Saturday, July 27, 2013

SOVREN 2013 - Vintage Racing Rocks

A few weeks ago, July 7th to be precise, I headed down to Pacific Raceways to soak in some vintage racing, via the yearly SOVREN event.  If you dig vintage race cars and/or vintage racing, a must attend for the Seattle area.  The event spans three days, so plenty of interesting cars, people, and racing action to witness.

Vintage racing historical expert I'm not, but recognize some of these cars from poking around various car magazines over the years.  Seeing 'em for real, actually increases my interest to learn more about 'em and the history involved.  Vintage cars, race or street, interest me more then modern vehicles anyway.  Fantastic body designs, slightly crude engineering, very mechanical, but dead serious.  There's a mechanical directness and purity involved, not found with modern cars.

Last year was my first attending this shindig, so I penciled it in for this summer.  Some Pics 'N' Words from the day...





Fantastic looking Porsche 908.  Probably my favorite car of the day, at the top of the list anyway.





Rear view of 908, sharing lunch in the shade.  Pit area is wide open access, excellent for getting up close, taking photos, or chatting with folks.





Gaggle of Datsun Roadsters, courtesy of local Datsun club - Northwest Datsun Enthusiasts (NWDE).  My pal Dave is a member owns a few vintage Datsuns.  Other clubs had various cars on display, plenty to gawk at besides actual race cars.





Porsche 908 in action.  Seeing and hearing these examples of race history is always a thrill.





Porsche 917 in flight.  Not easy getting super close to the circuit for photos.  300 mm zoom to the rescue.





2013 or 1973?  Hard to tell...





Falcon on the attack.  I'm more of the foreign car guy, but get a kick out of these V8 powered American TRANS-AM (ish) type cars.  Loud, fast, very cool.







This SOVREN event spotlighted 50 years of the iconic Porsche 911.  Many nice 911s in attendance, including these two captured at speed.





Well prepped '69 Alfa Romeo GTV on the fly.  Later in the race, crunched from impact with tire wall.  I met and hung out with these folks a bit during the day, great sense of humor and enthusiasm for the sport - even while loading up the very damaged GTV for the drive home.





Datsun Z on the move and further example of why vintage car body design rocks.





Dance of the 911s.





A beacon in a parking lot of blandness.  Really nice BMW 2002 beams with color and personality.





Another parking lot find in form of vintage Ferrari.  Daily driver?  Probably not.





Porsche 917 at rest between races.  These are not static displays, they're living examples to be enjoyed and raced hard.





Yes please.  Utterly fantastic era for race cars.





Vintage shapes and graphics - a fast moving canvas - awesome.





Very quick Porsche Speedster blurs the competition.





Another sweet example of Alfa GTV, probably the best looking road car ever produced.







My ignorance at play here, not familiar of exact era and history of these cars - but perfect looking to me - pre wings, open mechanical look, and exhaust system art.  Photo geek me would love to shoot these cars, minus the background clutter.





Flying aluminum egg.





Aunt Marge must be pretty cool...





Very trick looking 911.  Agree?




After a few zillion photos taken and two SOVREN events under my belt, I plan to make this a yearly gig.  Huge collection of historic autos, cool vibe, and open access to all - make this event a must see for anyone interested in such tomfoolery.  And that would be me, sign me up for next July.

For the remaining pics, bit of slideshow.  Enjoy...








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