New Ferrari Movie vs. 1953 Mille Miglia Documentary

[dougie]

With the much anticipated Ferrari movie coming out next month, I came across this wonderfully filmed doc on the 1953 Mille Miglia. The cars, the clothes, the crowds, I hope this new film can echo the feeling of this black and white documentary.

 

[HealeyRick]

Thanks for posting, Dougie. Looking forward to the Ferrari movie although I understand it's more focused on Ferrari's life than the racing. There was a Healey 100 and Nash-Healey in the '53 Mille, both DNFed. I like seeing these old Shell racing films. When I was in college so many years ago and secretary of our sports car club, my main duty was to write away to Shell and Castrol to borrow their films to show at our weekly meetings.

 

[Guido36]

Thanks Dougie - great stuff. The Healey start no 522 shown briefly leaving the starting ramp was the Lockett/Reid entry - one of four entered for the race and one of two that started, the other being Hadley/Mercer. The other two Healey entries did not show up for the race. The race ran on April 26 1953 so all the Healey entries were Special Test Cars as the race predated any production BN1s. The Lockett/Reid entry was SPL225B NOJ 392 - probably the most famous/infamous Austin Healey of all, as in 1955 in 100S guise it was the car driven at Le Mans by Lance Macklin which was rear ended by Pierre Levegh in a Mercedes 300 SLR. The Mercedes became airborne and killed Levegh and 83 spectators when it landed. The hapless Lance Macklin was long blamed for the accident but he swerved to avoid hitting Mike Hawthorn in a works Jaguar D Type. Hawthorn had hard braked as he made a last second dive for the pits. The D Type had four wheel disc brakes (as did the 100S but the Mercedes was still equipped with drum brakes. Neither of the two Healeys finished the Mille in 1953 but by March 1954 at Sebring - and the 1954 Mille it was a very different story.

 

[pan]

Thanks Dougie - great stuff. The Healey start no 522 shown briefly leaving the starting ramp was the Lockett/Reid entry - one of four entered for the race and one of two that started, the other being Hadley/Mercer. The other two Healey entries did not show up for the race. The race ran on April 26 1953 so all the Healey entries were Special Test Cars as the race predated any production BN1s. The Lockett/Reid entry was SPL225B NOJ 392 - probably the most famous/infamous Austin Healey of all, as in 1955 in 100S guise it was the car driven at Le Mans by Lance Macklin which was rear ended by Pierre Levegh in a Mercedes 300 SLR. The Mercedes became airborne and killed Levegh and 83 spectators when it landed. The hapless Lance Macklin was long blamed for the accident but he swerved to avoid hitting Mike Hawthorn in a works Jaguar D Type. Hawthorn had hard braked as he made a last second dive for the pits. The D Type had four wheel disc brakes (as did the 100S but the Mercedes was still equipped with drum brakes. Neither of the two Healeys finished the Mille in 1953 but by March 1954 at Sebring - and the 1954 Mille it was a very different story.

Guido,
I have to correct you, 552 is indeed NOJ 392 but that car was never converted to 100S specs. The 100S that was involved in the Le Mans Tragedy was another Special Test Car NOJ 393. I also take issue with your comment that the Austin-Healey was "infamous" because of its involvement in the crash with the Mercedes Benz 300SLR driven by Levegh. Both of these Special Test Austin-Healeys were restored in Australia. If you are interested in reading more, two books detailing the tragedy that I can recommend are 'Death Race Le Mans 1955' by Mark Khan (Barrie & Jenkins, 1976) and 'Le Mans '55 The Crash That Changed The Face of Motor Racing' by Christopher Hilton (Breedon Books 2004).
Cheers,
Alwyn

 

[pan]

Thanks for posting this, Dougie. Probably the best Mille Miglia film that I have seen.
Alwyn

 

[Guido36]

Thanks Alwyn, for setting the record straight . My apologies - I stand corrected and did indeed confuse NOJ 392 with NOJ 393 - I plead senility! I should know better as I have several 1/18 metal die cast scale models of NOJ 393.

 

[equiprx]

With the much anticipated Ferrari movie coming out next month, I came across this wonderfully filmed doc on the 1953 Mille Miglia. The cars, the clothes, the crowds, I hope this new film can echo the feeling of this black and white documentary.

From viewing the trailer, I would only be interested in the cars, the history and the races.
The dialog doesn't appeal to me at all.

 

[pan]

Thanks Alwyn, for setting the record straight . My apologies - I stand corrected and did indeed confuse NOJ 392 with NOJ 393 - I plead senility! I should know better as I have several 1/18 metal die cast scale models of NOJ 393.


View attachment 94521

Guido, Does pleading senility get you any benefits? (Asking for a friend, I'm only 73!) The reason that I mentioned your wording "infamous" was because when '393 was auctioned in 2011 there was a lot of nonsense spoken about how the car should be destroyed due to its involvement in the Disaster. But both these cars (plus 391 if it still exists) have so much history, having completed the '53 Le Mans and many other events. I was able to inspect '392 at the Austin-Healey National Rally in Melbourne in 1995 and would have loved to visit Steve Pike when he was working on '393. But I live a long way from Bacchus Marsh and the opportunity did not arise.
Cheers,
Alwyn

 

[dougie]

Guido, Does pleading senility get you any benefits? (Asking for a friend, I'm only 73!) The reason that I mentioned your wording "infamous" was because when '393 was auctioned in 2011 there was a lot of nonsense spoken about how the car should be destroyed due to its involvement in the Disaster. But both these cars (plus 391 if it still exists) have so much history, having completed the '53 Le Mans and many other events. I was able to inspect '392 at the Austin-Healey National Rally in Melbourne in 1995 and would have loved to visit Steve Pike when he was working on '393. But I live a long way from Bacchus Marsh and the opportunity did not arise.
Cheers,
Alwyn

Steve did a wonderful restoration...

 

[Randy Forbes]

We saw the new movie yesterday, and I can highly recommend it. Yes, there's a lot of non-car/non racing content, but it's worth it for the trips into the workshops, etc.

I struggled a bit with some of the dialogue, so maybe when it eventually gets released on DVD, I'll rewatch it with closed-captioning! Besides, in a public movie theatre, I couldn't properly narrate it for my wife, and identify all the cars/people for her

The movie is based on the Brock Yates' book: Enzo Ferrari, The man, the cars, the races (which I have and read) and seems an accurate rendition.

Thanks Dougie, for posting up the '53 MM, and the historical pictures!

 

[dougie]

I saw it as well with my wife, daughter (car girl) and friends in a small theater Tuesday night. We enjoyed it very much, Adam Driver
(Enzo character) did a wonderful job portraying this very complicated man. Race scenes were great, but not enough...haha. I did spot the loan big Healey racer which appeared to be # 414, but in the wrong color scheme.

The scenes at the Ferrari Factory must have been filmed on location, they look just as I remember when I was there a few years ago.

 

[Hamish Racing]

If you like the themes on the above films you guys may like these period films my dad made. There are others on my YouTube channel . Search by most popular to cut to the chase and miss out my racing in my TR3a.
dad used to race a cooper jap 1220cc twin supercharged in the late1950’s so he knew a lot of the racers.
I hope you enjoy

 

[Editor_Reid]

If you like the themes on the above films you guys may like these period films my dad made. There are others on my YouTube channel . Search by most popular to cut to the chase and miss out my racing in my TR3a.
dad used to race a cooper jap 1220cc twin supercharged in the late1950’s so he knew a lot of the racers.
I hope you enjoy

Hamish, those are priceless! Reminds me of old-time sports car club meetings where the guys borrowed films such as these to show after club business and enjoyed a high-class (but really cheap) beer like Oly!

<curmudgeon> Nowadays everyone's a micro-brew connoisseur and the racing cars don't look anything like the cars the club members own. </curmudgeon>

Thank you.

 

[Randy Forbes]

An interview with Robert Nagle, the stunt coordinator, on behind the scenes in the movie FERRARI. Twenty-one (21) minutes worth watching, and lends even more credibility to the film.

When asked if it was filmed on location, his reply was "100%..." and just then they show the red cars passing a Healey

 

[dougie]

Yup, that's where I got the screen shot ...

 

[Hamish Racing]

Watched the Robert Nagle interview then the film yesterday
Those film replica cars will be worth some money now and in The future.
loved the scenes in the church cutting to the track and back

 

[Michael Oritt]

I thought the movie was boring and lacked focus. OTOH the cars and sounds were great and it was nice seeing some more obscure vehicles such as Lancias and Peugots, etc. Most of the racing scenes were well done but at a couple of points fell into the silly cliche of having the drivers glaring at each other when wheel to wheel.

 

[pan]

Ferrari is showing here at the moment but I have not seen it yet. Viewing the interesting interview with Robert Nagle whetted my appetite, so thanks to Randy for posting it. Hopefully this movie will be more historically accurate than Ford V Ferrari. I did spot the Austin-Healey. I don't know how many such cars took part in the '57 Mile Miglia but the works Healey entry (#414) was not Healey Blue/OEW. I believe UOC 741 was Pacific Green over Florida Green. And for the MM it had a cut down windscreen, not full height as shown in the clip. At least they got the race number correct.
And Randy, my wife reckons she will have to gag me because she anticipates an annoying running commentary!
Cheers,
Alwyn
PS I noticed in one of the scenes the camera is at ground level and as the car passes the camera focusses on a "cat's eye" in the centre of the road. I read somewhere once that the tyre failure that led to de Portago's crash was attributed to these cat's eyes damaging the tyre. And that since 1957 such road markers are not used on Italian roads.

 

[Hamish Racing]

Ferrari is showing here at the moment but I have not seen it yet. Viewing the interesting interview with Robert Nagle whetted my appetite, so thanks to Randy for posting it. Hopefully this movie will be more historically accurate than Ford V Ferrari. I did spot the Austin-Healey. I don't know how many such cars took part in the '57 Mile Miglia but the works Healey entry (#414) was not Healey Blue/OEW. I believe UOC 741 was Pacific Green over Florida Green. And for the MM it had a cut down windscreen, not full height as shown in the clip. At least they got the race number correct.
And Randy, my wife reckons she will have to gag me because she anticipates an annoying running commentary!
Cheers,
Alwyn
PS I noticed in one of the scenes the camera is at ground level and as the car passes the camera focusses on a "cat's eye" in the centre of the road. I read somewhere once that the tyre failure that led to de Portago's crash was attributed to these cat's eyes damaging the tyre. And that since 1957 such road markers are not used on Italian roads.

I guess you need to watch it before you give the WHOLE game away

 

[pan]

I guess you need to watch it before you give the WHOLE game away

Hamish,
Looks like I might need to apologise, but it didn't occur to me that Austin-Healey enthusiasts might not know details of the 1957 Mille Miglia.
Cheers,
Alwyn