Tripoli Grand Prix 37/38

[feltfan]

No, nothing about what's going on there now.

This is an amazing video showing the 1937/38 (Mussolini-sponsored) race.

Check out the hats, among other things (hence locating this thread under hats). In particular, the
stingy hat with a back bow at about 2:48. Not a style I would expect for that time.

Extra points for catching the joke when the narrator says, "fuel consumption is tremendous".

Tried to post this last night, but the power cut out. Spent the evening with candles and a Victrola instead.
Hm...

 

[mayserwegener]

The rotund fellow in the back bow for the Mercedes team is Alfred Neubauer of Novy Jicin, Czechoslovakia (Neutitschein, Austria) and a Hückel hat wearer. Neubauer got his start in racing under Fritz Hückel (J. Hückel´s Söhne was located in Novy Jicin) and they remained life time friends. Fritz was heavily involved in early auto racing as both an engineer and driver.

Neubauer went through some Hückel hats! (Rough Google translation).

"On Easter Sunday, the 29th March 1891 was Alfred Neubauer was the first and only son of the builder's and carpenter Karl Neubauer and his wife Marie in the Moravian Neutitschein, today Novy Jicin / Czech Republic about 150 km northeast of Brno (Brno), was born. First, he is no different from other children, he makes the wet diapers and disturbs the sleep of his parents with compressor-like roar. Early on, he begins to care for a then highly unusual means of transportation: the automobile. In this he benefited from that in the hat factory Neutitschein Hückel was a resident. In one of her father had villas Neubauer perform carpentry work, where he accompanied his Filius. Whose interest was the then quite sizable fleet of Hückel family. So it happened that he became friends with the chauffeurs who introduced him into the mysteries of early automobiles. Even for only six years older than Fritz Hückel was a long-standing friendship, so that the later race director had to make supplies of hats do not worry. He was in fact a habit of throwing the winning Silver Arrows his headgear at the finish line in front of the wheels. Only six kilometers from Neutitschein away is the Nesselsdorfer wagon factory (later Tatra-Werke), where the very first Austrian automobile produced under the name "President"."

 

[feltfan]

Wow. I post an obscure film clip from Libya in the 30s and within an hour someone here can post not only the make
of the stingy hat a guy is wearing, but his name and pertinent information. He's not even famous.

I hope people appreciate the expertise we see here from time to time!

 

[mayserwegener]

Neubauer was famous in his day (Grand Prix is a major sport in Europe). He invented the position of race team manager back in 1926 and the Mercedes Grand Prix team went on to dominate the sport.

He was also involved in the darkest day in auto racing history.

"Probably Neubauer’s blackest day as racing manager was at Le Mans in 1955, when a Mercedes 300SLR was catapulted into the crowd, killing more than 80 people. After consultation with Stuttgart, Neubauer withdrew the remaining cars from the event.

After the shock of Le Mans, Mercedes withdrew from racing altogether, and Alfred Neubauer retired."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Neubauer

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=5284943655&searchurl=an%3Dalfred%2Bneubauer%26sortby%3D3%26tn%3Dspeed%2Bwas%2Bmy%2Blife

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Great caps on all the mechanic's

 

[feltfan]

Okay, the expertise here is matched by my lack of expertise in the history of automobile racing.
But I'm still very impressed.

 

[PabloElFlamenco]

Two days ago, my (formula 1 freak) son and myself laughed out loud at the preposterous notion that those skinny tires of days gone by lasted "three or four laps".

Today, at the (fantastic) Spa F-1 race, famous champion driver (survivor of the 1970's horror-days of racing) Jacky Ickx co-commentator of the race for french-speaking Belgian TV (sarcastically) lauded the "great progress in tire technology, look how they last about ten laps before having to be renewed" (indeed, the tires had to be replaced very quickly, lasting as little as 50 miles per set...).

I almost ate my panama hat awaiting the outcome of the race (kidding, kidding...)

PabloElFlamenco