Onboard with Morgans at the Montlhéry 2011 Vintage Revival

"I know its a cliche but 'only in France' could you be chasing a tartan Morgan."

Generally speaking, we're not fans of music in motoring videos. If anything, we find it a huge turnoff.
True gearheads want to hear exhaust notes, intake roar, gearbox whine, valvetrain chatter, screaming tires, not some sap's half-cocked idea of music that suitably conveys the majesty of the moment.

Harrumph!

Call us wrinkled old curmudgeons if you must but when we were little boys, we didn't need the music to swell or the narrator to scream at us in order to understand when something was impressive.

If anything, we resent the implied argument that were we denied suitable direction, we would also be denied any real understanding and appreciation of just how special is a thing or a moment.

The universe is massive. Dinosaurs were huge, incredible beasts. Mountaineering is dangerous. Formula 1 is loud, fast and exciting. We get it, thank you very much. No need for your music or your 'expert' exhortations.

However!

In this case, we think the music isn't just acceptable, it feels like a proper party guest. And, as pointed out in the video's comments section, the level of wind noise on these kinds of recordings inevitably requires some music to drown it out. You cannot, after all, truly install a microphone 'inside' a Morgan three-wheeler.

So, fire up this video (in half-HD if you can) for a fun if rather bumpy ride around l'Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, one of the great circuits in motorsports history.

History

After Indianapolis, Brooklands and Monza, Montlhéry is one of world's earliest large banked oval circuits. Perhaps only Spain's forlorn Sitges Terramar circuit, which today lies in a truly fowl state of ruination, suffers a greater disparity between its former glory and its modern abandonment.

If you still don't appreciate the value of Montlhéry, let us know - we'll send over some music and screaming narration.



Have some more

But wait - that's not all!. We've gone off to find some related videos.

Here's Jay Leno reviewing Morgan's new 3 Wheeler:



Porsche 910 tackles the Montlhery circuit:



The 1935 Grand Prix de France:

Modified 1981 Porsche 924 Carrera GT For Sale

Here are a couple of photos of a 1981 Porsche 924 Carrera GT with some modifications, including a GTR body kit.

With a total production run of just 406 cars, the 924 Carrera GT is an extremely rare beast and thanks to the rather agricultural roots of the basic 924, is amongst the lesser-loved vehicles to emerge from the famous Stuttgart firm.

That lack of love is far from deserved. Despite the pedestrian VA/Audi underpinnings, the basic Carrera GT produces 210bhp from its turbocharged four-cylinder motor and comes with balanced handling that soon grows on its drivers.

Just 406 Carrera GTs were produced as part of a program designed to homologate the model for competition. This particular car is LHD, meaning it carries the 937 model code. You are unlikely to ever see a Carrera GT on the road, much less parked at the kerb.

You could, however, own this particular, thanks to it being on sale as a project car. We have no idea how much work will be needed to get the car back on the road and running reliably but at less than £15,000, it could offer relatively cheap entry into the rarified world of limited-run Porsches with competition pedigrees.

More Porsche 911 GT1 Photos

I know it's been a while since you enjoyed anything new on here. It gets a bit like that sometimes, you know? I am SO glad I don't have any kids of my own to worry about or I doubt I would ever acheive anything else useful. How DO parents do it?

I just uploaded six more reasons to drool.

So put down whatever useful job you're working on and get on over to flickr!

I'll be rooting around in my hard disk some more later and hope to find some more goodies for you. Glad some of you have been enjoying these photos and keep the comments rolling in.

Pieces of Audi, yo......

Porsche 911 GT1 Photos

I tell ya, you kiddies are SO lucky!!! This feels like Christmas all over again. Ho, ho, ho!!!

I'm exhausted but I still found time to upload a bunch of my own photographs of 1 Million US Dollars (count 'em) worth of Porsche 911 GT1, freshly-arrived from its German birthplace in a top-secret London batcave for really cool machinery.

A million-dollar price tag, 1100 kg and 544 hp mean the road-going version of the GT1 gets from rest to sixty mph in 3.7 seconds. Even better, it gets to a hundred in about 7 seconds. That should just about get your kids to school on time.

Thanks to flickr for the hosting but not for how damn long it takes for my emailed photos to show up on flickr. Grrrrr.....

Meanwhile, here's Tiff Needell putting the competition prototype through its paces: