Getting nostalgic about the old formula and Indy cars I was around.
 

Early on they still had a frame. Then the big deal was AL monocoque. I wonder what today's mechanics will think of the formula car of 2025. Personally, I don't really appreciate the current crop. I wouldn't know what to do with a car that WILL NOT drive or perform unless it is within 98% of it's potential.

Even today's race motorcycles are that way.

So, someday I make a ton of money and decide to buy a 2008 F1 car. I won't be able to drive it, that's a fact. OK, so I buy a 1990 car. That I could get in some laps.

FF to somewhere beyond 2025 and a contemporary car becomes available. For what? To give to a 16 YO that has been racing since before he/she could walk?

I think nostalgia is in danger.

I know what you mean. As much as I like watching the new stuff (it IS way faster) I remember the old stuff with fondness. It was accessible technology. You could use what you learned, in a day of gazing at the track, on whatever was in your garage. Especially with motorcycles.

I remember when you could watch a race from just about anywhere. No passes, no nasty security guards, just a little common sense. Now only the beautiful people have access. I just watched the MotoGP race last month at Laguna Seca (excuse me, I meant Mazda Raceway...) and while I sat in the cheap seats, Tom Cruise and Katie Whatshername watched the race from the pit wall. I don't remember seeing those tickets for sale.

The way I seee it, we'll be lucky to even have racing in 2025. Either the f'ing econerds will get it outlawed or the infighting in the business will kill it off. I have yet to watch an Indy race, since the IRL/Cart squabble and it looks like AMA road racing will get turned off next year.

If you ever truly run out of work, I have a list of people in the racing world that have outlived their usefulness to society.

JR

I'm working on that one....:confused:

Thats an interesting thread you started. Does each generation wonder about nostalgia being in danger when they reach a certain age (guessing you are about the same age as me - 60). I think I will ask this question of some of my friends from my parents generation.

Things move so fast now that young people might not have time for nostalgia. The techno advances and "things to do" curve is moving toward vertical at an ever increasing rate - or it seems so to me.

Maybe there is some hope though. I am in the 356 Registry and on their new forum someone did a poll on age of owners. I was very surprised to learn that the majority were born during the years of production (1949 to 1965) and a large number were born after production ended (after 1965) I would have bet against the pol results.

Assume you mean the current crop of cars and I agree. They are not "built" anymore.
I really can't imagine what they will look like in 20 years.

IMO, aside from the driver, the F1 deal now is all about designers and much less about the mechanics and engineers. Use to be a couple of engineers on the teams and now its a staff of them. The mechanics / fabricators built the car but I think now they are manufactured so to speak. Its just different - a lot different now.

For the first time in a long time something in F1 has gotten my interest - regenerative braking and the use of the energy stored as a result of it.

My Dad started taking me to Riverside from 1963-1970 I saw Grand National (nascar) F-5000, Can Am, Trans Am. I was very young 5 Years old- 12 Years old. I wish I had some photos. I do have lots of memories of Gurney kicking ass in those stock cars. I remember AJ rolling the #00 stock car. Petty, Pearson, Parnelli ect ect.

The F-5000 cars were just insane. I remember a F-5000 race ,I was maybe 7 years old I remember it was Sam Posey in this accident but, coming out of T-6 a car spun and was stalled in the middle of the track, Posey T boned Him and the cars exploded in flames. Posey was able to get out of his car and help the other driver get out, I only know this because I met Sam maybe 15 years ago and he remembered the accident and we chatted about it, he said he was having alot of brake trouble that weekend (simtac Brakes ??). He said the corner workers tried to stop him from helping the other driver, Posey had a fire suit on and the corners did'nt. He did help the other guy out. He was burned badly and never raced again, don't know his name.

I never saw the aftermath, The accident happened right in front of us and my dad grabbed me and took me to another location. I remember a very nasty black cloud of smoke.
Can Am cars are a very faint memory. I do remember the Jim Hall Cars, very distinctive.
Trans Am Cars we watched a lot, Folmer, Parnelli, Donahue, Gurney, That was very exciting racing.
It was a different time, We would throw the motor scooters in the back of the truck and go anywhere and everywhere all access. Even after the race we would sneak into the garage area. My cousin and I would peel the stickers off the cars and put the them on our jackets.:D

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I hear ya re: the cars - but not sure what you mean about the bikes. Today's race bikes are pretty awsome and the technology seems to trickle down directly to what you can buy in a store.

Today's sport bikes are barely street legal in my opinion. Its scarry what a 16 year old can go buy with very little money.

Aesthetically, I do prefer the look of the bikes in the 70's, 80's and even 90's but - todays bikes are still pretty damn cool and definately pleasing enough to keep me interested

cars? not so much. Just pop on the DVD "le Mans" and see how beautiful and unique the cars used to be. Being 36, thats all I can do if I want to see great race cars

I actually prefer the cars from the '60s to what's pictured here...I just like the "slogan":
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Minkoff - the book was mailed today
(sorry bout being off -subject)

you guys want to see some awsome vintage cars.. over at ferrarichat.com there is a wonderful thread with 200 or more pages of vintage ferrari race car photos in the vintage section. you have to login to see em, but its worth it. stunning old photos and alot of close-ups

thread is here
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89883

Reading "The Unfair Advantage" was a real eye-opener as to how simple the technology and race car prep was back in the old days.

I lived in Speedway, IN within walking distance of the track when I was a kid. Heck, drivers used to stay in apartments or with friends during the month of May (I met Gordon Johncock when he stayed in the apartment next to ours and met another driver named Larry McCoy when he stayed with a friend). I even have pictures of Janet Guthrie. Whole different world back then. Ahhh...the old days.

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Speaking of Indy:
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A 2008 race bike won't handle well at slow speeds. It has to be driven hard and fast to get the tires to temp and the motor humming. Just like the cars. You wouldn't want either even as a hobby. Older cars are more "user friendly." Some were beasts, but you and I could work on them and understand them. We could not even start one of today's F1 cars without all the periphery and personnel.

The Porsche 550 Spyder was driven to the track in many cases and driven home. So were a lot of SCCA cars. But, that wasn't my point originally.

Obviously much much newer and "advanced", but still beautiful and lethal:
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I still think those John Barnard era Ferrari's are some of the most beautiful F1 cars ever, even almost 20 years on. Especially in contrast with the current IRL Dallaras, which may be the most aggressively ugly formula cars ever built.

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A10708&pag e_number=1&template_id=1&sort_order=1








Tim

My father who was a spectator at the 1967 Monaco GP that claimed Lorezno Bandini's life, said that the "early" F1 cars always had this look about them that you could climb in and drive away. Obviously an over simplification, but it was said in the context that if he were sitting in a "new" F1 car, if he figured out how to start it, and actually move it, he'd probably be unable to stop it.