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.
The CCM Spitfire was developed by an A-Team division within Clews Competition Machines nicknamed the SkunkwerX – a hat-tip to the legendary Skunk Works team at Lockheed Martin. The Spitfire is very possibly the fastest selling hand-built production motorcycle in the world, when it was announced in 2016 with a limited run of 150 units it sold out…
The 1985 Daytona 200 was a significant race in the career of “Fast” Freddie Spencer, he pulled out a lead early in the race before a mystery engine problem forced him into the pits and out of the race – or so many thought. The engine problem proved to be a gremlin that would disappear…
The eCub is an all-inclusive kit to turn a Honda Cub into a 100% electric motorcycle. The kit is the brainchild of the international team at Shanghai Customs, they spent years working on the engineering and design, the end result is a plug-and-play kit that’s already in use around the world, with eCubs on the…
We damn near had no film. The sinking sun gave us a hard out of around 6:10 pm and my watch read 5:30. Months of planning, a lot of money and the sliver of a reputation I had nearly joined the disappearing daylight.
This series of 26 images were taken in March 1993 by Matt Thompson and his family, on a special birthday trip to the Britten workshop near Christchurch in 1993. These photographs been completely unseen by anyone other than Matt and his family for the past 26 years. 1993 was a big year for the John…
The Honda QA50 K0 Minibike was released as a 1970 model and sold as varying successor models until 1975. It was a fascinating dabble into a very niche market by Honda – the off-road minibike market for children. As well as their fathers, mothers, siblings, uncles, aunties, grandparents, and anyone else who might like the…
