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Antique Racing Cars, and Politics
Jun. 22nd, 2010 08:46 pmIn which I ramble on in a mildly obsessive manner over two of my favourite subjects:
So, this turned up unexpectedly - two pictures of one of my all-time favourite race cars (a Novi/Kurtis KK500K) being loaded onto one of my all-time favourite airplanes (a Lockheed Super Constellation). I've never ridden in either, I regret to say. This is prolly late April '63, as it was being loaded for Indianapolis. The Novi looked much better going there than it did coming back home. This is the one that Bobby Unser hammered into the wall on the third lap, through driver error. It's to Granatelli's credit that he was able to look past the mistake that destroyed his car, and see the boy's potential as a race driver.
The Constellation, like many of the great designs of the mid century, had that remarkable streamlined swoopiness to it. It looks kind of like a flying porpoise. And as the Constellation was in many ways the pinnacle of propellor-driven airliners, so was the Novi the last of the long, successful series of the Kurtis KK500 chassis. Both had passed from dominance by this time, but both were still able to compete credibly against the new. The pictures themselves perhaps aren't that great, but it's cool to see these two things unexpectedly interacting with one another.
*****
I unexpectedly met a friend whom I've not seen since Oct 2008. She recalled to me something she'd told me during the 2008 election, which I'd forgotten until reminded. Her sister had had a 'prophetic dream' that were Obama elected, America would suffer greatly. That's probaby why it didn't stick in my mind, as that seemed to me at the time more a common sense foreboding than a matter for premonition. What makes me shiver a bit now are the details of the doom that Obama would bring upon us, which seemed only impressionistic details then - a black cloud, and poison in the water.
So, this turned up unexpectedly - two pictures of one of my all-time favourite race cars (a Novi/Kurtis KK500K) being loaded onto one of my all-time favourite airplanes (a Lockheed Super Constellation). I've never ridden in either, I regret to say. This is prolly late April '63, as it was being loaded for Indianapolis. The Novi looked much better going there than it did coming back home. This is the one that Bobby Unser hammered into the wall on the third lap, through driver error. It's to Granatelli's credit that he was able to look past the mistake that destroyed his car, and see the boy's potential as a race driver.
The Constellation, like many of the great designs of the mid century, had that remarkable streamlined swoopiness to it. It looks kind of like a flying porpoise. And as the Constellation was in many ways the pinnacle of propellor-driven airliners, so was the Novi the last of the long, successful series of the Kurtis KK500 chassis. Both had passed from dominance by this time, but both were still able to compete credibly against the new. The pictures themselves perhaps aren't that great, but it's cool to see these two things unexpectedly interacting with one another.
*****
I unexpectedly met a friend whom I've not seen since Oct 2008. She recalled to me something she'd told me during the 2008 election, which I'd forgotten until reminded. Her sister had had a 'prophetic dream' that were Obama elected, America would suffer greatly. That's probaby why it didn't stick in my mind, as that seemed to me at the time more a common sense foreboding than a matter for premonition. What makes me shiver a bit now are the details of the doom that Obama would bring upon us, which seemed only impressionistic details then - a black cloud, and poison in the water.
