Good Tires, But Not Certainly Not Great Tires

[Tom '74 911]

This captioned photo from Road & Track has always made me chuckle... to me, it falls under the category of "if you know, you know" kind of car-guy inside joke (kinda like the r-gruppe Black Audi). I used to cross paths with it every few years and do a few web searches for a digital copy with a high enough resolution to print out - always unsuccessfully.

I ran across it again recently and did a deeper dive looking for a copy to print and after some google-fu, landed on a thread on ferrarichat.com from 2003 where they had tracked down the original photographer and eventually managed to convince him to reprint a few copies for folks to buy.

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/road-track-p-s-boxer-photo.130575/

I decided to send Tony (the original photographer) an email asking if he had any copies left to sell and lo and behold, he did! I bought 2 - one for myself and one for my brother for a Christmas gift. I didn't plan far enough ahead to get it together for Christmas this year, but the frames I ordered for the prints finally arrived yesterday... I'm super excited to hang this up! (it's just set in the frame loosely for now)...

Tony told me that even 20-some-odd years later, he still gets inquiries every so often and that he has a few prints left... (his contact info is in the ferrarichat threads) I have no affiliation w/Tony or the sale of these prints, I thought I'd share here because I think it's a really funny, nostalgic image and caption that gives me joy to look at and I think it'll be cool to have a signed copy on my wall!

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/road-track-ps-good-tires-bob-said-prints.604775/

[aschen]

Man that super awesome you got it from the OG photographer.

Dude was 30 years early to perfecting the Meme

[MBAtarga]

Awesome! I know that picture has been posted on this forum more than once! The caption has been used frequently too!

[herr_oberst]

Pretty cool that you have a real print. Road and Track was in it's zenith, and "Ampersand" was as much of that zeitgeist as Peter Egan and Rob Walker's F1 reports to me.


(Unfortunately, in the manner of "That'll buff out" and "Do Freebird", the caption has become a little played out from overuse. At least to me, but I more or less lean towards the cynical most days.)

[onewhippedpuppy]

That’s really cool, what a classic pic.

[Skip Newsom]

That is awesome!!

So... what kind of tires were they?

I prefer great tires!

[herr_oberst]

If it was a factory fresh Ferrari then it most likely had performance Michelins.

[Seahawk]

I ordered one from Tony.

Is the photo and caption a bit shop worn?

Yep.

Just like me.

[wildthing]

I just ordered one too... It's a cool piece of internet car-themed meme history.

[KNS]

It was really Peter Egan's caption that brought the photo to life.

I haven't read R&T in years and Peter Egan's writing was one of the things that made the magazine special.

[wdfifteen]

It's an iconic photo and caption for sure. But certainly a bit shop-worn by now. Great to have an original print though!