And then add the constant spew of oil and gas from the car in front of you, or, the fumes from the 88% methanol (doable) mixed with 9% acetone (imagine burning nail polish remover in gallon sizes!) which would make drivers almost hallucinate. The fumes were a culprit in Nuvolari's declining health for example.
Dick Seaman was, no doubt, one of the finest drivers of the thirties. A real English gentleman too. The father of his wife Erika was a managing director of the BMW company, who later on got into trouble with the nazis.
A race very much like 1966, but John Surtees had the wisdom to deal with the rain and win in his Ferrari 312, Uhlenhaut repeatedly tried to slow Seaman down as he had such a huge lead, if not for the war and his death he might have been England's first World or European champion as they called it in those days. I can't imagine driving a 2000lb, 485 HP GP car on hard bycycle tires with drum brakes, surrounded with brimming fuel tanks in the wet, very brave times!
@Great Idea those were completely different times, most of the the british thought that all those Nazi propaganda were ok and they had a good future, can you believe it? how crazy those times were!
This old course was so fast. An even course would give you 60% the average speed of current F1 cars but here they're doing 80%. A Matra in the early 70's was quicker than a current car on the slower revised course.Herman Laang did. 5:07.5 lap of 9.35 mile course 110 mph. Vettel did 4.335 mile new course in 1:46.8 135 mph. Jacky Icyx in Matra did old postwar 8.7 mile course in 3:11.98 164 mph!
Dick used to be short for Richard back in the day. I don't think people use that anymore for obvious reasons. But it was pretty common until, I guess the 60's or even 70's. Fell out of favor after that I would say.
@@dusankocisevic6823 That was when Chamberlain declared war on Germany but the shooting had already started on 1st September . The Ardennes would play a crucial part in the war. Firstly in 1940, when the Germans rolled their tanks through to attack the French at Sedan, despite few people believing it could be done. Secondly, in 1944, it was the scene of some heavy fighting during the 'Battle of the Bulge'. There was the notorious massacre at Malmedy and the stash of fuel near Stavelot which the Germans missed.
Seaman died on Lap 21, not 13. But there were still 13 laps to go had he made it to the start/finish line. Bernd Rosemeyer, the other great pre-war driver to be killed, believed 13 was his lucky number.
Dick Seaman, you say... From 1.56 on,...travelling up through EuRouge, what speed do you think is he carrying through there? Is it sped up at all? That car is moving!
They ran the film ran at a slower speed then. Not sure why they can't build players that run at the old speed as well as he new speeds, like 33 & 1/3, 45, 78 RPM record players.
Too many to count. The track has a completely different layout with just a few parts being kept, but improved for safety. Now it has half the lenght. Im prettt sure old Spa was simply a good point between highways to race.
@Jonas Bögemann I have been racing the circuit in Grand Prix II and F1 Challenge, also in Project Cars II and it just seems that Eau Rouge was raced on the opposite direction and that they putted the start there.
Okay, I'll try but as someone already pointed out, there are so many differences. I'll start by assuming you know the current layout. The most obvious things about this film are the state of the roads and the proximity of trees. The circuit clearly ran through the Ardennes forest but it's hard to imagine today. In terms of layout the old Eau Rouge complex was slower and for the 1937 race there was actually a hairpin off to the left. You can see where the road breaks off just after the bridge and rejoins as they climb the hill but this feature wasn't used in 1939. After climbing the big right hand/left hand combination at Radillon, the road went through a series of more or less flat out bends which are today replaced by the Kemmel Straight. At the end of the modern Kemmel straight, the new track breaks off to the right, while the old track continued through a very fast right hand bend called Les Combes. Shortly after that, there was a medium speed left hander called Haute de la Cote, which was the highest point of the circuit and the beginning of the fastest part which went past Burnenville, Malmedy, Masta to Stavelot, where the 1937 track went left to a right hand hairpin, which was the lowest part of the circuit, while the 1939 track passed through an extremely fast and challenging right hander which also went over a bridge. The current Stavelot corner is some distance away from the original. They continued up a long hill through Cottage and Carrieres (Quarry), before arriving at Blanchimont, where the old track joins the new again. The old start line was on the other side of the La Source hairpin. There are many maps available of the old track and there is even a video of someone going around the old parts. The old circuit was about 14 kilometres long and just before it was abandoned, it acquired a chicane at Malmedy (which may have also been there for the 1937 was, I'm still trying to find out). The latest lap was by Henri Pescarolo in a 3 litre Matra-Simca sports prototype at 3.13.4 with an average speed of 263 km/h. That figure alone is alarming because while internet people think "Wow, it must be great to go that fast," the drivers hated it because it was so dangerous. It also was long enough that it could be dry on one side of the circuit and wet on the other, as happened in 1966 when half the field went off in pouring rain in the fastest section of the track. Spa claimed a lot of lives. Some bends, like Hollowell, are named after people who were killed there. Seaman crashed at Club corner, which roughly approximates the pit entry today. And of course, there are zero trees... Other places that were notorious for fatal crashes were Malmedy and Blanchimont. It seems more drivers died at Blanchimont that anywhere else. In the end, it simply became impossible to race on it safely and the drivers' objections were eventually noted. The last Grand Prix to be held on the old circuit was in 1970. Pedro Rodrigues in a BRM and Chris Amon in a March duked it out at 240 km/h lap after lap, with the little Mexican eventually taking it out and Amon getting the fastest lap at 3.27.4. By all accounts it was a great race. Grand Prix did not return until 1985.
Many thanks for that footage...A truly interesting time in the history of Grand Prix motorsport! A tragic end to a talented driver, but difficult to feel too sorry for him given his ignorant Nazi leanings...Pjw
So Tragic. And because of his links to Third Reich not rightly plauded. The heart what what it wants and his wife was a beauty Wow the old Spa footage😮
Dick Seaman...perhaps the most-unfortunate name in the world. XD Excellent racer, though, from what I hear. :-) One thing about him really bothers me, though: Why & how in the world could he ever even DREAM of working with NAZIS?! 😬
Cameras back then only took pictures but not audio. So there is no roaring you could hear. When there is old footage with engine sounds then these have been added during production.
Those cars, at those speeds, in those conditions on THAT track.
Crazy.
With trees hanging around
And then add the constant spew of oil and gas from the car in front of you, or, the fumes from the 88% methanol (doable) mixed with 9% acetone (imagine burning nail polish remover in gallon sizes!) which would make drivers almost hallucinate. The fumes were a culprit in Nuvolari's declining health for example.
Dick Seaman was, no doubt, one of the finest drivers of the thirties. A real English gentleman too. The father of his wife Erika was a managing director of the BMW company, who later on got into trouble with the nazis.
Jackie Stewart told me the barbed wire along the track wasn’t to keep cars in, but to keep cows out . . .
"Seaman splashes through Stavelot"
😂
A race very much like 1966, but John Surtees had the wisdom to deal with the rain and win in his Ferrari 312, Uhlenhaut repeatedly tried to slow Seaman down as he had such a huge lead, if not for the war and his death he might have been England's first World or European champion as they called it in those days. I can't imagine driving a 2000lb, 485 HP GP car on hard bycycle tires with drum brakes, surrounded with brimming fuel tanks in the wet, very brave times!
@Great Idea those were completely different times, most of the the british thought that all those Nazi propaganda were ok and they had a good future, can you believe it? how crazy those times were!
Talk about going to war with the elements; this track was brutal in those days.
No mercy for the slightest error or malfunction.
damn, Spa looked awesome even back then
I know it was an epic track
Man. Racing Really Was A Blood Sport Back Then
It was. It was pretty much guaranteed a good portion of the drivers would never retire.
Easily, one of the greatest races and most tragic races of all time
Remembering Archie-Scott Brown!
Lister 3.8 Jaguar Knobby
1957...
This old course was so fast. An even course would give you 60% the average speed of current F1 cars but here they're doing 80%. A Matra in the early 70's was quicker than a current car on the slower revised course.Herman Laang did. 5:07.5 lap of 9.35 mile course 110 mph. Vettel did 4.335 mile new course in 1:46.8 135
mph. Jacky Icyx in Matra did old postwar 8.7 mile course in 3:11.98 164 mph!
Adam Petten Fangio did a 4:20.6 @ 121.9 mph in 1955
Adam Petten ‘
That is why this track has always been my favorite. The speeds were insane. Old footage like this is gold.
1939 was the birth year of Eau Rouge.
Dick used to be short for Richard back in the day. I don't think people use that anymore for obvious reasons. But it was pretty common until, I guess the 60's or even 70's. Fell out of favor after that I would say.
Back when it was a nine mile track.
ok 3:25 I laughed, "Seaman splashes through Stavelot"
?
@@breizhcatalonia1993 do i really need to explain
@@James_57clips When two people love each other very much...
@@thethirdman225 Go on🤨
Wow.. The Eau Rouge sure has changed.
@fixinah Unfortunate naming, eh? lol
God those cars are beautiful!
a sad day for racing with the fatal accident of Dick Seaman
Picture Post were doing a feature on Dick Seaman from getting up and shaving and on to the to the race. I remember reading it.
Wow, you were alive back then?
Kind of crazy to think that the world would be in utter chaos in a few months from this race.
How soon after this race did WW2 begin? It could have only been a month or so.
@@epistte Considering that the last race of that year was the Yugoslavian GP....
@@epistte The Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. This race probably took place in June of 1939.
@@breizhcatalonia1993 on September 3rd……….
@@dusankocisevic6823 That was when Chamberlain declared war on Germany but the shooting had already started on 1st September . The Ardennes would play a crucial part in the war. Firstly in 1940, when the Germans rolled their tanks through to attack the French at Sedan, despite few people believing it could be done. Secondly, in 1944, it was the scene of some heavy fighting during the 'Battle of the Bulge'. There was the notorious massacre at Malmedy and the stash of fuel near Stavelot which the Germans missed.
Race leader Dick Seaman - I think they should ask the SNL’s Sean Connery to narrate this race. Lol!
Seaman died on Lap 21, not 13. But there were still 13 laps to go had he made it to the start/finish line. Bernd Rosemeyer, the other great pre-war driver to be killed, believed 13 was his lucky number.
MixedBag27 his wife said he ran out of seamon!!!!!
@@barrywatts803 may your d€@th be €et with j€€Г$, mi$€raßl€ Гμd€ tГa$h.
Dick Seaman, you say...
From 1.56 on,...travelling up through EuRouge, what speed do you think is he carrying through there? Is it sped up at all? That car is moving!
Sped up film
When your number's up, that's it. Wonder what my number is?
@YouthEnergy
actually its quite similar
why is everything from the old days in FAST FORWARD ? any thoughts...
727 Racing low frame rate.
They ran the film ran at a slower speed then. Not sure why they can't build players that run at the old speed as well as he new speeds, like 33 & 1/3, 45, 78 RPM record players.
The race always goes on
In which things has Spa changed from the old circuit?
Too many to count. The track has a completely different layout with just a few parts being kept, but improved for safety. Now it has half the lenght. Im prettt sure old Spa was simply a good point between highways to race.
@Jonas Bögemann I have been racing the circuit in Grand Prix II and F1 Challenge, also in Project Cars II and it just seems that Eau Rouge was raced on the opposite direction and that they putted the start there.
Okay, I'll try but as someone already pointed out, there are so many differences. I'll start by assuming you know the current layout.
The most obvious things about this film are the state of the roads and the proximity of trees. The circuit clearly ran through the Ardennes forest but it's hard to imagine today.
In terms of layout the old Eau Rouge complex was slower and for the 1937 race there was actually a hairpin off to the left. You can see where the road breaks off just after the bridge and rejoins as they climb the hill but this feature wasn't used in 1939. After climbing the big right hand/left hand combination at Radillon, the road went through a series of more or less flat out bends which are today replaced by the Kemmel Straight.
At the end of the modern Kemmel straight, the new track breaks off to the right, while the old track continued through a very fast right hand bend called Les Combes. Shortly after that, there was a medium speed left hander called Haute de la Cote, which was the highest point of the circuit and the beginning of the fastest part which went past Burnenville, Malmedy, Masta to Stavelot, where the 1937 track went left to a right hand hairpin, which was the lowest part of the circuit, while the 1939 track passed through an extremely fast and challenging right hander which also went over a bridge. The current Stavelot corner is some distance away from the original.
They continued up a long hill through Cottage and Carrieres (Quarry), before arriving at Blanchimont, where the old track joins the new again.
The old start line was on the other side of the La Source hairpin. There are many maps available of the old track and there is even a video of someone going around the old parts.
The old circuit was about 14 kilometres long and just before it was abandoned, it acquired a chicane at Malmedy (which may have also been there for the 1937 was, I'm still trying to find out). The latest lap was by Henri Pescarolo in a 3 litre Matra-Simca sports prototype at 3.13.4 with an average speed of 263 km/h. That figure alone is alarming because while internet people think "Wow, it must be great to go that fast," the drivers hated it because it was so dangerous. It also was long enough that it could be dry on one side of the circuit and wet on the other, as happened in 1966 when half the field went off in pouring rain in the fastest section of the track.
Spa claimed a lot of lives. Some bends, like Hollowell, are named after people who were killed there. Seaman crashed at Club corner, which roughly approximates the pit entry today. And of course, there are zero trees... Other places that were notorious for fatal crashes were Malmedy and Blanchimont. It seems more drivers died at Blanchimont that anywhere else.
In the end, it simply became impossible to race on it safely and the drivers' objections were eventually noted. The last Grand Prix to be held on the old circuit was in 1970. Pedro Rodrigues in a BRM and Chris Amon in a March duked it out at 240 km/h lap after lap, with the little Mexican eventually taking it out and Amon getting the fastest lap at 3.27.4. By all accounts it was a great race.
Grand Prix did not return until 1985.
@@thethirdman225 Excellent.
Where winner this race ?
***** thanks for reply
My man should be glad he wasn't born in a 21st century with a name like that.
OLd Eau Rouge!!!! Heroic times
That's radillion actually
Never argue with a tree....
Many thanks for that footage...A truly interesting time in the history of Grand Prix motorsport! A tragic end to a talented driver, but difficult to feel too sorry for him given his ignorant Nazi leanings...Pjw
“We’ve defeated the wrong enemy...”
-General Patton in Berlin, 1945
Shame about the music; I'd rather hear the cars.
13 & multiples of number. Luck, all bad....
The Germans filmed bloddy =everything=. Incriminating and otherwise. Great stuff.
it's ric seaman I think. his name according to wiki is Richard Seaman
In English, Dick is short for Richard.
Dick is a nickname for Richard. :-) It just HAD to be the one used with his last name! XD
So Tragic. And because of his links to Third Reich not rightly plauded.
The heart what what it wants and his wife was a beauty
Wow the old Spa footage😮
This should be 1938 not 1939.
Radillon was built in 1939, so is correct
Dick Seaman...perhaps the most-unfortunate name in the world. XD Excellent racer, though, from what I hear. :-)
One thing about him really bothers me, though: Why & how in the world could he ever even DREAM of working with NAZIS?! 😬
What totally inapt music ! why do the makers of these brilliant videos not realize that we actually want to hear those cars roaring away ???????
Cameras back then only took pictures but not audio. So there is no roaring you could hear. When there is old footage with engine sounds then these have been added during production.
Maybe if he wasn't racing for the Nazis and throwing up Nazi salutes bad luck wouldn't have came his way.
Idiot.
@@breizhcatalonia1993 , quiet true (also they were his employers, all is explained in the Horizon special ''Supercharged'')