"Auto racing began 5 minutes after the second car was built."
- Henry Ford
"Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines."
- Enzo Ferrari
"If you’re in control, you’re not going fast enough."
- Parnelli Jones
"Auto racing began 5 minutes after the second car was built."
- Henry Ford
"Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines."
- Enzo Ferrari
"If you’re in control, you’re not going fast enough."
- Parnelli Jones
"You win some, you lose some, you wreck some."
- Dale Ernhardt Sr
"And that just shows you how important the car is in Formula One Racing."
- Murray Walker
"Rene Arnoux is coming into the pits ... let's stop the startwatch"
- Murray Walker
Dick Johnson driving around Winton in his Sierra: "Its like trying to run a marathon around the bloddy clothes line!"
Eddie irvine or Jean Alesi once said whilst at Ferrari "We are testing two different cars for next year: one is F&$ked and the other one is totally f*#ked!"
"Simplify, then add lightness."
- Colin Chapman
"Straight roads are for fast cars, turns are for fast drivers."
- Colin McRae
"Driving in Monte Carlo is like riding a bike in your house."
- Nélson Piquet
Neil Crompton to Dick Johnson, live radio exchange during Bathurst...
"Good morning Dick Johnson, what is it like out there?"
Classic Johnson response...
"Mate I'm busier than a dog trying to bury a bone in a marble floor."
I can't remember the exact quote from DJ at Bathhurst when there were different makes and capacities but to the effect of complaining about the slower, smaller cars getting in his way, referred to as overtaking "a load of wombats in billy carts".
Brian Redman addressed us at an after race function once back in the 70's.
Like Frank Gardners earlier quotes, Brian told us, that he got the call from Porsche to drive the 917. They took him to view the car, and asked him what he thought.
" I think it is a good car for Douglas Bader" (WWII Flying Ace with wooden legs)
When he drove it for the first time it started to rain. He turned on the wiper and it flew off the car. He was just getting out when the Germans asked him what he was doing. He told them the wiper flew off and it was starting to rain.
They told him "you will now drive the 917". He complained, and they then told him.
"You can go slow"
ERC.......that sounds like the sort of thing ex pastry cook, Allan Grice would say.
I'm sure the Australian posters on here will sort us out.
Quote from SCH Davis......1931......'Motor racing is a wonderful game. Drivers will experience that strangely fascinating mixture of good fortune and disaster, of difficulties and sudden unexpected luck, which makes the whole thing what it is'.
Two weeks to go!!!!!!!!
Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser. Period.
Keke Rosberg
"Mate, it's like following a block of flats"
Dick Johnson on trying to pass the Franicivec Volvo
[QUOTE=zombie289;22495]Dick Johnson driving around Winton in his Sierra: "Its like trying to run a marathon around the bloddy clothes line!"
Not trying to be picky but the quote was "Its like Robert De Costella trying to run a marathon around the bloody clothes line" RDC was a long distance runner since knighted which quaintly makes Deek's point. Not that there is very much that is quaint about Deek.
Somebody might wish to re-tell the joke Deek made live during Bathurst about the Green Grocer and his assistant from Eketahuna.
The Mustang was up on ramps, in the pits at Warwick Farm, and we were looking at the under-side of the engine. There was no sump, no crank, etc......just some broken studs, and a few drops of oil dripping from a very sad-looking block. Pete Geogehgan and Mick Lambert were sitting on chairs, next to the car.
A young fellow walked up, had a look, and said "s#%t, what happened?"
Pete replied "F-f-f-fan belt b-b-broke, mate".
I have looked in vain to confirm this story and cannot for the life of me verify the source, so this is coming from memory. In 1966 Jackie Stewart crashed in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps and found himself trapped in the car, with petrol leaking from a ruptured fuel tank. From then on he became a vocal advocate for greater safety in motor racing, attracting for himself a good deal of criticism and opprobrium. Among many other safety innovations that resulted from this campaign during the late '60s and early 70's was detachable steering wheels to ease access to the cockpit, especially egress of course. Later in his career, when driving for the taciturn Ken Tyrrell, Stewart had an incident that caused him to abandon his car out on the circuit somewhere. He removed the steering wheel to prevent someone pilfering it (probably Monza...) and trudged disconsolately back to the pits clutching the steering wheel. When Tyrrell spied him he allegedly shouted to the hapless driver: "Is that what broke, or is that all that's left?"
"Mate this thing couldnt pull a sick baby off the family po'. " - Dick Johnson on his underperforming Sierra.
"For fxxx's sake, don't light a cigarette." - John French, upside down
"Sorry Mr K., it's not your day."
I remember Dick Johnson commenting during a Bathurst on the in car camera prob late 70s " Oh mate i'm busier than a one arm paper hanger in Beirut"
Murray Walker
"Unless I am very much mistaken.... I AM very much mistaken!"
"Mansell is slowing down, taking it easy. Oh no he isn't IT'S A LAP RECORD."
"This is an interesting circuit, because it has inclines. And not just up, but down as well."
"The lead car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it which is identical."
"Tambay's hopes, which were nil before, are absolutely zero now."
"And there's no damage to the car. Except to the car itself."
"That's the first time he had started from the front row in a Grand Prix, having done so in Canada earlier this year."
"How you can crash into a wall without it being there in the first place is beyond me!"
"Excuse me while I interrupt myself"
"And the first five places are filled by five different cars."
"It's lap 26 of 58, which unless I'm very much mistaken is half way."
"Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin. Unless this is the action, which it is!"
"I can't imagine what kind of problem Senna has. I imagine it must be some sort of grip problem."
"He's obviously gone in for a pit stop. I say obviously, because I cannot see anything."
"And the first three cars are all Escorts, which isn't surprising as this is an all Escort race."
"He is exactly 10 seconds ahead, or more approximately, 9.86 seconds."
"Look up there! That's the sky!"
"There's nothing wrong with his car except that it's on fire."
"As you look at the first four, the significant thing is that Alboreto is fifth."
"He's the only man on the track, except for his car."
"That's history. I say history because it happened in the past."
I don't make mistakes. I make prophecies which immediately turn out to be wrong.
I should imagine that the conditions in the cockpit are totally unimaginable.
Even in five years time, he will still be four years younger than Damon Hill.
He can't decide whether to leave his visor half open or half closed.
I've no idea what Eddie Irvine's orders are, but he's following them superlatively well.
"Do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna's Lotus sounding rough ?"
"So Bernie [Ecclestone], in the seventeen years since you bought McLaren, which of your many achievements do you think was the most memorable ?" Bernie Answers, "Well I don't remember buying McLaren." [Bernie Ecclestone used to own the Brabham team].
Murray: "What's that? There's a BODY on the track!!!"
James: "Um, I think that that is a piece of BODY-WORK, from someone's car."
Murray: And look at the flames coming from the back of Berger's McLaren
James: Actually, Murray, they're not flames, it's the safety light.
"As you can see, visually, with your eyes..."
"Andrea de Cesaris...the man who has won more Grands Prix than anyone else without actually winning one of them."
"
"And Edson Arantes di Nascimento, commonly known to us as Pele, hands the award to Damon Hill, commonly known to us as Damon Hill."
"Are they on a one-stopper? Are they on a two? And when I say they, who do I mean? Well, I don't know. It could be anybody."
"Fantastic! There are four different cars filling the first four places."
"If the gloves weren't off before, and they were, they sure are now!"
"Now he must not go the wrong way round the circuit, and unless he can spin himself stationary through 360 degrees I fail to see how he can avoid doing so."
"Prost can see Mansell in his earphones."
"There are seven winners of the Monaco Grand Prix on the starting line today, and four of them are Michael Schumacher."
"This will be Williams' first win since the last time a Williams won."
"Well, now we have exactly the same situation as at the beginning of the race, only exactly opposite."
My take that day was " Mate I am busier than a bricklayer in Beirut" or in a later cross "glazier" was inserted.
The classic was after passing someone " when I look in the mirror all I can see is their teeth which look like the keys on an old pub piano - some black, some white and some missing"