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Post by charleselan on Dec 27, 2019 15:09:14 GMT
Over the festive season I have been watching some superb old Nascar race films on YouTube mainly from the 1960's and 70's. The quality of many is fantastic and it would be too obvious to say that they really are what Nascar was about. The cars are real American "iron" and some absolute classics and the drivers are household names even to many in other countries of the world.
Below is a brilliant film of the 1973 Southern 500 which was the last one I viewed last night with some incredible racing and the sight and sound of those cars is inspiring. It brings home to you that these things were living breathing monsters and just seeing them rebounding on the suspension as they negotiate the less than perfect track surface.
A brilliant win for Cale Yarborough after a very lean patch, and made to fight every inch by the brilliant David Pearson. Also the sight of a totally spent Richard Petty who gave up his car in the extreme heat of this race.
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Post by René on Dec 27, 2019 16:29:03 GMT
I am not a NASCAR fan but this looks great. Why is this so much better to watch than modern NASCAR which always seems fake? Well... there's probably the answer...
Great stuff though!
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Post by Carl on Dec 27, 2019 16:33:04 GMT
Over the festive season I have been watching some superb old Nascar race films on YouTube mainly from the 1960's and 70's. The quality of many is fantastic and it would be too obvious to say that they really are what Nascar was about. The cars are real American "iron" and some absolute classics and the drivers are household names even to many in other countries of the world. Below is a brilliant film of the 1973 Southern 500 which was the last one I viewed last night with some incredible racing and the sight and sound of those cars is inspiring. It brings home to you that these things were living breathing monsters and just seeing them rebounding on the suspension as they negotiate the less than perfect track surface. A brilliant win for Cale Yarborough after a very lean patch, and made to fight every inch by the brilliant David Pearson. Also the sight of a totally spent Richard Petty who gave up his car in the extreme heat of this race. John Charles, I will enjoy this on my larger desktop monitor in the afternoon, but your main points are all very true. NASCAR in those days was good, sometimes great racing and the cars were honest stock cars thoroughly modified for racing, demanding great finesse from the driver. My favorites are David Pearson and Bobby Allison because, while most remained oval specialists, their great natural talent translated into success on road courses.
A tradition in stock cars (and other oval track series) is to identify by car number before driver and just scanning the grid, I see Allison (12), Pearson (21), Petty (43) and Bobby Isaac (71). It should be a great highlight film!
A sometime good old boy, Carl
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Post by charleselan on Dec 27, 2019 17:06:48 GMT
Really pleased that you liked the film Carl & René, it really is a splendid film as are many of the others on the same platform. You are correct René it makes the current Nascar look unbelievably tame. These were real stock cars and not standard chassis with bodies that were a semblance of a real production car. Everything these days has to be so restricted for the show, and yet here we have so many different cars based on real production saloons/sedans and the racing is very close.
Then we have that fantastic sound of the tuned big V8 motors running at full bore, if that doesn't stir the soul nothing ever will. I would loved to have seen one of those great races in the flesh, it must have been an occasion.
Here is the first film on YouTube I viewed the other evening, which lead me to the others and the brilliant one above.
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Post by Carl on Dec 27, 2019 18:19:44 GMT
I attended only one stock car race on a big oval, at California Speedway after my faith in Roger Penske led me to purchase a PSL (permanent seat license). My only other big oval experiences had been at Ontario Motor Speedway for road course events. Its infield road course utilizing the oval's front straight and Turn 4 was the best anywhere and I assumed Penske would do even better on his big oval. He did not; the road course there is a constricted nightmare and I soon abandoned my permanent seat and my faith.
Anyhow, a PSL entitled the bearer to attend all events, so I went to see the stock cars on the oval. This was the late 90s and the quality of racing had declined as the popularity of NASCAR had soared. The fans at the time were amazingly devout but many were clueless, disbelieving the 50 mph speed differential of the Indy Cars when CART came into town.
The sounds, especially of a bunched field, are very impressive, but the racing was dull, every pass achieved in excruciating slow motion through the turns by momentum gained on the straights or fast work by the crews during pit stops. Sorry Roger, but over and out...
The best stock car racing I saw in person was at Riverside in the 1960s and early 70s. Dan Gurney drove for the Wood Brothers and gave the good old boys lessons in how to drive a road course, winning almost every time. Those were the days...
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Post by Carl on Dec 28, 2019 1:53:40 GMT
That is a fascinating highlight film of the '73 Darlington 500 with many interesting details. I really like the very small infield grandstands, curious but probably official.
Darlington was known for long slides against the wall and the resulting "Darlington stripe". When David Pearson went from first to third early on, it may have been deliberate on his part to save fuel and engine stress. These stock cars were aerodynamic bricks and the leader gave a tremendous tow to those close behind.
I was wrong earlier about car 71 being Bobby Isaac. Numbers stayed with team owners and the driver that year was Buddy Baker, who at six feet six inches couldn't have gotten into a Grand Prix car but probably didn't care.
I'm skeptical that Cale Yarborough's race deciding tap on the rear fender of David Pearson was accidental and the narrator's subsequent insistence that too much was at stake for contact to be deliberate is laughable.
Stock car racing's golden era during the 60s and 70s began to tarnish when the grandchildren of "Big Bill" France started to gain power over a sport they still view as a golden goose.
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Post by charleselan on Dec 29, 2019 12:52:16 GMT
Here is another from Darlington Raceway the 1978 Southern 500 and a truly excellent bit of footage in 4K video quality. I am really getting into this classic NASCAR stuff thanks to these brilliant films. The initial part of this film with the onboard camera as the car leaves the pit lane is amazing, especially the sound track of the big stock block V8 when the driver gives it the beans.
Also that crashes are heavy but fortunately all drivers OK, otherwise I would not mention them as these sort of things are not why I am interested in motor sport, however seeing David Pearson completely unable to avoid the collision that wrecked his race just makes one realise how committed to line one has to be at those speeds. The "Silver Fox" was one of many aces who were in their more mature years but still the pace setters along with the upstart Daryl Waltrip.
A brilliant film and must watch.
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