Land Speed Record Cars - Part 2

There is renewed fascination with the land speed record, with two major efforts in the works.

There is the North American Eagle team using a highly modified F-104 Starfighter for their attempt at a new land speed record of 800 mph (1287 km/h)!

There is also the British Bloodhound SSC team, aiming for a record of 1000 mph (1,609 km/h)!

Will's Cigarette Cards "Speed" 2nd series (England) 1938

Toy land speed record cars from the past are not the only items available to fans of the sport.

Eagle Annual #3 "Motor Racing and Sports Cars", illustration by George Pye (England) 1950's

Many printed items are also out there celebrating the land speed records; magazines, books, print ads, collector cards, prints and art out there celebrating speed at the edge.


So-Cal Belly Tank Lakester
Prismacolor pencils on white archival stock 9"x 4"
© Paul Chenard 2008
Gary Grant Collection

Here are the ones I’ve picked up over the years, and the little bit of art I’ve done on the subject.
Enjoy!

World on Wheels Cards No.43, No.23 and No.38

Malcolm Campbell in Bluebird at Pendine Sands, January 1927
Pencil on paper, antique frame
© Paul Chenard 2006

Land Speed Record Cars - Part 1

People have always been focused and fascinated with speed.

From the speed of your computer to how quickly you can paint a room, everyone has some kind of stake in it.



Lledo/Kelloggs Land Speed Legends
Bluebird 1935 & Railton Mobil Special 1947 (England) 1993

But there is a small, but determined group who are steadfastly focused on the land speed record. People like Camille Jenatzy, Ralph DePalma, Malcolm Campbell, Henry Seagrave, George Eyston, John Cobb, Craig Breedlove, Art Arfons and Andy Green are some of the brave pioneers who pushed the limits to achieve the land speed record.

Dinky #220 Small Open racing Car (England) 1952

The publics fascination with this is, of course, supported by toy producers who make miniature versions of the exotic machines used to achieve a new record.

Here are some of the ones I have.
Enjoy!

Dinky #221 "Speed of the Wind" Distance Car & #23P MG Record Car (England) 1950's & 1947, CIJ No.3/2 Renault "Étoile Filante" Racing Car (France) 1957, Corgi #153 Proteus Bluebird (England) 1966

Chime Record Car, Tin Wind-up (Canada) 1930's

Mike Hawthorn 1929-1959

Pen & ink with watercolour and Prismacolor pencils on white archival Strathmore stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

John Michael “Mike” Hawthorn was a well-liked British racecar driver from Farnham. He was popular, and fun-loving, almost always sporting his trademark bowtie, even when racing.

His father Leslie owned own and operated the Tourist Trophy Garage and Mike spent most of his spare time working in his father’s garage, located close to the Brooklands race track.

He started racing motorcycles with some success, and in 1950, raced automobiles, also with success. In 1951, he graduated to a Formula 2 Cooper-Bristol that his father bought.

His racing prowess caught the attention of Jaguar’s Lofty England and Enzo Ferrari. Hawthorn was offered a contract with Ferrari and signed up for 1953.

His first F1 win came in the 1953 French Grand Prix at Reims, driving a Ferrari 500. Though less consistent and successful than others, he won 4 pole positions and 3 Grand Prix races in 45 starts. In 1958, he won only one race, but place 2nd in five races, allowing him to take the Formula 1 Driver’s Championship.

After winning, Hawthorn immediately announced his retirement from Formula 1 to pursue his business interests. Sadly, less than a year later, he was killed in an automobile accident.

Note: The sketch above is available as a 11"x 14.5" limited edition of 50 signed/numbered archival Giclee print for $150 USD each plus shipping/handling.

The Office Series – 1955 Jaguar D-Type

Not long after the Second World War, the Jaguar car company decided that they needed to promote themselves with an attention-getting product.

Pen & ink, watercolour pencil on white archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

Needless to say, they shook the automotive world by introducing the powerful and sleek XK-120 sports car. Powered by a straight-6 and clothed in a stunning sleek and low body, its performance matched its looks and orders flooded in.

A clocked speed of at least 120 mph suggested that it had potential as racing car, so Jaguar created a lighter, more streamlined of the car, calling it an XK-120-C, or C-Type.The racer won the prestigious 24 hours of Le Mans for 1951 and 1953.

To build on their success, Jaguar created an all-new racer for 1954, and christened it the D-Type. As a factory-built racer, it introduced the strong yet lightweight monocoque chassis. Designed by Malcolm Sayer, it sported a gorgeous aerodynamic body, producing minimal drag. It was powered by a modified XK straight-six engine, and sported disk brakes all around.

The first of it's 3 Le Mans wins came in 1955, under very sad circumstances, when Pierre Levegh’s Mercerdes SLR lost control and crashed, killing him and 80 spectators. Mike Hawthorn was the winning D-type’s driver, along with Ivor Bueb.



Pen & ink, watercolour pencil and Prismacolor on white archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

The D-type won again in 1956, under Écurie-Écosse Team management, with Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson driving, and again in 1957, with again Flockhart, this time teamed up with Ivor Bueb.

By 1958, the D-type was no longer competitive, so the remaining cars were converted to road-specification as the XKSS.

Garry Sowerby: A Memorable Interview

Over the Christmas holidays, a select group of people received my limited edition signed and numbered Holiday card, and their responses were overwhelming.

















One of the recipients was local automotive journalist, record-breaker, adventurer, and event planner Garry Sowerby. I was always intrigued by his exploits, so I thought I should send him one of the cards.

In turn, Garry was intrigued to receive this card sent to him by a person completely unknown to him. So he called me to do an interview for his “Road Less Traveled” weekly feature in the “Wheels” section of our local Halifax Chronicle Herald paper.


I was thrilled to meet Garry. He has been described as the Indiana Jones of adventure driving, and has 4 world distance/time records under his belt, including 1980 world circumnavigation by car “Odyssey 77” in a Volvo station wagon in a record-breaking 74 days! His next record-breaking drive was the 1984 fastest drive from the bottom of Africa to the top of Europe “Africa-Arctic Challenge” (28 days), where he was shot at by Shifta bandits in Kenya. His third was the 1987 fastest drive from the bottom to the top of the Americas “Pan American Challenge” (23 days), and his last was the 1997 world circumnavigation by car “Frontera World Challenge” where he beat his origin record, with his new record being an amazing 21 days! All have been published in the Guinness Book of World Records.


He has published a great book of his adventures called “Sowerby’s Road – Adventures of a Driven Mind”. His company Odyssey International Limited does event planning and product launches for the major automotive companies, including General Motors, Honda, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Saturn, Saab, Vauxhall, Subaru and Ford.

Like I said, I was honoured to be interviewed by such accomplished adventurer. You can read his feature below; I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato: “Machismo” defined

After they introduced their stunning new Touring-bodied DB4 GT in 1959, Aston Martin decided to take on Ferraris SWB 250GTs with their own weapon.



Pen & ink and Prismacolor pencils on Canson green archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

They commissioned the Milanese firm of Zagato to make their new car competitive. Young designer Ercole Spada penned a fabulous lightweight “Superleggera” body, “super-light” in Italian, which refers to a Touring-developed construction method of a frame of small-diameter metal tubes built on the main chassis, and covered with aluminum body panels.

The car is a stunning purposeful-looking racer; Doug Nye described it as "a man's car" in his 1982 Salon feature review in Road & Track magazine. It is beautiful from every angle ... rolling sculpture.

Though the Zagato was slightly lighter the original DB4 GT, they were not competitive enough to beat the all-conquering Scuderia Ferrari, which introduced the GTO. They were raced by such famous drivers as Roy Salvadori and Jim Clark.

19 of the Zagatos were built originally, and in 1991, Aston Martin authorized the building of 4 more DB4 GT Zagatos, utilizing unutilized chassis numbers; these were labeled as Sanction II cars. The original cars rarely come up for sale, but if they did, the expected sale price would be at least $3 million USD.

Instrument of Racing: The Alfa Romeo Tipo B “P3” Monoposto

After the success of their P2 racer, Alfa Romeo followed it up by developing the "P3" monoposto (single-seat), also known as the Tipo B. Designed by the brilliant Vittorio Jano, it was the first genuine single-seater Grand Prix car.

Pen & ink with a watercolour pencil wash on archival white stock, 12"x 9"
© Paul Chenard 2009

Original art is available for sale, as are limited edition prints.

* The inset clover "quadrifoglio" graphic appeared on the Alfa Romeo Racing Team cars.

It was powered by a straight 8- cylinder engine, built around two 4-cylinder cast-iron blocks, each fed by a Roots supercharger. Power was transmitted to the rear wheel via twin drive-shafts.

In the hands of Tazio Nuvolari, Rudolf Caracciola, Louis Chiron, Achille Varzi, Raymond Sommer, and René Dreyfus, the P3 won countless races from 1932 through to 1935.

It’s best known victory came in the hands of Nuvolari at the 1935 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. With the P3’s engine bored-out to 3.2 litres, he beat out the far superior machines of the Mercedes and Auto-Union teams.

Super Swede Ronnie Peterson - Lotus 72E - 1973 Italian Grand Prix, Monza

Watercolour pencils and marker of archival stock, 12"x 6"
© Paul Chenard 2009

This illustration is available for sale.

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.

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.

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, than 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.

The impact of the death of this much-loved driver can be seen even today, with countless of tributes set up on websites, and a museum dedicated in his memory in Örebro, Sweden.

Sir Stirling Moss – Grand Prix de Monaco 1961

Prismacolor on archival Canson stock, 12"x 9"
© Paul Chenard 2009

The Grand Prix de Monaco was the inaugural race of the 1961 season, which introduced new 1.5 litre engine rule.

Most teams, except for the Scuderia Ferrari team, were ill-prepared for the new season.

Sir Stirling Moss was racing a 1960 Lotus 18 F1 fielded by privateer team owner Rob Walker. This outdated Lotus was certainly not as sophisticated or as powerful as the Ferraris, but Sir Moss’ virtuoso driving skills more than made up for the disadvantage.

In a very hard fought, tight race, he finished 3.6 secs ahead of American Richie Ginther who drove the new Ferrari 156 “Sharknose”.

In the illustration above, Sir Moss rounds the Station hairpin.

The original sketch is Prismacolor pencils on Canson archival gray stock, 12" x 9". The original is available for $375 CDN (plus taxe).

It is also available as a limited edition of 50 number/signed archival Giclee 14.5"x 11" (image size 12"x 9") prints for $150 plus shipping/handling each.

The Office Series – 1957 Ferrari 250 TR Scaglietti Testa Rosa

Pencil and markers on white archival Canson stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

The Ferrari 250 Testa Rosa is a famous racer that helped propagate the Ferrari legend. The name comes from the Italian words for “red head”, reflecting its 12-cylinder engine’s red-painted cam covers.

The Testa Rosa were produced from 1956 to 1961. They were bodied by various carrozzerias, including Pininfarina and Touring.

Scaglietti created the famous “pontoon” fendered 250TR (Testa Rosas). 22 of these beautiful cars were built in the years 1957–58.

A few years ago, I wanted to create a unique clock, based on the 1957 Testa Rosa dash instruments. I bought a new retro-looking clock, took it apart and repainted the case and hands. I recreated the clock-face using the TR tachometer aesthetics, printed it out and covered the old face. Here is the result, which hangs on the wall of our computer room.








Sports Car Market reports that RM Auctions, in association with Sotheby’s, announced that it will be auctioning off one of these stunning Testa Rosa’s, chassis no. 0714TR, during their May 17, 2009 auction. You can read more about it here.

Tazio Nuvolari - Targa Florio 1932

Pen & ink and Prismacolor pencils on Strathmore Steel Gray archival stock, image 10"x 22"
© Paul Chenard 2009

Tazio Nuvolari was a driver of great passion, and drove with his heart and his head.

For the 1932 Targa Florio, he drove an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza, prepared for him by the Alfa Romeo racing team manager Enzo Ferrari.

The diminutive Nuvolari wanted riding mechanic smaller than he, so enlisted a new and inexperienced Ferrari mechanic Paride Mambelli to ride with him. He told the young mechanic to duck down low for tricky turns. For the race, Nuvolari drove as Nuvolari always drove and they won.

After the race, Ferrari asked the young man how it went, and he told him that he stayed ducked down for the whole race and basically missed it.

Private collection
Limited editions are vailable.

Porsche Purist: The Cars, Products and Lifestyle

In the Fall of 2008, I had the great pleasure of connecting with gentleman in Massachusetts who has a website (993C4S.com) dedicated to Porsches and Porsche lifestyle and culture; it’s a really good read, and a great source of information.

As we connected more and more, he asked me to develop a new logo for his site, based on rebranding it to reflect his ever-expanding audience. He wanted the logo to be more illustrative than iconographic, reflecting the style I used on my Phil Hill series of prints. I also developed the accompanying typography.


The refurbished site is now called Porsche Purist, again to reflect on his growing market. This project was great fun, and very proud of the results. Make sure you make this site part of weekly web intake!

Porsche RS60: the “Giant Killer”

Prismacolor pencils on gray archival stock, 12"x 9" © Paul Chenard 2008

Philip Powell Collection

Porsche AG entered into racing in 1951 with a modified 356 Coupé but their first fully purpose-built racing car came in 1953 in the form of the 550 Spyder.

The first major win for the updated 550A came at the 1956 Targa Florio, driven by Umberto Maglioli. The 550A was further developed into the 718 RSK, another successful winning racer.

These wins by the light small-displacement Porsche race cars against large-displacement 12-cylinder racers such as Ferraris gave them the reputation as “Giant-killers”.

For 1960, Porsche introduced the RS60, a further development of the RSK. Like the RSK, it sported sleek light-weight aluminum bodywork, a low center of gravity and a mid-engine layout. The 4-cylinder, 4-cam engines used were either 1.5 litres (150bhp) or 1.6 litres (160bhp). With a weight of less than 1,300 lbs, the RS60 was very nibble indeed!

For the 1960 season, the FIA stipulated that sports racing cars match more closely the specifications of production sports cars. The racers had to sport a full-width windshield with a minimum height of 25 cm, a luggage compartment and a streamline fairing behind the driver’s head.

The RS60 was very successful out of the box, winning the 12 Hours of Sebring in the hands of Olivier Gendebien and Hans Hermann, followed by Porsche’s third Targa Florio win in the hands of Jo Bonnier, Hans Hermann and Graham Hill. It also won the European Hill Climb Championship.

These wins helped solidify Porsche’s position in North America, with Porsche going from class winners to overall winners.

In 2007, Porsche introduced the special edition Boxster RS60 in homage to the great racer.

Martini Racing Porsche Carrera RSR and Herbert Muller - 1974

This poster is part of a collection of racing automobilia gifted to me by my friend Peter Felder. It's autographed by his good friend Herbert Muller.

Vintage Racing Automobilia

When my son Laurent and I were at the 2007 Mosport Vintage Racing Festival, we met a lot of great people. One of these was Peter Felder from Ontario. And since we’ve met, we have become good friends.



McLaren Racing Corporate Brochure 1971

Peter used to be part of some major racing teams from the 60’s through to the 80’s, and along the way, accumulated a lot of “stuff”.


Marlboro Racing BRM Formula 1 1973 Stickers

A few months ago, Peter was clearing out his attic, and asked me if I was interested in having some of this “stuff”. Of course, vintage racing addict that I am, I said yes.


Various Martini Racing Stickers 1970's

Just before Christmas, a large box arrived, and when I opened it, I was completely shocked. Peter had generously filled it to the brim with amazing items: photos, stickers, tags, patches, posters, some of which were autographed, race programs, corporate brochures, and press kits, all covering Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 5000, Can Am, Trans Am and Sports GT racing, from Watkins Glen to Hockenheim.

Over the next few months, I will be posting some of these items, and adding them to my vintage racing automobilia collection site.

Enjoy!

All the Best of the Holidays!

Phil Hill in winning Ferraris - 4 Print Series

1 Ferrari 750 Monza Pebble Beach 1955

2 Ferrari 250 TR Le Mans 1958

3 Ferrari 246 F1 Monza 1960

4 Ferrari 156 F1 Monza 1961

Pen & ink on vellum, digitally painted © Paul Chenard 2006

This series highlights Phil Hill's great successes in Ferraris, culminating with his 1961 World Championship win. This is the only series ever created on Phil Hill.

Each illustration is available as a limited edition of 250 signed and numbered 22" x 17" premium archival Giclee prints.

Mr Hill signed the first 25 of each of the 4 illustrations, which are available directly through me.

So-Cal Belly Tank Lakester

Prismacolor pencils on white archival stock 9"x 4"
© Paul Chenard 2008

Gary Grant Collection

The American hot rod scene developed very quickly after WWII. G.I.’s with speed on their minds picked up surplus WW2 fighter belly fuel tanks, and build hot rods around them.

One of the best known is the So-Cal Speed Shop “Lakester”, built by Alex Xydias. It was built using a P-38 belly tank, with a flat-head v-8 stuffed in the back.

In 1951, at the Bonneville Salt Flats, the So-Cal team ran the racer at 145.395 mph, a new record for their class.

Classic & Sports Car features my racing automobilia collection

The December issue of Classic & Sports Car carries a nice feature on my vintage racing automobilia collection.

It's a great honour to be presented in such a fine publication; it's one of my favorites, and I keep every issue as a reference piece. The Editor-in-Chief Mick Walsh did a wonderful job of showing the enthusiam I have for my collection.

He also mentioned doing a piece on my racing history artwork in the spring; I'm very much looking forward to that interview.

Formula 1 Prints - Driver/Constructor/Winner Series

1 Brabham BT19 1966
2 Eagle Weslake T1G 1967
3 McLaren M7A 1968

Pencil on paper © Paul Chenard 2007

The series highlights the 3 Formula 1 driver/constructors who won a race and gained championship points in the car they built.

Sir Jack Brabham won the World Driver's Championship for 1966, and Dan Gurney and Bruce McLaren both won a race in Spa in 1967, and 1968, respectively.

Sir Jack Brabham sent me a note when he saw the BT19 sketch:
Dear Paul,
Thank you for the very nice pencil sketch of the BT19.
Jack Brabham
Wow! I was thrilled to hear from Sir Jack directly.

Each illustration is available as a limited edition of 250 signed and numbered 17" x 14.5" premium archival Giclee prints for $125 CDN each plus shipping/handling.