Ferrari - "Race to Immortality".

[charleselan]

Having acquired the film Ferrari - "Race to Immortality" a few weeks back I finally sat down to watch it on the evening of Christmas Day; on such a day what better to do .

To be honest I was expecting much more, as it seemed to me to be very anecdotal with the usual "talking heads" that we see so much of today on anything remotely historical. All of the anecdotes were things that the majority of race enthusiasts would have heard countless times before and from the usual sources. There were however some highlights especially from the likes of Tony Brooks and the lady friends/partners of the drivers who are no longer with us.

The most outstanding aspect is the quality of the film footage, which is worth the time spent on watching the film, it is superb and some I had not seen previously.

Let us be quite clear the film is more about the drivers of Ferrari in the mid to late 1950's than the cars themselves, and very much hinges around Mike Hawthorne and Peter Collins. At the end of the film one can see why as it is accredited to be inspired by Chris Nixon's book "Mon Ami Mate".

One final thing I found it very strange that they had clips of Enzo Ferrari speaking in his native Italian, yet no translation in English what so ever; very poor.

[chrisb]

interesting JC, especially as I have just bought and read 'all about the boy' a new biography of Pete Collins, someone who really captured my imagination for some reason, and after reading this book I am clearer as to why, it does contain a lot of input from Louise and more than enough challenges to Chris Nixon's assertions to be interesting, the more I read of Pete the more impressive he has become, his successes in sports cars and his friendship with Stirling was a lot longer than with Mike.

seems to me from what you are saying my friend is that a bit like McLaren I expected more, given how much more youtub has unearthed it may be an idea if we compiled our own tributes to these stars

[chrisb]

p.s. JC - seems not only do we share a mutual interest etc with so many aspects of motor sport and life but our sentiments towards the festive season seem remarkably similar too!

[René]

I haven't seen it yet (except for the trailer) so thanks for the review.
Still a must have in my collection! Forza Ferrari!

[charleselan]

Dec 27, 2017 17:21:26 GMT René said:

I haven't seen it yet (except for the trailer) so thanks for the review.
Still a must have in my collection! Forza Ferrari!

Of course, and the film footage is superb so worth having for that alone.

[charleselan]

Dec 27, 2017 16:33:18 GMT chrisb said:

p.s. JC - seems not only do we share a mutual interest etc with so many aspects of motor sport and life but our sentiments towards the festive season seem remarkably similar too!

In my opinion Chris, the festivities are for children and once you learn that Santa isn't real then the fun goes.

Peter Collins was a childhood favourite of mine also, mind you they all were to some extent, but back then they were just photos and news reports or small bits transmitted on the BBC Saturday afternoon sports program. The film gave me the distinct feeling that many thought Peter was the one destined to be World Champion in 1958; and then to retire like Mike. Tragically he paid the ultimate price for one very small error in a car that had deteriorating handling; apparently the shocks and brakes were shot on all the Ferrari's.

His new biography sounds like a very good read, I hope you are really enjoying it.

[Carl]

I once strongly admired both Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins.  My affinity for the former has worn over time, but I still regard Peter Collins as one of the very best drivers and a man of great integrity.

[charleselan]

It does appear that many people nowadays have less regard for Mike Hawthorne which in many ways is a shame as he was a top quality driver. He was very much a man of his time, and that often does not translate well into current ways of thinking, Mike also has been the subject of much retrospective thinking about his part in the Le Mans 1955 disaster, which is dealt with in this film. Also there was much written at the time and since about him being very inconsistent as a driver i.e. some weekends positively brilliant and then on others very lacklustre.

All of that can be put down to one thing; the man was seriously ill with a kidney condition which on many occasion caused him excruciating pain which in itself badly affected his performance, not surprisingly. Interestingly his partner also related that the morning of his fatal road car accident he was writhing in agony on the floor due to the condition.

The condition also prevented him from doing his "National Service" for which he was vilified in the press, as it was not publicly disclosed on his own wishes. One of the reasons he kept the condition secret was that he had grave concerns that if it were known he would be denied a completion licence.

Nixon's book "Mon Ami Mate" refers to these facts but they are much more conclusive in the film, and somehow seem to carry more weight. Another interesting, and moving, part of the film is where Mike is interviewed after Peter's death and he is obviously finding it very hard to come to terms with it, it affected him a great deal.

The sad end to all this is that the kidney condition was terminal, there was no treatment for it in those far off days in the late 1950's, and Hawthorne had but two more years to live, at most. His partner mentioned that it was probably the best way for Mike to end his life, the way it did. The crash in all probability being the result of him having a black out.

I warmed to the man after seeing this film, and also appreciate far more his exploits on the track as a result.

[chrisb]

yes Mike was a top driver, after all after one year's racing he was in F1, not bad, and his race against Fangio in 1953 was really the stuff of legends and a lot of his inconsistency could be placed at his ill-health - which was pretty severe and there is a pretty good documentary about Mike with Duke video,

he was pretty much a 'party-animal' and when he had a kidney removed he knew it was only a matter of time before he wouldn't be around but still continued to live his life to the full, but with the death of his Father in a road traffic accident and then the Le Mans tragedy - where the first two hours were incredible, the Mercedes of Fangio and the D type racing as if it was a GP, Norman Dewis gave a very good perception of who he felt was at fault, and in his opinion it wasn't Mike, having studied what actually happened in some detail I do think Mike was caught up in the moment, his adrenalin off the map and wanted to continue taking the fight to the Mercs, knowing that Stirling was taking over from Fangio and Ivor from himself I felt Mike wanted least time lost as possible, and simply did what a racing driver does, the tragedy is in a tremendous documentary and listening to the survivors, the other competitors is still quite shocking, but bear in mind when Mike came back around - he was ordered out of the pits for another lap- he got out of the car proclaiming that it was all his fault and Lofty England stopped that right away- 

Mike slowed down a lot after that, then the tragedy to Pete really hit him hard and I have a picture of him with Louise at the funeral, incidentally it does seem Peter's family didn't exactly warm to Louise and made her sign a document after Peter's death denying her any access to their estate and there is no doubt of his affection 

Mike did carry himself with a lot of class in 1958 but I just never found that attachment to Mike or Stirling come to that as I did to say Peter,  - but that's me - the Ed McDonough book on Pete is interesting, as is Tony Brooks's opinions of Pete 

Mike's accident and I have visited the area many years ago and the old Hogs back, where incidentally i first drove a car in excess of 100 mph, was a fearsome bit of road and there was many an accident, but in Mike's case there is an interview with Rob Walker many years later where Rob spoke of he and Mike racing that wet, cold and very slippery day and Mike's Jag was basically a racing car on the road and simply was going too fast , the next bit is even more unconfirmed but Rob's opinion was that Mike's last words as he was dying was "oh fxxk it" please excuse language but if there was ever a suitable epitaph for someone who lived hard and died young that was it

One thing that cannot be taken away from Mike is that he was one of the few drivers who could really battle with Fangio, he won Le Mans and the F1 world championship, not bad for a lad with one sick kidney 

[René]

Fantastic stories and memories gentlemen, very interesting to read! Thank you.

This was all of course way before my time but it is a fascinating period of our beloved sport with some truly special characters.
I actually have a Mike Hawthorn t-shirt in my collection (no, not 900+ shirts as Gordon Murray's)!

[Carl]

There are always questions never answered.

Why did Mike Hawthorn immediately conclude it was his fault? And why would Lofty England tell him otherwise? Hawthorn was an extraordinary driver and almost certainly had been paying attention to other cars around him. Did he know he'd turned in too abruptly? Could Lofty England have known with certainty that he did not? Did this certainty have more to do with the horror of what had occurred and an understandable impulse to protect Jaguar?  Does ultimate responsibility lay, as the official inquiry held, in a track layout inadequate for the much faster speeds of postwar race cars?

I don't know the answers, or if one question is more pertinent to the truth and if so, which one.  I doubt anyone else alive today does.

[René]

Those are all valid questions, Carl. And as you say, probably noone still alive knows the exact answers.

I can only imagine that the severity of the Le Mans accident left anyone present or involved totally confused and full of doubts and questions.

[chrisb]

Excellent points Carl, I'm not that sure why Mike made those statements when he got out of the car but that is what he did,as many a witness testified and from what I understand Lofty reacted thus to 'calm him down' so to get on with the race and as you say 'protect Jaguar's interests'

Mike's books spoke of him 'not being at fault' which Lance Macklin took to Mike suggesting it was Lance's fault, and sued Mike, but then Mike was killed, Norman insinuated that Pierre was not a sufficiently proficient enough driver to cope with the Merc,however, for me your last question is the answer, the track layout was inadequate for the speeds and the numbers of spectators - and lets face it - had not the Merc disintegrated and bits flew into the crowd and poor Pierre was the only casualty - no one would be paying attention to yet another driver casualty

[charleselan]

As a pure coincidence there is a re-showing of the 1955 Le Mans Disaster on the UK "Freeview" or "FreeSat" channel "Yesterday" this very evening (29th Dec).

As a matter of interest it stated in the film Ferrari "Race to Immortality" that Mike Hawthorne had to pit when he did as he was at his maximum allowed 2 hours at the wheel. Now I did not know that was a rule at the time, and have tried looking it up with little success. I did know that after Pierre Levegh tried to drive single handed in 1952 that drivers were prevented from doing so, on grounds of safety. However nothing I can find with regard to the claim in the film that they were limited to 2 hour stints.

I would suggest that the findings of the official enquiry are accurate and that no blame can be attributed to any driver. The fault lay with the circuit which was not adequately equipped to deal with cars of such performance as raced in the mid 1950's.

On another subject I really should have mentioned that the film also goes into quite some detail about the other Ferrari drivers of that period; the Italian's Luigi Musso and Eugenio Castelotti, as well as "Fon" de Portago.  

[Deleted]

Luigi Chinetti drove more than 23 hours in the 1949 edition he won, the first for a Ferrari.

Louis Rosier drove for all but two laps the following year, when he won with his son.