It's still nice to see your car in Vintage Motorsport or some other mag.
The photo editor is looking at 100 photos for each event. If your car
blends into the pavement then regardless of the other qualities of the
shot it will not make it into the mag. All you have to do is look at the
shots that make it to see the difference. Yup, some cars that are dark or
solid white and hard to shoot without studio lighting will make it, but
the ones that lend themselves to great pictures will be way
over-represented.
When (heaven forbid) it comes time to sell your car, having a stack of
magazines that it appeared in, being driven in competition, will add to
the provenance. For folks like me that drive in club racing as well and
can have sponsors, the tips were great. A car that shows up in magazines
and TV coverage time and again because it's so photogenic will deliver
what the sponsors pay for--exposure--better than one that wins but is
effectively camouflaged.
-----Original Message-----
From: Barr, Scott [mailto:sbarr@mccarty-law.com]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 3:05 PM
To: Bill Babcock
Subject: RE: 250k
Hmm. Well, nobody's going to want to sponsor me anyway, so the point's a
bit moot. But a yellow line around the sill level might look nice
anyway...
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Babcock [mailto:BillB@bnj.com]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 4:59 PM
To: Barr, Scott
Subject: RE: 250k
Nope. I think this is something he learned more recently. Not enough
contrast. The shadows under the car blend right into the paint. But if you
put a white or yellow line around the bottom edge...
-----Original Message-----
From: Barr, Scott [mailto:sbarr@mccarty-law.com]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 2:25 PM
To: Bill Babcock
Subject: RE: 250k
<< most paint jobs make the car just blend into the track. His photos made
it very obvious what you need to do. If anyone is interested I can
summarize. >>
Hopefully, he recommended a nice French Blue.
Scott
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Babcock [mailto:BillB@bnj.com]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 4:10 PM
To: 'Kas Kastner'; fot@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: 250k
-----Original Message-----
From: Kas Kastner [mailto:kaskas@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 1:24 PM
To: Susan and Jack Brooks; fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: 250k
It looks like a message I sent Saturday didn't get through for some
reason, if this is a repeat then accept my apology in advance:
I spent today at the Armadillo Racing "boot camp", a racing seminar on
engine building, oils, etc. Pete Brock was the lunch speaker. What a guy.
I spent some time at lunch talking with him about the TR250K. It's owned
by the Hart family--they also own the Flying Shingle and a lot of other
cool stuff. It was restored by Tony Garmey and he races it quite a bit.
Two of the other Hart brothers vintage race very competitively. Great
guys. Bill races a Triumph Devin, Chuck drives a fast Lotus. Their Dad
Pat, who assembled the collection passed away a few years ago.
I've always been amazed at how fast and smooth that TR250K is. Tony says
it's a hell of a car. Of course Tony made Peyote look pretty smooth last
year when he drove it in a practice. I'm sure that if he had a few more
laps he'd be beating my best, and I've spent a lot of seat time in that
car.
NEW:
I could tell that Pete was still strongly connected to the TR250K. Most of
the guys assembled around him at lunch were talking about the GT
Cobra--the coupe that kicked a whole bandolier of Ferrari butt at Le Mans.
It was interesting to hear all the politics that surrounded the effort.
Strange to think that the car was actually faster than the Ford GT40 when
that program replaced the Cobra (late vs. early in the development cycle).
But when I mentioned the TR250K his eyes really lit up, and we talked
about the car for quite a while.
Pete's presentation started with a slide show demonstrating how to paint
your car to have it noticed. It was really great, and very useful for
anyone either wishing to attract sponsors or who simply would like to see
their car in magazines for any reason. Turns out most paint jobs make the
car just blend into the track. His photos made it very obvious what you
need to do. If anyone is interested I can summarize. I told my wife (who
is a graphic designer) about the presentation and she was really upset to
have missed the only race car seminar ever likely to capture her interest.
I don't think she would have been as impressed with Ryan Falconer but I
think I wrote down every word he spoke, including the punctuation. I
suspect the guy knows how to build an engine (unsers, andretti,
granatelli, cut his teeth at 20 with the Novi). Some of his stories had me
laughing out loud four hours later as I drove to Seattle.
One of his new projects has been gathering up all of last year's IRL
engines (now obsolete) and turning them into reliable 8500 RPM (down from
11,000) God only knows how much horsepower, 300-odd pound powerplants for
street projects, like GT40 kit cars and such. Yikes. I wonder if I could
fit one into Peyote (it's a joke Baxter, don't choke on your soup!).
<<< >>>>
It was really heartbreaking to see that the factory just didn't give a
damn about this great car. Both Pete and I worked pretty hard and used a
lot of our own dough for it also.You are right about one thing, Pete Brock
is a very good photographer.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan and Jack Brooks" <tr3a@att.net>
To: <fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 1:01 PM
Subject: RE: 250k
> It was run hard at Seattle (formerly SIR) now Pacific Raceways, last
summer when
> I stopped by to see Bill and Peyote. Looking at it, it's hard to
> believe
that
> the 250K is as old as it is.
>
> Jack Brooks
>
> >Bill Watkins has run the car on occaision. He however is not the
> >owner. The owner likes the car driven hard and not to hold back was
> >the instructions that Bill got about two years ago at the vintage
> >races in Seattle/portland. Other than that I can offer no insight
> >excep Bill is
on
> >the Vintage race list and can likely get more info from the owner.
> >Peter Brock is also around doing photography work (his passion).
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