Elkhart Lake Vintage Classic 2013 - Pt. 4. - Just for show.

In the comments for yesterday's post, SirFancyHottestarossas_2 asked "Any D or E Type Jags?" Funny you should ask, Sir 'Rossa. We saw this pristine French Blue example just lying around the lower paddock, like it was nothing. How dare! It was clearly there for display, and not to race, which is fine. Mostly, you'll see these things behind velvet ropes, if you see them at all. But at an event like a vintage race, amazing relics are everywhere, and you can walk up and stare into their headlights as close as you please. The owners are almost always sitting in a lawn chair or tuning up their race vehicle, glad to get the attention. I definitely recommend. Notable tracks in the greater Chicago area are Blackhawk Farms and Road America, where these photos were taken. Or visit the VSCDA (Vintage Sports Car Drivers Association) website for the season's schedule of events.

And E Type Jaaaaaaaag. The Jag D Type was a racing version of this car, usually with a distinctive fin behind the driver's head. Note the large-ish rubber American-spec bumper nubs on the front. I believe the British version got smaller, chromed bumper units. As always, America knows how to take a car and make it worse... if such a thing can even be said of an E Type, which Jeremy Clarkson described as "the most beautiful thing I've ever seen".

This jag was shot with an old CCTV lens, stuck on my camera. It's a cheap, primitive thing that has a very shallow depth of field (hence the blurry backgrounds) and tends to produce lens flare and funny glares like the bizarre streaks in this shot. That's part of the fun. It's probably the best fifteen bucks I've spent in a long time.

Another not-for racing display model not in any particular hurry was this Edsel wagon. I think this is a '59, or thereabouts. It was in perfect condition, and in the perfect color. Much attention was deserved.

I was using another old oddball lens (a 1986 Canon FD prime), which required an adapter to work on my camera, which always has the effect of magnifying the image a little bit, because the adapter pushes the lens away from the image sensor by a half inch or something. So, I had a really hard time fitting the whole car in the picture. here, I think I was backed up against a tent, and still chopped off the rear bumper. The car was a mile long. I have decided that I really really love coke-bottle green auto glass, which is obvious in the windshield in this shot.

Wonderful geegaws like this were featured in Ralph Nadir's lesser-known book "Unnecessary at Any Speed". No, not really.

Unfortunately, as dash boards became safer, they became less breathtaking. Imagine hitting this apple slicer with your upper person at 45 miles per hour. Jeez.

An Austin-Healey Sprite, the happiest car ever made, in one of the giddiest colors ever. It wasn't far from the Jag E. I think they were owned by the same guy, if I recall. Absolutely clean.

For MisterFancySirHottestarossasBalls, here's Clarkson doing a piece on the Eagle Speedster, which is a perfect reproduction/reinterpretation of an E Type, updated and modernized with modern brakes, suspension, and everything. They're a little spendy, though. About $800,000.

Elkhart Lake Vintage Classic 2013 - Pt. 3. - The Bigguns.

Today we're posting pictures of the heavy hitters from last weekend's Vintage Festival at Road America. These are mostly group 5 and 6 cars that were professionally raced in past decades. Here you'll find manufacturer team cars, FIA cars, and Formula I, II and III from days of yore. Big and valuable. Some are one-of-a-kind. All had huge, shouty motors.

This orange and silver (I promise you it was orange in the daylight) car is owned by a really nice guy who was more than happy to talk about his pride and joy. About an hour after these pictures were taken, I saw the car being carried by a tow truck (The roll bar also serves as a carrying handle, apparently.) back to his area of the paddock. Everything in front of the driver's seat was destroyed. I was told that he hit the wall pretty hard during practice. This is a rich man's game. You race it, maybe wreck it, and rebuild it. I'll just take the pictures, thanks. I debated offering to email him these pictures, but chose to leave him alone instead. I would have pictures of the wreck, but the impression that I get is that, when a guy wrecks his car, taking pictures of the aftermath is a little callous and rude. In most cases, the owner of the car was probably the one driving it, and documenting someone else's wreck is a bit of a dick move. I felt bad for the guy, but at least he wasn't hurt.

Thanks to Top Gear, I immediately recognized this as a Morgan - a brand famous for their wooden chassis. Yes, wood.

I wouldn't have thought a Morgan would look so good with a huge wing, but it really completes the car, IMO.

A Royal blue 911, complete with putter prop rod. Painting the engine bay white seems a smart move. You don't always have ideal lighting conditions to work on the engine.

Apparently, someone registered for the event with the number 22 before this owner did.

I didn't recognize the name March, but I now know that they were a British builder of custom F1 and Grand Prix cars from the 70s to the 90s. Thank you, The Internet!

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Oooo, a Jaaaaaaag. It probably raced in Le Mans or something. The team at this tent weren't super chatty, but gave the go-ahead to take pictures. So, I don't know anything about the car.

Before maybe 15 years ago, cars looked different. They had wind tunnels, but they weren't able to completely model the car's aerodynamics in a computer for absolute optimal downforce. Back then, they understood wind and stuff, but there was as much art and intuition as hard data going into the shape of the car. I think the cars were much better looking.

A four-cylinder F1 motor from (I'm guessing) the late 70s. Intake on the right. Exhaust comes out the left. Jagermeister goes in the mouth.

Ooooooo, velocity trumpets.

This looked like a Formula V at first, but the massive tires suggest it's something completely other. VW motors don't have tentacles squirming out of the engine like that.

Despite the age of this car (early 80s?) apparently VSCDA regulations don't forbid the use of a little non-accurate carbon fiber, as in the side plates of the rear wing, there.