motorsport
Observe the Sons of Ulster: Paris-Madrid 1903
County Down, Ireland: September 1916 Responding to deft touch, the Sopwith Strutter prescribes a shallow arc from Carnalea. Barely above the telegraph wires. No conscious check of bearing – instinctively the pilot dips a wing, and there… K and the children are at the homestead. Waves, and kisses blown. Banking right over Helen’s Bay. Swinging […]
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Race to Disaster – The Ards TT
The phone vibrated on my office desk. A glance to see the notification… email… subject line, “TT Film”. Curious, I locked the work laptop and read the message… it was about the Ards TT. Dear Colin, I came across your website in the course of doing some research for a film I am making for the BBC […]
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Elliott Zborowski – Death on the Corniche
1 April 1903, the motoring greats were set for the literal high-point of Nice Week – the hillclimb from Nice to La Turbie. 1903 was planned and expected to be a huge year for the sport, and Mercédès in particular. There were 12 of their 60hp machines in Nice, including a brand-new one for Count […]
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Avenues & Alleyways – The 1903 Mercédès Limousine
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what value a location? To stand on a street corner and watch the world scurry past. To stop and smile at the thought of the excitement, innovation, history that once filled a space, so mundane today. The Mercedes-Benz entry for the 1952 Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo […]
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Ici Repose Jean Behra
Follow tramline 1 in Nice towards its northern extremity – until it is just you and some shoppers heading to Saint-Sylvestre. Hop off at Gorbella – walk past Lidl & Monoprix. Take a left, up the hill – to Mont Claire Virenque – and there opposite the lycée you will find Cimetière Saint Barthélémy… and […]
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Friderich, Père et Fille – Bugatti, Nice
It’s 24 February 1932 – the event is the Rally Paris-St Raphaël Féminin – the woman is Renée Friderich. She is 20 years-old, and today – as her friend & mentor Hellé Nice sets fastest time – she will lose her life at the wheel of this Delage D8-S. It was a bad accident, perhaps […]
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Bill Mason’s Finest – Racing Mercedes
How lucky we are that film-maker Bill Mason shared our passion, and used his talent & time to leave a legacy for future generations. From the outset, that first Shell film of the 1949 British Grand Prix, Bill’s work attracted & inspired followers of motor racing. Increasingly, as the decades have passed, the films have […]
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The Road to Ballyshannon – Gordon Bennett
It’s not so much raining as there’s more humidity than the sky can bear. It pattered down most of the night. Now it hangs in the air – spritzes as you walk. I quietly leave the rooms, grab a cap from the car, and walk to the town square. Past the Gordon Bennett memorial plaque, […]
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Chasing the Ghosts – Gordon Bennett
I’ve always considered ‘Racing Daydreams’ to be an attitude. The willingness to look beyond presented information, armed with some knowledge and an empathy for times & people past. How better to explore and take joy from our sport? Similarly approached, locations too can rattle the senses. Standing in silence at the top of Dundrod. Inhale […]
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40 Years of Daydreams
This Sunday, Ferrari will line-up a pair of turbocharged, ground-effect Grand Prix cars on the Imola grid for their two, young hot-shoes. And I will smile, perhaps raise a glass. Think about what motorsport has given me, and those no longer with us. The day after the 2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, Monday 25 April, will […]
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