Englishman Raymond Mays was an avid racer and through a deal with a Bugatti importer he managed to finagle himself a Type 13 to go racing with. He was so obsessed with performance that he had the engine tuned an order of magnitude higher that it could reasonably handle (6,000rpm), which resulted in the above mechanical failure.
His luck wasn’t totally absent though, the 660 lb (300 kg) car remained upright and skidded to a halt just inches from a precipice that would have almost certainly killed him had he gone over.
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.
Tripla 0.0 675 is a series of 5 bespoke Triumph Street Triples from Italian Dream Motorcycle, a company that describes itself as a microscopic motorcycle manufacturer due to the fact that they produce a limited series of motorcycles each year, with a maximum of 5 per series. Sergio Giordano and Italian Dream Motorcycle Italian Dream is an unusual…
Under the hood of the Berardini Bros 1932 Ford was a Flathead V8 so dominant on the 1/4 mile drag strips of the LA-area in the 1950s that the very sound of it would strike fear into the hearts of its competitors. Pat and Tony Berardini won the Gas and Fuel Street Roadster Championships from…
Introduction: Exit the Anglia, Enter the Ford Escort Mk 1 The Ford Escort Mk 1 is one of the most beloved British cars of its generation with styling that quickly embedded itself into the British and European pantheon of humble commuter cars that made good on the race tracks of the Continent, not to mention…
Once Upon A Wheel is Paul Newman’s iconic 1971 racing documentary, it’s a fascinating window into the period and it includes appearances by the likes of James Garner, Kirk Douglas, Mario Andretti, Stirling Moss, John Surtees, Richard Petty, Jackie Stewart, Hugh Downs, Dick Smothers, Dean Martin, Denny Hulme, Cesar Romero, Al Unser, Jackie Oliver, Pedro Rodriguez,…
Ol’ Yaller Mark IX is a race car built by Max Balchowsky and his wife Ina largely from junkyard parts to a design he sketched out on the floor of Hollywood Motors – their Californian performance garage.
The Wishbone is a custom car built by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth in 1967, it proved to be a disaster for him and his company, he became so incensed with the car he had it cut up and thrown away – forever removing the car from the face of the Earth. Or so he thought….
