Snapshot, 1963: Vertical crash testing with a Porsche 904

Modern-day crash testing is a hugely complex procedure involving winches, valuable dummies and ultra-slow-motion cameras. Back in the mid-60s, however, Porsche used a slightly less complicated (but equally spectacular) method of testing the effects of a head-on collision…

Today, Porsche operates a dedicated crash testing facility in Weissach, filled to the brim with cutting-edge technology designed to pinpoint even the very slightest weakness in a new car’s body structure. Before this facility was in operation, however, a large crane and Newton’s law of universal gravitation were employed – as this Porsche 904 Carrera GTS sports-racer, captured at the moment of impact, rather alarmingly illustrates. To pass stringent FIA certification, Porsche’s engineers calculated that dropping the 904’s 530kg empty bodyshell from a height of 10m would accurately simulate a 30mph impact. More than 70 of these types of tests were carried out in total, on various models, testing the front, rear and roof structures. It was this kind of meticulous testing and attention to detail that helped Porsche, with the lightweight 904, to claim a series of victories, including an outright win at the 1964 Targa Florio.

Photo: Porsche Classic

You can find several Porsche 904s for sale in the Classic Driver Market.

Snapshot, 1957: Preparing for the Le Mans 23 Hours

To finish first, first you must finish’ is the old adage – a fact the drivers of this handsome Ferrari were reminded of during the final stages of arguably the world’s toughest endurance race…

Celebrated motorsport photographer and cameraman Jesse Alexander pans his handheld cine-camera into the cockpit of the blue-and-red number 27 Ferrari 500 TRC, shortly before the start of the 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans. Driven by French privateer duo Fernand Tavano and Jacques Péron, the 1985cc four-cylinder sports-racer failed to finish the race, however, retiring with engine problems on lap 235, in the 23^rd hour. A second Ferrari 500 TRC, entered by the Belgian Ecurie Francorchamps team, finished seventh overall, scoring a class victory.

Photo: Klemantaski Collection via Getty Images

Snapshot, 1965: Give her a hand, chaps!

Sure, the 1960s were a very different time in France – but we’re pretty certain, even back then, that it was customary for the lady to take the back seat in the event of a breakdown...

There’s very little information available regarding the circumstances surrounding this image, other than that it was snapped by a Paris Match photographer during the filming of relatively obscure French movie ‘Déclic et des Claques’ in the mid-1960s. The giggling gaggle of Frenchmen on board appear to be enjoying their ride so much they don’t realise the coachbuilt saloon is being powered not by a large-capacity engine, but rather a petite (and surprisingly cheerful) woman. We’re sure the feminists of the era would approve. 

Photo: Jean-Claude Sauer/Paris Match via Getty Images

Snapshot, 1970: A gentleman on land and in the air

He was the first racing driver to win the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Formula 1 World Championship. But Graham Hill wanted to go higher...

Both on and off the racetrack, he was an English gentleman through and through. It is no wonder that Graham Hill, with his pencil moustache and long, carefully combed-back hair, was soon discovered by Hollywood: John Frankenheimer cast the F1 World Champion in 1966 for his filmGrand Prix. Nine years later, he starred in the action extravaganza Caravan to Vaccarès, as a helicopter pilot in a film based loosely on the novel of the same name, by Alistair MacLean. As planned, the film appearances raised Graham Hill's profile even higher; in this photo from 1970, he poses patiently before his Lotus Elan and Piper Aztec, an aircraft he piloted himself. His luck in aviation, however, ran out – on a foggy November night in 1975, he missed the runway during a landing in southern England. Along with four Embassy Hill team members, Great Britain lost one of its greatest racing legends.

Photo: Tony Evans/Getty Images

Snapshot, 1952: I don’t drink coffee, I take tea, my dear...

It’s Easter Monday 1952 and, to the surprise of the spectators, young Englishman Mike Hawthorn has just beaten last year’s World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio in Goodwood’s Chichester Cup. However, Hawthorn’s countrymen Stirling Moss and Geoff Duke are too preoccupied to notice…

At the time, Duke was actually contracted as a factory rider for Norton Motorcycles. However, Goodwood’s Easter meeting saw him take to four wheels in anger for the first time, piloting an Aston Martin DB3 – the car he was later enlisted to drive for the Works team, as it happens. Here, we see him sharing tea with Stirling Moss, with whom he is about to compete in the much-anticipated Easter Handicap race. After being given a 25-second head-start, Duke pips Moss’s Jaguar XK120 to the post, placing a respectable third overall. Perhaps his pre-showdown brew was actually a double espresso?

Photo by Ronald Startup/Picture Post/Getty Images

Snapshot, 1965: Fast pussycats, fast cars!

Banished from widespread release other than at late-night showings, Russ Meyer’s exploitation movies of the 60s and 70s often involved low-budget orgies and luscious female leads...

Strong women behind the wheel

'Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!' remains valued as a budget, politically-incorrect masterpiece of alternative film, starring three strippers Varla, Rosie and Billie on a troubling road trip through the Californian desert. Billie drove an MGA, Rosie a Triumph TR3, and Varla a Porsche 356.

"The Porsche was one of Russ Meyer’s cars and was grey both outside and inside," recalled actressTura Satana in a 2003 interview. "Russ loved women and he wanted to show that women can be strong too. Therefore, I should drive his Porsche. He was quick, hip - and I was the unstoppable woman behind his wheel."

Photos: Rex

Snapshot, 1994: Move along, there’s nothing to see here

What looked like a tragic pile-up involving several especially well-dressed young people was in fact a promotional campaign, with which Diesel caused a sensation in the early 90s. Photographer Pierre Winther was responsible for setting the scene…

In 1993, Diesel jeans engaged photographer Pierre Winther to develop a new visual language and to reposition the brand. In cooperation with advertising agency Paradiset from Stockholm, Winther developed the ‘Successful Living’ campaign, in which he placed young models in some grotesque and provocative scenarios. The colourful, ironic and controversial photo series captured attention everywhere – and helped Diesel to its huge worldwide success. Now, a new photo book evocatively titled ‘Nothing Beats Reality’ showcases Winther’s revolutionary editorial and advertising campaigns, for companies such as Diesel, Dunhill and Finlandia.

Photo: Pierre Winther / TeNeues

Further information about ‘Nothing Beats Reality’ can be found at teneues.com.

Snapshot, 1976: A rare bird touches down in Rio

The Cariocas (or natives of Rio de Janeiro, in case you're unfamiliar with the term), are an unflappable bunch, as a rule. But in 1976, a rare bird spread its wings above the famous Christ the Redeemer statue, stirring the inhabitants below into a frenzy of awe…

On 21 January 1976, two Concordes simultaneously completed their maiden journeys out of Europe: the British Airways machine flew from London to Bahrain, while its Air France sister streaked from Paris to Rio, via Dakar. Twice a week, the supersonic bird left Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport en route to Brazil, a journey that took just over 11 hours. One of the flight’s most prominent passengers was James Bond, who completed the cross-continental ‘hop’ over to Rio in the 1979 film Moonraker. However, the glamorous connection wasn’t as popular as Air France predicted, and was discontinued in 1982. 

Snapshot, 1961: Kisses for Jean-Luc Godard

It began in Geneva; and the relationship between Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina was, in the actress's own words, "A strange love story from the beginning... we were like animals."

While shooting the film ‘The Little Soldier’ in Geneva in 1960, the magnetic attraction between the young actress and the film director proved irresistible and Karina left her boyfriend to be with Godard. The pair married in 1961 but it didn’t last long. Divorce followed a bare two (unhappy) years later. But this picture, taken in 1961, shows only the early passion and none of the later troubles. If only life were always that good.

Photo:  Jean-Claude Sauer/Paris Match via Getty Images

Snapshot, 1955: Eugenio Castellotti prepares for the Mille Miglia

It’s 30 April, 1955 – and Ferrari Works driver Eugenio Castellotti is in high spirits. The sun is shining, a gaggle of women swarm around him, and his Ferrari 121 LM awaits him in the Piazza Vittoria in Brescia for the start of the Mille Miglia. His four-cylinder steed retires with engine failure shortly after the start – but Castellotti’s career suffers no such damage. Ultimately, he participates in 14 World Championship Grands Prix, enters the Carrera Panamericana and 12 Hours of Sebring, and shares a cockpit at the 'Ring with Fangio. But Castellotti was perhaps just as famous for his lifestyle off the track: he bought his first Ferrari aged 20, wore impeccably tailored suits and wafer-thin watches, and was romantically attached to famous Italian ballerina Delia Scala.

Photo: Klemantaski Collection/Getty Images

Snapshot, 1963: Look mum – one hand!

It’s 11 September 1963 and Steve McQueen, casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, burbles through the streets of London on his Triumph TR6. What do you suppose the insurance is costing him?

Less than three months have passed since John Sturges' film ‘The Great Escape’ celebrated its world premiere at London's Odeon Leicester Square – in which Steve McQueen’s character had catapulted his motorcycle over a barbed-wire fence in his attempts to escape the German soldiers. However, although McQueen often performed his own stunts, he admitted on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show that the daring leap had – for the sake of insurance – been performed instead by stuntman Bud Ekins. What the insurance agent would have said about his client’s negligence in this photograph, without a helmet and with only one hand on the handlebars, can only be imagined.

Photo: Michel Descamps/Paris Match via Getty Images

Snapshot, 1968: Who designed the legendary Ferrari P5?

At the 1968 Geneva Motor Show, Pininfarina impressed with the Ferrari 250 P5 Berlinetta Speciale. The design study of a super-sportscar with a V12 mid-mounted engine, based on the P4, boasted aerodynamic developments. In this image taken in the Pininfarina studio in Turin, however, Sergio Pininfarina is contentedly sucking a pipe while another man works at the drawing board. The man in the plaid suit is Pininfarina's brother-in-law, Renzo Carli, who took over as general manager of Carrozzeria Pininfarina in 1958 – and, as a trained engineer, he was also very interested in the technical development of new models. But pencil and paper were not to be their only tools: four years later, Pininfarina and Carli established one of the world's first wind tunnels. Meanwhile, the P5’s most obvious influence was the glass engine cover, used in Ferrari production models right up to today.

Photo: Giorgio Lotti/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images

Snapshot, 1965: David Bailey rolls through London

It’s August 1965, and photographer (and renowned womaniser) David Bailey has just tied the knot with the French actress, Catherine Deneuve. In a drop-top Rolls-Royce, the couple cruises through London – the culmination of the ‘Swinging Sixties’…

As the chronicler of the Swinging Sixties, David Bailey played an essential part in the creative scene, famously documenting the stars of the time, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Vogue magazine alone printed hundreds of his fashion photographs over the years – the magazine’s then-US Creative Director Grace Koddington later reported, “It was the sixties, a wild time, and David Bailey was devastatingly handsome. Every woman wanted to stand in front of his camera.”

One of the ladies in Bailey’s focus was the young French actress Catherine Deneuve, who had risen to fame thanks to a role in Roman Polanski’s 1965 flick, ‘Repulsion’. On 19 August, the glamorous pair married in London but Bailey, known as the ‘eternal bachelor’, would be eligible again by 1972. 

Photo: Getty Images via http://www.classicdriver.com

Snapshot, 1969: Who set the Miura among the Peugeots?

In the late 1960s, Paul Bouvot was responsible for Peugeot’s series models in his role as chief designer. But he secretly yearned for a more exotic automobile…

From the 1950s onwards, Bouvot worked on Peugeot’s new small saloons and coupés but, after closing time, his wish was to drive home in something more sporty. He’d already owned many Ferraris and, by the end of the 1960s, he had his eye on a new Ferrari 275 GTB/4. Bouvot was well-connected, so asked his Italian friend Sergio Pininfarina – who had designed several cars for Peugeot – whether he could quickly source him such a car. However, before the Turinese designer had the chance to look, Bouvot snapped up a Lamborghini Miura – penned by Pininfarina’s rival Bertone, of course.

Car park surprise

The next time Pininfarina was in Paris, he spotted the white Lamborghini in the employee car park surrounded by modest Peugeots, and was highly amused at the cheeky design chief’s bravado. Next morning, Alain Peugeot took a birds-eye picture of the ironic scene, wrote a tongue-in-cheek message on his business card, and left both on Bouvot's desk.

But Bouvot soon experienced a sobering moment. While on a drive with a friend in his Bertone-bodied supercar, a pebble jammed the throttle open at 140mph. The only way he could stop the car was to withdraw the ignition key; at 110mph, it pirouetted twice in the rain, yet they came to a stop, somehow unharmed. The next day, the wild bull was sold.

Photo: Archiv Marc Bouvot

You can read the full story of designer, artist and sports car lover Paul Bouvot soon on Classic Driver. In the meantime, you can search the Classic Driver Market for various Ferrari 275 GTB/4s, Lamborghini Miuras - and of course, a few Peugeots.

Snapshot, 1965: Smokin' hot Sophia can’t stop…

Remember when smoking in bars, boardrooms and restaurants was the norm? Well, lighting up in cars might soon become a thing of the past, too – a rule to which a young Sopia Loren would no doubt object…

Those who grew up in the immediately post-War decades will no doubt remember the sight of children innocently playing I-Spy in the back seats of the family car, while their parents worked their way through a box of Chesterfields or Prince Denmarks up front – often with the windows open not even a crack. Thankfully, we’re a little more health-conscious in today’s society, though a period image of someone mid-smoke, deep in thought, still evokes a certain nostalgia. Particularly when that someone is Sophia Loren. Taking a rare five minutes to herself, she’s become lost in a smoke-filled daydream; but at least she’s opened the window.

Photo: Getty Images

Snapshot, 1967: Window-shopping in Mayfair with the Bee Gees

In 1967, we find Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb admiring Bentleys and Rolls-Royces through the window of renowned automotive dealer Jack Barclay’s Berkeley Square showroom. But with international success imminent, they won’t need to window-shop for much longer…

After some early success in Australia, the brothers Gibb have returned to their homeland, where Beatles promoter Brian Epstein has taken control of the band’s management duties. He passes a demo tape to producer Robert Stigwood – who immediately hands them a five-year record deal, pretty much unheard-of at the time. From this moment, the fortunes of Barry, Robin and Maurice rise steeply, and the luxury saloons sold by the likes of Jack Barclay have all of a sudden become a reality: Christmas will see Stigwood buy the trio a 1948 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith as a festive reward. An Aston Martin DB6 and a Mini Cooper soon join the fleet, as does a Mulliner-bodied Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud – which is promptly crashed by Maurice while rushing to a party. A far cry from the not-so-distant days of noses pressed up against plate-glass windows.

Photo: Getty

You can find Bentleys and Rolls-Royces for sale in the Classic Driver Market.

Snapshot, 1950s: Cat on a hot tin roof

It’s the mid-1950s, and Anita Ekberg sits on a cream-coloured Jaguar Roadster, smiling disarmingly for the camera. Only a few years earlier, the Swedish actress had been a finalist in the 1951 ‘Miss Universe’ pageant – but her greatest successes are still to come…

Although she spoke very little English at the time, in 1955 Anita Ekberg appeared alongside John Wayne and Lauren Bacall, with a small part in ‘Blood Alley’. Soon after, when she appeared with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the press began to call her ‘the Marilyn Monroe of Paramount Studios’. The role of her life, however, was in 1960: Federico Fellini’s ‘La Dolce Vita’ on the glittering life of the Roman gentry, including an unforgettable scene with Ekberg in Rome’s Fontana di Trevi. Anita Ekberg died last weekend, at the age of 83. 

Photo: Rex Features

Snapshot, 1970: Don’t shoot, Michael!

There are a thousand reasons to vote for the 1971 film ‘Get Carter’ as the best British gangster movie of all time...

We especially like the uniquely casual elegance of Michael Caine: his impeccable dark blue mohair suit (most likely tailored by Douglas Hayward in Mayfair, who also dressed Roger Moore’s James Bond), the large enamel cufflinks, the gold Rolex Oyster Datejust with brown leather strap and, of course, the gun, which appears so threatening on camera – but is never once fired in the film. 

Photo: Getty Images

For a detailed article on the ‘Killer Suit’ worn by Michael Caine in Get Carter, click here. The appropriate Rolex Oyster can be found in the Classic Driver watch market.

Snapshot, 1961: Give us a smile, Brigitte!

While today’s ‘celebrities’ assume the role of photographer with their smartphone selfies (Kim Kardashian’s assistant supposedly reminds her thrice a day to take one), that duty in bygone days was assumed by a professional with a heavy Rolleiflex...

However, this lack of first-person control meant they were often caught off-guard in the tabloids, with a mouthful of food, a bad hair day – or like Ms Bardot above, a moody scowl. Taken during her winter holidays in 1961, she appears bored with being the centre of attention. It’s no wonder: in the 1960s, she was the most photographed woman in the world, and could probably still hear shutters snapping in her sleep. Had Twitter existed back then, BB’s status update would probably have read simply “#BBB”: Bored Beyond Belief.

Photo by Paul Popper/Popperfoto/Getty Images

Snapshot, 1950s: What brought these Aston Martin DB2s out in the snow?

Given the level of rustproofing (or lack thereof) in the 1950s, it’s understandably rare to see an Aston Martin DB2 put to work in the snow – let alone two. But look closer at the picture, and you’ll find a valid reason…

The two gentlemen in the image have braved a snowstorm in order to visit a home-made pie restaurant. Judging by the build-up on their elegant Astons, it appears they might have stayed for a digestif or two to warm the bones. Now they’re faced with a dilemma: how will they get home to the comfort of an open fire?

You can find many now-rustproofed Aston Martin DB2s for sale in the Classic Driver Market.