UP NEXT
A four-year undertaking led to this faithful recreation of the cult classic film hero car.
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Films:
1967 Renault R8: A Retro Rally Heirloom
My sole criticism of this video ? The schmaltzy stock background music is too damn loud drowning out the exhaust sounds coming from the car as well as interfering with the pleasure of listening to the young mans French accent .e.g
Music for Film 101 ;
Background music should be just that …. in the background .. not competing with the film itself
Made even worse when shlock stock music is used
Why do you always have to be such an extremely negative know-it-all? Even on the rare occassion when you try to be positive, you still have to include a negative remark. Or even better, insult us “so called petrolicious gearheads”.
This is a website for people to share their knowledge about cars and their passion for cars. Why don’t you try that for a change instead of always leaving negative criticisms? I get the impression that you actually do know a lot about cars and you could teach us “so called petrolicious gearheads” a lot. However, it would be nice if it came from your enthousiasm for cars rather than from your “enthousiasm” to put yourself above others.
Actually cul-de-sac head the music is the perfect foil for the video. At the point when he says that his father died aged 32 there is a tension between Anthony and the audience. He delivers the line like he was talking about a spare part or some other aspect of the car. It has a huge impact but the film moves on. We dont know exactly how old Anthony was at that time but we can say that he was very young and we know that the impact of the death of a parent is experienced by young children in a very objective way, very different from that of older children.
For Anthony time and his life has moved on, so its not for me to speculate about his feeling, but the music dampens the tension for the audience and sets up the rhythm of the film in a way that harmonises it with the feelings of the audience.
Well done Petrolicious another intelligent, moving and entertaining video.
As for you mr cul-de-sac you are like this name: English fantasy French used to name a type of upper middle class road that is a dead end: you try to hide behind your meaningless words in a vain attempt to big yourself up.If you try and translate its something that might contain the content and value of your stupid comments .
Hey Slinger .. you may find this tough to get your head around,yet you might … Petro is not presenting in order to please everyone,nor to field everyones personal taste in music . Like chill on your critical analyzes . Leave that up to the production team when they get together for review.. after all their not waiting on your doorstep to judge your walking style or choice in shoes etc .. can you bite into that some .. think it over. Just sit back and enjoy the sky.. it’s always in flux just like everything else . I say this in all respect and need to remind myself of this constantly . Good life to you !
Renaults were rare when I was working in the auto trade as a young man, and Gordini R8’s were so rare, that we only knew of them from magazines. There is still not the abundance of information in English that you find on other cars of equivalent significance. Apparently the R8 was one of the first small, four door ‘saloon’ sedans, to come with four wheel disk brakes, which is a configuration that we think of as typically ‘Alfa’. The engine placement was longitudinal, which left space for modifications to the exhaust and carburetors, and made tuning easier. To keep the rear wheels far enough back to include a rear seat, the gear box was in front of the differential. This also moved some weight forward. The car must have been quite agile.
Wow! Beautiful artistic film with classic main actor. You’ve captured the dynamics of the R8 Gordini beautifully along with the sound, wish we could smell it’s interior.
This car is on my best friend’s and my all time favorite lists. Our mutual friend who also died young had an R8 and it was awesome. He also had a Giulia Super and GT Junior. These were extreme budget cars but the love was just as intense. Didn’t Alfa team with Renault on the R8? Perhaps inserting some Alfa DNA?
This story reinforces a theory that “car guys” were “touched” by a cool car at an impressionable age, and the passion was lit.
Great film, capturing a car for all to enjoy that most of us will never see in person again.
From Wikipedia on the R8: “The 8 design looks very similar to the Alfa Romeo front-wheel drive prototype tipo 103 (1960), because Alfa Romeo and Renault had a business relationship in the 1950s and 1960s. Renault was marketing Alfa Romeo cars and Alfa Romeo was building the Renault Dauphine (1959–1964), Ondine (an up-market version of the Dauphine) (1961–1962) and R4 (1962–1964) under license in Italy. In total 70,502 Dauphine/Ondine and 41,809 R4s were built by Alfa Romeo.[5]”
My best pal in the late sixties in LA drove his fathers R-8 like a rally pro on Mulholland, the Crest and best of all Lake Hollywood Reservoir Rd. I used to sneak my dads Cortina GT out to race the R-8 but could barely keep it in sight.
The blue Gordini version was a real Q-Ship back then and there were a handful in LA. Love the video.
Thanks for this wonderful little video, Petrolicious. I just love it when you show all of us who are immersed in the car hobby how much we have in common with one another, across national, linguistic, economic and social boundaries. From Compton to Pebble Beach, Santiago to Reykjavik we could walk into one another’s garages and immediately have a shared understanding. I enjoy being reminded of this.
A while ago I was driving a little roadster with with a tonneau, down to symphony hall. I think that I was wearing a black wool jersey. The car is in nice ‘driver’ condition. This is pretty much how you might describe me at this point in my life. And at a succession of stop lights, I was next to a tricked out Corrolla, with three guys wearing baseball caps inside. The weather was warm, and all the windows were down. I was going to my Friday night event. They were going to theirs. They were, however, not headed to symphony hall. At the third stop light, one of the guys with the baseball caps, leaned out and said. Nice car. You look sharp. I said ‘thanks’. We were all car guys.
