Whenever we see images of Mel Stultz and Bobby Green’s “Frozen Few” vintage-motorcycle ice racing, we are reminded of the Swedish Winter Grand Prix (and wonder why we don’t get invited to race old hot rods on ice!).
Until somebody creates a vintage ice-racing event for four wheels, we’ll have to be content with watching old newsreel footage of the original contests with a mixture of big European Grand Prix cars and U.S.-based specials going full tilt over the ice and snow on and around Lake Ramen.
The event started in 1931, but the earliest film we’ve found is 1932, where Sven Olaf Bennström drove a V-8 Ford Special to victory.
In 1933 Per-Viktor Widengren (seen in our lead video) took the checkered flag in an Alfa Romeo.
The race was not held in 1934 or ’35, but returned in once more in 1936 when Eugen Bjørnstad won in another Alfa Romeo.
There was another hiatus until 1947 when an attempt was made to revive the race on a circuit around a Swedish Air Force facility at Rommehed. Due to a delay in shipping most of the competitors’ cars to Sweden, however, the race was quite small. Victory went to Reg Parnell driving an ERA. Only three cars finished the race that year, all ERA’s. We are lucky enough to have two films of the 1947 event—one amateur and one professional. Now…who out there speaks Swedish?
We’ve seen some innovative scale engine models in the past, but this papercraft rotary engine, found on Auto Neurotic Fixation, may be the most original. We struggle to fold a proper paper airplane, which puts us in awe of builder Aliaksei Zholner’s skills (and patience).
Guy Newmark received “Blue,” his 1964 Porsche 356 C, as a college graduation gift. Five decades later, it’s still Guy’s daily driver, and Porsche was on hand to document the occasion as Blue recently reached the the 1,000,000 mile mark. Guy’s secret to automotive longevity is the same one we’ve heard from other long-term, high-mileage owners in the past: Follow the factory’s recommended service intervals to the letter.
Finally, unless your Aston Martin V8 Vantage also has “a few optional accessories,” we don’t recommend you drive in such a spirited manner this winter. Timothy Dalton may not have been our favorite James Bond, but as this chase scene from The Living Daylights demonstrates, he got the job done.
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