22 replies to this topic

[Bill Wagenblatt]

I have posted an article on the 1957 German Grand Prix on the Track Thoughts web site.

There are 18 photos included, 13 of them are from Kodachrome slides. None of the images have previously been published.

http://trackthoughts.com/?p=1696

Enjoy,

Bill

[Kingsleyrob]

Thanks Bill.

Always nice to see fresh images, and I couldn't help re-reading a story I already know very well, but never tire of revisiting.

Rob

[Macca]

Lovely photos - I believe the 'unknown driver' in a red 250F might be Bruce Halford.

Paul M

[Bjorn Kjer]

Thanks Bill.

[David McKinney]

Lovely photos - I believe the 'unknown driver' in a red 250F might be Bruce Halford.

Paul M

Certainly is

[Bill Wagenblatt]

Certainly is

Paul & David,

Thanks for identifying the driver as Bruce Halford.

I’ve updated the post.

Bill

[bigears]

Let me clairfy, Fangio fell back because I thought the mechanics dropped a fuel cap under the Maserati?

The website said that it was a slow pit stop because of the removal of the rear tyres?

I seemed to receive different stories of what happened during that pit stop.

[bradbury west]

Many thanks for posting these images. The atmosphere of the 'Ring comes across so well. It is so refreshing to see a colour shot of Gregory in the 250F as well as the likes of Halford and Marsh. We recently saw another similar colour one of Shelby in the Temple Buell car , IIRC, on the Reims TNF website link about grid positions. Such a welcome change from same-old-same-old.
Roger Lund

[Doug Nye]

Great shots Bill. Who took them? The reason for Fangio's delay was that the right-rear hub spinner had spun away beneath the car after being dropped during its removal to change the wheel. Fangio finished the race with his car's front suspension seized solid on one side, the pivots packed with soil, grit, gravel and grass from the verges he had clipped, and his seat had broken adrift within the cockpit, I believe on the last lap...

DCN

[Bill Wagenblatt]

Great shots Bill. Who took them? The reason for Fangio's delay was that the right-rear hub spinner had spun away beneath the car after being dropped during its removal to change the wheel. Fangio finished the race with his car's front suspension seized solid on one side, the pivots packed with soil, grit, gravel and grass from the verges he had clipped, and his seat had broken adrift within the cockpit, I believe on the last lap...

DCN

Doug,

Thanks, American Dean Adams shot the photos. There are a few words about him at the bottom of the post.

Bill

[Pablo Vignone]

Great shots Bill. Who took them? The reason for Fangio's delay was that the right-rear hub spinner had spun away beneath the car after being dropped during its removal to change the wheel. Fangio finished the race with his car's front suspension seized solid on one side, the pivots packed with soil, grit, gravel and grass from the verges he had clipped, and his seat had broken adrift within the cockpit, I believe on the last lap...

DCN

Yes, but there was too a delay in the refuelling. If you see carefully the few images og that pit-stop, you can see that Fangio returned to the track olny after they refilled the Maserati, the trouble with the hub spinner been solved by that time. Fangio told that in a 1967 interview to a argentinian magazine.

[simonlewisbooks]

Fangio finished the race with his car's front suspension seized solid on one side, the pivots packed with soil, grit, gravel and grass from the verges he had clipped, and his seat had broken adrift within the cockpit, I believe on the last lap...

DCN

My respect for Fangio as a racer never ceases to grow! Nothing was going to stop him that day....

[hansfohr]

Great, unknown pics of that illustrous GP where JMF rewrote history!

This looks like the uphill section at Breidscheid:
http://trackthoughts...and-Prix-16.jpg

That must be the the right swing of the Südkehre which leads to the Gegengeraden. I loved the place, very sadly this section has been abolished for the featureless new Ring.
http://trackthoughts...rand-Prix-3.jpg

[Tweddell]

very fine pictures, showing the differences to the actual soulless micky-mouse GP-circiut.

uphill section at Breidscheid:
http://trackthoughts...and-Prix-16.jpg

this picture was taken at the entrance of the Hatzenbach curves-section, back then in the deepest wood, hedges at left side were always partly flattened by cars leaving the track unfortunately.

about 1970 it lookes like this,
http://www.pro-steil.../Hatzenbach.jpg
already armcos and savety-zones, still in the wood. today most trees disappeared, perhaps better for a dry surface, as this section was completly shadowed and stayed mostly wet in a race in case of a short shower, that nearly always hit all the races.

[Michael_Delaney]

very fine pictures, showing the differences to the actual soulless micky-mouse GP-circiut.



this picture was taken at the entrance of the Hatzenbach curves-section, back then in the deepest wood, hedges at left side were always partly flattened by cars leaving the track unfortunately.

about 1970 it lookes like this,
http://www.pro-steil.../Hatzenbach.jpg
already armcos and savety-zones, still in the wood. today most trees disappeared, perhaps better for a dry surface, as this section was completly shadowed and stayed mostly wet in a race in case of a short shower, that nearly always hit all the races.

The old Nuerburgring - you`ll never forget it when you drove it flat. Everything else is -more or less- Kindergarten (well, Spa is also fantastic!).

MD

Edited by Michael_Delaney, 26 March 2010 - 17:35.

[Bjorn Kjer]

A good film is Pit Pass where you drive around in 1960 with Lucky Casner in his Maserati T61 .

[hansfohr]

The old Nuerburgring - you`ll never forget it when you drove it flat. Everything else is -more or less- Kindergarten (well, Spa is also fantastic!).MD

I drove around the Nordschleife (which I visited since 1978) and old Spa, it was an incredible experience. Giving it all through Quiddelbacher Höhe, Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz and Fuchsröhre (in a 1975 1.6L Beetle) was already scary enough.

Edited by hansfohr, 26 March 2010 - 18:41.

[Michael_Delaney]

I drove around the Nordschleife (which I visited since 1978) and old Spa, it was an incredible experience. Giving it all through Quiddelbacher Höhe, Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz and Fuchsröhre (in a 1975 1.6L Beetle) was already scary enough.

I did it in the 70ies with a BMW M1 and later with the first M3 - and that was amazing! Later with a 911 RS which was the very best. Since then with various other cars like Ferrari 430 and Ford GT40. Everytime it took me to my limits.

MD

[Arjan de Roos]

Great Bill!! Thanks for sharing.

[Bill Wagenblatt]

Recently I was contacted by Lonnie Ray who as an Airman in the US Air Force attended the 1957 Grosser Preis von Deutschland. Lonnie’s son sent me the B&W photos of the paddock and the complete program. There’s a page from the program with Lonnie’s handwritten lap chart. It’s interesting to watch Fangio’s early command of the race followed by the infamous pit stop and then his remarkable drive to win the race.

Memories of the 1957 Grosser Preis von Deutschland on Track Thoughts

http://trackthoughts...on-deutschland/

[Bjorn Kjer]

Thank you very much Bill. I PM'ed you.

[Lutz G]

Thanks for sharing - superb images!

Great Site btw!

http://trackthoughts...f-team-tyrrell/

[jj2728]

Fantastic addition Bill. Thanks for sharing with us.