That Petrol Emotion: Motor Racing at the B.B.C.

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1 General Information
2 Cover
3 Information
4 Screenshots
5 Technical Specs
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[edit] General Information

Technology Documentary with no narration published by BBC in 2012 - English language

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

'Motor Racing at the BBC: That Petrol Emotion' is a five-part series which tells the compelling story of the early days of Formula 1 – from the 1950s through to the 1970s – courtesy of images from the BBC archives. Today Formula 1 motor racing is one of the most popular and lucrative sports in the world, watched by millions and attracting huge sponsorship and television deals. But when Grand Prix racing originally developed its own World Championship in 1950 it was a different era all together. This is explored in the series, five films drawing exclusively on the BBC's own archive to show what the world of F1 was like before the contemporary era. There was a wealth of fascinating material, not just of Grand Prix races but of all aspects of motoring and at a time when Britain as a society was changing rapidly. The glory days of British motor racing are celebrated in this sleek archive series, which buffs up some of the BBC's most memorable coverage from the sport's earliest days, a treat for devoted petrolheads with a taste for Grand Prix history. Series takes us for a spin through the evolution of the multimillion-pound sport, from the 1950s, when the drivers were still identifiable as people in cars as they whizzed around the racetrack, to the present day, where it's all aerodynamic styling and rocket-science engineering. Series Producer: William Naylor ; BBC Productions Bristol

[edit] Part 1

The opening programme concentrates on the 1950s, when British drivers Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorn took on the dominance of the great Argentinian driver, Fangio - all presided over by the chummy commentating presence of Raymond Baxter, fresh from a fight of his own as a Spitfire pilot in World War II.
From track to paddock to a changing Britain beyond, and driven by a powerful period soundtrack, this is Formula One's 'Rock 'n' Roll Years'.

[edit] Part 2

Formula One's archive series continues by charting how the oily rag pioneers of British motor racing emerged from the garages of rural England to take on the slick, Italian marques. A mixture of inspiration and perspiration led teams like Vanwall, Cooper and Lotus to dominate the sport for over a decade from the late 1950s onwards.
Former mechanics Jack Brabham and Graham Hill became world champion drivers, John Cooper revolutionised the sport by moving the engine from front to back, and Colin Chapman, the genius of Lotus, created the aerodynamic racing shape we know today.

[edit] Part 3

The third episode reaches the undoubted golden age for British drivers that was the 1960s. This was when a quiet Scot, Jim Clark, and a debonair Englishman, Graham Hill, could be regularly relied on to lord it over the world championship. As they swinged their way through the rankings, Britain beyond the paddock was swinging its way through the Sixties.
The BBC was on hand to link the glitz and the glamour of grand prix racing to the aspirations of a growing audience of 'petrolheads' with the magazine show Wheelbase – a blokeish forerunner of Top Gear.

[edit] Part 4

Episode four enters the 1970s. This was the era of three-time world champion Jackie Stewart, but also of the topless Pirelli calendar – much ogled over by the BBC's 'motoring correspondents' in archive sequences from another world.
The mood darkens, though, when Graham Hill, the gentleman giant of British grand prix racing, is killed in a freak plane crash and another British driver, Roger Williamson, is filmed dying trackside in his mangled, blazing car.

[edit] Part 5

The final part of Formula One's 'Rock 'n' Roll Years' archive series focuses on an era when motor racing lit up the world… with cigarette advertising. The sport was now largely bankrolled by sponsors who emblazoned their names all over the cars and the drivers. Those branded overalls needed big personalities to fill them and attract audiences to their brands, and none came bigger than Britain's James Hunt.
BBC cameras followed this rake's progress from his time with the amateur Hesketh Racing, run by aristocrat Lord Hesketh, through to his later incarnation as Marlboro Man at McLaren. 'Hunt the Shunt' had charisma and charm to burn, but by the end of the decade he had burnt himself out.

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[edit] Technical Specs

Video Codec: XviD 1.1.2 Final
Video Bitrate: 1557 kbps
Video Resolution: 624x352
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.773:1 (16:9)
Frames Per Second: 25.000 fps
Audio Codec: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Bitrate: 128kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: english
RunTime Per Part: 27 min - 29 min
Number Of Parts: 5
Part Size: 350 MB
Source: PDTV
Encoded by: johncymru@alt.binaries.documentaries