Ferrari 250 GT Breadvan Onboard Video

There is a rather nice article in the December 2008 issue of Classic & Sports Car by a certain Nembo1777 re-counting his drive in the awesome 'Breadvan' at this years Le Mans Classic.

Marc,
Will the book you mention that you are co-authoring with Keith Bluemel be available to the general public? If so when?

As an aside, for those interested in more contempary models, there is also an article on the a Testarossa belonging to UK FChatter 'barabus'.

Paul

 

Thank you Paul: haven't received my copies of C & SC yet!

Book due out June 2009, Parker House publishing and although I would not expect it to beat Harry Potter sales it will be available to the public yes. The full version of my drive at LMC is 6000 words, obviously C & SC could not publish all of it but the shortened version came out pretty decently.

Best regards,

Marc

 

hello Marc,

I remember, you have talked about this book project at Le Mans Classic. I confirm : I want one !

Etienne

 

Hello Etienne:

Good to hear from you!

I am glad to say it is no longer a project and that the new material and interviews of people directly involved who had not discussed the Breadvan in decades are beyond what I hoped with some genuine surprises!

Best regards,

Marc

 

Finally got my copies of Classic & Sports car: feels great to see the story in print: I will be able to tell my grand children about this one...wait...I would need to produce children first...never mind!

James Elliott of C & SC was extremely nice and patient with me as this all happened during rather difficult family circumstances: thanks James!

Here is a shot I did while watching from the pits: a blurr on prupose: it came out rather well and a photo of your humble pen pusher having the time of his life That was an enlargement hence it barely fit the scanner, sorry for the 45° angle.

best regards,

Marc
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I look forward to seeing the issue here soon!

 

Ah yes but be warned unlike your epic drives in the "Croissant charriot" I did not have a bodacious young lady in the passenger seat

Thanks again for your very kind and intersting help...but we can't let the cat out of the bag here

Marc

 

It's all sub rosa this end.

 

Merci Monsieur! I am an enthusiast not a businessman but while I would dearly want to post it all here my publisher would kill me -or force me to drink warm beer as Tim is English-

Anyway here a coupe more photos, head on in Indianapolis curve yours truly (sorry for the dusty scanner, new form of high tech antitheft software, then a running start by Max.

best regards,

Marc
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LOL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgO9V3k7TUw
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LOL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgO9V3k7TUw


Hello Tom:

I guess that is called complete 360 degree coverage!

There is another video, also by you apparently which I enjoy less, of the moment when Moritz comes in the pits unexpectedly a lap early, having kissed the tire wall at Indianapolis and misaligned the right front wheel just enough to end the day, and we all run to the car: I am the guy helmet in hand who is understanding right then that there is trouble and that my second stint is...not going to happen...but I will never forget the first stint!


My favorite video, since the onboard video of Le Mans was lost is the onboard of Goodwood: turn up the volume and hold your lower jaw as it will drop

best regards,

Marc

 

Thank you Max!

Here are some more photos:

-you at the barbecue: good Bratwurst

-You and your brother during the pitstop in the night race: I am the guy in the front of the car who can't tie his shoe laces but it was 4am! Copyright P Singhof.

-Then a photo of yours truly at the wheel you can almost see all the fuses in my head going bang: haven't found replacements yet...

Found incredible archive photos, some of which I am keeping for the book but I forwarded some to your dad: he can show them to you.

I hope you win Goodwood next year Max!

best regards,

Marc
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To down load youtube videos you need software such as youtube downloader. Just type it into google and it will come up. I have a bunch of the Ferrari V12 videos on my iphone.

 

Fantastic!

 

Well here's some more Monsieur!

A HUGE banner painted for the organizers Peter Auto with a handful of the events star attractions: it hung from the back of the pit/grandstand building...

A chap who showed up to wave the start flag of one of the races: safe to say he had never seen a station wagon racing car....

Moritz trying to get through the crowd in the paddock in disbelief: you wouldn't have attracted more attention if you walked with Charlize Theron wearing heels and...perfume (copyright E.Clio Caradisiac)

That huge modern grandstand wasn't there in 62: they should have removed it for period correctness I think

best regards,

Marc
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Oh, to have been there!

 

Well make a note in your "calendrier": July 2010! (every two years only): it is noted and triple underlined in mine with "be fit enough to try to fit into old racesuit" slim chance of that

Now since you are savagely twisting my arm, a few more:

-In the pits during friday practice.

-Funny who you see when you lean into the Breadvan: there is Jean Todt: know where he lives now! Actually spoke to him briefly there.

-At the evening beauty salon.

-No comment!
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I don't think there's ever been a finer sound created through internal combustion.

Pretty sure it was the wail of a Ferrari V12 that got me into cars in the first place when I was 3.

-w-

 

Some more...I'm definitely in love !

Marc : i read yesterday (never too late...) your report on CSC : fantastic !
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Tes photos sont magnifiques, Etienne ! I love this car!

 

Etienne:

Thank you very much for your kind words: I was buried so deep in research I forgot what country I was in. I must confess I am one of those who can really get lost into this inner desire to find out more.

My aim with this article was twofold: the two drivers, Abate and Davis (whom I had tracked down 6 years ago in deepest south Africa) remember very little of Le Mans 62 whereas the many people I have intwerviewed for the book had good to excellent memories and were able to share wonderful and precise memories of what those days were like. Therefore to complete the interviews I wanted to bring forth what really matters: it is about the driving the sensations, it is not about meaningless numbers and statistics. I wanted to see what the Breadvan was like out there in the vast and fast wilderness of Le Mans and to share this with the reader.

Secondly, the whole Ferrari classic world has been overrun by speculation and linear thinking. No disrespect intended for anyone, I run the Maserati Khamsin Registry myself so I do share in the obsession but there are limits: these are cars made for driving passion and that tends to be forgotten too often.

My humble article was an effort to bring things back in the right direction: just my two cents.

best regards,

Marc

 

Like fine Barolo or Claret flowing through your ears

Actually, in my humble opinion the finest sounding Ferrari engine was that of the 268SP V8 #0798 which I was privileged to drive for a two part cavallino story a decade ago: I rode in the car in La Jolla California with the infamous Bill Noon of Symbolic Motorcars who also posts here when the car was on consignment there in 96 and then two years later I drove it on the local roads near Silverstone Circuit in the British Midlands thanks to its owner B. C. That engine sounds even better than a 12 -no body ever proved that better sound is generated by more cylinders- and I remember thinking at the time that a Hollywood sound effect specialist would not create a better sound: it had an almost cartoon like quality: truly!

Now have you heard BRM 16 cylinder engines or Matra V12's? Those are very special and to lie in the grass at Elkhart Lake Wisconsin during the July historic weekend Brian Redman organizes and to see and hear a herd of Can Am monsters with 6, 7 and 8 liter engines pass by like the end of the world...is something that moves you more than all the statistics in the world. I want to drive a can Am car for an article one day, at Elkhart. Will I be nervous before? Hell yes, even though I will drive it fast but not at the limit, deply respecting the owners trust. But the memory will last forever and that is more important than any other consideration.

Best regards,

Marc

Best regards,

Marc

 

Again Monsieur:
Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories and enlightened insight of your times in your GTO with Matt Ettinger in the Breadvan: even though they are not as important as its racing heyday that was an era that had its priorities right: can you imagine someone in that era saying: one day these cars will be worth gazillions and judged very seriously for the tiniest detail of supposed correctness and rarely driven? Anyone saying that would have been laughed right out the door...

Best regards,

Marc

 

Sightly off topic, but this year at the Revival I was talking with the people from the Beaulieu museum who brought their V16, and managed to get it going for a while. One story was about the BRM tribute about a 10 years ago at one the Coys Historic Festivals. There were two of them and reportedly one person, living about 6 miles from the track, heard the sound, remembered it from the early fifties and came to the track to see the cars again after over 40 years....