Road America, The Hawk 2014 - Part 2

Here's the second batch of pictures from last weekend's vintage racing event at Road America. I finally started using a proper lens, so these pictures are actually clear. You're welcome!

A Jaguar SS100. These were built between 1936 and 1940. Back then, the company name was "SS" and the specific car was "Jaguar". After World War II, there was a bit of a stink left on the letters "SS", so they just named the whole company "Jaguar". Once again, history was changed by the Nazis. Today, when you see the letters "SS" appended to a car's name, you can pretty safely assume it means the manufacturer's marketing team wants it to mean "super sport".

The "100" was meant to indicate the fact that the car could exceed 100 miles per hour, which was a big deal back then.

Hey! The Targa FLorio! "What's that?" you say? It was an annual race held in the mountains of Cicily. The course wound through villages on treacherous roads, often with sheer drop offs. Starting in 1906, the race was discontinued in 1977 due to safety concerns. The cars got too fast, the course was too dangerous, and too many people died. Coooooool!

The "SS" combined with the wing-shaped badge was an unfortunate coincidence.

It becomes clear, when looking at these old cars from the late Sixties or early Seventies, that fiberglass was the carbon fiber of the time. It was the new high tech wonder material. These days, fiberglass is pretty ordinary stuff. Will CF be as common and affordable someday as fiberglass is now? Will we see carbon fiber trickle down in availability to roller coaster cars and merry go round horses? What will be the dominant motorsport supermaterial then? 3D printed nanotubes?

A Vespa, done up in Martini livery. Just about the most Italian thing you will ever see.