Ducktailing it to the Targa

[Lightweight_911]

That place you were staying at (& indeed the whole trip) sounds wonderful.

Since this thread started I've been kicking myself (repeatedly !) for not doing something very similar in the 904 before I sold it ...

[Ferry Man]

Ready for a days exploring




And then just outside the gates a wee taste of the drive to come for the day,



Regards
Mike

Great pics.

[Tp81]

[quote="210bhp"]




I love this picture.

[Tp81]

Brendan,

I think this shot you took is up there with the best of them, does it all for me.

Lovely road, great car, two guys on a road trip, hazard sign ahead with armco barriers on one side and shear rock face on the other, cloud rolling in. Evo struggles to catch shots such evocative shots. Well done. Thanks for posting.

[23e Heure]

It is indeed a great shot: Bravo - and thank you - Brendan.

Failed to mention one of the other (funny details), which links this shot to the trip itself: you can tell who the navigator is, just from his silhouette

[210bhp]

I like what you have done with the contrast Tom (I love everything you do with your skills) but on this occasion I think you have cropped the shot too much putting the car in a much less interesting position in the frame. I think there should be far more foreground road which effectively pushes the car into more isolation in the mist. Just an opinion.

Regards
Mike

[Lightweight_911]

Obviously I wasn't there but I think the original shot gives more of an impression of being 'up in the clouds/mist' ...

[Tp81]

I like what you have done with the contrast Tom (I love everything you do with your skills) but on this occasion I think you have cropped the shot too much putting the car in a much less interesting position in the frame. I think there should be far more foreground road which effectively pushes the car into more isolation in the mist. Just an opinion.

Regards
Mike

I probably agree Mike,

[210bhp]

Pointing our nose onto the road for our first foray into the Sicilian sunshine we decided to head for the old pits. The Targa Florio was a road race created in the very embryonic stage of the development of the motor car itself. As with most things good it was born out of special circumstances. Had Vincenzo Florio not been a late arrival, had his father not died while he was still an impressionable young boy, had he not an elder brother capable of running the large family empire, had this not all happened in the late nineteenth century this remarkable road race would never have happened, not least on the island of Sicily anyway.

The details of the birth of this race is outlined in many books but James was kind enough to loan me his precious first edition of the definitive account of its origins so that I could immerse myself in the history of the man, the island and the Targa Florio before I landed in Palermo. It really is a mirror of the development of the motor car in many ways. Those leather helmeted racing pioneers ventured into the hills of Sicily in 1906 when most civilians had never seen a motor car let alone huge roaring race cars. There were no obvious roads, no fuel stops, no Armco, donkeys and children on the dust tracks and your mechanic sitting by your side. I recommend the read.

The first surprise for me is that the pits hit you out of nowhere. They are in the middle of nowhere. Somehow I had imagined them to be in a town, village but no, you round a bend and bamm, there they are, in the middle of the wonderful Sicilian countryside. The other thing I never expected was it to be so quiet, the pits have a mildly eerie feel. It really is very easy to drink in the atmospheric surroundings and even easier to close your eyes and 'hear' the distant roar of a flat six gradually getting louder, hearing the downshifts, bamm, bamm, then the roar of acceleration towards the pit bend and finally into sight in front of the whitewashed stands.

We spent a lot of time at the pits, taking lots of pictures and dreaming of racing days gone by. Then it was off to Cerda to try and replicate another famous race shot. We were now following the actual route of the Targa sampling some of the 295 bends on the total circuit. It's a good surface here and as we climb to Cerda it's easy to get a little frisky with the throttle and push on a bit. We were enjoying ourselves a lot in the sunshine and wallowing in the rich history of the place.

Regards
Mike

[210bhp]

Regards
Mike

[kitten1]

In places it was like coming down a set of stairs.



Wow...I've got palpitations looking at this picture....hope your precious body parts coped with the road stairs.

The whole trip looks amazing.

Margaret & Kit

[bjmullan]

So we made it into Car Magazine and I won the letter of the month and a watch

[silver911]

Brendan,

Saw that pic when I opened my copy... well deserved....great trip

[Mick Cliff]

The words "sartorial" and "elegance" do not spring to mind!

But well done Brendan (and Mike of course!)

[sladey]

Haha - well done Brendan and Mike