French Racing Blue

In these days of race cars covered with sponsors logos and colours, it’s easily to forget that race teams used to race for their country, not their sponsors.

To differentiate the country for which to team raced, a colour-coding was developed. The first usage of this came during Gordon Bennett Cup races in 1900-1905 which was a race between Nations and their automotive products. Germany was assigned white, Belgium yellow, USA red, United Kingdom green, and France blue.

As more and more countries got into racing, the colour palette grew, and some colours changed, most notably Germany to silver, Italy to red, and the USA to white with blue, but France maintained it’s traditional blue.

The cars that shared those various shades of French blue are Peugeot, Ballot, Amilcar, Salmson, Voisin, Delage, Delahaye, Talbot-Lago, Gordini, Alpine, Matra and of course, Bugatti.

1947 Simca Gordini T15
Photo courtesy & © John Mackenzie

1971 Matra-Simca MS120B
Photo courtesy & © John Mackenzie

They were much simpler times, when racers drove for their nation, and not necessarily the highest bidder.

This all changed in 1968, when Colin Chapman carried non-automotive, Players cigarette graphics on his Lotus 49’s.

The advertising floodgates were opened for good … and gone, with very few exceptions, were the international colours.

All images © Paul Chenard

Did I Just See Captain Nemo's Streamliner?

Story courtesy of Rick Rucker
Last week, I was driving near Long Beach, California. I was in a neighborhood of businesses and homes, waiting to pull out onto Pacific Coast Highway. There wasn't a traffic light, so I expected a long wait. Suddenly, a big pickup turned at the corner where I was waiting, right across my path. The pickup was towing a trailer, and on it was one of the most unusual cars that I've ever seen. It turned onto the street where I was, only now going the other way. I had to find out what it was!

In a moment of what can only be described as temporary insanity, I mashed on the accelerator, and did a burnout into oncoming cross traffic, turned left, went up the street fifty yards, then made a U-turn. I turned where he had, then started to look for the truck. It wasn't far away, and luckily, it had stopped. I got out of my car, and walked over to talk to the driver of the pickup. I introduced myself, as he did, and I told him that I draw pictures of cars and race drivers. I really wanted to draw this car. I have a free newsletter that shows people how to draw cars at: www.drawingcarsiseasy.com. This car will make a great drawing lesson, it is so cool! He said that I could draw the car, but could NOT say where it is stored, or what else is at that location. That is fairly common with the owners of the cars that I draw, so agreeing was very easy.

There was another man in the pickup, and between the three of us, we got the car off of the trailer. Once on the ground, it looked even stranger than it did when it was on the trailer. The whole body was in raw aluminum, and it had less than two inches of ground clearance. It had been built by hand, obviously, and it was beautiful! I'm a terrible sucker for an old race car, and this was very old. It was very narrow, not very tall, and exremely long. I was totally mystified, and my expression must have given that away.

The owner said “You don't know what it is, do you?” If he had told me that it had been designed by Jules Verne, the father of science fiction, I wouldn't have been the slightest bit surprised! It looks kind of like the Nautilus submarine in the Disney version of the movie “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Instead, he said that “It is the Eddie Miller lakester,” as if that solved the mystery (it didn't for me). He went on to explain that a man named Eddie Miller had built the car, and driven it at over 150 miles per hour at Bonneville in the fifties! That didn't sound too hard to believe until the two men took off the engine cover.

In the place where there should have been a huge, supercharged V8, this slippery little racer had a Pontiac straight six FLATHEAD, which is normally aspirated! The engine has four Zenith carburetors, and everything is made by hand. Everywhere I looked, something else stood out as a special part that took entirely too much time to make. The guys said that Eddie Miller took over four years to build the car, but I can't believe that he could have done it so quickly! When we took off the engine cover, there was a spare, unused piston sitting on top of the engine. The pattern work that was done to cast that piston was absolutely flawless! The machine work was equally stunning. Eddie even designed, and built, his own dual distributor drive for dual ignition!

In case you aren't familiar with lakesters, they are cars that were built to run on dry lakes for speed records, hopefully. Probably some of the first ones were built from war surplus belly tanks designed for fighter aircraft. These external fuel tanks were hung on the outside of fighters to increase their combat range. When the planes were ready to engage in combat, the pilot would drop his tanks, in order to lighten the load, and to clean up the aerodynamics of his plane. These tanks are pretty thin aluminum, and they dent fairly easily. Once dropped, they were trash, crushed beyond repair. Luckily Uncle Sam had thousands of them made, and many were never used during the war. For many years they were bought by racers at surplus auctions.

Eventually, the supply of these tanks dried up, and racers began to build their own bodies, instead of using belly tanks. This inevitably took more time, but it also allowed the builder to tailor the body to the size needed to just cover the mechanicals used, instead of a one-size-fits-all solution. Eddie Miller obviously subscribed to this theory, as his car is truly tiny in cross section, but extremely long. When we removed the cockpit cover, I was amazed how tight it was in the driver's compartment. I'm a fairly compact guy, but I would have been squeezed in there very tightly. Any fantasies I had about driving this car ended when I asked what the tank was that sat right over the driver's right leg. “Fuel” was the answer.

My horrified look caused them to laugh, but that thought was a little too much for me. Imagine blasting down a measured distance, shoe horned into a bullet traveling a mile every twenty four seconds or less, trapped with gallons of gas in a cockpit that is hardly roomier than a “hoodie” sweatshirt! In order to help you visualize the shape of the body, just think of a Korean Warera jet, without wings and tail, or a helicopter without rotors and tail.

As slick as the body is, the weird part of lakesters is that they don't have fenders, the wheels and tires are totally exposed. The builder can streamline the axle shafts and the like, but not the rotating parts. Because the dry lakes are pretty long, acceleration isn't usually a problem, so, to reduce wind resistance, the wheels and tires are very narrow. There are wire wheels on this car, and they look to be from a 1930s era car. Like most wheels of that time, the wheels bolt on with several lug nuts, not with one central nut. Here again, Eddie Miller went totally over the top when finishing the car. Where the center of the wheel would normally be open, causing wind resistance, he cast and machined his own hubcaps out of aluminum. As if that weren't enough, they have the name “Miller” cast into them! This car is overkill squared!

When the owner told me that he and his friend are going to completely restore the car, and show it at The Concours d' Elegance at Pebble Beach in California this year, I totally understood why. This car is absolutely stunning, a rare jewel. The level of workmanship is breathtaking! I was going to wish them luck with the judging, but something tells me that they won't need luck! I can't wait to see it completed.

See you at Pebble!
Rick Rucker

P.S. The photos you see here were supplied by one of the two men in the pickup. As luck would have it, I didn't have my camera with me when I “found” this amazing record breaker.

Rick Rucker Mr. Rucker is a pen and ink artist who lives in Southern California with his wife of more than thirty five years. He is a member of The Motor Press Guild, a worldwide organization of journalists, photojournalists, and illustrators.

Examples of his artwork hang in museums and offices of corporate clients. A CEO of an American car manufacturer has commissioned Rick to draw portraits of his whole family. Rick has even drawn a portrait of The Worldwide Head of Styling of another American car company, standing by his new model, shown for the first time at The Detroit Auto show.

He can be reached at: rick@DrawingCarsisEasy.com

Olivier Gendebien - A Racing Talent

Belgian Olivier Gendebien and American Phil Hill celebrate their first of 3 Le Mans wins together; they also won together in 1961 and 1962. Gendebien also won in 1960 with fellow countryman Paul Frère.

Prismacolor on gray-brown archival stock © Paul Chenard 2010
Nicolas Cancelier Collection

Available as a 14.5"x 11" limited edition.

Their 3 wins together were with Ferrari; here they're driving in their winning 250 Testa Rossa.

Bois de Boulogne - September 9, 1945

This sketch hows Jean-Pierre Wimille in a Bugatti Type 50B 4.7 L on his way to winning the first European post-war race, la "Coupe des Prisonniers", held in Paris.

The race was organized by Maurice Mestivier, the energetic president of the AGACI (Association Générale Automobile des Coureurs Indépendants) in honour of French prisoners and the missing of the war.

Prismacolor pencils & sticks on archival dark-gray stock, 12"x 9"
© Paul Chenard 2010

Happy Holidays!

This has been an amazing year for me, ending on an amazing note!

I want to say thanks to all my wonderful friends who have supported my art, and my vision of racing history.

This New Year should be very promising and exciting, whatever it may bring ...

I want to wish you all the Very Best.

Cheers!
Paul

Classic and Sports Car - December Motoring Art feature

Last December, Classic & Sports Car did a feature on my vintage racing automobilia.

This December, they have followed it up with a nice feature on my racing history art.

As you can see, Mick Walsh has done a nice job in the writing, and their designer has created a stunning layout.

I'm so very proud to be featured in such a fine classic car magazine which promotes racing art such as mine.

Bruce McLaren's Last Season ...

"The Last Season" is an excellent book featuring an overview of Bruce McLaren's racing career, but mostly focusing on the 1969 (his last season of racing) Can-Am.



















The book also highlights the other drivers participating in Can-Am: Denis Hulme, Peter Revson, Lothar Motschenbacher, Mario Andretti, John Surtees, Dan Gurney, George Eaton, Chuck Parsons, John Cordts, Sir Jack Brabham ...

It's written by Jeanne Beeching and was published in 1972. Well worth looking for ...

Cars in the Park 2009 - Halifax

MGA

For the past 2 years, there has been a car show held in the beautiful setting of Victoria Park along South Park Street here in Halifax.

Austin Healey 3000

For it's third year, the organizers were kind enough to invite me as the guest artist for the show.

Lead Sled

It was a new experience for me, and I very much looked forward to it, though I had no idea how it would go.

1933 Dodge

I would set up and start illustrating, but time after time, as I was getting into the sketching, bystanders would stop and look, which is fine, but then they would start to converse with me.

1953 Sunbeam Alpine

It became such that I would have to get up and move to another subject before I could completely finished a sketch. I was very surprised at the interest people seemed to have of my art. It was a really fun experience that I look forward to doing next year.

TriKing

I managed to get six sketch done in all, which you can see here.

Car companies come and go …

With the current instability in the automobile industry, it’s easy to forget that it has happened before. Lots of companies disappeared during the first World War, and the stock-market crash of 1929, not to mention WWII.



I found a 2-page spread from English publication Modern Boys Book of Hobbies circa 1937 that shows the brand logos of the car companies that existed at the time.



A very few still exist, but most are long gone …

WWII Harvard T6

It is a very clear fact that most men (and women) interested in vintage vehicles, are also very interested in vintage aircraft; I certainly fit into this category, and I'm discovering that I'm not alone.

Prismacolor pencil on white archival stock © Paul Chenard 2009

A gentleman from British Columbia commissioned me a sketch of him racing his Triumph Spitfire in 1964. He liked the result so much, that he commissioned to sketch him in a WWII Harvard T6 he had the privilege of flying this past Summer.

Prismacolor pencil on white archival stock © Paul Chenard 2009

It reminded me that there was a Harvard for sale about 25-30 years ago at the Fredericton (my hometown) airport, and I was wrangling to find the money, which was only about $25000.

The reality of preservation, maintenance and storage sunk in ... needless to say, I didn't get it. I wonder what they are trading for now?