26 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

Not having done one of these posts for a while, here's a nice comparison between a photograph of bygone racing and its location as surviving today...Bergamo's Circuito delle Mura (in effect the circuit of the city walls, in very similar style to the French Circuit des Remparts at Angouleme) in northern Italy.  

 

 

This archive image is of the 1935 Coppa Citta di Bergamo race, showing GianMaria Cornacchia-Medici's Alfa Romeo 8C-2300 leading Eugenio Siena's Scuderia SubAlpina Maserati 4CS along the Via della Boccola...the location as depicted on Google Earth, below, pictured by them in 2018...

 

 

DCN

[ensign14]

I note that safety had improved by the 1930s - the flag marshal is protected by a sturdy post.

[marksixman]

Lovely image from 1935 Doug.

 

Don't think you could get a modern F1, or even a Formula E, car through that archway !

[BRG]

If I am not mistaken, the Giro d'Italia raced through that arch last year.  Of course pushbikes are a lot narrower than race cars!

[UK6]

One could say that the competitors are "arch" rivals!

[Doug Nye]

I should have added that the evocative 1935 photo comes from the outstanding Alessandro Silva/Adam Ferrington From Voiturettes to Formula 1 book published (in English) by the Fondazione Negri - which I unreservedly recommend to all, although I fear it's already sold out.  

 

It's a wonderful piece of work - and NO, I have not been contacted by anyone involved with the book in any way whatsoever since first posting above - just realised what I had forgotten to do only this morning...  Full credit to them...and of course to the original snapper.

 

DCN

[Steve L]

I should have added that the evocative 1935 photo comes from the outstanding Alessandro Silva/Adam Ferrington From Voiturettes to Formula 1 book published (in English) by the Fondazione Negri - which I unreservedly recommend to all, although I fear it's already sold out.  

 

It's a wonderful piece of work - and NO, I have not been contacted by anyone involved with the book in any way whatsoever since first posting above - just realised what I had forgotten to do only this morning...  Full credit to them...and of course to the original snapper.

 

DCN

 

It is indeed a super book. Just need a companion volume about the pre war Grand Prix Maserati now please 

[Nick Planas]

I note that safety had improved by the 1930s - the flag marshal is protected by a sturdy post.

which is also preventing him from falling from a reasonably great height. Nice and safe 

[BRG]

The post still seems to be there, although it doesn't seem to serve any purpose like carrying any power lines .  Maybe it was preserved as a historic race marshals post? 

[Ivanhoe]

Rudolf Caracciola in the streets of Livorno at the 1938 Coppa Ciano

 

 

And this is how it looks now

[Doug Nye]

Wonderful.

JUST IMAGINE - just imagine... - the NOISE !!!      

 

DCN

[BRG]

Couldn't they have found a narrower street?  

[kayemod]

Couldn't they have found a narrower street?  

 

It looks as if the buildings have moved a little closer together in the intervening years, I blame "Global Warming" for absolutely everything.

[Sterzo]

That scooter rider can hear the faint echo of a V12. He should be very afraid.

[Tim Murray]

So they came blatting along here at - what - 150+ mph?



then braked to - what - 30 mph?, avoided the little old lady with the shopping basket, then threaded themselves into that narrow Via dei Bagni just past the Bar Isolani. Amazing - I do hope there was an escape road.

[Doug Nye]

"Quegli uomini avevano ovviamente gonadi enormi..." -      

 

DCN

[marksixman]

醒目仔，佢話人嘅大小並不總是等於波嘅大小。

[Ray Bell]

That lane is not terribly different to the slightly wider one in Geaux, of which photos are fairly common...

 

And I'm wondering about the wonderful braking duels today's drivers would have coming up to that archway at Bergamo.

[jbbugatti]

That lane is not terribly different to the slightly wider one in Geaux, of which photos are fairly common...

I assume you mean Gueux……

[Ray Bell]

Indeed...

 

Sometimes the French spelling catches me out, I really should have checked.

[RCH]

Has no one noticed? They're going the wrong way on a one way street. Like cyclists today those old time racing drivers had no respect for the law...

[BRG]

Details, details!  It's Italy, such things mean nothing to them.

[Alan Lewis]

No, that's Vienna.

[RCH]

It's also cyclists right here in East Devon...

[RobertE]

Doug; you should probably be able to excavate pictures of The Grand Prix of Cork, another street circuit; I know many will not have heard of it, but apparently it was a Big Thing, along with Phoenix Park. I'll have a delve, but I'm sure you'll have the Glass plate images!

[Lee Nicolle]

That lane is not terribly different to the slightly wider one in Geaux, of which photos are fairly common...

 

And I'm wondering about the wonderful braking duels today's drivers would have coming up to that archway at Bergamo.

Modern F1s are so big now they need wide load signs! And are banned from many street dues to load limits.

[ReWind]

In fact they are less wide than in former years (1970s) but much, much longer.