Same experiment as the arty shots, pointed at the stuff I usually shoot. Different film stocks through the Nikon F-601, some on the 50mm f/1.4 and some on the 70-300mm, at rallycross paddocks, steam rallies and whatever was parked up on the way home.
Evo.
Unimog.
Escort.
Parasol.
Bus.
Wheels.
Pits.
Tyres.
Recce.
Winch.
4x4.
All developed by the lovely people at The Film Safe. You can get a fiver off via my referral link.
Took three cameras to Lydden Hill. Fuji X-S20 with the Viltrox 9mm lens for the big bold pit lane stuff. Nikon D3300 with 70-300mm Nikkor for the fast track action. I also brought the Nikon F601 with three different film stocks to try stuff out, get the hang of longer exposures out in the dust.
It feels very extravagant to be shooting Ektar at the track. At one point I was stood between two shooters with Sony A9 or whatever they are, those ones that take a dozen frames per second with global shutter. They must have taken a few hundred shots each while I took two or three from that position.
Here are a few quick crops, straight off the SD card jpegs, plus some 35mm scans.
Quattro S1.
RS200.
Full send.
Purple E30.
Supercars into the dirt.
Talbot Sunbeam.
Crosscars airborne.
Drive it like you stole it.
Kent Movers Escort reeling one in.
Pug in the pits.
RX150.
Quattro rear end.
Wardle’s Swift.
Lydden Hill.
Have you seen this new Ferrari? It’s the 849 Testarossa (no idea why they are resurrecting that name) and apparently it’s good to drive. Have a look on the youtube.
I had a stab at making it prettier. What do you think?
Ferrari 849… the Beastie Boyce edition
I’ll be visiting Maranello in a couple of weeks so if you’re a Ferrari designer and you need help with future cars then do get in touch!
Incidentally, Affinity is pretty good!
We took a bunch of photography gear to Brands Hatch. One of the cameras was my current favourite toy, this F601 with 75-300mm.
Snap snap!
Representing modernity we had a Fuji XS20, Sigma 16-300mm. In the middle we had a Nikon D3300, 70-300mm. Can you guess which photo was taken with which camera?
TCRs struggle for grip at Druids.
Tasty TCR.
Greasy conditions and front wheel drive means endless understeer.
Saxo appeal.
Heavy metal.
If you’re looking to get some film developed, give The Film Safe a go. Top people and great results.
Lando has more than double the grand prix experience of Oscar but fewer wins. I like Lando. I saw him race at Brands Hatch in the Ginetta Juniors a few years back. He’s a quick boy and it doesn’t hurt that he has boy band looks and good marketing people making the most of that. He needs to spend some of that cash getting his head together.
Until Lando sorts out the mental stuff there’s no chance they’ll be engraving his name on the fancy pot at the end of the year. Mac need to throw their full support behind Oscar and kill off the prospect of a Red Bull resurgence.
Let me know what I have missed, via hello@nicoboyce.com
Ecclestone said (I’m paraphrasing) people will put up with you being difficult so long as you’re winning, but the moment that ends then the knives are out.
No one wants to bump into someone they know from work when they are on holiday but it looks like Toto and Max picked the same spot off of Sardinia to anchor their yachts. Awkward!
With Max at Merc and Horner potentially a free agent eventually (though likely he has to buy out his RBR contract to 2030) we’re faced with the delicious prospect of Horner and Hamilton in red versus Max and Toto in grey. Given how these guys obsess over each other, my money would be on Piastri being a double world champ come the end of ‘26.
I’ve written further nonsense here
We’ve all had bad days. Sometimes the problems are of our own making.
I’ve been thinking about this meeting which took place earlier in the week. I think it probably went something like this.
Hey Christian, thanks for coming in. Did they offer you a fizzy drink? Okay great
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Petrol with Plato
Limited edition Lambo
on the tank course
F4 rivals
Michael Andretti McLaren
Marlborough
Thruxton test day
purple NA
Breakfast club Alfa
NB drifter
tyres
fezza
alpine
big mac
scoob
japanuary
fiat
grubby nissan
concours
triumph
mog
brute
pop
route 66
cortina
rosie
evo
rocket
deployment
jdm
pop
yellow fire
tent
launch
Tingram
it’s on
turbo
torslander
after you
action
yuk
he ain’t heavy
rivals
watcher
battle mr2
relics
venom
beem
5
robo
spitfire
safari
rx150
lap
tour
doom
vetted
wagon
scimitar
patina
angles
rx monster
minis
mean lean
stanley
rarity
badge
champ
cheek
star time
session
doran
transporter
vip
victory
pressure
chicanery
saxo
warp
apex
peeking
Lancia.
Fisheye and I.
Miata NA.
Chevy.
Volvo.
Lambo.
Fords.
Chevy at Brands.
Granada.
Jeep.
Scoobs.
Guys the superbowl was a week ago and people were buzzing. F1 gathered all the teams to the millenium dome to unveil show cars with maybe a couple new minor sponsors.
If this is what F1 is (and it is but it’s not nice to admit that) then honestly I’m going to start trying even harder to kick the habit. I could live with the greediness if it was at least entertaining.
In case you missed it, M-Sport turned up at Dakar with a new Ford and some not-so-quiet confidence and established big names Ekstrom and Sainz. Prodrive were positively bragging about the tech in their Dacia and brought Loeb and Al-Attiyah, the statistally greatest ever rally driver and rally-raid driver, along with Gutierrez who is up and coming and basically there in a support role with a mechanic in her co-driver’s seat.
Meanwhile, with no fanfare at all, Toyota machinery dominated the event and the eventual winner was in a privateer Hilux entry. Toyota have developed that car year after year and Team Overdrive driver Al-Rajhi is a Saudi local who navigates the Empty Quarter for fun.
Check out the Dakar channel on youtube and see how it was won.
Grabbed a bargain jump bike and it needed some customisation. Popped on a super narrow and sharp looking Cinelli handlebar, a comfy GT saddle, some sick ODI x Vans grips and DMR pedals. I need to take some proper pics.
Purples.
DJ bike.
Forget team Max or team Lando. My driver of 2024 has to be Connor Zilisch. Youtube is over there if you need to catch up with this guy.
All they needed to do is make one clumsy and dated video dragging them in to the 21st century and they have suddenly ceased to be the brand of golfists and top gear culture warriors. Okay so John Prescott showed you can spend your life standing up for workers and still enjoy a comfortable commute. But now they have set fire to all that in search of something interesting.
Eddie Irvine told Clive James that Jaguar was the one brand that could find that sexiness of the likes of Ferrari. Maybe at last they have got it right. Regardless, people are talking about Jag in a way that no one has since the second E Type was driven overnight from Birmingham to Geneva. I’m backing it.
Macau is crazy but not such a great circuit to actually race, they should reinvent it as a time trial. Nevertheless that was a mighty performance from Ugo, who nailed every restart to confirm what plenty of us have been saying for a while. This kid is the real deal. We were there at Brands Hatch when he won his first car race and now the sky is the limit. Full feature race on the youtube but be prepared to fast forward…
I’ve been a McLaren fan since Coulthard joined the Woking squad and as such I have always considered Ferraris to be tacky and poorly assembled and the Scuderia to be a bunch of cry babies leaning on their history to try and get preferential treatment. Ferrari are the Manchester United of F1, the idiot’s choice, the team who are more likely to license their logo for keyrings and pencil sharpeners than string a series of good performances together.
But I’ve been looking over the more affordable end of the silly cars on Autotrader lately and there’s no way I would spend money on a Mac when you put them up against the equivalent Ferrari (or even Aston or Lambo to be honest) even if I could make sense of their model lineup.
I don’t know what’s a 575 or a 620 or an Artura (why does that one get a name?) and honestly I don’t care. They have all the personality (from an onlooker’s perspective) of a household appliance and I would rather walk.
Pack scrap.
Doran.
Bennett.
Crosscar.
Ford.
Launch.
Roof.
The fireworks were way better than most displays where they are the main event. Of course at Lydden it’s all about the horsepower. Top class RX cars will beat an F1 car off the line up to about 100mph. They can race on any surface and take jumps you wouldn’t believe possible. The UK is the birthplace of rallycross and it’s a great format for families and people new to motorsport. Get to Lydden Hill when you can. Also make sure you get some of that mayo from the paddock cafe when you’re there. Watch the final on the youtube
Got myself a birthday present.
Hired a trailer.
At Fleet, paying our respects to Scott Mills.
BMW at home.
Victor gets comfortable.
Plenty of work needed to get it all ready for action but isn’t it a great piece of kit?
We went to Prescott (which is the Bugatti Owners Club place in Gloucestershire) for the British Hillclimb Championship which is all on the youtube if you want to see it in a video format here
We looked like this
This is us.
Here are some of the cars:
Can you spot which were taken with the Nikon D3300 and which were taken with the Fujifilm X-H2?
It was one of the best motorsport events I’ve been to, a really great day out. Looking forward to next year.
Naples had a weird car thing going on. I loved seeing the Lancia and Dacia stuff that never made it to the UK and the splutter of air cooled Fiats is pleasing to me.
In Naples you leave your door open and your handbrake off. If someone is determined to enter or move your car, just let them.
I’ve got to get me something like this.
Formula One is a sport made almost entirely of maths, but the commentators rarely use the full toolkit of logic while talking viewers through the races. Maybe they think it won’t be exciting to examine the competition in this way? Regardless, let’s throw some logic at today’s grand prix and see what bounces back.
Max Verstappen’s Red Bull car, photo from my own archive.
If you haven’t seen the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix but you’re planning to catch up, do that and then come back to this article.
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Teeth.
Chunk.
green
gold
blue
orange
red
chrome
black
Bmx.
Tyre.
Chain.
Park.