Motorsports Trivia Thread!
- Thread starter Cap'n Jack
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Dotini
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- CR80_Shifty
Identify this car. It is being driven by one of the most gifted drivers who ever raced and won - gifted in terms of bravery, reflexes, coordination and balance, but sadly lacking in imagination and judgment. I was privileged to see his amazing car control on several occasions. One of a kind.
Identify the manufacturer of the car.
Identify the manufacturer of the car.
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Dotini
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Nah, my questions are usually too hard.@Dotini, I advise downloading the images, changing the file name and reuploading
Another Clue: This driver is the first man to win a race in Cobra, in a King Cobra, and in a Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe. These are all crazy difficult cars to drive, at least on the street. I know - I've driven my cousin Karl's Cobra.
To win this question, you must identify the manufacture of the car.
Hint: It's not Chevrolet.
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Dotini
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- CR80_Shifty
Yes, the driver is Dave MacDonald. The car is a Special made by Jim Simpson and Max Balchowsky of Old Yaller I and II fame. He terrorized west coast sports car racing for a couple of years before he was drafted into Shelby's team.
This photo was from the following week at Kent and shows Dave MacDonald & Dan Gurney shooting the breeze before the
race. Dan was entered in a Lotus 19. In this race Dave was running 3rd behind Gurney and Masten Gregory when he went out
on lap 17 with mechanical troubles. It was the last time he ran the car. Photo MacDonald Family
Maybe I'm one of those spectators in the background.
http://www.davemacdonald.net/gallery/closeups/corvettespecial2a.htm
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Dotini
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Jo Bonnier, Graham Hill, 1964 12 Hours of Reims, Ferrari 250 LM (Winners overall).
I've seen both of these guys race (at Kent, WA), Bonnier in a flat-8 Porsche sports car, and Hill in a Lotus 23. The phlegmatic Hill drove like some kind of human metronome. His line was always perfect, totally controlled, always the same, within an inch it seemed. 100% opposite of Dave MacDonald.
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- 4,389
- Tennessee
- nail-27
I am already a fan before the start of this race. The red car awoke us ( comfy in our sleeping bag) at odarkthirty. I ran, not walked to see Choughari(sp?)and Bandini testing the new V-12. Hooked I was. My first race of any kind. The Glen 1966.
and here is Clark giving the Lotus BRM H-16 the best ride of its life off the line. And the H-16s ONLY win.
and here is Clark giving the Lotus BRM H-16 the best ride of its life off the line. And the H-16s ONLY win.
Dotini
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I recall that at the time BRM were fooling around with their truly terrible H-16, they published a vision of the F1 car of the future. It was 4wd, using a gas turbine engine driving hydraulically to each wheel.
As a schoolboy, I loved BRM, much as I loved JFK.
As I got older and wiser, I learned how compromised both were.
- 29,984
- Bratvegas
- GTP_Liquid
"Juan Manuel Fangio was famed for winning a race at the slowest speed possible"
I've read this a lot but is there any truth in it? What was the reasoning for him doing it if he did?
To evaluate this I took three random Fangio victories on short circuits; Monte-Carlo, Bremgarten and Rouen:
In the 1950 Monegasque Grand Prix he won by a full lap.
In the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix he won by 57 seconds.
In the 1957 French Grand Prix he won by 50 seconds.
Long circuits like Monza, Spa and Nürburgring by their very nature would have big winning gaps but if he was winning by the gaps above on short circuits, and he was apparently winning as slow as he could, just how slow were the rest of the field in comparison?
And let's not forget that when the chips were down in the '57 German Grand Prix and he drove the skin off his Maserati because he had to he broke the lap record nine times in succession and his fastest lap was 11 seconds faster than the next fastest lap.
So when and why did he drive slowly?
I've read this a lot but is there any truth in it? What was the reasoning for him doing it if he did?
To evaluate this I took three random Fangio victories on short circuits; Monte-Carlo, Bremgarten and Rouen:
In the 1950 Monegasque Grand Prix he won by a full lap.
In the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix he won by 57 seconds.
In the 1957 French Grand Prix he won by 50 seconds.
Long circuits like Monza, Spa and Nürburgring by their very nature would have big winning gaps but if he was winning by the gaps above on short circuits, and he was apparently winning as slow as he could, just how slow were the rest of the field in comparison?
And let's not forget that when the chips were down in the '57 German Grand Prix and he drove the skin off his Maserati because he had to he broke the lap record nine times in succession and his fastest lap was 11 seconds faster than the next fastest lap.
So when and why did he drive slowly?
Dotini
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I thought it was Brabham who quipped about winning at the slowest possible speed.
But Fangio did believe in driving slowly - when he had a passenger in the car. Early in his career when he was competing in a trans-continental event in South America, his car went over a cliff and his friend and co-pilot was killed. Henceforth, in long distance races like the Mille Miglia he drove solo, even though it handicapped him, simply because he did not want to unnecessarily jeopardize someone else's life.
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