose power was either on or off and delayed when asked to came on. Nevertheless, Villeneuve would qualify second fastest, only 78 thousands of a second behind poleman Nelson Piquet…

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The Lowest Car

Here is the great Jim Clark with the new Lotus 25 taking the Chocane at Monte Caral during the Monaco Grand Prix on June 3, 1962. Clark would drive the new and totally remarkable Lotus 25 with its fully reclining driving position and aluminum monocoque construction. The photo below gives some measure to the newLotus, almost the entire body being lower than the tops of its tires. Clark had taken…

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Flying at Flugplatz

This image evokes the character of the old Nordschleifi (North Circuit) of the Nürburgring – complex, difficult and often wet. Here we see a very young Belgian Jacky Ickx in a Ferrari 312F1 during practice for the German Grand Prix which took place here on August 4, 1968. The image shows Ickx’s front wheels off the surface of the track as he tops a rise. This image was taken at Flugplatz which…

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Raymond Sommer

Here is a rather pensive portrait of the famous French driver Raymond Sommer whose fierce talent but pleasant demeanor made him very popular. Sommer is sitting in his Scuderia Ferrari 125F1 at the Grand Prix of the Autodromo of Monza on October 12, 1948. Looking as pensive as Sommer are his Ferrari mechanics Levizzani (left) and Torloi. The new supercharged 1.5 liter Ferrari V12 grand prix motor…

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A Tragedy in Spain

Here is Rolf Stommelen in his Embassy-Hill GH1 F1 car during the Spanish Grand Prix on Barcelona’s Montjuîc Park circuit on April 27, 1975, now just over 50 years ago. This was indeed a tragic race on a very unforgiving circuit. In practice it was discovered that the guardrails had been improperly installed with bolts finger tight or missing entirely and with many support posts loose in the…

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Two Pals in Bern

Two Pals in Bern they certainly are – on the left is José Froilán González while on the right is Juan Manuel Fangio, both from Argentina and both breaking into prominence in European Grand Prix racing. We see them here in the pits before the Swiss Grand Prix to take place on May 27, 1951 on the dangerous Bremgarten circuit adjoining the city of Bern. Fangio is wearing an Argentinean Suixtil…

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A Really Close Finish!

Here we see a superb photo of the exciting finish of the Austrian Grand Prix on the fearsome Osterreichring on August 15, 1982. Nigel Snowdon described this photo in his book Formula One Through the Lens: “The raised arm of Elio de Angelis signals he has just beaten Keke Rosberg to the line in a thrilling finish. It was the quiet Italian’s first Grand Prix win. One of the closest finishes I’ve…

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The Squalo

We are in the pits  at the French Grand Prix on the Reims public road circuit before the start of the race on July 4, 1954. This car is one of the new Ferrari F1 cars, type 553, designed by Aurelio Lampredi. It was a bit of a departure for Ferrari with a new chassis and a new version of Lampredi’s well-developed four cylinder 2.5 liter motor. The new motor featured a wide angle cylinder head of…

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Near the End of The Road

The Bari Grand Prix was held on a street circuit at Bari, a port city on Italy’s southern Adriatic coast, between 1947 and 1956 for either sports or Grand Prix cars. Here we see an outstanding photograph of a Ferrari 166MM barchetta from the third of the three sports car races held at Bari on September 28, 1952. This was the race for the most powerful cars, those with engines larger than 1100cc.…

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An Unhappy Californian

We are watching what was probably the final practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday, May 28, 1960. Standing beside his race car wearing orange coveralls is Lance Reventlow, the owner, driver and financier of the Scarab Formula One cars. The Scarabs had several years of successful sports car racing in America but had decided to try their hand at Formula One during the 1960…

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Varzi at Geneva - 1946

We are in Geneva for the Grand Prix des Nations on July 21, 1946, one of the most important races to take place soon after the end of the War. This was temporary city street circuit with a lap length of just over 1.8 miles. Seen above is the famous prewar Italian driver Achille Varzi with an Alfa Romeo 158 with two-stage supercharging  entered by Alfa Corse the company’s racing division. Alfa had…

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Before the Last Mille Miglia

Inside the wall of the Ferrari factory in Maranello is a lineup of racing cars which will soon depart for Brescia and the start of the Mille Miglia which will take place for this team on May 12, 1957. Car n. 534 is a Ferrari 335 Sport which will be driven by Peter Collins with photographer Louis Klemantaski as his navigator. They will lead the race at a record pace until the car’s final drive…

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Avoiding Disaster

What we see here is the multi-car crash that occurred at Tabac corner doing the first lap of the Monaco Grand Prix on May 21, 1950. Car n. 38 is the Ferrari 125C of Luigi Villoresi while also visible are car n. 44, the Maserati 4CL of Franco Rol, and n. 42, the Ferrari 125C of Raymond Sommer. The crash had taken place due to the water on the track from wind-driven waves hitting the structure…

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A British F1 Championship

The Winner – The Chilean driver Eliseo Salazar Valenzuela on the podium with Spaniard Emilio de Villota Ruiz (L) and Ray Mallock following the Aurora AFX British F1 Championship Silverstone round on April 20, 1980. Salazar also set fastest lap. Here is Salazar during the race. The Aurora F1 race series, sponsored by the American model car manufacturer Aurora Plastics Corporation, was a purely…

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A Small Ferrari

Here is  a young Ricardo Rodriguez during practice for the Nürburgring 1000Km race which took place on May 24, 1962. Rodriguez is riving a Ferrari Dino 268SP in the Ring’s famous Karussell “ditch”. Perhaps Ferrari wanted a degree of separation from thi new smaller-engined race car and had left it to be entered Chinetti’s North American Racing Team. The younger Rodriguez was teamed with his…

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An Unusual Ferrari

In late 1968 Ferrari announced a new sports car, the 312P. The chassis number of the first car was 0868 and a second one, 0870, was also constructed. These cars were a natural sports-racing development of Ferrari’s 312F1 Grand Prix car, although different heads with low exhaust headers were used for the sports car. Displacement was just under three liters, to meet the latest regulations. In April…

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The Monteverdi Hai 450SS

This is the first prototype of the Monteverdi 450SS which was displayed at the Geneva Automobile Show in March 1970. The Hai was powered by a seven liter Chrysler Hemi V8 and had a ZF transaxle with de Dion rear suspension. The bodywork was by Carrozzeria Fissore located near Turin which had been financially backed by Peter Monteverdi. The unusual color was a smokey light lavender. A second…