Last Call- Street Hoods Edition
Located in the western-most part of Berlin, what was once Germany’s 5.15-mile Avus Circuit is now part of the region’s highway network. It’s difficult to say however whether or not those who ply it today are quite as fashionable as this Jag 120, and Benz 190 pilots were back in 1956.
Image: [artnet.com]
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So that's what the mothers of Rammstein looked like
I'd have to go with the 120, though the dames might have been able to affect that choice. A few years ago, friends drive us out that way, in a clapped out Merkur, and I had this overwhelming feeling of deja vu. Yes, they said, this highway used to be a racetrack, as we sped by a vine encrusted grandstand.
There's a certain nuance of style here that we can't even come close to, nowadays. Big LED billboards, bar of soap looking cars, and rail thin babes in whatever is hip right now can't compare to this. This, to me, just whispers class. I just like the looks of what we see here.
I wish there was a place on this planet that still looked–still felt–like this. Massive banks, what looks like brick pavement, swoopy cars and dames. Not chicks, not babes, not beach bunnies, not hotties. Dames.
Brooklands, Monza, and not much else. Too little maintenance and too much development pressure have cleared away most of the wonderful old tracks. And safety regs have made most of the rest into overgrown slot car tracks.
This is how it looks today. Now I understand what they mean by "the good old days".
<img src="http://theracingline.net/racingcircuits/archives/Avus/sk05-06.jpg"width="500"/>
IRRC, that tower is sort of at the dwindly end of a big convention complex (Messe). The good news is that a portion of the track is the base of the Autobahn there, heading west from Berlin towards Potsdam. You might as well be Carraciola!
Wow. Forty-ish degrees of banking replaces by what? Five degrees maybe?
<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5TNmpO3ZdVk/TpnQ5eRrwvI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/lGcUKxKhE8E/s1600/129075270897477616.jpg" width=300>
I don't think it hosts any motorsports now. Maybe someone should have suggested that for the Templehoff airport site, that's now a big, flat park, with runways.
Here's a glimpse of the banking in action:
[youtube CuRAFz8wtf4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuRAFz8wtf4 youtube]
Whoa look at that Ferrari climb up that Cooper! Image that at speed! This is four years after '55, I would have expected the fronts and backs of the cars to have been changed with that in mind by then.
And another:
[youtube VPnggxqC0yg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPnggxqC0yg youtube]