planetf1.com

Enjoy this video not in black and white:
https://vimeo.com/14563952

Absolutely great!

Gorgeous! Thank you so much for posting this! When this footage was shot, I was nearly 6 months old, and had not yet acquired the bug from my elder brother...
I only saw the track like this once or twice, when we traveled with the little family car to Germany, and the track was still open to everybody as public roads. How sad this is no longer the case, and sadder still how the approach to La Source has been butchered. And I can't help but wonder how difficult it would be for drivers these days to manage the start on the old starting grid. The chaps in the film managed it, but too difficult for the modern cars and drivers?
The name was "Circuit National de Francorchamps" as is shown at 06:06, and I still call it so. I can't bring myself to calling it Spa or even Spa-Francorchamps. A great track deserves a great name.

Spa was magnificent then, still good today. I drove it in an old VW Beetle in 1978, and even then reckoned it was so dangerous for F1 cars. Especially the fast swerves after Eau Rouge. The Masta straight must have been frightening. Imo just luck there were not many more fatalities. The few it had were bad enough.

But for an F1 driver it must have been so exciting. Imagine the pre-war Auto-Unions and Mercedes doing 300kmh on their skinny, hard tyres?

What appealed to me as a schoolboy was the beauty of the old circuits with trees and forests. So much better than the acres garish multi-coloured paint and sterile backgrounds at Bahrian, Korea, Abu Dhabi, etc. Thanks OP for showing this .

Old road type circuits: almost as beautifully set as Spa was the Bremgarten Circuit in Berne. This was also a really old road, with some cobbled sections, winding through the ancient Bremgarten Park. Some of the huge trees must have been hundreds of years old.

The first Swiss GP race here was in 1934, the last in 1954. After the 1955 Le Mans crash disaster Switzerland banned all motor racing, sadly.

What amazed me was that in 1954 Fangio/Mercedes, Hawthorn/Ferrari and Moss/Maserati could not get near the lap record: this was set in 1936 by Rosemeyer in the 6.0-litre supercharged V16 Auto Union rear-engined car.
Rosemeyer's time 2 mins 34.5 secs: Gonzalez's/Ferrari time for pole in 1954 was 2 mins 39.5 secs. Almost 20 years later.

that was fantastic. thanks

Digging up a topic that's a bit older. It's fitting that Patrick commented here too, sharing his vast knowledge and experiences with us. Still missing the good man...

Anyway, thought I'd put this here. It's video game footage of a game that is coming up (Project Cars 2). They recreated the historic Spa track and I think it gives an incredibly good impression of what a driver saw when racing back then, and how insanely little protection along the track there was. Also a good driver view of the old track.

Enjoy...

f1-brazil wrote:Enjoy this video not in black and white:
https://vimeo.com/14563952

I missed this thread the first time it came around.

What a glorious video. The greatest race track that the world has ever known.

Herb Tarlik wrote:

f1-brazil wrote:Enjoy this video not in black and white:
https://vimeo.com/14563952

I missed this thread the first time it came around.

What a glorious video. The greatest race track that the world has ever known.

I missed it first time too. Can't watch the whole thing just now but I'll have a watch later.

A wonderful video, showing how raw & dangerous motor racing was then.
I year before I got my first motor bike on my 16th birthday.
This is also great record of the 1955 race.

https://youtu.be/7xWL0wCfIFU

Sad when I see Patrick posted in this thread & not so long ago. I really miss him as we communicated privately. He used to like to remind me that I was older than he was.

I have all 9 volumes of John Tate’s “A Gentleman’s Motor Racing Diary”.
It is wonderful viewing of motor racing right from the start of F1 up into the 60s.

ob1kenobi.23 wrote:Sad when I see Patrick posted in this thread & not so long ago. I really miss him as we communicated privately. He used to like to remind me that I was older than he was.

In that Cars2 video, I was surprised by how there was no visual transition from the road to Stavelot onto the banked corner leading to Blanchimont. I will have to get my copy of Taruffi's book out, because I missed the corner he described as the Maisonette corner, with a little cottage. That was roughly half way between Stavelot and Blanchimont, as I recall. It's been too long since I was able to drive the complete old track. They should really have kept the track public roads...

Great video. Interesting to see the often forgotten Vanwall team. The first British built-car to win a championship race, and also the winners of the first WCC in 1958. Unfortunately the team was short lived and was gone by 1961.