Bill Greene has an amazing collection of 300+ photographs shot between 1950 and 1978 of enduro races, trials riding, desert hare scrambles, and then some. Clicking through every one of them makes me want to watch On Any Sunday again and well, maybe even get a bike. Check it out here.
Filed under motor, photography
Covers from Volkswagen’s quarterly magazine Small World which ran from 1962 to 1984, see the rest at The Samba. I’ve always loved Volkswagens, the last car I owned was a turbo gti but I’d love to own an older (mk II) model one day. Speaking of adventuring by volkswagen, if you aren’t already following Foster’s adventures in his Syncro I highly recommend it!
Suggested reading: the fridolin
Filed under motor, photography
Stills taken from the 1962 short documentary Vive Le Tour, which someone was nice enough to upload a subtitled version onto youtube: parts 1 and 2. These festive trucks proceed the peloton throwing out all kinds of free stuff to spectators posted along the day’s stage. This year’s caravan was 20km long (about 12.5 miles) and consisted of 160 cars, it took 45 minutes for the entire thing to pass by.
I won’t guarantee that painting your car or bike in a shade of British Racing Green (BRG, for short) will make it go faster but it will certainly class it up a bit. The color found association with British motorsports during the Gordon Bennett Cup in which national teams were required to enter their native machines painted in an established national color, the colors on Union Jack happened to have already been claimed by a few other countries. Other national road going colors include Italy’s rosso corsa and Germany’s raw silver arrows.
A derny is small motorbike that is used in track and road racing to pace cyclists up to high speeds, usually driven by a larger fellow for more effective drafting of the rider behind. Though you won’t see derny’s in tons of races today the popular Kieren race use them to bring up the group of riders up to set pace and then rides up the bank to allow a final sprint to ensue. If you’re lucky enough to live in a European city that hosts an upcoming six-day race event you’ll be able to catch some derny paced track races in person.
Pictured: some earlier bulky pacing bikes used on velodromes and more streamlined versions with handlebar mounted gas tanks in use on the Bordeaux-Paris.
watch: Berlin Derny Criterium & Six-Day Race History
A short lived group of rally cars that were just too fast to race and only lasted four years (82–86). Notable beasts of the group appearing top to bottom: Lancia Montecarlo 037, Lancia Delta S4, MG Metro 6R4, Renault Turbo 5, and last but not least the game changing Audi Quattro S1. All photographs sourced from the archives of rallymemory.
Filed under motor
Liberty Vintage has been getting a lot of attention after Etsy released their beautifully filmed mini-doc last week. I spent a good deal of time there while I was helping run extra extra in it’s former home which was located in the same building as Liberty. First Friday openings generally coincided with vintage bike meets which made for a pretty unique experience. From the looks of it he’s been using the gallery as a video studio.
Filed under motor, Philadelphia, photography
