Excellent! Love the shots from inside the car. Pikes Peak is excellent and racing on it would be unreal to me. The adrenaline rush would exceed anything I’ve experienced I’m sure. Anyone who hasn’t drove up and down Pikes Peak - Put it on your bucket list. On top of your bucket list. You won’t be disappointed. Just driving it at the legal speed is a rush, gives a person the perspective what would be involved racing on the mountain. Dan
I’m starting to think these so-called “Trip” directories aren’t separate adventures at all—but rather pieces of one long, wild road trip Tom Cobbs and his crew took in the summer of ’59. If that’s the case, here’s the rough outline: They left SoCal sometime in early July, headed for the Colorado mountains to run with the Unsers at Pikes Peak. Then, as July burned out, they ditched the altitude and dropped into the salt—rolling into Utah just in time to catch Mickey Thompson and Challenger I take a swing at the record in the first week of August. I still need to dig deeper and pin down the exact dates of each event, but that’s what the trail’s starting to look like. One long stretch of fuel, film, and open road.
First pic thought 59 chev had lost rear wheel; then other stock car shots made me think rules required stock size tires - how times & tires have changed. A shame now asphalt instead of dirt. Great series of pics
Two years ago we took our 18 year old grandson on a vacation. Were to go up Pikes Peak that morning and I threw him the keys and said it's your turn. He kept ignoring the 25 mph speed signs until he ran out of trees. Then his eyes light up and he slowed way down. I need to see the race sometime before I check out.
I love how he captures the intensity of the drivers hunting for the best line and going for it through the curves. I know that's what drivers do, but to see it in little dirt flying from the tires, hands on the wheel, leaning into the weight transfer, it's really magical. Thanks for bringing us along on your journey @Ryan as you follow this journey. The explanatory commentary from you has helped me enjoy these all the more.
I can't tell you how much I love the shots of the Corvette's shooting rooster tails of dirt. I'm sure their owners/drivers took good care of them, but they certainly were not babying them. So Cool!
Fantastic stuff. As I look at this photo it appears something is mounted to the top of the roll bar. Maybe a movie camera? Any ideas? If so, wouldn't it be fun to see the footage?
Man... I can't image an 8 or 16mm camera that small in 1959, but I don't know much about video cameras... Certainly looks like a box cam.
This one’s my favorite of the batch. It’s a tight crop, just a sliver of depth—but somehow it captures speed, emotion, atmosphere, and a dozen other things I’m not smart enough to articulate. It tells a story without screaming it at you. Subtle. Honest. I love that.
Can you imagine sliding those monster Detroit barges around a hairpin on a dirt serpentine incline with nothing but sky on your side? Love t
IMG_8291 by colorado_aircooled posted Apr 11, 2025 at 3:27 PM Rumor had it Ak Miller had a surplus aircraft machine gun camera on his Devin sports car in 1959 .
So I did an online search for an image of same. Looking at what I found, at the very least it's an interesting possibility. Those 1950s hot-rodders were pretty inventive folks.
The Jalopy Journal
