Classic Motorsport Photos

[marco89IT]

30 years ago, 1986 has been the last season of the crazy, beloved and controversial "Group B" in rallying.

1986 Monte-Carlo Rally

As usual, it's the first event of the season. Everyone is expecting a tight battle between 3 manufacturers for the 1986 championship: Peugeot with its 205 T16 Evo2, Audi with the Quattro Sport S1 and Lancia with the Delta S4.

Juha Kankkunen

Walter Rohrl

Hannu Mikkola

The rally is unpredictable until the end, with a close fight between 8 drivers of the 3 top manufacturers. During a transfer, Toivonen has a big crash with a road car

He suffers a subluxation of a thigh bone, his co-driver Sergio Cresto has some bruises and their Delta S4 is badly damaged. Anyway Lancia mechanics are still able to repair it, so after days of mechanical failures, wrong tire selection, driving mistakes and punctures, Peugeot's Salonen (reigning world champion) and Lancia's Toivonen are the two candidates for the victory before a couple of decisive night stages, including the legendary Col de Turini.
Legend has it, Lancia's team manager Cesare Fiorio at this point made some smart moves to help his driver beating Salonen and Peugeot. Everyone was uncertain about using studded tires, there was snow and an high risk of that snow turning into ice later (and higher) during the stage.
Lancia had several people on various parts of the course to give informations, so all other teams were keeping their ears open towards Lancia's decision. Fiorio's order was to use studded tires. Salonen and Peugeot started with them, 2 minutes later Toivonen is at the start of the stage, no studded tires on his Lancia. Other than that, Fiorio knew that French fans were going to throw snow into the road to make the surface more slippery for non-french cars, so he ordered to fit yellow lights on the Lancia, traditional on French cars.
It turned out it wasn't cold enough to freeze that snow and those studded tires were unnecessary. Toivonen gained 2 minutes on the Peugeot, winning the rally.

 

[G_Parrilla]

The 1950s in full color!

 

[Liquid]

Rocket Car At AVUS, 1929

At the North Curve, in the opposite direction to the race traffic flow. Note that the banking hasn't been built yet.

 

[brocky31]

Here there is a Porsche 911 during 1960 Nurburgring 24h

1993 Competch Racing Spice Acura GTP Lights Race car

Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti during DTM race

Emanuele Pirro, Audi 80 Quattro, Italien Super Touring Championship 1994

Michael Bleekemolen, ATS HS1, 1978

 

[TheCracker]

Here there is a Porsche 911 during 1960 Nurburgring 24h

Looks more like a 356 to me

 

[brocky31]

Some other pics:

1994 San Marin Grand Prix (RIP Roland and Ayrton)

Kurt Thiim with the Mercedes 190E on the Nurb' in 1992

Jo Bonnier and Stirling Moss (Porsche) during the fisrt Cape GP at Killarney in 1960

12h of Sebring during 60s or 70s (I don't know the exactly year)

 

[jontikis]

June 18, 1995 - 24 hours of Le Mans

After showing an unbelievable performance on the race track, Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing crosses the line and wins the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car that won was the #59 McLaren F1 GTR, driven by Yannick Dalmas (France), Masanori Sekiya (Japan) & JJ Lehto (Finland). The team perfectly took advantage of the GTR's reliability and managed to do the impossible, defeating the much faster LMP cars.
Interestingly, Sekiya remains the only Japanese driver who won this classic endurance race.
(Edit: Seiji Ara also won in 2004. Thanks to @SagarisGTB for the correction. 👍)

July 15, 1990 - British Grand Prix at Silverstone

Martin Donnelly (Lotus-Lamborghini) & Gregor Foitek (Monteverdi Onyx-Ford)

May 24, 1992 - Indianapolis 500

Al Unser, Jr. holds off Scott Goodyear and wins the race by 0.043 seconds, the closest finish in Indy 500 history.

1968 Belgian Grand Prix

Bruce McLaren heads through Eau Rouge on his way to snatching victory.

World Sportscar Championship - 1971 - Spa Francorchamps

Porsche 917 KH Coupe
Drivers: Jo Siffert & Derek Bell

 

[SagarisGTB]

Interestingly, Sekiya remains the only Japanese driver who won this classic endurance race.

Seiji Ara also won overall in 2004.

 

[jontikis]

July 31, 1994 - CART Marlboro 500

The front row: Nigel Mansell (inside), Raul Boesel (middle) & Michael Andretti (outside)

BTCC 1996

John Cleland driving his Vauxhall Vectra

Pikes Peak International Hill Climb - 1987

Walter Rohrl with his Audi Quattro Sport S1

July 28, 1996 - Michigan 500

Emerson Fittipaldi crashes heavily in turn 2, after a failed attempt to pass Greg Moore (blue-white car) from the outside, on the first lap of the race. His injuries ended his career and Fittipaldi never returned to the series as a driver. Although, in 2003 he made a return as a team owner.

1970 Indianapolis 500

 

[Liquid]

Barry Sheene & James Hunt, 1978

 

[brocky31]

Tom Cole, Allard J2, Le Mans 1950

Lauching of the ATS 100

 

[TDZdave]

Barry Sheene & James Hunt, 1978

There's a documentary floating around about those two being good friends, I think its called "The playboys of the 70s"

 

[marco89IT]

Rallye de Portugal 1986

Third round of the season, the close fight between Lancia and Peugeot continues, joined by Audi and Ford. There's also another battle between drivers, teams and organizers: Portugal was known for spectators standing on the road even as the cars drove by, often resulting in near-collisions. For some, it was simply a tragedy waiting to happen. There's an argument before the rally starts; drivers ask to remove some particularly dangerous stages, organizers refuse any sort of confrontation. The rally starts without changes.

World champion Timo Salonen hits a photographer right after the beginning of the event. He's shocked and he says that he's been afraid in a rally for the fist time, going out as the first one in the middle of that madness. Here's his Peugeot team-mate Juha Kankkunen

Reporters say there was a sort of premonition in the air. Markku Alen: "I don't want to be considered as a killer by my wife and my kids".

Walter Rohrl, as always, finds a characteristic way to describe the situation: "You just have to see the crowd as a wall and not as spectators."

The crowd becomes more and more irresponsible until the "unavoidable" happens: Portuguese Ford driver Joaquim Santos loses his RS200, probably to avoid people in the middle of the road, and hits a huge crowd on the outside of an high speed corner. 3 people were killed and at least 30 injured. The Ford ends its run on a ditch against some trees

Drivers decide enough is enough: Rohrl announces a meeting between them at their hotel, aiming to stop this dangerous, surreal rally. There's a huge pressure from basically everyone which isn't a driver. FIA's Balestre in first place. Ford's team manager agrees to stop the event, joined by the Audi one, but Peugeot and Lancia aren't so keen on the decision, to say the least. Group B was under criticism while Peugeot's 205 T16 was considered the best car at that moment, with huge investments to come in the near future do develop it: Jean Todt, director of Peugeot Sport, was furious. Anyway, after some... questionable considerations, including a racist one against the Portuguese crowd("they're just white Africans"), he agrees with the drivers, hoping for better safety in the sport. Cesare Fiorio of Lancia was furious as well: "Rallying as a whole is at stake. We're spending millions, we can't be at the mercy of a bunch of people which aren't standing were they should". He also said that if he was there in Portugal from the beginning (Fiorio was in Italy for personal reasons when the accident happened), he would've forced Lancia drivers to continue, even with brute force. A few months later, Lancia drivers and co-drivers received a letter as a warning for their behavior, justified just because of the seriousness of events.
Drivers' decision is clear, everyone withdraws from the event, here's the letter explaining it:

Portugal 1986 has been one of the main reasons why Group B has been stopped at the end of that year. Point 3 of that letter: "The accident was not due to the type of car or the speed of it". This sentence can be read in many ways, but it's interesting nonetheless.

 

[TVR27]

 

[Liquid]

1955 Italian Grand Prix

Winner: Juan Manuel Fangio ARG
Car: Mercedes-Benz W196 Streamliner (2.5L Mercedes-Benz I8)

Interesting photos showing the duality of the full-length Monza circuit.

In this photo below the cars on the left are coming towards the end of their lap, out of the Parabolica, and the cars on the right are only midway through their lap, coming out of the southern banking.

Modena, 1961

Something I found looking for images for the Best Looking F1 polls; a Ferrari 156 "Sharknose" in testing at Modena but remaining unpainted.

 

[Pete05]

1955 Italian Grand Prix

Winner: Juan Manuel Fangio ARG
Car: Mercedes-Benz W196 Streamliner (2.5L Mercedes-Benz I8)

Interesting photos showing the duality of the full-length Monza circuit.

In this photo below the cars on the left are coming towards the end of their lap, out of the Parabolica, and the cars on the right are only midway through their lap, coming out of the southern banking.

Modena, 1961

Something I found looking for images for the Best Looking F1 polls; a Ferrari 156 "Sharknose" in testing at Modena but remaining unpainted.

It's absolute blasphemy & hopefully never happens but, can you imagine if they resurfaced the Monza banking with smooth asphalt and held an Indycar or F1 race on the modern combined circuit?

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

It's absolute blasphemy & hopefully never happens but, can you imagine if they resurfaced the Monza banking with smooth asphalt and held an Indycar or F1 race on the modern combined circuit?

I'd watch that. Happily.

 

[Heldenzeit]

Team Tambourine ran an extended wheelbase NA in the GT3 class at Daytona. 13B swap!

 

[Pete05]

How is that classic?

 

[Heldenzeit]

90s isn't classic? How old do they need to be?

 

[Pete05]

90s isn't classic? How old do they need to be?

Strictly speaking in car terms, your ride becomes a classic when it hits 25 years old.
Photos of classic Motorsport I can't be sure but I would've thought the 90's era wasn't old enough.

 

[UnkaD]

A lot of the stuff in the 90's feels classic to me, but that might be due to the fact that I was from 2-12 years of age during the decade. Realistically I'd say that classic would extend to the mid-80's at most. About thirty years old, I suppose. Give or take 2-3 years.

 

[LumpiestFish]

Strictly speaking in car terms, your ride becomes a classic when it hits 25 years old.
Photos of classic Motorsport I can't be sure but I would've thought the 90's era wasn't old enough.

I don't think there is any complete rule in this thread, it's more just about anything that is old or nostalgic and different from today.

 

[Liquid]

1990s should be off limits. I've been guilty of it myself. 1980s maximum is the rule of thumb.

 

[R5]

1971 South African GP, Chris Amon.

 

[Heldenzeit]

My mistake. I'll keep it to before '90.

Mazda 737C -1985.

 

[Obelisk]

Was that 737 a rotary?

 

[Heldenzeit]

Was that 737 a rotary?

Yes. 13B, finished 3rd and 6th in class at Le Mans '85.

 

[Pete05]

1971 South African GP, Chris Amon.

View attachment 539022

Now if only the new F1 rules gave us cars that allowed the drivers to do this, F1 crowd/TV numbers would skyrocket.
More rubber + less aero = spectacular.

 

[Dotini]

Now if only the new F1 rules gave us cars that allowed the drivers to do this, F1 crowd/TV numbers would skyrocket.
More rubber + less aero = spectacular.

See the smoke boiling off Amon's outside rear tire? Back then it "took a week" to change the LSD settings. Nowadays, the drivers change it from corner-to-corner with buttons on the wheel. It would be self-consciously retro (retrograde?) to go back to a regime of mandated tire spin. Wouldn't it?