Ronnie Peterson - The Quiet Storm

Swedish Formula 1 driver Ronnie Peterson was one of the few in Formula 1 who was liked and appreciated by all those who met him.

'Four into Four' - Ronnie Peterson in a March 761, James Hunt in a McLaren M23, Patrick Depallier in a Tyrrell P34 and Mario Andretti in a Lotus 77 roar down into Turn Four at Mosport 1976.
Photo © Allan de la Plante
Available as a limited edition - www.allandelaplante.webs.com/

Born in 1944, he was quiet, shy and an all-round nice guy. But once in a race car, he drove flat-out, pushing his cars often past their limit.

Peterson in a Lotus 72, 1974 Italian Grand Prix
Watercolour pencils and marker of archival stock, 12"x 6"
© Paul Chenard 2009
This original illustration is available, as are limited editions.

He started successfully in karts, rose through F3, and F2, and quickly caught the notice of the Formula 1 teams.

He started with March, moved to Lotus, March again, then Tyrrell, then finally back to Lotus. He had a total of 10 Grand Prix wins in eight years, but his life came to an abrupt and sad end in a crash while driving a Lotus 78 in the 1978 Italian Grand Prix.

Nose-piece from Ronnie Peterson's crashed Lotus 78 from the 1978 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Sourse: Anonymous

The impact of the death of this much-loved driver can be seen even today, with countless of tributes set up on websites worldwide.

My First Talk-Show Appearance ...

Just before Christmas, I was contacted by a Radio-Canada TV researcher about appearing on the French-language talk-show Luc et Luc, hosted by Luc Leblanc, to talk about my art. After a brief chat, she said she would call back to confirm.

Sure enough, she called back a few days later to confirm that I was scheduled to go to Moncton, New Brunswick, on January 6th for the shows taping.






















This is the sketch I did on-air while being interviewed.

Well, that show is finally airing on Sunday, March 28th at 7:30 pm on the French CBC station in the Maritime provinces.

Have your popcorn and beer ready ...

50 years of Porsche Legacy at Sebring

This weekend celebrates the 50^th anniversary of Porsche’s first victory at the 12 Hrs of Sebring.

Porsche RS60 - Sebring 1960
Prismacolor on Strathmore gray archival paper 9"x 4"
© Paul Chenard 2008
Philip Powell Collection

A Porsche RS60, masterfully driven by Olivier Gendebien and Hans Hermann, took that win in 1960.

This wonderful video is produced by videographer J.F Musial; it touches beautifully on the past and the present of Porsche at Sebring.

Bravo!

Historic Car Art at Race Retro

Last weekend, Historic Car Art gallery was set at the 7th annual Race Retro in Stoneleigh (UK), featuring fine automotive art, limited edition and vintage racing posters.


I was honoured to be one of those who's original art and prints were presented; it's my first major show, and it was wonderful place to start.


I want to thank Rupert Whyte for supporting my racing history art. As you can see, the set-up was stunning!

Race Retro

This coming weekend, one of Europe’s largest shows for historic motorsport, historic racing and historic rallying will take place in Stoneleigh Park in Coventry, United Kingdom.

Race Retro, celebrating its 7th year, will be honouring the 100th anniversary of Alfa Romeo. The show has grown in stature each year, and is now one of the premier events.

I’m very honoured to be represented in the UK by the prestigious gallery Historic Car Art, and they will be set up at Race Retro, featuring my art and limited editions, along-side many well-known motorsports artist.

Historic Car Art also showcases a large selection of original vintage race posters. They will set up in Hall #1 at Race Retro.

Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato – Jim Clark – 2VEV
The original is available from Historic Car Art at Race Retro – Hall #1

Fangio goes to Spain ...

I recently have had growing orders for my art and my limited editions from the world over.

Just before Christmas, an order came in from an Englishman Tony, living in Spain. He ordered my Fangio – Maserati 250F limited edition for his best friend Peter’s birthday. Peter is a Fangio fan, and use to own and race a 250F.

Once the order came in and I packaged up the print, I decided to add a little sketch on the packaging that I referenced from an image of Peter racing that I found on the web. I then shipped it off to Spain.

I was thrilled to get this note from Tony:

Hi Paul,

As you can see, Peter is well. He thought the framed picture was superb and was extremely chuffed with the extra drawing you sent, his wife was speechless (for a change)

Once again, many thanks, you made his birthday one to remember.

Kind regards,

Tony

François Cevert 1944-1973

Today is the anniversary of François Cevert’s birth in 1944 … he would be 66 years old.

I like to think that he would have accomplished so much if he was still amongst us, because he had done so much in his tragically short life.

He left such an strong mark on us … his skill on the track, his grace and elegance, his respect and dedication to his “métier”, his colleagues and his team, and of course, his wonderful smile, and those piercing, intense blue eyes …

Nous pensons à toi, François!

Original in Prismacolor pencils on mid-gray stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

Lyndsay Styles collection

A limited edition of 50 Giclee prints 11"x 14.5" (27.9 cm x 36.8 cm) is available.

Making 3D out of 2D …

The Lotus 49 was another of a long line of brilliant Colin Chapman (and Maurice Phillipe) designs, being the first Formula 1 racecar to successfully use the motor as a stress-bearing structural member.

Jim Clark won 4 races in 1967 driving the Lotus 49, and the first race of the 1968 season before being tragically killed in an F2 race in Hockenheim.

I decided to illustrate a "faux" 1967 Silverstone poster, done in the old mid '60s British style.

In the sketch, Clark leads 2nd place finisher Denny Hulme in his Brabham BT24, followed by 3rd place Chris Amon in his Ferrari 312 F1.

As an experiment, I wanted to render a normally 2D sketch into 3D. To create the 3D illusion, I had to illustrate the cars in parts, and then assemble the parts onto the illustrated background.

For example, the Clark Lotus 49 is built from 9 separate illustrations, cut out, and assembled in layers to create a "trompe l'oeil". The 3 cars are done like that, and positioned into their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd race finishing order. The "Silverstone" text is also cut out paper ...

Prismacolor pencils on individual coloured papers, cut out and layered onto background

© Paul Chenard 2010

Marc Hogenkamp Collection

Commissions are available.

My First Talk-Show Appearance ...

Just before Christmas, I was contacted by a Radio-Canada TV researcher about appearing on the French-language talk-show Luc et Luc, hosted by Luc Leblanc, to talk about my art. After a brief chat, she said she would call back to confirm.

Sure enough, she called back a few days later to confirm that I was scheduled to go to Moncton, New Brunswick, on January 6th for the shows taping.

My wife Lise and I left the afternoon of the 6th for the 2.5 hour drive to get to studio in time. Once there, I met the researcher for a briefing, and than the host Luc LeBlanc for introductions and going over interview notes. Everyone who worked on the show were extremely pleasant and professional, which helped me relax.

We sat to the side with the studio audience, and each waited our turn to be interviewed. It was very, very entertaining, with the host keeping the audience laughing, even when the cameras weren’t on … he’s a very funny guy.

My turn came up, and I can’t say I remember too much of what I said. Towards the end of the 6 minute interview, Luc had me do a sketch in front of the live studio audience ... it was stressful, and fun at the same time!

Prismcolor sticks (black & white) on 20"x 26" gray achival stock.
© Paul Chenard 2010
Luc LeBlanc Collection

After my interview, I finished the sketch and gave it the host as a gift. I was so distracted that I forgot to take a photo of it before we left. Last week, the host sent me a "thank you" card with a pic of me sketching during the interview, and over the weekend, he e-mailed a pic of the finished sketch … a very thoughtful guy!

The show will air by the end of March … I’m look forward to seeing it.

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 Gold Leaf 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 shows 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

Private Collection

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 ...