When it comes to racing, there is no more glamorous an event than the legendary Monaco Gran Prix, the bedazzling gem of the Formula 1 season. It’s a race that makes and breaks legendary drivers, and, as one of the oldest running races, has seen countless generations of cars run it through its 85-year history. Watching modern cars weave through the corners of the Monaco GP is already a nerve-wracking experience, so imagine what it was like when the closest thing these drivers had to a safety system was a pair of goggles.
Mercifully, there are some fortunate, brave souls out there who have some of these vintage race cars in good working order and will race them in historic events so that we can see firsthand what previous generations got to see for themselves years back.
Frank Stippler, a German racer who has raced for Audi in various series, is also an accomplished racer of historic vehicles. At the Historic Gran Prix of Monaco, Stippler slapped a GoPro to his vintage racer for one of his races consisting of pre-1961 race cars giving us a cockpit view of this course, infamous for its changing elevations, hairpins, chicanes and even a tunnel. With barely any run-off points, the narrow course is as dangerous as it is unique, with little margin of error.
The vintage car he’s behind the wheel of is a bare bones race Maserati that houses a 276-horsepower 2.5-liter engine, which is a lot, considering Stippler only has drum brakes to stop him from flying through the nouvelle chicane after he’s blinded by the sun exiting the tunnel. The video itself is just a couple of laps long, but with some actual racing, we get treated to some good hard runs and even some overtaking.
