Golden era of racing - videos

Danny de Kort

I am the first to admit that I'm a hopeless romantic.

Just love restoring old stuff, as long as it powered by an internal combustion engine (see pict on the right). Of course, love watching them live at events or concours de elegance too. But being stuck on the paradise island of Curaçao means that I often have to rely on videos for my daily fix.

Luckily, the other day the folks at Petrolicious posted a piece that contained several old videos on the golden age of racing. It has old footage of, amongst others:
- the Targa Florio, naratted by the legendary Vic Elford,
- the Mille Miglia (both in English and Italian)
- Road America in 1963,
- the Porsche 908 at Nurburgring in 1971 (in German)

To watch any of the videos, please click here.

Source: Petrolicious.

Record setting $3.6M 550

Two weekends ago lot 15, a 1955 Porsche 550/1500 RS Spyder, was sold for a record $3.685 million at the Gooding & Co auction at Amelia Island, Fla. The car was advertised as "one of the most genuine 550s in existence". It is the highest price ever paid for a 550.

Very few of these Porsche 550s remain today. Dubbed the "Giant Killer", the legendary air-cooled race car (the first ever purpose built race car by Porsche) where victorious right from the start at world class endurance races, such as the Targa Floria, Mille Miglia and the Carrera Panamericana.

The 550 made another type of headline when movie star James Dean fatally crashed his in 1955. The car was nicknamed "little bastard".

Source: Sports Car Market
Photo credit: Pawel/Litwinski