About Vintage-Nitro.
The late John Denver sang about remembering something so much that his “memories are worn.” I can relate, because many of my memories of motorsports activities are a little frayed around the edges.
Fortunately, I have something much more reliable than human memory: I’ve got photographs. In this day of Photoshop and digital images, a photograph’s integrity may be somewhat compromised, but old photos still do not lie.
It wasn’t my original intention to chronicle racers, tracks and cars for future generations. Initially I shot photos as souvenirs of the events I attended. When I stated working as a full-time racing journalist, I was looking for stories and photos I could sell to magazines. I also developed a slide-line of selling photos of their rides to racers.
An somewhat Organized Collection of Racing Photos
I did realize the historical significance of certain events. I carefully stored away many of my slides and negatives. I didn’t foresee the internet and the opportunity it would offer to distribute content to a world-wide audience. But I tried to keep an organized collection of images with dates and background information, thinking that some day I might share this material with others.
Those strips of film have been waiting for decades, most of them tucked away in carefully constructed wooden boxes, neatly lettered with the day and time the film was exposed. Some of the images were published in magazines and journals. Many have only been seen by me and my friends. The bulk of them have not seen by anyone in decades.
So the adventure of digitizing and sharing these images begins. While I did a fair job of keeping things organized, the hectic schedule of a traveling journalist and the sheer bulk of the material caused some items to fall through the cracks. Some strips of film have become separated from their envelopes, making it difficult to ascertain the year and venue of the event. Others were not marked correctly, creating some uncertainty as to who and what was happening on film.
I Want to be Accurate
So, I will attempt to be as accurate as I can about the cars and people appearing in Vintage-Nitro. I am sure some mistakes will creep in. If I make an error, don’t get upset. Just bring it to my attention and I will try to make it right. Of course your memory may be just as limited as mine. If you object to something, but I have photos and supporting material to indicate my original statement is correct, I’m not going to change anything.
This brings up the issue of photo retouching. Many of the older negatives, particularly those shot on 126 or 110 film, need some image-manipulation to look their best. I have no qualms of retouching an image to restore lost colors, eliminate scratches or enhance the sharpness. None of those things change the photo’s ability to display actual events and people of the past. On the other hand, I will not modify an image to make the photo show something other than what the camera actually recorded. I want the photos you see in Vintage-Nitro to be as truthful as possible.
More than Nitro
Finally, about the name. Many of the cars, boats and other vehicles in my collection did burn nitromethane fuel. But many others ran on various flavors of alcohol or pump-gas. I intend to display racing cars from all classes, and from different types of motorsports activities. Many of the cars you see on this site were burning nitro when I shot them, but just as many may have used a different fuel.
I’m looking forward to getting back in touch with old friends from “back in the day.” So don’t hesitate to get in touch if we crossed paths in the past!
Tom
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<strong>Disclosures and Relationships</strong>
<ul>
<li>I own numerous blogs and web properties and frequently post material on a variety of topics</li>
<li>My opinions are my own and are generally based on real life experiences</li>
<li>I use <a title=”VigLink” href=”http://www.viglink.com/?vgref=1689″ target=”_blank”>Viglink</a> to affiliate links on my blogs. In general I only post links to products and services I use or believe are useful to my readers</li>
<li>My blogs contain <a title=”Google Adsense” href=”https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=adsense” target=”_blank”>Adsense ads</a>. These ads are supplied by the Google Adsense network and I do not control their content. I have from time to time blocked certain advertisers, but at the end of day, these ads are supplied by Google.</li>
<li>I paid full price for most of the products I review. I have started to receive some review books and products. I will always disclose any product or service I receive for free.</li>
</ul>
