Petrolicious Weekend Playlist

With the current season of Top Gear on hiatus after Jeremy Clarksons as-yet unknown transgression, we realized that there would be time this weekend when millions of enthusiasts would find themselves without their favorite show to watch.

In the spirit of capturing and sharing amazing car stories, we’ve created this playlist of car videos that share a common theme: racing. Many are hidden gems pulled from now-digitized film archives, and we’ve tried to balance the action: yes, Jackie Stewart really did recommend the Ford Tempo.

If you enjoy this type of feature, let us know in the comments—and feel free to share some of your favorite car videos for next time. 

For the princely sum of about £1 per week in 1959, you could join a racing school at the UK’s Snetterton Circuit. This British Pathé film features fantastic footage of young drivers learning the fundamentals of driving quickly. With this weekend marking Honda’s return to Formula 1, we felt it was the perfect opportunity to share a legendary hot lap: Ayrton Senna in the Honda NSX-R around Suzuka Circuit in Japan.

We may all dream about being Formula 1 drivers, but what really goes into it? Top Gear’s Richard Hammond quickly finds out in one of our favourite Top Gear segments that driving a Formula 1 car is far easier than it looks.

With an unprecedented look at Grand Prix racing in 1967, the short film First Time Out helps to remind us that motor racing is as exciting as it is deadly. Just a year later, the video to the right is a newsreel that shows a miniature Lotus-Ford that was intended to commemorate Jim Clark’s racing success. Sadly, Clark wouldn’t live long enough to see the incredibly lifelike model.

Would you care to guess what the most winning Ferrari chassis (in period) in history is? It’s not an ex-Formula One car and it isn’t an Indy racer. It is chassis number #0672, this 625/250 TRC. So how successful was it? Well, it won the Grand Prix of Mexico and races in Laguna Seca, Salt Lake City, Riverside, Nassau, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, Pomona, Sacramento, and the list continues. It took on all challengers and frequently beat them. Here’s the story of this beautiful—and sonorous—machine.

Racing is expensive, which is why slower, less expensive formulae were devised in order to attract more privateers and amateurs to racing. The longest-running among them is Formula Ford, a class that has enjoyed success for decades. More importantly, Formula Ford has helped many aspiring drivers to begin their racing careers. On the right is one of our favourite Formula Ford clips, showing a more modern car used to cut through the field at Australia’s Bathurst Circuit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPtuWnsftlc

This is George Lucas’ first big student film, which he based on one of his passions: sports cars. An avid driving enthusiast, Lucas filmed Peter Brock in a borrowed Lotus 23 at Willow Springs Raceway, with his early technique hinting at some of his more famous films: THX 1138, American Graffiti, and Star Wars. We just wish this was in HD.

Racing doesn’t always have to make sense. These two Ford-engined machines couldn’t be more different. In one, you’ll see a younger Jeremy Clarkson treated to a drift session by Michael Schumacher in a V8-powered Ford Mustang Convertible. In the other, vintage newsreel footage shows that the “Supervan” Ford Transit has much more in common with mid-engined Ford GT40 race car than with its delivery van peers.

Race on Sunday, sell on Monday, right? What better way to promote your production cars than to have a race driver conduct an honest appraisal? On the left, Jim Clark reviews the then-new Ford Consul Corsair; on the right, Jackie Stewart gushes over the Ford Tempo…

We may be deep into an era of V6-powered Formula 1 cars with electric boosts and aerodynamic gadgets designed to improve “the show”, but what we prefer to remember is when—not that long ago—all we needed was a V10 engine and a world-class driver to unleash its power. This onboard lap from Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F2004 shows him neatly securing pole position. No, we didn’t speed it up.

Cover Image Source: pinimg.com