This famous photograph by Michel Monteange shows the pit crew of the Gauthier and Schaller team at the 1969 Bol d’Or endurance motorcycle race held at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry just outside of Paris.
The most immediately noticeable element in the image is the cigarette hanging from the mouth of the no-nonsense chap in the tartan beret pouring the fuel from an old milk jug. The proximity of the cigarette to the petrol has raised many an eyebrow over the years, and it would likely result in the entire scene being blasted with fire extinguishers in any modern pitlane.
The original photographer, Michel Monteange, has partnered with Sails & Rods to produce a very limited edition run of prints of this photograph. Just 50 will be made from the original negative, and you can order sizes from 20x30cm up to 80x120cm.
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.
Shoot The Salt is a documentary covering the first attempt of Jody Perewitz to set a new land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2011. Jody has been around motorcycles her whole life, her father is the larger than life, multi-award winning custom builder Dave Perewitz. Dave has been building custom motorcycles since 1973, including…
This post was written by Anton Knutsson, the founder of Swedish custom motorcycle garage Injustice Customs. When possible we like to bring you the story of a custom in the words of the people who built it to give you insight into their process and methods, and to cut out the middle man. Meet Anton…
If you’d like to vote for this bike to win you can click here to visit the competition page. PJ Grakauskas When PJ Grakauskas was picked to build one of the three custom Indian Bobbers competing with mechanical engineer Christian Newman and NASA engineer Alfredo Juarez, he knew he had his work cut out for him….
Rêve de Gosse is a sculpture by Raoul.W, a French artist with a far better understanding of automobile mechanics and design than most, as he spent decades restoring vintage cars before creating a name for himself as an artist. This piece is titled Rêve de Gosse (Dream Kid), he created it in 2015 by painstakingly…
The Vincent Black Lightning was the fastest and most desirable motorcycle in the world when it was released in 1948. A factory-delivered Black Lightning was capable of 150 mph if you were brave enough, and no small amount of bravery was required as braking technology hadn’t yet caught up with rapidly increasing horsepower levels. The…
Ettore Bugatti was one of the early motoring world’s greatest characters, almost as famous for his gruff and oftentimes hilarious customer service as he was for his engineering genius. On dealing with a customer who was complaining about the lackluster braking performance on his new car Ettore yelled “I make my cars to go, not…
