'59 Le Mans film on Aston Martin site

Excaliber · #1 (**permalink**) 07-12-2009, 05:05 PM

Click the link, download or view the two part film (part 2 is best).

"Final Victory". Shelby is driving car #5, in his tradmark overalls.

http://www.astonmartinracing.com/eng...s/finalvictory

LMH · #2 (**permalink**) 07-12-2009, 08:17 PM

Those days where when cars were beautiful as well as functional.
Thanks for sharing the link.
Larry

ROUSHAC · #3 (**permalink**) 07-12-2009, 10:10 PM

Great vids, Ernie! Thanks for sharing.

twobjshelbys · #4 (**permalink**) 07-13-2009, 06:42 PM

That is awesome! Thanks for posting!

gene giambona · #5 (**permalink**) 07-13-2009, 08:45 PM

Thanks for posting!

Two things struck me most when watching the videos.

1) The lack of safety equipment and personal protection clothing for drivers and pit crews alike.

2) How much the design of these Le Mans racing cars changed by 1964 and even the early seventies.

Hard core racing at its best!

Excaliber · #6 (**permalink**) 07-13-2009, 09:23 PM

I was reading an interview with Carroll about that race, somewhere else on the web. He mentioned the trans and clutch were fragile on the car's. No rev protection in those days's, one missed shift or a 100 other ways to screw up and you break the car. Which from the film I gather is what happened to the third Aston Martin, lost a gearbox. They also used GALLONS of oil during the race, per car, and the passenger side of the cockpit was just awash with oil at the end.

Just after he got in the car for the last time the camera showed a shot of his cowboys boots left in the pitts. I wonder what he was wearing for shoes, if anything, for those last laps? I recall Richard Petty talking about how he ALWAYS wore his cowboy boots when racing. Finally one day somebody talked him into wearing a pair of racing shoes. He was like, "Well dam, those things are great, better than my boots." Eh eh, just a bunch of cowboys back in the day...

Cobra Lite · #7 (**permalink**) 07-15-2009, 10:20 AM

Excellent!

Thanks for posting the link to the historic race film.
What a different view of the race compared with the video "The Snake and the Stallion". It is almost like two different races. One from the view of Aston Martin and one from Shelby.

Shows that truth depends on who tells it, and how, eh?

Did Shelby mention (in the video Snake & Stallion) that Aston had taken 2nd place twice at the 24 hr. ('55 & '56)? He makes it sound like David Brown had no hope of them even finishing the race, let alone have any chance of a good finish. And did Shelby mention that Stirling Moss set such a fast pace leading the race in one of the 3 Aston factory cars that all the factory Ferrari team cars (11 of them!) were out of the race long before the end, and that the only Ferrari's still in the race were privateers?

Shelby gets most of the credit for "winning" the race where as "The Rest Of The Story" is that his co-driver Salvadori who started the race and drove for 14 of the 24 hours, had put the car in the lead and kept it there for hours, or that Shelby drove the last 2 hour stint to get the checkered flag. Do they mention in Snake & Stallion that the other surviving Aston took 2nd place? I can't remember now.

I do enjoy reading, or in this case, watching the historic film of races and it is most interesting to see films shot by various teams, countries, or individuals. It would be really neat to see a Ferrari film of the race. It would be so totally different than the Aston or Snake films...

Beautiful cars indeed!

Excaliber · #8 (**permalink**) 07-15-2009, 11:13 AM

Good points Cobra Lite. It wasn't lost on me that all the team Ferrari's had dropped out. OR that third place was a privateer some 25 laps behind. Kind of took the edge of a "great victory". Did they really earn it? Well yes, in the end, a win is a win. Could be from some others having bad luck, bad pitt strategy, you had a great car/driver, got lucky or just stuff happens. That's racing!

Salvadori certainly put the team in a position to win, at that point it was Shelbys race "to loose"! So what's up with Shelbys cowboy boots? We know he wore overalls through out his career. I've seen little or nothing on what he wore for shoes during the bulk of his career though. I'm curios...

VRM · #9 (**permalink**) 07-28-2009, 10:41 PM

Salvadori is such a gentleman. I have had the pleasure of meeting him a number of times. He has a quiet sense of humour, and is very down to earth. He smiled wryly both times that he talked about Shelby - I (and someone I was with) got the feeling that he liked Shelby and considered him a friend, but also took him with a grain of salt.

The whole '59 LeMans victory would not have happend without John Wyers leadership. It was his plan to have Moss sprint and break the Ferraris. Wyer was also the guy behind the Gulf GT40s that won in '68/69.

Great stuff - thanks for the post!

Steve