Vintage wine, vintage cheese, vintage cars!

 

(Yes, it's a link!)

 The interest in the wonderful cars we used to drive a few years ago, or the cars we SHOULD have been driving, if there were any justice in the world, has exploded. Many of these cars have returned to the race tracks, while others have been turned loose on the public roads in vintage rallies. Victory Lane Magazine, which gives me a monthly forum to babble about the Rally Game, is a west-coast publication covering vintage racing events nationwide.

Here's the last thing I wrote for my Victory Lane column, The Rally Round.

Here's whatever else I've written lately for Victory Lane (this particular piece is an article on the 1996 running of Targa Tasmania, surely a grail for vintage rally junkies).

  • Want to go vintage racing? Most organizations have pretty simple, straightforward rules for car and driver preparation. If you compete in the Pacific Northwest, you'll want to be familiar with SOVREN (the SOciety of Vintage Racing Enthusiasts) and their 1997 Rules---which we had posted until we found out that their presence here annoyed SOVREN vice president Kevin Fiske, at which point we erased them toot sweet pronto.

  • The car for all reasons? Take a look at Oakley Woman's Bad Ride, a 1968 Saab Sonett currently being campaigned in west coast vintage races as well as the rally wars. (There are other Saab references down this particular labyrinthian pathway. . . ) (Do you know how hard it is to spell "labyrinthian" at midnight?!)

    • Links of interest:

    If you have ever been unaccountably fascinated with one marque, if your heart stirs to memories of racing's Golden Age, if you remember Mario Andretti's finest hour, then you will want to go immediately to Ron and Val Bennett's Lotus site , from which you can link in so many Lotus directions that you'd think they still had an F-1 team. . . .

     
    Or if your interests lie along vintage racing lines, tempered by wit and a certain congenital insouciant je ne sais quoi best described in sociopathology textbooks, you may well find a kindred brotherhood among the members of Age & Treachery Racing (one of the few social organizations that will have me. . . Wait! I take that back! There's always the International Association of Turtles. . . .)
  • Also check out Mark Hollingsworth's pages for links especially to things of the Lotus nature. He's another motorcycle junkie as well: You Have Been Warned!

  • Vintage rally types who are intrigued with gadgets and toys---why else would we tinker with these relics?---may be interested in the history of the Curta calculator.

  • And of course for any old car you can think of, there's Hemmings' Motor News . . .

  • Or do a global search in the Web Automotive Directory.

    • Formula One:

    For those of us nostalgic for the glory days of Formula One (or still watching), there are some great site on the Web. If you've ever had the pleasure of watching F-1 coverage in Europe or Canada no doubt you have fond memories of poor Murray Walker, the Marvelous Marv Throneberry of F-1 announcers---who could ever forget his, "Unless I am very much mistaken. . . and yes, yes, yes, I AM mistaken!"? Anyway, here is a GREAT web site of Murray Walker F-1 Sound Bites!!

    For other Formula One information, you might visit Jesper's Formula One page (though I couldn't reach the server in late October. . . pay your bills, man!) or Farzad's F-1 page; believe me, from that page, you are in F-1 heaven! You can even fill out a survey regarding your favorite F-1 drivers, current and vintage. . .(You may notice that the Yanks seem to have fallen out of this particular pursuit, except for about seven of us. We keep waiting for the opportunity to link to the Formula One Spectators' Association, but FOSA CEO-For-Life George Goad is what you might call a Microchip Luddite. If you can still read things on paper, though, the FOSA newsletter is worth it: Call 213-658-5884 with that neglected instrument over there on the desk. . . yes, that one: It's called a telephone.)
     

    The author is solely responsible for the contents of these pages and the opinions expressed herein. You may address suggestions, comments, and criticism to 
    Satch Carlson, PO Box 202967, Anchorage, AK 99520-2967 USA.