Ford wins in Ferrari’s Playground

History is made, most often, when the status quo is upset and turned on its ear.

The path that history takes is often formed from passion, anger, determination, and luck.

Ford was looking to stroke its international profile through racing, their “Total Performance” initiative. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday …

They approached the biggest player in international racing Ferrari with a purchase proposal, having heard though the grapevine that there might be an opportunity.

Ford’s offers were rebuked in a Ferrari nationalistic master-plan for Italian funding.

In the scorn of rejection, Ford vowed to win against Ferrari, at any cost.


Pen&ink and markers on watercolour paper
© Paul Chenard

The purse was opened wide, very wide indeed, but it did finally happen in the sweetest way possible … a 1-2-3 sweep of the 1966 24 heures du Mans with the Ford GT40s … better than a Hitchcock thriller, to the utter stunned silence of the crowd.

History was re-written …

Aston Martin DBR1 – 1959 24 heures du Mans

This is my new laser-cut illustration, showing the Carroll Shelby/Roy Salvadori Aston Martin DBR1 which won the 1959 24 heures du Mans.
My illustration is laser-cut from stainless steel, the powder-coated green; I then hand-paint the additional colours using pin-strippers paint.

The hood opens to reveal my laser-cut brushed stainless steel illustration of the famous inline 6-cylinder DBR1 engine.
The side brackets are also laser-cut illustrations, and the back-plate is powder-coated in black crinkle finish.
The piece is very limited and comes in a custom-built box.

Here are the specs:
- 22” x 13” x 3” (55.8cm x 33cm x 7.6cm)
- 11 lbs 9 oz (5.25 kg)
- $2700 CDN/£1500 GBP/€1800 EUR/$2500 USD plus shipping/fees

© Paul Chenard 2013

Carroll Shelby 1923-2012

Carroll was a firstly a racer, and a successful racer at that.

He started in MGs, and quickly moved up to Allards, Ferraris and Maseratis. He joined the Aston Martin racing team, and shared a win of the 1959 Le Mans with Roy Salvatori.

Health issues forced him out of racing shortly afterward, so he set up a driving school.

Ken Miles in an A.C. CobraPen&ink and pencil crayons on corrogated cardboard
© Paul Chenard
His European experience showed him how more advanced the European and British sport car chassis and suspension setups were against their American counterparts.

He reasoned that a British sports car fitted with an American engine could be a successful combination. He ordered a modified A.C. Ace body and chassis and fitted it with a Ford engine. From Autumn 1961 till late Summer of 1962, Shelby American developed the A.C. Cobra into powerful performance sports and race car.
Shelby Cobra 289Pen&ink, paint markers and markers on blue archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2012

Orders flooded in and the car was a success. A further development of the Cobra came as an aerodynamic coupe, in a form more apt to beat Ferraris at the long distance races such as Le Mans.

 
Cobra Daytona Coupe – Le Mans 1965Pen&ink, paint markers and markers on blue archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2012
The Cobra Coupes beat Ferrari for the 1965 GT Championship, and Shelby was also instrumental in Ford Motor Company’s successful GT 40 wins at Le Mans for 1966 and 1967. At the same time, he developed their new Mustang into successful track car with the GT350. 
Ken Miles in a Shelby Mustang GT350Pencils on white stock, digitally painted
© Paul Chenard
Though working in performance development with mostly Ford, Carroll Shelby also worked with Dodge and Oldmobile. He was a “tuner” before the word was even coined!

Shelby American has also continued creating “continuation” Shelby Cobra roadsters.

Carroll Shelby saw opportunity where others didn’t and followed through with his vision and goals. Very few can match his legacy.

Legends of Riverside — An Event to Remember!

A story by my friend Rick Rucker
For the last three days, I have been at the "Legends of Riverside" film festival and get together. Ostensibly, as the name suggests, the avowed purpose was to bring together several drivers that raced at the long closed Riverside International Raceway, in Riverside, California.

Artist Rick Rucker

The booth where I was displaying my drawings was in the building across from the main venue, where all of the film presentations were going on. I made it over to the other side to eat (extremely good food) and to talk to some of the racers, but mostly stayed in my booth.

Portrait of Carroll Shelby © Rick Rucker

Saturday afternoon, we were suddenly inundated by people, streaming in the through the doors. I looked at the proposed itinerary, and saw that it was time for the autograph signing. The volunteers brought in two long tables, and placed them end to end. The idea was to have the people that wanted to have items autographed, walk down the table, stopping at each driver's "station" to get a signature. The caliber of drivers in attendance was stunning! Several won races, and championships, in more types of races than today's racers would ever consider attempting. I don't mean to slight anyone, but if you were to look in a book that listed famous racing drivers, most of them were at this event!

Ed Justice Jr. having an interview with Carroll Shelby

Carroll Shelby (the prime honoree) was the first signer in the line, and then other drivers sat down next to each other. So far, so good, but then they needed another table. There were too many drivers for the number of tables! Another table was brought in, and the same thing happened again, still more tables were brought in to fill the need for places that these driving legends could use to autograph personal mementos. Table after table was hurried into the room, such was the number of drivers.

Autograph-seekers lining up to meet their driver-heroes.

Just when it looked that the situation was under control, even more drivers arrived! And not just any drivers, but Dan Gurney and Parnelli Jones, and others! Every unused table in the place was pressed into service, and some that were earmarked for other uses were re-purposed also. I gave up my display booth table to use for a trophy presentation, so they would have one more table to use. When no more were available, the drivers began to sit on both sides of the tables, and that's how it went. Everyone laughed about it, and it went off fantastically!

From the chaos, came one of the most fun events of my life. I will never see so many of my heroes together again, I'm sure, I feel very lucky to have witnessed it!

I will remember this until I die!
© Rick Rucker 2010

Rick Rucker has a FREE newsletter that teaches how to draw cars at: www.DrawingCarsisEasy.com.

He lives with his wife in Southern California, and started going to sports car races in 1953.

“Go Like Hell” – A Book Review

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was kind enough to send me this book to review on my blog; here it is.

As I closed the cover of A. J. Baime’s book “Go Like Hell”, all I could think of was “hell-of-a-book”!

The book’s subtitle is “Ford, Ferrari, and their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans”, and that sums up very well the subject of his book.

Baime, an executive editor at Playboy magazine, has obviously done some extensive research to put the story together, with interviews with the some of major participants, and their associates, to get the inside perspective. I very much enjoyed finding out more of the players in this vast story, in particular Ken Miles, Phil Hill and John Surtees.

This is not at all a clinical analysis of what happened, but gets right in on the feeling of the 1950’s through to the late 1960’s, and the huge clashes of culture going on then.

These numerous culture clashes float up through the background of racing, spiraling into that landmark 1966 Le Mans: hot-rodders vs engineers, time vs development, American vs Italian, horsepower vs cylinders, corporate vs casual, global vs national, staid vs flashy, speed vs safety, individual vs team …

It’s all there, working together, bringing us through this exciting period of history.

The book is very easy to read thanks to the fine layout and design of graphic designer Brian Moore, who obviously researched his subject to bring in some subtile design touches.

Though I found only one very minor error in the book, there are two points with which I really take issue.

The title “Go Like Hell” is not a quote from the book (I couldn’t find it); it’s weak and totally misses to point of the story. “Speed and Glory” from the subtitle is a much stronger and accurate title to this book, and much more attractive.

The cover, which unfortunately was not designed by Mr. Moore, is horrendous. There are two possibly interesting front cover photos obliterated by a typographic monstrosity that looks like a “TIDE” logo. As I always tell my clients, it cost just as much to do it wrong as to do it right … unfortunately, they are not even close to doing the cover right here, and they are more than 8.36 miles off …

Most of us know this story, and we also know how it ends.
But A. J. Baime gives us the behind-the-scenes and the hard to find insights that make it enthralling.

You can pick it up here at Amazon ... you won't regret it!

1965 Cobra Daytona Coupe #12

Pen & ink, digitally painted © Paul Chenard 2006

The 1965 GT Championship winning Cobra Daytona Coupes left their mark on racing history on both sides of the Atlantic.

This illustration is available as a limited edition of 250 signed and numbered 22" x 17" premium archival Giclee prints. $150 CDN plus shipping/handling