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A car life

A Car Life, by Larry Crane

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Following Le Mans veteran Oliver Mathai, in the Aston Martin DBS, through the Ford chicanes in Aston’s 2009 V8 Vantage.

Aston Martin’s latest V8 Vantage benefits from 80 years of development for the 24 Hours of Le Man and we chase its history on the storied circuitton

Photos by Nick Dimbleby, Pete Robain and Ian Dawson

Cornering hard into the Ford Chicane–second gear–very tight. How do the LMP cars do this? We have entered from a back corner of the paddock and it is a curious place to begin a lap. Full power up the long hill past the pits, all the way to top gear; two quick clicks down to fourth at the top of the hill and into the new Dunlop curves surrounded by acres of gravel and quickly to the esses and the forest.
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A Car Life, by Larry Crane

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Rounding Creg-ny-Baa en route to famous Kate’s Cottage (in reverse direction from the TT) with the roar of 16 tiny Bugatti cylinders. During the Manx TT super bikes round the Cottage corner with knee-down and descend this hill at 160 mph+.

Italophiles in the Emerald Isles

This is the Cranes we’re talking about here. When we did a tour if England and Tracy’s ancestral home on the Isle of Man, we borrowed an Alfa Romeo 164 for the trip. We started with a run up to Liverpool and took the Steam Packet (four-hour, deep water ferry) to the Island.
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A Car Life, by Larry Crane

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DRIVING BUGS


The Veyron, above is a modern interpretation of a pur sang Bugatti. The EB 110 below, while a brilliant engineering exercise, is not; all that went into Artioli’s factory.

EB 110

An Italian Interpretation

It’s clean and comfortable in here. The engine idles so smoothly it’s hard to know if you need the clutch to get into first. The seats are more Bentley than Bugatti, in fact, the dash is burl walnut not razor-edged, retro racer. In an effort to make the world’s fastest and most expensive commuter the “exotic” element has simply been eliminated.
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A Car (Wife) by Larry Crane

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lancia
Tracy Crane (nee Stuart) and her 1600cc Alfa Sprint coming down through Laguna Seca’s famous Corkscrew, running away from a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing.

Tracy Stuart quit college to take an advertised position as librarian’s assistant at Road & Track magazine. Legend has it that the first words she spoke to her new boss, Otis Meyer, on her first day in the library were: “Who’s single?”

Otis later remembered thinking, “Crane’s in trouble.”

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A Car Life, by Larry Crane

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lancia
The Crane B20 near the top of the Stelvio Pass in northern Italy in an attempt to duplicate a photo in the 1955 Lancia calendar.

“Of all the cars you’ve owned, which would you like to have back?” Always a popular question from friends who have most of their life’s income carefully invested rather than using it for an endless string of automotive experiences and adventures.
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A Car Life, by Larry Crane

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crane heroes
International champions spellbound by their hero, Rene Dreyfus (in blue sportscoat), at the 1976 Long Beach Vintage Grand Prix.

Heroes

Joel Finn had been my host for nearly a week. We were assembling the pieces for his soon to be produced history of Ferrari’s 250 Testa Rossa. As I prepared my luggage for a next-day departure, he suggested I leave a little earlier the next morning to have time to stop in Manhattan for lunch at Le Chanteclair Restaurant and Bar on 18 East 49th, the legend-filled necessary stop for every one in the world of motor sport. [Read more…] about A Car Life, by Larry Crane

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