Watch this. Here’s the fastest lap from Horatio Fitz-Simon for the Lurani Trophy at the Mugello Circuit (he ended up on the podium!):
That view… wow.
Hugging the corners. Controlled slides on the inside of the track. Not a computer in sight. Hell, the transmission isn’t even automatic.
We’re so used to modern racing looking like a video game that seeing someone work a half-century old design at the red-line limit is practically hypnotic. The mirrors wobble, the tires scream, and everything looks seconds from disaster. It’s mesmerizing.
The engine sound is sublime. There’s no idling. It’s idylling.
And can we talk about the scenery? God, European tracks are gorgeous. This is in Mugello, those are the Apennine Mountains on the fast-approaching horizon. Meanwhile, the view from my track? Mostly Olive Gardens and auto glass places. I guess that’s tradition too, but it just ain’t the same.
Higher Octane Than the History Channel
Let’s back up for a second. What exactly are we watching here?
Historic car racing. More specifically, this is the modern reincarnation of Formula Junior… a racing category that existed originally between 1958 and 1963. That was the proving ground for young talent before Formula One, and it’s got all the style and grit of the golden age of racing.
If you loved the racing flashbacks in Ford v Ferrari… Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby, wind snapping at his leather helmet and goggles like some old-school aviator, taking the win at Le Mans in 1959… then you’ll love this. That movie showed you the myth. This is the real thing, still alive and kicking in high gear.
The car? A Lotus 22. Designed in 1962, built like a missile with about the same amount of safety features. It looks like a cigarette and probably comes with Surgeon General stickers to match. It’s got a motorcycle-displacement powerplant making around 100 horsepower… which doesn’t sound like much until you realize the whole car weighs about half as much as a single Clydesdale. About 1,000 pounds fully loaded, or so light-weight that the driver themself is an appreciable percentage of the GVWR.
Subscribe, It’s Great
This is all footage from Horatio Fitz-Simon, a racer who posts cockpit footage on his YouTube channel, and if you’re not subscribed yet, you absolutely should be. His driving is aggressive and clean… it’s a blast to ride shotgun with him in sweaty-palmed high-def.
Tell you what, one more… for the road.
Here’s Horatio taking his fastest lap to win the Historique French GP. Manual transmission, too. God! Treat yourself to the volume up and headphones on, if that suits you:
From the Back of the Pack to First
Just can’t help myself. You need to see this.
Here’s the helmet cam from Oulton Park, immediately after a safety car. Watch Horatio tear shit up to make it from 33rd position to first, like hellhounds are nipping at his heels:
It’s not a clean race. It’s a bare-knuckle brawl. He’s threading the car through the pack like he’s running late for a funeral and every second counts.
And from the race notes? Practically everything is overheating. He’s going faster because he’s driving it like he stole it, at the ragged edge of the machine’s endurance, and probably well past the edge if we’re being honest.
The pressure regulator died earlier in qualifying. The head gasket’s blown. The engine’s cooking hot as hellfire. You can catch snippets of the instrument cluster on tight turns, temperature gauge is the far left of the cluster and looks to be well into the red. He’s not racing against the other racers, he’s racing against his engine failing.
Rejecting Modernity and Embracing Tradition
In an era where most racing is mediated by electronics, telemetry, and software, there’s something deeply human about watching a driver muscle a decades-old analog design around a track. The only digital thing about it are the fingers in the gloves.
So yeah… Today I learned, historic car racing is a thing. And thanks to drivers like Horatio and cameras that can finally keep up, we get a little taste of what it’s like to be in the driver’s seat.
