Cleaning up the clutter.

After my first serious venture into the world of macro pictures of vintage car details one persistent irritant was the clutter many snaps exhibited in the background.

So before venturing forth a second time, the occasion being the Monterey Historic Races, I dropped by that acme of capitalism and low prices, WalMart, and asked the nice lady in the haberdashery department for a couple of pieces of non-reflective cloth in black and red. These would serve as backdrops to clean up the clutter. I thought about getting some green for British cars but concluded that my love was closer to the Mediterranean than the English Channel, so plain black and Ferrari red seemed more in order.

Now a back drop is useless without a drop cloth manager, so I prevailed on friend and vintage racer Franklin Rudolph to accompany me on the two hour drive to Laguna Seca. This had several advantages. First, as I find driving the ultimate time sink and Franklin likes little else, he got to drive the car and I read the Wall Street Journal. Second, few know more of vintage racers than my colleague, so I had the best possible tour guide to the paddock area, replete with dozens of $5mm toys. If the arcana of 1954 Maseratis are your thing, Franklin is the man. Finally, Franklin not only helped with spotting interesting shapes and forms, he volunteered to be the back drop man, holding up the cloth or placing it under the cars as we saw best.

A win-win. He gets two 18″ x 24″ prints of his choice for his superb workshop and I get the best possible professional help on the planet.

Leaf springs on a vintage racer, red back drop in place

On the way home, going south on the 101 Freeway, we cut a two hour trip to what was seemingly a few minutes as we gazed with appreciation on the dozens of exotics making their way north from Los Angeles for the Historics while simultaneously keeping a careful eye out for cops writing speeding tickets, to finance their early retirement at the local doughnut store. Franklin’s choice was a gorgeous Dino with a V6, mine a late 50s tourer with a real Ferrari V12 in the front, where they belong.

Thank you, Franklin, for your friendship and easy expertise. Not to mention your back drop skills!