The Motorsport Collector
Email Update

- JULY 23, 2014 -

James Garner passed away over the weekend.

He was probably best known for the TV characters he portrayed - Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford - and as a leading man in dozens of feature films, but he will always be remembered by racing enthusiasts as the mythical 1966 Formula One World Champion Pete Aron in John Frankenheimer's epic film 'Grand Prix'.

Recognized as a 'cult classic' by critics (as are most of the other great racing films), for us 'Grand Prix' has become a historically important snapshot - in glorious Technicolor and Cinerama - of the drivers, cars and circuits of Formula 1 in the mid-1960s that could never be duplicated today.

Contrast the drivers' meeting scene from 'Rush', Ron Howard's excellent film from last year with a similar scene in Frankenheimer's 'Grand Prix':

- 'Rush' featured actors playing Hunt, Lauda and Reggazoni sitting with a bunch of extras in racing jackets discussing the risks of racing in the rain at the Nurburgring in the mid-1970s.

- In 'Grand Prix', the discussion also involved the issue of rain on a very fast and dangerous circuit, but the 'actors' speaking were Phil Hill, Richie Ginther, Dan Gurney, Graham Hill, Bruce McLaren, Jochen Rindt and other prominent members of the Grand Prix circus who were discussing risks they themselves would be taking that weekend at Spa.

You can't get more real than that!

'Grand Prix' was not just a quick fling with motor racing for James Garner. In the mid-60s, he founded American International Racing and set up shop in Culver City, California. The Team campaigned Corvettes, Lola T-70 Coupes and Formula 5000 cars in amateur and professional road races in the late 60's with Ed Leslie, Lothar Motschenbacher and others. Garner himself drove a Bill Stroppe prepared Ford Truck in the Baja 1000 and other off-road races for many years. He also drove the Pace Car at the Indianapolis 500 three times (1975, 1977 & 1985) and did his own stunt driving on 'The Rockford Files.'

Matt Stone has written a new book on Garner and his love of racing entitled 'James Garner's Motoring Life'. The hardbound 9"x9" book is priced at $34.95 and features 300 black & white and color images over 160 pages.

A September release is planned. You can reserve a copy HERE.

Veteran CanAm driver Charlie Kemp stopped by our tent at Road America last weekend and dropped off a couple copies of a new Bill Neale print he commissioned featuring his two prized Mustangs, the Shelby GT350R and the North American P-51 'Mary Mine'.

The print is entitled 'Mustang Charlie'.

The P-51 Mustang was owned and piloted by Kemp for 25 years. It was flown in World War II by 1/Lt. George Vanden Heuvel of the 376th Fighter Squadron, 8th Air Force. He was an ace with 6 kills with several additional aircraft destroyed on the ground.

The Shelby GT350, serial number 5R538, is the fastest GT350 in history. Kemp still owns this car and has raced it 54 times, finishing 42 events and winning 34, taking four SCCA divisional titles and setting 12 lap records along the way.

The car also set the all time top speed record for a GT350 at Daytona International Speedway at 184 mph.

Each copy of 'Mustang Charlie' is signed and numbered by Bill Neale, AFAS, Charlie Kemp and GT350 Crew Chief Pete Hood. Overall print size is approximately 17 3/4" x 22 1/2" and is priced at $125.00 plus shipping.

Order HERE.

Although our distributor's deadline for ordering 1/43 scale Spark models of cars that competed in the 2014 24 Hours of LeMans has passed, that doesn't mean TMC has stopped taking orders. We have ordered extras of all 39 cars announced by Spark but we request that you reserve the cars you want as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Check out the entire 2014 LeMans Collection from Spark HERE

The shipment containing Spark's Jim Clark Lotus 38 Indianapolis 500 winner arrived this afternoon. We expect to have all orders shipped by the weekend. Sorry, Clark is sold out but you can find a list of the available models from this shipment HERE.

You can also check out a list of next week's shipment of Spark / TSM / Bizarre models, including the Michael Keyser/Milt Minter Porsche Carrera RSR from the 1974 24 Hours of LeMans HERE.

Regular 10am - 3pm hours this Saturday!

Talk to you soon.

- Paul

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