This captivating photograph of Bob Burman and the Blitzen Benz always makes me stop and pause for a moment, I still contend that it’s one of the best photographs I’ve ever seen.
It was taken in 1911 about a month after he set the new world record in the car (141.94 mph). This was roughly twice the speed of the aircraft of the era and the record remained unbroken for almost 10 years.
Blitzen Benz in German means “Lightning Benz” which I think you’ll agree, is one of the greatest car names in human history.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
The BMW M1 was built almost entirely thanks to retired racing driver and head of BMW M-division Jochen Neerpasch, who wanted to challenge Porsche in Group 5 racing, but needed a new purpose-built car to do it. The BMW M1 The project to design and build the car was contracted to Lamborghini – as BMW…
The 1932 Ford “Blue Boy” Roadster is about as close to the perfect highboy hot rod as we’re ever likely to see. It was conceived by industrial designer Jack Boxstrom and constructed over a two year period by the highly-regarded Longley Restorations, specialists in post-war traditional hot rod building. The build started with an original…
The Laverda 750 SFC Elettronica is the most desirable of the Italian company’s first big twins, and it’s not just sought-after for its looks – the 750 SFC took a slew of major endurance racing wins in the early 1970s against the best in the world. The Laverda 750 SFC – The Big Twin The…
This Ford Model T Track-Nose is one of the most well-known hot rods of its era, it was built by Jack Thompson with help from Claude Hampson, and it appeared in the August 1958 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. Track-Nose hot rods have a distinctive look that sets them apart from their more traditional counterparts,…
The Honda CR750 is an exceptionally rare motorcycle, the factory-built examples like the one shown here are even rarer still. The original idea to build a full race version of the Honda CB750 didn’t start in Japan, it was the idea of the American importers who well understood the importance of the old phrase “Win…
This beautifully detailed Ayrton Senna sculpture is a life-size piece by celebrated artist Paul Oz, it’s comprised of 160 kilograms of raw bronze, and it carries the not-insignificant price tag of £199,000 (approximately $256,000 USD). In 1993 Senna said “If you take away Eau Rouge, you take away the reason why I do this”, for…
