Road & Track "P.S." Boxer Photo

"Good traction control", Bob mused, casually lighting a cigarette, "but certainly not great traction control"

 

The May, 2013 issue of Excellence has an article titled: "Serious Stick Performance Tires". The sidebar column on page 100 is titled: "N-Specification Porsche's Stamp of Approval".

It starts with a quote of the caption and then reads "...Thus read the caption for one of the all-time great "PS" pages in Road & Track..."

Greg A

 

Thing is that it would be hard to find a picture of a wrecked 458.
















Well, one wrecked today. You'd have to go back to at least Saturday.

 

That is pretty cool! Thanks for posting, I'll have to check it out.

 

so, are these posters being made? how, where, when do i sign up??

 

I still have that issue of R&T somewhere and I've always loved the photo...as well as the caption! I only dreamed about owning a Boxer at that time, but the dream finally came true for me late in 1986. I've told the story of the photo and the Michelin tires many,many times over the years. I actually drove my Boxer in about 2-3" of snow on the local Interstate in December, after it arrived by transport from Colorado that year, which was totally unplanned! We went for dinner in Randolph, VT under cloudy skies and after we left it had already started snowing. All I could think of as I was trying to drive about 30 miles in those conditions over the high point of the Interstate was...Please God, don't let me end up like the car in that photo!!! Dr. J ))

 

Yup. Plus there should be an "autographed" option.

 

Good day Kurt,

Since smoking is not in vogue as it once was... How about:

"Good traction control", Bob mused, casually drinking a Red Bull, "but certainly not great traction control"

Cheers,

Sam

 

Awesome! Still laughing Smoking does define the period. Back in the day of that R&T publishing, it was filled with cool/kent/camel ads. Kind of shows what "we" didn't know (big time!!)- like balaclava's made out of aesbestos.

 

LOL

a p-shopped laferrari homage of this image, with this caption!

 

The perfect version for our era just hit me:

"Good traction control", Bob mused, casually texting on his iPhone, "but certainly not great traction control"​

I hope Tony is getting somewhere with the original ! ! !

 

much better than "KERS just kicked in Yo!"

 

How bout..


Wifeys car is good...Mistress's is better!

 

just a quick render, but for fun!
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Ok so the first proofs are in. It's a full frame image, so a little more than what was seen in R&T.

This is Ilford Gallerie Digital fiber paper and I will be shipping in a 5 inch tube, just to keep production and shipping cost down. It needs to be hot mounted on archival card.
I could have it mounted and shipped flat, but I think you are all capable of taking this into a shop and take care of it right away. I will leave the mounting and framing up to the individual. Outside dimensions are 20X 14 roughly.

Would like to hear some feedback, as long as it's positive!

The next step maybe is to post this in another section maybe? What do you think? Or keep it here? I don't know, I'm new here.
First I'll be setting up a Paypal account. Never had any use for one 'til now.
I think shipping it in this unfinished form will keep cost to around $200. per copy. Some kind of discount will be considered for multiple copies. Each will be signed and numbered, and will include some colour photocopies of provenance.

And to a capable individual who would like to collaborate on the updated version, let me know. I think that could be great!
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NOW WE'RE GETTIN' SOMEWHERE!!!! Dibs on number 512 (kidding - I don't expect near that many copies)

Size sounds about perfect. What color photocopies do you have in mind? Smaller, alternate views? Contact sheets?

 

I like the size and the fact its a photo print.
I'd leave Peter Eagan's name off it unless you spoke to him. (But keep the caption of course.)
But cool to see the project is moving forward!

 

Long time lurker, and not yet an owner. Nonetheless, I would be interested in a print! Loved that P.S. photo (and thanks for keeping the caption)...

 

Looks great! and I'm in-I would have preferred that Egan's credit were a bit more discrete(perhaps at the bottom) as ,IMO, its distracting to the flow of the caption.

 

Good eye, totally agree. We're a marketing company, using lots of "attribution" quotes. Ordinarily and for highest legibility (or "flow" as you correctly noticed) there are two methods:

1) Quote is in serif font (Times New Roman or other) with source/author justified to right in sans serif italic (Arial or other)

2) If unable to justify on right (where photo credit is in this poster) quote is in serif font that is roughly twice the size (such as 24 point) of source/author (in 12 point).

IF you choose option 1 (putting Egans name on far right) then YOUR photo credit is written vertically along edge of photo saying, "Photo Credit: Tony Robertson" in same font as source/author.

If all of this is thoroughly confusing, call or PM me. Really, really love this piece and your effort to share it back with many fans. One WILL be on my wall!

And if you've already committed to the printing "as is", forget everything I just said... except for the part about one being on my wall. Thanks again.

 

Thanks for the feedback.
I'll look into changing the font size on the caption credit, but I thought it best to keep Egan's name on there. I tried to reach him, even mailed a hand written letter to his home, but didn't hear back. Just so there's no repercussions from him.
What about moving this to a new place, like in the classifieds, once I have the Paypal account set up? That way anyone who is interested can send me their deets and get this ball rolling, as I'm not sure if everyone checks the Boxer thread.
I am in for a very busy summer, (like every summer) so would like to get this taken care of quickly.
That said, the printer won't do another run for about 3 weeks.
I am glad to do this, as you know I really had no idea it had become an iconic image. Happy to share it with others. When I have time, I am going to see if one of the Ferrari magazines might be interested in the back story along with additional shots.
Thanks for your interest.T

 

Very cool. Here's what I was attempting to describe, but this is YOUR vision, your deal, so you do it the way you want. (2 versions shown on the pdf.)

You could also do it the way R&T did it with the caption right-justified and your name at the very top.
View attachment Good tires.pdf

 

I think both of those 'official' formats de-emphasize the fact that this is Tony's artwork. This really is an art print collectible and I think Tony's signature and the edition number should be prominent.

 

great classic pic,im in for a large one with the other proofs down one side

 

Tony, please post a msg. in the Boxer section when you do get PayPal set up and are ready to collect money. I check the Boxer threads much more frequently than the classifieds. Others may do the same. I still have the R&T issue with your iconic photo. What a nice happenstance that all of this came together through FChat.