My Favourite Racing Driver...

[petermcleland]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=yout ... 9-BZ0NbriI

I loved watching him racing in the late 50s...Fabulous!

[Vancouver]

Marvellous. It was more the drivers ability then as opposed to the technology behind the car. Isn't that the way it should be. I would like them to at least reintroduce the clutch and gear lever in F1. That would separate the men from the robots.

[dodger]

Hello Peter,

Yes the 50's and 60's were a great time for racing, the thing that has vastly improved for the better today of course is the safety on and off the track,

I cringe when i see old F1 films with hardly any safety barriers around the circuits and photographers feet from cars doing well over the Ton!

Mind you i don't follow F1 anymore, bring back Murry Walker

Cheers.

Roger.

[paulsl]

I cringe when i see old F1 films with hardly any safety barriers around the circuits and photographers feet from cars doing well over the Ton!

Indeed. As noted elsewhere Sir Jack Brabham has just passed. He wore a hearing aid in each ear - apparently the helmets then "didn't cover your ears".

This thread has raised some nice memories of boyhood interests - Jim Clark, Lotus, Ascari as well as Fangio and...... Scalextric. Yay!!

For those interested Peter Fitzsimons, former Wallaby and now author writes a good yarn, and the Sydney Morning Herald republished an article of his about Sir Jack here. (be ready to stop the video - a pet hate on the SMH site )

[dodger]

Your right about raising some nice memories,

When i got married in 1962 we had a Flat and one room was spare, as Scalextric was the thing about that time i built a two lane track layout in the room and also joined a club where we built a six lane circuit in a large room over a shop in Chatham ,Kent.

We used to hold six hr races there once a month on a Sunday, i remember Airfix bought a system out where the the cars had steering , a gimmick really as they were no better than Scalextric , gradually it seemed to die out and i believe there was a large Scalextric track over Southend in Essex that went on for many years,

Sorry to Hi-Jack the thread Peter.

Roger.

[petermcleland]

I don't think in those days, when Fangio and Moss drove for Mercedes, they even had seatbelts! Yes, I do follow Formula 1 these days on Television and I am a avid fan of Lewis Hamilton and have been watching him for quite a few years. I do applaud the huge advances made for driver safety...They can now survive incredibly violent crashes with just bruises to show

[paulsl]

Sorry to Hi-Jack the thread Peter.

I should apologise Roger, I should have known that reference to boys toys would get folk here going

Back on topic, Peter's so right. I see so many people today firing their cars into corners at stupid speeds and the car just hangs on. It's the tyre and suspension technology that's come out of what these blokes did. Have a look at about 2:10 into Peter's link. It's an amazing demonstration of control and "taming the beast". Is it really that sad that a teenaged fool in a Honda Civic could go through there at the same speed today?

We should applaud and laud these men; Fangio, Moss, Nuvolari, &c. &c. not only for their balls of steel but that they (perhaps unknowingly) pushed the boundaries. I find it interesting that there's whispers about rewinding today's F1 rules to put a little more skill and a little less technology into it.

Then there's aeroplanes. Who would have imagined in Fangio's time that 400+ people could get around the world in 24 hours. sitting in an aluminium tube. It comes down to blokes that push the boundaries; Duke, Beamont, Wallis.....

Whatever, it's terrific video

Thank you Peter