For Esau was an hairy man:Rush

[tallpaul69]

One of the easiest and most revealing ways of dividing men is into "smooth" and "hairy",its a process as old as the title of this message and has furnished us with the characters of our literature and drama for nearly as long

Rush is essentially the story of an hairy man (Hunt) and a smooth man (Lauda) pitted against each other at the genesis of modern Formula 1

Its difficult to think of anything I would less like to watch than contemporary Formula 1.It gives anodyne a bad name. A procession of characterless youths processing around in mobile billboards presided over by a midget mafiosi marketing manager.Its sole saving grace is the prediliction of senior racing executives for the more esoteric forms of BDSM

In the mid Seventies for 5 or 6 years it was a very different sport.It had always been dangerous but over this period the power of racing engines suddenly became much greater.Tyre manufacturing,car safety and especially the tracks got left behind.The results were stark.Every season one or two drivers were killed in Formula 1 and many more in lower formulas.Dozens werre injured and maimed as were spectators.A race in wet weather was Russian Roulette.

In the post war period a new breed of teams had grown to compete with the factory teams.BRM,Lotus,Hesketh,Shadow.Most were owned and managed by hairy men who either drove themselves or employed other hairy men to do it for them.Budgets were tight and attitudes to safety were cavalier.

Hunt had very much come from this milieu and he represented the last of the gentlemen drivers.Independently wealthy,precociously gifted and a natural born racer.He exuded raw natural ability

Lauda was (and is) different.He was the prototype smooth man,a calculator of percentages,a meticulous "setter up" of engines and chassis and suspensions.

In 1976 the two philosophies and the two men met in a head to head contest that forms the backdrop to this film.One of them survived by a whisker;the other was to be destroyed by it.

The film pulls no punches-its a naked depiction of an era as vanished as the world of Jacob and Esau.Maybe go to watch it as a "sports" film........but I think its so much better than that

[ex nihilo]

Sounds interesting but for racing fans the bar has been set pretty high by Kapadia’s documentary ‘Senna’.

Agree that it’s become a boring procession nowadays and you need to be a real nerd to enjoy all this KERS and DRS junk. Think Hamilton is still a wheel to wheel racer though.

Anyone who had the privilege of watching a Senna hot lap could see that it transcended motor racing. Just like rain drops dancing off a road on a bright sunny day, it was a sort of cosmic dance.

Probably the most competitive season was 1988 between Prost and Senna. It turned out to be the last season for the turbo charged 1.5 L Honda V6 engine which was spectacularly successful and just too good. Lewis Hamilton drove the turbo on Top Gear and remarked that it had always been his dream to drive the legendary car.

Best lap ever…first lap of the 1993 European Grand Prix at a rain soaked Donington Park. A year later it would be all over.

[tallpaul69]

Originally Posted by ex nihilo

Sounds interesting but for racing fans the bar has been set pretty high by Kapadia’s documentary ‘Senna’.

Agree that it’s become a boring procession nowadays and you need to be a real nerd to enjoy all this KERS and DRS junk. Think Hamilton is still a wheel to wheel racer though.

Anyone who had the privilege of watching a Senna hot lap could see that it transcended motor racing. Just like rain drops dancing off a road on a bright sunny day, it was a sort of cosmic dance.

Probably the most competitive season was 1988 between Prost and Senna. It turned out to be the last season for the turbo charged 1.5 L Honda V6 engine which was spectacularly successful and just too good. Lewis Hamilton drove the turbo on Top Gear and remarked that it had always been his dream to drive the legendary car.

Best lap ever…first lap of the 1993 European Grand Prix at a rain soaked Donington Park. A year later it would be all over.

I did feel slightly unfair lumping Hamilton in with the milk float school of driving and Senna,as you say,transcended the sport on his best days

The figures for all Formula One drivers killed over the period since World War 2 is very revealing

1950s 15 killed
1960s 14 killed
1970s 12 killed
1980s 4 killed
1990s 2 killed (Ratzenberger and Senna )

These figures include testing and racing in lower divisions

There had been a 12 year gap (1982-1994) before Senna's death without fatality and no fatalities since 1994

Not sure todays downy cheeked infants would train on an eggcupful of best Bolivian and the entire cabin crew from the previous nights BA flight into Tokyo in order to compete in the Japanese Grand Prix as Hunt did

[Slutty Rimmer]

Originally Posted by ex nihilo

Sounds interesting but for racing fans the bar has been set pretty high by Kapadia’s documentary ‘Senna’.

Death has done the image of Senna a great service. Thanks to biased documentaries which set the accepted narrative in aspic, people now overlook the fact that Senna was a dangerous bully. He put himself and others at risk by charging into a situation and relying on the other driver's sense of self preservation to avoid collision and injury. This is a minority game which can only be played by one idiot at a time. He was probably encouraged by the safety statistics of the modern era which terminated at Imola along with himself. Ironically, he should never have perished in 1994 because he should have been permanently banned for that first corner at Suzuka in 1990, which he later admitted was deliberate...as if it wasn't obvious.

The living breathing Prost has got a raw deal in the history books. His observation at the time was very prescient "Ayrton thinks he cannot kill himself because he believes in God. I think this is very dangerous for the other drivers".

I loathed Senna's selfish obsession, and as an atheist I note that people who seek God often succeed sooner than expected.

Undoubtedly fast, but a spoilt brat.

My personal hero is the great Scot...Jim Clark. Quiet, unassuming, shy, intelligent, nervous...unbeatable. When I was last in the borders I visited the Jim Clark room at Duns and called in at the graveyard nearby where I learnt Senna had visited in 1988 to pay his respects.

Regards,
Rimmer.

[tallpaul69]

Excellent post IMHO

[ex nihilo]

I don't agree with Rimmer.

"He thinks he can't kill himself because he believes in God. ... I think that's very dangerous -- for the other drivers", said Prost.

I think it was a heat of the moment comment and not properly thought out.

In 1990, Japan would prove decisive again. Senna was on pole, with Prost alongside. Inexplicably, Balestre's hirelings had ordered the positions flip-flopped, so that pole-sitter Senna got the dirty side of the track, and Prost the cleaner, easier side. Senna understood that he had assurances from the organizers that pole would be switched back to the clean side. It never happened and in light of his disqualification the year before in Japan, now widely accepted as wrong following a coming together at the chicane when Prost was put out the race and Senna had made it to the finish, said before the race that he was simply not going to yield the first corner.

Bottom line was that Senna made Prost look second best and although Senna was a devout Catholic he did not by any stretch of the imagination think that he could not kill himself in a then, dangerous sport.

Ruthlessness is a necessary attribute in competitive sport and winners are rarely liked by their peers. Perhaps Rimmer would like to see a man waving a red flag walking in front of the cars…

[geordiesouth]

But it is Rimmers opinion Ex.
It might not be mine but I can see his argument.

Red flags being waved in front of cars my god. Reminds me of when I bought my first car.

[Des]

[quote=ex nihilo;43226]I don't agree with Rimmer.

"Ruthlessness is a necessary attribute in competitive sport and winners are rarely liked by their peers. /QUOTE]

Have to disagree with you and agree with Rimmer completely.

In the 50's, 60's and into the 70's the top drivers were the best of friends. Clark was clearly the best of his time, possibly of all time, but I don't think he had any enemies amongst the drivers - quite the opposite (Innes Ireland may have been a bit disgruntled at times, but that was due to Chapman's manouevering, as Ireland later acknowledged).

Personally I find this "ruthlessness" an unsavoury aspect of both business and sport. Americanism at its very worst. Very often they like to pretend if you're not ruthless then you are a wimp. Give me the days of the gentlemen racers any time. Certainly not wimps.

Now who have I pissed off this time?

[ex nihilo]

Originally Posted by tallpaul69

One of the easiest and most revealing ways of dividing men is into "smooth" and "hairy",its a process as old as the title of this message and has furnished us with the characters of our literature and drama for nearly as long

There is much anecdotal evidence that hairy men are more intelligent than smooth men. Well at least that was what a young nurse smilingly told me when she peeled a sticking plaster from my arm. Ouch...

Is there any truth in it. I tend to believe it but am not quite ready to take on Gary Kasparov at chess, yet

[ex nihilo]

Just noticed that Kapadia's documentary film 'Senna' is on ITV tonight.

Definately worth a watch!