These Are Some of the Best Vintage Motorsport Videos on YouTube

The Monaco Grand Prix is one of motorsport’s classic prestigious events, and I think it can be easy to forget what a challenge it used to be when we see Formula 1 races take place there today. This video has been refined and colorized by Andrea Colombo, which makes it feel like a uniquely immersive experience into the first year of F1 history.

According to the description, this clip comes from a German documentary called Flying Clipper, which I am immediately purchasing. It’s some of the highest quality Monaco GP footage I’ve ever seen outside of Grand Prix.

Motorsport in the 1940s was an interesting affair thanks to World War II. In war-torn Europe, racing became a rarity while in the United States, it was often something of a down-home deal. I love this video because it sheds a light on the dusty, dirty sport as it existed at the time.

I don’t speak Italian, so the commentary of this old promotional Shell film is lost on me — but that doesn’t matter, because the footage is just so damn good. I’ve embedded the second half of the hour-long movie in this slideshow because it displays way more of the racing than the first part. However, if you’re a fan of drivers from back in the day, you’ll find lots of candid footage of them preparing for the race in that first bit.

There are a lot of different tall tales about the first crashes in automotive history, but this video may very well show the first-ever motorsport crash caught on film. The footage is flipped (i.e., the cars actually would have been racing counter-clockwise, not clockwise), but it’s absolutely wild to see these old racers careening around a banked track in Coney Island.

I couldn’t imagine racing a motorcycle at any point in history, but definitely not back in the day when tracks were made of wooden boards. What the hell. How did any of these people survive?

Again: this footage is absolutely nuts.

Ken Carter — who earned his nickname The Mad Canadian the hard way — dedicated years of his life to jumping cars. This footage from 1976 is nuts, but you can read more about his five-year attempt to build a jet car capable of jumping the Saint Lawrence river right here on Jalopnik.

This video of Walter Röhrl is best summed up by this commenter on the clip: “This is not driving. This is concerto for steering wheel, three pedals and a stick shift. This is pure art.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

The ‘Ring is one of the most iconic, dangerous tracks in the world. This vintage onboard footage gives you a look at what it was like to lap the Green Hell back in 1967.

Put on your best headphones and just listen.

In this clip, Mike Hawthorn takes us around Le Mans in Jaguar D-Type. If you want to hear more about why Mike Hawthorn sucks, please consult my kind coworker Ryan King.

I love the clips where we can watch Fangio’s face as he speeds around Modena in his Maserati. Fully unbothered.

The Carrera Panamericana is one of my favorite vintage events, and this footage really captures the ambiance from the pits to the freshly carved roads to the locals watching high-speed machines howl by.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Mint 400 in person just before a global pandemic shut the world down in 2020. This professional footage from Robert O’Connor back in 1978 is fucking sweet.

Some of these desert shots are absolutely unreal.

This is one of those clips that makes me wish I’d been alive to see this type of racing as it happened. Richard Petty and David Pearson duking it out for a win is cool enough, but a commentary booth of Bill Flemming, Jackie Stewart and Chris Economaki is what dreams are made of.

I think one of the wildest things about watching this onboard of Mario Andretti lapping the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is that he’s still doing it to this day, albeit behind the wheel of a two-seater Indy car.

The Isle of Man TT is, without question, one of the most dangerous races of all time. There are still fatalities to this day, even with massive advances in safety and technology. Back in 1958, the event was all the more difficult.

This clip is pulled from Nine Days in Summer, a Ford film that highlighted the development of the Lotus 49 as driven by Jim Clark in Formula 1. Imagine being one of those fans lucky enough to shake Clark’s hand as he walked to the podium.

Oh, to see the Daytona road course in all its 1960s glory...

I know Steve McQueen is historically problematic, but I will also never not think that famous actors competing in motorsport back in one of its most dangerous eras was cool as hell.