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cazzyf1 · 5 months ago

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My favourite and interesting quotes from the book 'Challenge me the race' by Mike Hawthorn

We played football, hockey and cricket, but my cricket career was soon cut short. One Saturday afternoon, I went in as wicket-keeper, and while the batsmen were putting their pads on, the bowler sent down a practise ball, which thumped me hard on the nose - p15

When I was about thirteen, I went off into the woods with another boy to shoot rabbits; he had an air rifle, and I had an air pistol. He was leading the way, swinging the rifle backwards and forwards; as he swung it outward, I took aim at the butt to give him a bit of a surprise, but there must have been something wrong with the sights; the pellet went into his leg. We were not far from a church, so I whipped him into the churchyard and bathed his leg with the water from a flower vase. Eventually, I managed to squeeze the pellet out, and we both went home. Of course, his leg turned septic, but he talked his way out of it and his family never knew what happened. - p15

I always had a feeling I would like to play the trumpet, and after breaking-in as a bugler, I have since brought a trumpet. I doubt I shall cause Eddie Calvert any sleepless nights unless he happens to be in the next room while I am practising, and I do not aspire to emulate Johnny Cales, who was popular both a racing driver and a dance-band leader, but if the race-driving and the motor trade fail, I may still be able to make an honest coin - p15/16

While I was still an apprentice, my parents concluded that daily use of a motor-bike on the road would have to stop if I was to stay in this world - p17

I did not realise at the time but I took an awful shaking at Dundrod. I did not feel too bad at the time, but the next evening, I suddenly passed out and had to go to bed with whiskey and hot milk. My interior organs were in revolt against being thrown about like a stone bouncing down a tin roof, and this may have been the first sign of troubles for which I later had to have extensive repairs on the operating table - p25

I caught sight of Rodney and Mike Oliver, the Connaught development engineer, standing at Madgwick Corner, and I thought that on the next time around I would really show them what I could do. I did. When the car stopped spinning round and round, I realised that any hopes of driving a Connaught would have to be postponed for the time being. - p26

He produced a bottle of alcohol and started to swab it off with that. I nearly went straight through the ceiling with alcohol on a sort of raw wound. "We'll leave it alone, shall we?" I said eventually. - p47

After I had been in bed for a couple of days, everyone came to see me, Lance Macklin, John, and Laurel Heath, and a lot of Italians came to see me - one or two of them had been prisoners of war in England - and altogether everyone was very kind - p48

"There are two ways of getting rid of it: we can either leave it and let it go on its own accord; or we can stick a needle in you and drain it off." I said: "Thanks very much, I'll leave it and let it go away on its own." So they said: "Fair enough." - p48

I tried some ski-ing, but found it - and I did not reckon this at all - most dangerous, I thought, "No, this isn't for you, Hawthorn, leave it alone." I kept falling, and I could feel the bones of my leg bending; I did not fancy it at all. - p49

I hated the idea of being driven for long distances by other people, so I announced that I was going to drive and anyone who wished could sit in the back. The announcement did nothing to further amicable Anglo-American relations, but to my relief, the others did not argue the point - p72

Some time later, I emerged onto a deserted circuit, whence driver mechanics, spectators and officials had fled long since, and then I remembered that I had no transport. Our crippled race cars had been taken away in the vans, and my own car was at that moment standing outside the Le Mans railway station, as I had lent it to Farina, who had wanted to catch a train before the race ended. There was nothing for it but to start walking. After about a mile, I heard an old 2-litre Lagonda hurtling up the road behind me, so I thumbed a lift. The car screeched to abrupt stop, and I got in gratefully. By way of conversation, I said: "My father used to have one of these cars. They're jolly good, aren't they?" It was a mistake; thus encouraged, the driver tried to demonstrate that what I had said was indeed true and went weaving in and out of the traffic at a furious pace. We went hurtling up to the backs of trucks, braking late, with all wheels locked, and it dawned on me that he too had been celebrating-and rather too well. Sweating with fear, I frantically tried to keep the conversation going in the hope it would slow him down "Jaguars did a good job, winning at that speed," I said. "Yes, old boy," he replied, snatching another gear. "Drove those damned Ferraris right into the ground. Showed 'em how to drive." I had struck the right note and for the rest of the way into Le Mans he told me with much elaboration and adjective and expletive how a Jaguars had ground the pride of the Italians and their drivers into the dust. He got so interested in this that he forgot to drive so fast, which made me very happy, and I kept on agreeing with everything he said. He was kind enough to take me back to my hotel and as I staggered out of the car, surprised but happy at having arrived one piece, he said: "Hope we meet again some time. We might have a drink." "Yes," I said. "We might. Remember the name, it's Mike Hawthorn." The effect was wonderful. His face seemed to subside like a load of cement sliding out of a wheelbarrow. Oddly enough we did meet again that same night and we had several drinks together. P74

I think it was called Punta del Este - the hotel kept a line of horses for the use of guests. Maglioli and I decided to risk a trip on a couple one day; he selected a low-built job which kept his feet near to the ground, but I had a normal job. We went off into the woods, but after a while, I missed him and found that his steed had taken him up the drive of a private house to the front door. The owners did not seem to find it funny, but Maglioli knew a little Spanish and talked his way out of it. I was roaring with laughter, but in the middle of it, my mount started walking backwards - and kept on, no matter what I did. In the end, I had to jump off and stop it and get it started the normal way. - p100

I followed on a horse; it went lame fairly soon, and I had to take a stone out of it's hoof, after which it refused to do anything but take me back to the hotel. I tried tempting it with bits of sugar, but it simply stretched out its neck for the sugar and then doubled back every time, so after a lot of pulling and tugging, I gave up and asked for another horse, which would really take me where I wanted. They gave me another, something quite different. No sooner had I set foot in that stirrup than it was off, and nothing I could do would slow it down. Down the road we went, thundering past a Ford and a Jeep, with me, very frightened, holding on like grim death. It only slowed down when it got tired. I tested it - and myself - and then tried to start back for the hotel. It soon began to accelerate again, so I jumped off and led it the rest of the way, which must have been a couple of miles. That was the last time I rode a horse - p100/101

In Uruguay, we spent most of our time on the beach or in the casino, where I lost money regularly, but we made an interesting excursion to an island just off the coast which was absolutely covered in seals. In small numbers, seals are amusing creatures, but amongst this vast mass - it was the mating season, and fantastic battles were going on amongst the males, with bodies of former losers lying rotting on the beach and creating an appalling stench - we quickly lost our enthusiasm for nature study - p101

Like most fair-haired people, I get sunburnt very easily and surgery agonies from blisters, so I used these weeks in the sun to try and build up a resistance to it, gradually lengthening the exposure. I put up with weeks of pain and eventually acquired a dirty colour, which I hoped was the foundation of a handsome tan, but it all disappeared on the plane coming back to Europe and by the time I reached Italy, I was my normal pink self - p101

Stirling Moss had a room in a motel with a spare bed, so I moved in with him for the night, but we had an unhappy time as the sanitary system gave off a vile chemical smell - p102

Just before the race, there had been a lot of excitement in the papers about a statuette of the Madonna in a working man's home which was supposed to be weeping, and I had been taken along to see it on the exhibition in one of the public squares. There was an old woman there selling white flowers, and she had presented me with a sprig, saying, "Carry thus with you while you are racing." I put it in my breast pocket, and when I survived the crash, word got around that I was because of a flower. People came streaming into the hospital to see me. No one stopped them, and whole families crowded into the room, father, mother, and the children, just standing there silently gazing at me. I was finding it rather a trial. - p106

As I got stronger, I was given a pair of crutches so that I could hobble about a bit, but the pain under my armpits was excruciating, so I had a wheelchair instead. I soon worked out a few circuits round the corridor of the hospital and started timing myself round them with my wrist stopwatch, but it was decided that I was a menace to hospital staff, who might be carrying bottles or bed-pans, so the wheelchair was taken away, and I had to persever with crutches - p107

My face had been scorched by the flames, and I had grown a beard and moustache, but they were not very successful, so I shaved them off when I was fit enough to move about again - p108

Jenny lent me a Guzzi motor scooter, which enabled me to get around and see a number of people I knew, but after one late party with Captain Johnny Johnson of B.O.A.C. and some other airline pilots, I found I was not nearly as strong as I thought and had some explaining to do to the doctor next day - p108

The girl behind the bar said that Reuters had been trying to find me. They soon came through again and asked if I was going to England to see my father. "Why should I be going?" I asked, "Don't you know?" They replied, "He's had an accident." It was obviously pretty bad, so I got through to the garage at Farnham and learned from one of the girls in the office that my father had had a car crash the night before; there was not much hope for him. The planes to England that night were fully booked out, but Bernard Cahier, the journalist, got me first refusal on the last plane of the day, and I rang Farnham to say I hoped to arrive that night. They told me that my father had died a few minutes before. - p109

I knew perfectly well that, having just lost my father, she (Mike's mother) would have liked nothing better than to see me give up racing immediately, especially knowing how badly she was affected when she saw me in hospital in Rome, and I shall always admire the courage with which she faced up to that difficult decision - p111

The woods are barred to the public during the race, and the Swiss police use fierce Alsatian dogs to enforce the ban. One of them went for me, snarling and snapping, and it took the policeman in charge of it some time to calm it down. Life as a professional racing driver has lots of risks which have nothing to do with motor cars. P122

On the last day of practise, Collins, cornering fast on the Vanwall, was caught out by oversteer, slid into a sandbank and flipped over. A few minutes later, Moss came in with the back end of his Maserati crumpled. I laughed at the two of them, saying, "You simply shouldn't do that sort of thing." I then went out to try and do a fast lap in the Squalo, lost it on a corner at the top of the hill and spun backwards into the straw bales, smashing up the tail end. - p128

Ever since I was seventeen, I had suffered intermittent pain in my back and I mentioned it to my doctor when I got back to England after recovering from the Syracuse burns, and he sent me to a specialist who diagnosed kidney trouble and said I would have an operation in the end of the racing season - p130

I staggered from the pit, saying I was finished with racing and was not going to get in the car again. I suppose I was near hysteria as a result of shock; coming on top of the concentrated nerve strain of the previous two hours, I was led away by Duncan Hamilton and his wife Angela, who took me to their caravan, sat me down and put a drink in my hand while Duncan talked to me like a father, trying to calm me down. When he had seen all the team cars refuelled, Lofty England came over to see how I was, and I again said that I was not going to drive again, but Lofty said quite firmly, "Oh yes you are! You're going to go out there and finish the race. It's the only thing you can possibly do!" - p152

I knew I must break free before it landed again, or I should be finished. Suddenly, there was a feeling of utter relief. I had broken free and was alone in mid-air. It was quiet, and I seemed to be floating in space, defying the law of gravity. Then, the bone-jarring shock as I hit the ground. - p173

I was taken to a doctor in Towncester who proposed to stich up the wound on my face. I said: "No you don't" - p175

Why Klemantski (photographer) was not run down by my Cooper-Bristol we shall never know - p177

I was being hustled from all sides, so I retaliated and shunted somebody off the course; it turned out to be Ivor, who had lent me his car, and he gave me a very old-fashioned look afterwards - p192

It would be idle to pretend that racing drivers are always perfect guests from the hotelier's point of view, and that night, the hotels' magnificent fire precautions, consisting of highly polished devices like stirrup pumps in gleaming copper-bound tubs, provided an irresistible temptation. A hosepipe battle developed in which a good deal of water fell wide of the primary objectives. At breakfast next morning, one of the race officials appeared and obviously had a problem on his mind. It was obvious what the problem was, so after an exchange of pleasantries, we said: "Well, how much is it?" He was immensely relieved and said: "Thank you, gentlemen! If you wouldn't mind leaving a little something at the desk when you go, the bill will be sent later," we did, and a mutually acceptable figure was ultimately agreed upon - p193/194

I struggled convulsively and then must have been knocked out, for I remember no more until I heard someone moaning and groaning. I wondered who it might be until it dawned on me that I was the person making all the fuss. Spectators rushed up, and one started trying to comfort me, saying over and over: "It's all right, Mike, you're all right." "How the devil does he know?" I asked myself - p194

I sent Ferrari a telegram saying: "I am interested if you are," to which he replied saying he was interested - p197

I gave myself a bad fright through over-estimating my powers of seamanship while returning from a party late one stormy night in a borrowed cabin cruiser - p201

After that, I went back to flying and took von Trips up in a Piper Cub to get some ciné pictures. He wanted to shoot some scenes of the river and the yachts, so I took him down low and was just thinking that this would be an awful place to have to make a forced landing, when the engine cut. Below us was nothing but water and semi-jungle; not a possible landing place for miles. I was just debating the chances of survival in a ditching when I glanced down and saw that the throttle had shut. The machine had dual control, and von Trips had caught his elbow against the lever as he leaned out of the window with his camera - p201

I did not think I could possibly last through the second heat, but I got someone to drill a lot of holes into my crash helmet, swallowed some salt tablets, and put on a light sleeveless pullover. Musso had fallen ill with the stomach trouble, which was to keep him out of racing for some time to come, so Peter took his car, and Masten Gregory moved into Peter's car. I again made the silly gear change mistake, and so did Peter and some of the others...I was so exhausted by the heat that I slowed down and was passed by Fangio, Behra and Peter Collins. I would gladly have signed an undertaking never to go motor racing again and at the end of the race was practically prostrate. Yet Peter was as lively as a cricket. I said: "That was a pretty good effort Pete." "Yes," he replied. "Weren't those pills wonderful?" "What pills?" said I, and then I learned that while I had been monopolising the shower, a doctor had been round distributing heat pills which had made everyone but me more or less immune to the heat - p202

Before the race, Peter and I had arranged, we would put on a bit of a show for the crowd, and he said: "I'm happy if we go over the line side by side; if you have the lead, you win, and I will come in second because I won at Syracuse." I thought this was a very fair thing to say, and we took it in turns to take the lead and were pushing each other fairly hard - p209

I left Modena with Trintignant, and he drove me up in his Renault Dauphine. The road from Genoa to Monaco is very difficult and twisty, but these Renaults are fantastic little motor cars, and he drove it flat out the whole time. Knowing that I am a very nervous passenger, he did the usual trick, waiting until I was just dozing off and then suddenly putting the brakes hard on, which scared the daylights out of me as I thought we were about to hit something. I did wake up once to see the back of a large lorry looming in front of my face, but that was the only time we ever seemed to be in any real danger of hitting anything. - p212

I hit the pole barricade running along the edge of the quary, and the car rode up high, then crashed down on top of Peter's car, where my wrecked front suspension missed his head by inches. Peter leapt out, running like a deer across the road, and I followed while the tail-end cars went whizzing by. I was so relieved to find no one hurt that I burst out laughing, but it was no laughing matter. - p214

There was no time to see if the Maserati had been rolled over or not, and I was very worried about Stirling until I saw next lap that the car was intact except for the missing wheel - p217

I dropped in at Deauville, where there was an air rally, and I was faced with the problem of finding a dinner-jacket for a party on the Sunday night. One of the people at the hotel gave me the address of some people who would hire me a suit. This turned out to be a laundry and dry cleaners. We ran through what seemed to be the customers' clothes until we found a jacket and a separate pair of trousers which fitted me approximately. The trousers were too long even for me, so the legs were turned up, and someone lent me a tie. That left me with the problem of shoes so I took my racing shoes, which were an oil-soaked brown, had then blacked and turned up the picture of the elegant man about town - p222

I motioned to Peter to come alongside and pointed behind us with thumb down to indicate that Fangio seemed to be in trouble. He nodded, put his thumb up, then pointed to me with one finger and back to himself with two. He wanted me to win and was prepared to come second himself, which I thought was a very sporting gesture - p227

Peter and his wife left their car at Colouge and flew with me in the Gull. We stayed one night in Hamburg and took off the next morning, but we had only got to about 2,000 feet when the engine cut dead. We looked at each other, rather worried, for below us were water and docks and steamers. Louise, who was sitting in the back reading a book, buried herself in that and refused to look out. Fortunately we had sufficient height to turn, and I decided to try and guide back to the aerodrome. As I did so, the engine began firing again on three cylinders, and I picked the longest runway for the forced landing. - p229

Bernard Cahier, the journalist and photographer who usually manages to be present with his camera when racing incidents take place, had faithfully recorded his 1956 excursion into the cornfield and boasted that he would get some more pictures if I repeated the performance this year. Unfortunately, I did run off there quite early when the breaks started fading away, and he got the picture. Well, I did it again later in the race I was relieved to see there was no photographer in sight, but Cahier had got it again...from a helicopter - p231

Our team consisted of Collins and myself, Musso and von Trips, the latter now wearing an imposing beard - p232

The prospects looked grim as the island contained nothing but the airfield, a few houses and a single-storey hotel with camp beds and very simple furniture. But a film show was put on for us - with very old films, but perhaps no older than we get on television - and in the evening, a Spanish girl came along to entertain us with songs and dances, so thay we had quite the merry party - p240

#i love mike and his funny commentary #all the situations he got into #so many near plane crashes lmao #nearly died when reading he got banned from racing his wheelchair around the hospital #classic f1 #f1 #formula one #formula 1 #vintage f1 #mike hawthorn

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bismuthburnsblue · 5 months ago

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Help me design a dress!

this is our fabric! (left is the product image, right is my actual piece of fabric- ruler on the left is cm, on the right is inches, to give you an idea of print scale) its the black version of the break up robe print, in a lightweight & crisp cotton. i have 4.5m (5y) so it should be enough to make most designs, though some will require consideration in the cutting- we will get to that later though. (the fabric is also narrow, i think its only 110cm wide. (its still folded in the picture))

my goal here is to make a comfy wearable dress, something pretty casual & everyday in silhouette, but i would also like if it was possible to style up for a more formal look. most of my inspiration for this project has come from 1950s dresses, because thats a style i lean towards for myself, though im not aiming for anything "true vintage" or anything. im also fond of lolita dresses, so im more than down to draw inspiration from those also!

also, the print is pretty bold compared to my usual style, so ive considered doing some kind of translucent (chiffon, tulle, mesh) overlay to tone it down so its more wearable in my wardrobe. this will entirely depend on it working with out final design, and even then, ill offer you the decision at the end! ultimately, i still want to be able to appreciate the fabric. (for sewing people: id intend to do it as a flat lining, so it sits right up against the fabric underneath, not as a complete separate layer. i find this makes it block out the design slightly less) doing this could also help with adding structure to the dress, which i already think some designs might need, considering how thin the fabric is.

ok now the brief is out of the way, onto the first decision for the dress: the shape of the skirt. if you want to vote based entirely on vibes, feel free to click away, but i have included some more writing about each option & its ups and downs in this particular project under the cut (also pictures of each style if youre not so familar with what they are!)

& the propaganda for the options:

Circle skirt: you can never go wrong with a circle skirt- theyre probably my favourite to wear overall & i especially like the low bulk join to the waist as i sometimes find things with gathers dont sit as nicely on me. the way circle skirts are cut also gives them a movement that the other two methods simply cannot compete with in my eyes.

The main downside is working a circle skirt with this particular fabric. the fabric is not wide enough to cut the entire front as one, so i would either need a centre front seam or to make it a 3/4 circle skirt- something im 100% ok with, i honestly find at midi length a full circle to be too much sometimes. (there is technically the option to have full circle but rotate it so the seams are at side, but that might then mean i have to do some shenanigans with where the fastenings go). also, because the design is directional, each quarter will need to be cut so the seams end up on the bias, which makes for an Incredibly inefficient cutting layout. (again, if theres a CF seam, thatll be on the diagonal of the design, which really defeats the point of putting in the effort in the first place, to me.) i think i would be able to get all the panels i need out of the piece of fabric i have, but i think i would be a bit more limited with top options as i try to make sure to use as many of the small pieces left over as possible.

Gathered skirt: these are by far the easiest to do in terms of sewing. in my research into casual 50's dresses about 90% of all pictures i saw featured a dress with a gathered skirt (or actually, a lot seemed to have tiny pleats that give the effect of gathers, like the coral one. if we vote this way, i would be tempted to go try them as i think it might solve my bothers with gathered skirts in general)

i generally find gathered skirts less flattering on me- they add bulk at the waist and then hang straight down off the hips (when not puffed up with a petticoat) and thats generally not something i like on myself. i could improve that though by bringing more fabric in to increase the hem, and adding horsehair braid to the hem to help it swoop without additional support (again, my goal for this project is causal day dress)

this pattern uses the least fabric i think, depending on how much you put in the skirt- i think i should get a perfectly satisfactorily full skirt from this with less than 2m of fabric used. (honestly might end up too efficient- id like to use up all the fabric i have in this, and i really dont need that much for a bodice. i can see myself adding 4, even 5 widths into the skirt to use up yardage. i dont particularly see that as a problem though)

despite my reservations because of gathered skirts ive made before, for this project it does have one massive point in its favour: the fact that its still a full piece of fabric. all other styles here all cut quite significantly into the design to create their shape, while this be one panel of the fabric from edge to edge. preserving the design of this fabric is pretty high on my priority list, after all, i bought this fabric specifically because it was the OFMD break up robe print. i want whatever design i make to work with that.

Tiered skirt: for me, tiered skirts are the best of both worlds in terms of the effect they give. the fact each layer doubles means they keep some of the swish a circle skirt gives (and, i find, they tend to have more of the A-Line shape of a circle skirt too) while not being quite so consuming of fabric as you cut. i couldnt find many examples of 50's dresses with them (though i did find some) so i do feel like this style pulls more towards the style of lolita dresses & that might be reflected in the options i offer in subsequent rounds.

if you know anything about petticoats, then youll notice that this style of skirt is essentially the same construction as them (though petticoats often introduce extra layers and ruffles and.....) when ive made this style of skirt in the past i have found that it holds volume much like a petticoat does, without the need for an extra undergarment- something thats great for a casual dress!

I was thinking three tiers is the ideal number for this dress, though i could make it only two. i dont think i would make it more as, if i keep them even (which was my intention, though i am also fond of the styles that increase with each tier like my example images) then each tier will probably be 20cm wide, which is already looking like itll cut into the features of the design. i think that is the single biggest downside for this style- i wont reasonably be able to do much 'fussy cutting' either to work with the print, its simply not practical to do on this scale.

At a rough estimate, i think this is gonna use 3m of fabric in the skirt, which puts it slap bang in the middle in terms of fabric efficiency. i should have plenty enough to do it, maybe even to increase it if i want to, while still being pretty unlimited about what i do with the rest of the design.

one last thing- trim! one unique feature of this design is the opportunity to play with trim on the skirt itself. i do have some bodice ideas that play around with trim, and it would be really nice to introduce it into the skirt too, if we go that way. it could even be a fun nod to the piping on the original break up robe!!!!

Something else (comment): while doing my research i came across SO MANY design ideas that i could play around with. for this poll i picked the three i thought would probably work the best for this project, but i wanted an opportunity for you to yell at me if you want something different entirely. feel free to suggest anything you like, but ive included a couple images as examples of styles i saw a lot. i especially saw a lot like on the left, with gathering or ruffles off to the side, but the front panel being pretty flat. this might be real fun for some designs like shirtdresses, but im not super confident on how itd look on me. either way, feel free to form a coalition in the replies to tell me how i totally should have offered you this one particular option.

(if you vote for this but dont comment, im discounting it from the overall stats as i have no idea what design you mean! your welcome to send it in on anon if that bothers you, but either way, ill need a description :P )