#auto racing

[visualvocabulary33]

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1917 Golden Submarine

“Mercilessly mocked…until it started winning. The 1917 Golden Submarine was Harry Miller's first enclosed race car and was made with a "safety" cage after the death of driver Bob Burman. It won 17 of the 35 races it ran and set every international dirt-track speed record.”

[stone-cold-groove]

Drag Racing USA magazine - October 1970.

[th3-0bjectivist]

My visit to the NASCAR Hall of Fame (Charlotte, NC - JUN 29 2024)

Every year for a few years now, I try to do an Independence Day post where I walk around a few cemeteries and snap some cool photos. But this is an election year, and I'm concerned that I'm going to have to soft-block some political zealot high on their own farts that will leave intellectual gems in the comments like 'Drumpf IZ Hitler!' or 'down with left-cucks in 24!'. So instead, I'm going to share some pictures that I took at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, and you can leave all the unrelated jabbering political frivolity that you'd like in the comments section.

For the record, I'm not into NASCAR at all. I haven't watched a full single race in my lifetime, and I tend to associate it with rednecks driving in circles. Which, to my chagrin, I was dead wrong in my interpretation on. Well, except for the redneck part. There's a hell of a lot more to these beautiful cars than I thought. My visit to this specialized museum was a delicate mix of history, art and science lessons!

The first thing I learned is that although these cars look fully assembled from the outside, they have nearly all the standard parts taken out (the radio, the average driver wheel, the headlights, etc.) and the bodies are composed of a flat sheet of durable metal. These days the car panels, which are composite materials like plastic coated with fibreglass, are then painted over to make a colorful, and often very corporate piece of art that is ready to drive at breakneck speeds. This all makes the modified car as light and agile as possible on the speedway.

In the U.S. south, where I reside these days, stock car racing's roots took hold from prohibition. Stock car racing wasn't just about competition; it was about taking your very fast car and running moonshine and illegally imported booze to different regions around Appalachia. Getting away from highway patrol meant stripping your car of excessive weight and parts, allowing for maximum maneuverability around hairpin turns and extreme acceleration up and down steep hills… all while a 1000-pound barrel of booze was strapped down in the back seat.

This is a picture I snapped inside the Hall of Honor, and that man is Richard 'the King' Petty. As a non-NASCAR fan, his face is the face I most associate with NASCAR, as his signature moustache, glasses and hat stand out to me as a truly memorable and iconic driver. But it’s not just the driver that participates. In NASCAR, your team is composed of a chief, who spots opportunities from television monitors and signals the driver through radio to execute specific moves to win the race, all while managing the rest of the team.

The pit crew consists of mechanics, a jackman (runs around the car with a heavy jack to raise the automobile during a maintenance pit stop), a cut-off valve attendant for refuelling, and a driver attendant who helps the driver get in and out of the car. It doesn't just take an individual driver, but a full team to assist the driver in winning the race. Drivers have suffered concussions, bone fractures, severe burns, whiplash, traumatic bodily injuries and death. Talk about bleeding for your craft!

And now for some art! Pictured above is a full-scale clay model of a Next Gen Ford Mustang. These days, clay models of racing cars are developed from digital designs and used to capture approvals from companies to lay down a final design for a race-worthy automobile. Once you pack a V-8 engine into one of these babies and recreate it out of a steel tube frame, you've got a vehicle that can reach speeds above 200 miles per hour.

Here's my pops, Dave, who I took to this museum as a birthday present. He's a NASCAR freak, and this little excursion to the Hall of Fame actually made him cry for a beat as he recalled decades worth of memories of racers, historic moments, and images of historic back-to-back victories for drivers and their teams.

Every car has the potential to be a race car. It just takes some weight-loss surgery or a good initial design, some driver safety features, and a colorful skin to make the whole thing faster, more agile, and more appealing to the eye. I have to say I never expected to absorb so much from the NASCAR HoF. I was grateful for my visit and wanted to share a portion of what I learned to Tumblr as a fun little sidebar.

I hope you enjoyed this post. And rest assured, you will never see another NASCAR post on my page ever again… y'know, unless it’s a meme or something!

Happy 4th,

th3-0bjectivist (Luke)

[ADDENDUM (07/05/2024): Tumblr ryanthedemiboy pointed out to me in the comments that the third paragraph in this post probably needed some modifications regarding the actual description of the panels, which I originally and ignorantly described as an ‘outer metal hull’. While this might have been the case with older NASCAR vehicles, in modern times the panels are at best ‘metal-skinned’, if that, and manufactured from carbon fibre. Also, older NASCAR vehicles were painted and repainted, but ever since the early 2000’s these vehicles are simply wrapped in a vinyl skin. Thank you for your insight ryanthedemiboy, I will ‘stay in my lane’ so to speak in the future and give these topics, that are alien to me, the research they deserve before I post!]

[shutinlear53]

One of my favorite motorsport pics ever

A mirror match between the Evangelion Racing AMG GT3 and the Good Smile Racing AMG GT3 during a Super GT race

[blackros78]

[idrawprettyboys]

Despite setting out to make a manga about car racing, I don’t know the first thing about how cars are built or how car racing works! So if you guys know of any good resources to teach me these things in an easily digestible fashion, let me know! I don’t want to bombard myself with too much info, and I don’t want to make myself think that I have to be realistic with it (since I want Carkour to be a bit silly and unrealistic) but it would probably help me to know a little bit.

[dreamsburntdown]

Ayrton Senna died 30 years ago, on 1st May 1994. He was not only probably the best Formula One driver ever, but also an icon, and a charismatic, very good person. He will never be forgotten. Rest in peace.

'I had a privileged life. But everything I have was obtained through dedication, perseverance, and a tremendous desire to achieve my goals, and a strong desire for victory, meaning victory in life, not just as a driver.

To all of you that are watching me right now, let me say that whoever you may be in life, whatever your position is, no matter if you are very rich or very poor, you must show great strength and determination, and always do everything with love and a deep faith in God. One day, you will achieve your dream. Somehow you will achieve your dream.'

[Ayrton Senna - Inspiring message about life]

[vintageeurope]

Monaco 1932

[combinava]

Mais um dia escrevendo sobre você...

Me desculpa por escrever sobre você novamente sem seu consentimento, mas é a única forma de me conectar com meus sentimentos sem me machucar.

Hoje eu acordei pensando em você e isso é muito complexo.

É difícil entender como alguém em tão pouco tempo, me desconcertou dessa forma. É como se eu estivesse fragmentada e tentando recuperar uma pessoa que um dia eu já fui.

Por muito tempo, eu pensei que sentimentos como este não eram para mim. E eu estava bem mantendo relações superficiais, era minha zona de conforto.

Você chegou de forma tão repentina, e com esse seu jeito me acessou sem esforços e fiquei rendida.

Você me encantou com pequenos detalhes. Com seu jeito único de levar a vida, de ser leviano e sério ao mesmo tempo. Com sua forma de me fazer acreditar em mim mesma e nos meus dias mais tristes me fazia rir das coisas mais bobas possíveis.

É complexo pensar que podíamos ser tudo e ao mesmo tempo não sermos nada!

Eu queria muito me reconstruir de novo, mas depois que te conheci não sou mais mesma. Estou completamente vulnerável!

Olhos castanhos, você realmente sabe como me fazer chorar!

[dougielombax]

The yassification of NASCAR!

YassCAR!

Idk.

*car wreck explodes violently*

[visualvocabulary33]

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Richard Petty and Pete Hamilton at Daytona International Speedway.

[stone-cold-groove]

Dallas Grand Prix poster - 1984.

[demoralised]

NSU TT

[dreamydrifts]

i feel like we need to talk about the championship mentality cause whenever i open tumblr i see something to some extent talking about lando or max or even both of them when it comes to this "title fight" as british media loves to call it

in my pov i feel like to be a world champion in f1 the championship mentality is needed but not to that level of extent as everyone makes it seem like. For example, max is a 3 times world champion because of his driving, the way he approaches media is very different from lando and the way he is percieved by it. His driving style and how he sees racing in the first place matter a lot. I remember him saying in an interview that he's here to race, not to be medias puppet or something along those lines, but it would be a shame not to mention that yes he has a championship mentality.

on the other side, lando in my opinions doesn't have it, but also the way he refers to racing is different than max. His childhood was much more different than maxs. By no means am i saying that he is not championship material, he can definetly be but he needs time. Take for example, he can't keep pole position most of the time, but that's also because he isn't used to being in pole position like max is so here experience shows. Media percieves him as this golden boy of mclaren wherea max is the villan. (yes there is also the british bias, even if you like it or not)

before i end this rant i want to say that when fighting for a title (even if it 10 points away or even 40 or so) it's a small fight nonetheless (even if i don't think this year max actually had a title contender besides himself) the driving that each driver has is different and will show when fighting for a place. But i think lando this time, because in austin he was shown by max a masterclass in defense and plus he wasn't attacking him one bit. This time lando actually shows a bit more confidence in himself which i'm happy for him he finally is gaining the confidence to actually challenge max.

But to actually fight with max for a title i think he needs more than the british media helping him (sorry not sorry)