Vintage racing pics from the Glen

[Guest]

OK, as promised in my earlier thread (mystery racecar) I've posted a bunch of the old pictures my dad took at the Glen in my photobucket account. You can see the album here:

Vintage photos from the Glen

As I said earlier, these were all taken in the late 60's and very early 70's I believe. Sorry that many are not great quality, my dad isn't the greatest photographer and many show the effects of sitting in a hot attic for 30 years. Anyway, enjoy whats there, I'm interested to see some of the comments as I'm really not sure what alot of these cars are. These are a few of my favs.

I love the cop standing behind the car in this last one, maybe they got a ticket while testing out some adjustments on the local roads! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

 

[aeronca65t]

Nice:

The first three cars may be from the "Makes" race they used to have at the Glen.
The John Wyer Gulf/Mirage is the same one that was in your other photo.
That Matra-Simca was a big contender for the "Makes" championship. I think Henry Pescarolo drove it (he also drove some of their F1 cars).
I'd guess that the red car is a Ferrari 312.
The Group 7 Can-Am racer is obviously Bruce Mclaren's car...an M8 I think (I saw this car several times).
He and Denny Hulme ruled Can-Am with these cars until the TurboPanzer 917s came along.
I remember talking to the late Peter Revson when he drove an M8 at Bridgehampton.
Great pix...brings back lots of memories!

[edit]:I just looked at the other photos on the link.
Some great shots including (I think) Donahue's Zerex Special, Hall's Chapparell,
a Lola T70 Coupe, a Porsche 904, A Wyer GT40, an original TransAm Camaro and lots of other neat stuff.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Sherlock]

Just took a quick look... Nice finds.

Don't worry about how imperfect the pictures are, at least they preserved a moment in time (ca. 1970 or so), how many people still have pictures of Watkins Glen from that time period?

I'm currently in the process of scanning old family pictures (sorry not that many car pictures folks), and within reason unless they're really nasty I'm scanning most of them.

My Dad's pictures (1957/61) from western Canada

My Mom's pictures (1947/61) from England

 

[aeronca65t]

Great old pictures from both you guys.
I love the F-105 display.
And the old shots from the UK look a lot like the scenes from my family (around the same time and same part of the world).

Personally, I'm on a mission to scan ALL the old photos in my family and burn them to a CD so I can give them out to all my family members...right now I'm working on a bunch of early 50s pictures when I was a kid (in Ireland).
Some of my siblings and cousins are sending me prints to add to this project. We have family shots from the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, the USA and even Argentina.

As for old car pictures: the two-part shot below is me at Bridgehampton in the early 70s. Based on my signature picture (taken in '04) I guess I'm in a rut.

I have a few more oldies at the top of this page:
https://npmccabe.tripod.com/spridget.html

 

[waltesefalcon]

Scott,

You have some really great pictures in there. The Number 5 Denny Hulme McLaren, was the first 1:18 die cast car I ever bought. I can't imagine what an experiance it must have been to have been at Watkins Glen in the early 70s.

 

[Guest]

Hey Sherlock, those are some nice shots. I love looking at pictures like that, just as you said, a moment captured in time. Makes me wonder what else was going on in the world around that moment. By the way, nice '57 Belair wagon in that first picture, that'd be a nice car to have around now for taking the kids to car shows and such.

There may be a few more good shots from the Glen coming, my father told me that he's got an album with blow ups of some of the better shots. I vaguely remember that album from when I was a kid. These pictures that I've already put up all came from a shoe box in the attic. If I can find the album I'll scan those in to.

I know there are alot of history buffs around this site. I've got a pile of pictures I just finished scanning in that were taken by both my grandfathers in WWII. Grandpa on my moms side was a Navy seabee and served in the pacific through most of the major campaigns. On my dads side my grandfather fought in Europe in the Army. I'll try to put some of those into an album on photobucket so anyone interested can take a peak.

 

[Guest]

Oh yeah, I loved your shots also Aeronca. That picture of the three of you guys sitting on the car is an awesome period piece! Thats the kind of shot your kids look at and laugh about with their friends. Groovy shirts man...

 

[Sherlock]

Well folks...

I'm only about .5% into my dad's old slides, I have the use of a friend's slide scanner for a few hours every week or two so I'm slowly whittling away at them.

No racing car pictures, and he was no car enthuasiast ever. if a car happened to make it into a picture it happened (and only North American stuff), if not... But he still has some great pictures from back then regardless of that, check the link above for about 20 more pictures.

Have come across a picture of either an Austin A40 Devon or Somerset in southern B.C. (late 1950's), but it's in the background of a funeral procession! Love the car, but not sure what to do with that picture...

 

[sammyb]

Outstanding pictures!!! Actually, the quality is pretty darn good. Anyone who has ever tried to take racing pictures knows how hard it can be.

Plus the color, fading and overall grain is just perfect for pictures of this era.

I'm really partial to the pix of the McLaren.