Close-Up Action on the Streets of Angoulême

The French town of Angoulême just might have leapfrogged all the way to the top of this Automobiliac's must-visit list after seeing the eye-popping photos and write-up by Ian Wilson over at Motorsport Retro.  Not only are the selection of cars at this historic racing festival fantastic but what really gets me going is how close the photographers are to the action. I have often complained about the boring flatness imparted upon racing photos by the mammoth telephoto lenses used by today's motorsport photographers. This is of course necessitated by the extreme safety measures that keep even pro lensmen fairly far from the trackside. Here in Angoulême, the photographers are close enough to use wide angle lenses just like the Klemantaskis and Alexanders of yore while the cars whizz by right under their noses. The results are nothing short of thrilling, and the photos feel just as vintage as the cars they are capturing. See the whole photoset at Ian Wilson's picasa album.  Additional pics from last year can be found here.

Last but not least, here is some onboard footage from a prewar car, looking quite at home racing through the streets of this ancient town. It really feels like a step back in time!

All photos: Ian Wilson - AutoGraph racing

Hat tip to Off Camber

Pebble Beach 2011 Gallery is Up!

For all 175 photos over 3 gallery pages click HERE

The featured themes this year were the Ferrari 250 GTO (roughly 20 of them in attendance!), prewar Mercedes-Benz, and Stutz automobiles. Best in Show was won by Peter Mullin's incredible Voisin.

Look for cameos by Stirling Moss, Gordon Murray, Jay Leno, Ed Welburn, Ian Callum and Jason Castriota!

We interrupt our Pebble Beach coverage ........ to bring you the Lime Rock Historics!

This Alfa Romeo GP car , circa 1936, was lapping at around 1:10! That's pretty damn fast for a 75 year old racing car on skinny tires!Labor Day weekend, I managed to escape from the Metropolis for a few hours to enjoy the Historic Races and Lime Rock Park. The track is near and dear to my heart and it's always a lot of fun to come up there. I was there on the Monday, and it rained like crazy, but I did manage to get a few rather evocative shots before I booked it home. Click the pics below for the full gallery.

Tour D'Elegance 2011 Gallery

In between the big name events and top dollar auctions of Pebble Beach, there are a few more minor events tucked away, and the Tour D'Elegance is one of them. This is the only opportunity to see cars from the Pebble Beach Concours actually move on the road, and let me tell you, it was pretty darn cool!My dad and I staked out an uncrowded vantage point right next to the road and watched the cars roll by. Even though they were only going about 35 mph, it was an absolute thrill to hear the GTOs go by, and when a Jaguar C-type snarled past me about 5 feet away, I nearly wet myself.The drivers were generally in a great mood, either waving or at least giving the motors a nice rev for us as they passed by. In an action-packed week where the increasingly big crowds and the meticulous judging put pressure on the car owners, this was clearly their chance to have some fun with their machines.Click on any of the pics above to access the 125-photo Gallery! Make sure to look at both pages of images!

Or Click HERE

Monterey Historics 2011 Gallery and Video

The first installment from my trip (by popular demand) is my photoset from the Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca. Over the next week or so, I'll keep adding more and more content from the eventful week I spent at Pebble Beach and Monterey! The track is legendary so it was really a special treat for me to visit the place for the first time. I found it to be much like Road America in scale, and like Elkhart Lake, to see the whole circuit required a fair amount of hiking up and down hilly terrain.  I must say the corkscrew really blew my mind. After seeing hundreds of photos of the corner, I was unprepared for how steep the thing really is! And what impressed me even more is how incredibly step the downhill section of track is that immediately follows the corkscrew. On TV and video, you really can't see the extent of the incline. I gained new respect for the skill and bravery it takes to get around Laguna Seca watching these guys!After a lot of walking, we found a really excellent vantage point on the outside of turn 6. Here, you can look down on the cars, but are still quite close, and you can watch them fly through the turn and power their way all the way up the hill towards the corkscrew at full throttle. The sound was incredible. I hope you all enjoy the videos. The cars got progressively faster and louder as the day went on!

CLICK HERE or on any of the photos for the full glorious photo gallery!

Of course, one of the highlights was listening to the magnificent sounds of the field of Ferrari GTOs. Make sure you crank up your speakers for that one, folks!