Jalopnik: ice racing

Minnesota, 1960: Corvairs Battle For Ice Racing Supremacy With Caravelles And 356s!

Murilee Martin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:30:00 EST

My grandfather was quite the rally and ice-racing fanatic back in the 1950s and 1960s (running mostly Porsche 356s and Saab 93s) and now I've got a couple of his 8mm movies, shot in 1960.

The image quality isn't so good; in fact, identifying the cars is much like trying to extract useful information from the Zapruder Film (which was shot using similar hardware). The ASA 24 film means there are some dark parts, and my film-to-video conversion technique (camcorder + projector) doesn't help matters. There's definitely a Corvair, a 356, and a Beetle, and what appears to be a Renault Caravelle. Maybe a Sprite as well? Mostly you just get atmosphere from this; the sense that it's really freakin' cold, with maybe a mournful whistling of grim Scandinavian-style wind through the skeletal trees, punctuated by the roar of engines at rod-throwing revs and the occasional crunch of sheetmetal on snowbanks. You might check out this Land-O-Lakes SCCA history of racing in Minnesota when you're done here.

Minnesota, February 1967: Let's Go Racing!

Murilee Martin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Those crazy Minnesotans aren't going to let a little 20-below weather stop them from taking their Saabs and MGAs out for some racing, you betcha! My grandfather, a proud St. Paul native, was serious about rally madness and ice-racing lunacy back in the 50s and 60s, and he'd probably still be doing it today at age 91 if his eyesight were a little better and he still had the ol '356 (or the Corvair... or the Dauphine...). He's handed over some of his racing memorabilia to me, including his Curta Peppermill and some of his old Twin Cities Sports Car Club newsletters. Here's the February 1967 TCSCC newsletter, which shows how those tough-guy Minnesotans pretended they weren't freezing their nodules off in ludicrous weather conditions. Uff da! Yeah, it's not as cool as the 8mm movie film I have of actual races, but I haven't had a chance to get them digitized yet.

SEE: Studs on Ice!

Davey G. Johnson — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 13:51:53 EDT

Okay, true, the title brings to mind Peter North lying on a slab in the morgue, but seeing as it's the middle of the summer, we thought we'd bring you a little gallery of ice racing action from February's AMEC Studs on Ice race. Just flip the canned air upside down, spray it all over the face of the monitor, and feel a refreshing chill. Really, it's as simple as that. [Note, Gawker Media cannot be held liable for damage to any type of monitor device or to bodily harm (personal or otherwise), including frostbite, that may result from such activities. We now return you to your erratically-scheduled blog.]

Studs on Ice, Caroga Lake 2/13/05

New Frontiers in Ice Racing

Davey G. Johnson — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 15:56:38 EDT

Not since the old car-vs.-train battles that raged across Europe in the early part of the last century has a more exciting speed contest been waged between two disparate modes of transit. In this case, it's ice skates vs. Quattro. Audi DTM driver Frank Stippler hopped behind the wheel of a new RS4, while German speed skater Claudia Pechstein strapped on her blades. The victor? The Audi by a mere 1.5 seconds, meaning Pechstein could probably smoke an A3 driven by feebs like us.

Audi RS4: Unusual Speed Contest Against World Champion [The German Car Blog]

The New Audi RS4 vs. German Speed Skater Claudia Pechstein [Fourtitude]

Related: The Truth About the Audi S4 Avant [Internal]