This piece is based on 1960′s and 1970′s Drag Racing photographs by Charles L. Gilchrist, and is dedicated to “Piston Heads” and “Gear Jammers” all over the world. enjoy! Produced by CG Imaging Music “Big Block” by Jeff Beck from the album “Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop”. If you like these hot drag racing images, check out the artists website: www.CharlesGilchrist.com

You may well have noticed gorgeous, massive cars in classic movies. What happened to these car makers? Were they innovators or just producers of boats or other monstrosities of little innovative value? Sort of like big tank S.U.V. trucks in these days of $ 3 a gallon gasoline. Indeed you may have spotted such cars as the Italian made Isotta Fraschine in classic movies such as the movie “Sunset Boulevard” which starred Gloria Swanson. These cars were not only the highest end luxury models of their days but they introduced early on many advanced features into cars as well as moving ahead and reinforcing standards of reliability and durability of motor vehicles. The thin edge of the wedge even then. Back in 1929 when the Tippo 8A primo motor car was delivered to its first waiting owners , the automotive name and models if Isoto Fraschini were held in the same breath , prestige and level as those of Rolls-Royce and Hispano-Suiza. The story starts in Milan, Italy thirty years earlier when Cesare Isotta and Vincenzio Fraschino joined forces and went into the “newfangled” car business.

At that time Italy was a poor country, they soon realized that with their limited car market, and luxury car market the need, indeed the necessity to export their products. The enterprising partners first shipped a car to the United Sates in 1902 and established the Isotta Import Company in New York just five years later. In 1908, Isotta won Sicily’s super tough Targea Florio race and notched up more than several important auto races in America. Two years later, the Italians launched the mighty KM model, which sported 10.6 liter, four cylinder, and sixteen valve engine. It would storm along at 90 mph at a time when few aircraft could achieve that in flight.  Read more...

Selwyn Edge was born in 1868 in the town of Concord, near Sydney, Australia. When he was three years old, his parents relocated to England. As a young boy, Selwyn was interested in bicycling and won his first bicycle race when he was nineteen years old. Later Selwyn was employed by Dunlop Tire Company as an office manager. Edge bought his first car, a De-Dion Bouton in 1896. By 1897 Selwyn had started to become interested in automobiles. In 1899 he, along with Charles Jarott and Herbert Duncan, formed De Dion-Bouton British and Colonial Ltd. to import automobiles.

Edge had also made friends with Montague Napier of Napier & Sons, as both men were avid cyclists. In 1898, Edge asked Napier to make some improvements to the Panhard car. Then in 1899, Edge and Harvey de Cros organized the Motor Vehicle Company, Ltd to sell the improved Napier cars. Unlike any other British dealer of the time, Edge recognized the value of auto racing as a marketing tool. He realized that the publicity provided by auto racing would increase sales. In this he was ahead of his time.

Edge started entering Napiers in various races. The Napier that he entered in the Automobile Club’s 1900 Thousand Miles Trial won in her class as one of thirty-five finishers out of sixty-four starters. His Napier won again in the Gordon Bennett 1902 cup race. In the meantime Edge learned that Sir Hugh Locke-King was constructing a closed circuit motor racing track at Brooklands. At that time British law imposed a strict twenty-mile speed limit on automobile drivers. Edge quickly realized the potential value of Brooklands and started to encourage Locke-King in his endeavor. He made a public commitment to drive one of his cars for twenty-four hours without stopping at 65 mph.  Read more...