Remembering last year's Formula One season

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Thoughts on Formua One

Well, the promise of the top ranking teams, embarrassed by the Button/Brawn's performance in the first few rounds, that they would be competitive by the time the series hits Europe has gone by the wayside. McLaren team and champ Lewis Hamilton just got knocked out of the first round of qualifying at Monaco. Ferrari looks to be still in the game so far with Massa coming in just behind Jenson Button in Q1.
This just in... J. Button on pole with Kimi Third?... Autoweek.com failed to report the total standings for some reason.
...Tivo set for the live broadcast, and we'll see. (must watch on SPEED at low resolution).

This just in...
Speed now claims "HD" viewing... They're only about 4 years late!

Yelp is help!

This thing called Yelp is pretty neat. It's so hard these days to find decent products or services. Yelp lets people praise or bad-mouth whatever they wish. I travel a lot from the east coast to the west coast (not much in between), and it's hard to find the "right place" sometimes -- actually most times. I try to review as much as I can, but I should do more.
I encourage everyone to review their findings at Yelp as it can only improve retail.
Here are a few of my reviews (most are motorsport related).

University Collecting Motorsports History -- And we can help!

Note: I found this on the UNC website. What a great idea.

The Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte announces the establishment of its Motor Sports Collection to document the history of automobile racing in the Southeast.

In keeping with its location in Charlotte, a city within 50 miles of 90% of the racing teams in the country, and in support of the university's programs in motor sports engineering and sports management, the Atkins Library has begun to develop a collection of books, magazines, oral history interviews, photographs, and other material to preserve the history and legacy of automobile racing.
T. Taylor Warren and Manuscripts Librarian Bob McInnes with a portion of Mr. Warren's donation.

The collection originated with a generous gift by the late T. Taylor Warren, whose career as a photographer has spanned more than fifty years. Thus far, Mr. Warren has donated over 100 boxes of material, comprising 8-10,000 programs, press kits, media guides, magazines, and yearbooks.

Mr. Warren was also instrumental in securing the library of Don O'Reilly, a writer, broadcaster, and public relations specialist. Recently, Mark Ortiz, the publisher of The Mark Ortiz Automotive Chassis Newsletter, has donated his back file of several racing magazines.

Why Collect Motor Sports History?
The emergence of the motor sports engineering program in the Lee College of Engineering and the sports management program in the Belk College of Business makes it necessary for the library to support UNC Charlotte students and faculty in their learning, teaching, and research. While museums do a wonderful job of displaying the artifacts and highlights of racing, libraries are better situated to acquire, organize, and make available to users the material that make exhibits and books possible.

Few libraries collect original source material about the sport. Certainly, many libraries buy books and magazines as they are published, but only a handful are dedicated to gathering unpublished material, collecting unrecorded stories, and preserving them all for the long-term.

What Are We Collecting?
Generally, we are interested in all kinds of material that document the history of racing, particularly in North and South Carolina, the people who have been involved in it, and the communities in which races have been or are held. The formats of material include, but are not limited to:

• Books & Magazines Programs press kits and other publicity material
• Yearbooks Rule books & statistical compilations
• Photographs Films, videos, home movies, etc.
• Scrapbooks Business records of tracks, teams, sponsors, and owners

We also intend to make oral history a major component of our program.

If you have stories to tell or materials to share, please contact Bob McInnes or Katie McCormick.

Helmet Collection (needs a shelf)

Finally dusted off my collection of 1950s to modern helmets. Although the full face helmets in front are used quite often. The old helmets should have been placed up front, and with better lighting. The old helmets at the top I found on ebay. The 'old school' open faced jobs I had from years ago and I found the two on the left with the sun shades at Cycle Gear for $19 each. They're so Steve McQueen.

I'm going to make a wall display for them and I'm looking for an image I swiped from the www. I'll post it when I find it.
Why didn't I name it correctly when I had it and stored it? Why, why?


FOUND IT! Here's the helmet wall display image that I was looking for. Good idea don't you think, and looks pretty simple to build.
Of course I'll have to add some little lights behind each helmet and I have no idea how to do that without wires everywhere.

Motorsports Art as Gifts

What I like about wall hangings as gifts is that... (and this may sound egotistical) every time the gift recipient looks at it hanging on their wall, they think of you. And, it's going to be there just about forever. So make sure it's of good quality and won't fade or discolor over the years (or months).

MMLast June I gave my Dad a large (36-inch) framed giclee art print from a painting by Beacham Owen called "Long Weekend" (shown above). A beautiful back road motorcycle scene with what looks like a BMW touring bike going through a turn with sunbeams shooting through the trees. Dad doesn't ride motorcycles anymore, but he's always talking about his past sport touring days and the trips that he took alone or with a few friends.
MMHe called me as soon as he got it, and he was a little choked up. I could tell he really liked it, and every time we have talked since then, he mentions it more than once. That made me feel good.

MMFather's Day is coming up again and I know what Dad is getting -- a big 36-inch Owen Art Studios photo of a D-Type Jag power sliding through a corner in beautiful "old-time" black and white. Dad loves this old stuff, and so do I.

Ways to insure quality and longevity:
1. Make sure the print is on "acid-free" paper as well as its backing and mat board.
2. Make sure the print was produced with "Archival" paper and ink.
3. Stay away from thin paper stock like mass produced posters -- lithographs that are rarely acid free.
4. Buy from a reputable studio or dealer.

More Speed!

I think I figured out why Speed TV's program info (on my TV) is so confusing and vague. Like all TV and cable channels they're obsessed with you going to their website and hanging out there for some reason. More ads to sell I guess.
Problem is, that when you invite (or force) people to go to your website, you need some content there. Speed's website is another confusing mess of boxes on boxes and blinking banner ads.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still glad to have Speed around -- it's all we have on the tube. And with my 62 inch HDTV I'm not about to watch racing on my computer or cell phone. I just think it's time for another motorsports channel for actual enthusiasts with all programing -- not just racing.

Speed TV

When is SPEED going to get it right?
I can see that their "reality" shows are targeted to a mainstream audience that doesn't know that much about motorsports, but when it comes to race broadcasting real motorsports enthusiasts are now viewing and they deserve a quality picture from outside the USA.
    F1 coverage is actually pretty good. Even the listings from my local cable company make sense. David Hobbs, Bob Varsha, Peter Windsor and Steve Matchett are outstanding, however, again, the broadcast quality sucks. This is Formula One. Shouldn't it be the highest quality? Are you telling me that they they don't have HD in Europe? Come on guys, figure it out.
    My real problem is with the motorcycle racing program listings. Let us know if it's Race 1 or Race 2 in the AMA and SBK listings, so I don't "tivo" the same show over and over. Broadcast quality? Same problem: AMA Racing, good quality. Moto GP, World Superbike, bad quality. And why can't we have at least a half hour show of Moto GP, SBK and AMA Superbike qualifying? More bitching to come....

Racing season is upon us. The excitement begins.

My favorite artist is Beacham Owen. His stuff is so unique and varied that it looks good in any room in my house. Most motorsports art that you find out there, looks like it was created for (or is) a poster -- not his. Beacham's paintings are realistic enough but still retain that artsy look that's important to me. His scenic motorcycle art is allowed into formal living rooms because they are landscape paintings that include motorcycles as part of the scenery. Even non-motorsports people appreciate them. Beacham Owen works out of his Los Angeles Studios and I can order a hand-signed giclee print from his website and have it in about three days. The cost is very reasonable and I can frame it myself, as all his prints fit standard frame sizes. I consider Owen Art Studios a great discovery. They've never let me down.

Shown above is Beacham Owen's "The Pace."
You can see it larger on his Studio website.

This beauty is Beacham Owen's painting of the late Jo Siffert at Spa in the Porsche 917.

BTW: I borrowed the above images off the Owen Art Studios website.

A bigger selection of black & white vintage photos...
If you can get your hands on a Jesse Alexander print, he has shot some great motorsport stuff starting in the 1950s. Most are lithographs and not as striking as the giclee prints, but they are still pretty nice. Another way to get his best selection of vintage iron and drivers is to purchase his book Driven.

A grouping from the Jesse Alexander website.

I'm going to discuss my kind of collection as well as finding some good deals out there for new collectors.
Also, what to purchase and what NOT to purchase.
Things to discuss...
Giclee print:
Lithograph print:
Original art:
Photographic prints:
Wives:
Real objects:
Nicknacks: