I'm pretty fired up. I just found these while sorting through some things. Please indulge me...
wow, that's the first time i've seen these olders cars with everything exposed. it's fun to see how much these cars compare with todays cutting edge f1 cars. if they compare at all.
Cool shots, I reckognize Piquet, Senna, Prost, Mansell, Laffite and Jabouille. Not sure about the rest. Jones in a red car? Must have been one of his few heavy weight comeback attempts.
Here are some more. It's amazing how much things have changed since the 80's. It's crazy how close you could get, how spartan the facilities were, and how far forward the drivers sat!
By the way, as you scroll down, the various drivers are: Alan Jones signing Rene Arnoux at speed Jackie Stewart talking Jacques Laffite with Williams team members Nelson Piquet snoozing in a van Rene Arnoux checking out the Ferrari's turbo charger
Jack, fascinating stuff. I think that era (and earlier) was so much more interesting than today. The drivers seemed more like gladiators than today's drivers and the racing was better then, in my opinion. Thank you!
I second that. Fantastic shots Gilles. Arnoux in the turbo Ferrari is my favourite. Those were the days!
Yes those were the days when you could see the cars and the drivers up close. So close in fact you could actually talk to them!! I remember attending a race and they were having problems in the pit, so I jumped right in and they didn't mind at all as they were pressed for time. I was only a "gopher" but at least I can tell my grandchildren that I "crewed" on a F1 team. (sorry kids there are no pictures, didn't even own a camera then) Those were the days.
Mike, I agree. Something just isn't the same, and I think the term "gladiator" is spot-on. Armen, the pictures are scans from both prints and negatives. You can tell the negatives because of a prismatic horizontal line about 2/3 of the way down. My photo scanner gets dusty and with negs it only takes a micro piece of dirt to do that. Thanks for the comments, I never get tired of re-visiting the good old days! Andreas, the funny thing about Arnoux that I remember was that he ABSOLUTELY wouldn't sign an autograph. Laffite and Cheever did, Piquet was always sleeping. But Rene seemed to enjoy looking at the 6 or 7 of us and than look away. He had nothing else to do, either.
Hehe, maybe because you guys were Americans? When I met him the pits at Hockenheim he signed my card. Just like last year when I met him again at Goodwood.
In an other great forum (Spain): http://www.thef1.com/foro/historia/viewtopic.php?t=802&sid=b2fdcfe8fdda6cafc5547b550eb92547 The third page is the more interesting... Gilles
you just made my day with those shots....i've been looking for a good pic of the 86 ferrari and there it is........i'm building a shadowbox dio of that car in 1/43......
hi jack, check out the site of my friend Carlos Ghys, he has a lot of pictures of those great drivers and cars, and has personally met the great Gilles, with te pictures..... http://home.scarlet.be/~mathiasg/ I think most of you will love it. greetings, vincent
Vince, thanks for the link. My home computer is currently down due to an internet worm, so I haven't been able to look very much. When things are back up and running, I'll check it out in detail and reply more properly!
