Tuesday 27th April 2010

Spy Snaps Ferrari Snaps Spy...

Ferrari 599XX on-board camera gives snapper his moment in the spotlight

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Anyone can get snapped by a Google Street View camera, but come on, it's not a hugely impressive aspiration for that '15 minutes of fame' promised to us all by Andy Warhol.

Blink and you'll miss him...

But how's this for a memorable 'I was there' moment? A freeze-frame from in-car footage of the Ferrari 599XX's (self-proclaimed) record-breaking lap of the Nurburgring reveals the location of the 'Ring photographer who caught the Fezza on its hot lap - something we believe that even the Ferrari official photographer failed to do. (The 'official' pic issued with Ferrari press release being a 'generic' track shot, and not from the lap itself, we're told.)

The real photos were revealed first on PistonSpy.com (No relation, but we appreciate the choice of name! Ed), although at the time the nominally-secretive snapper had no knowledge he was recording a moment of Ferrari history.

Ferrari's officially-released image

Instead photographer Tony Dewhurst, whose blog reveals the PistonSpy 'nom de lens' is his, posted images of the 599XX on his site with the words: "The car only did 2 laps before the Touristen Fahrten on the 21-04-2010 but it is the fastest most planted car I have seen on the Nordschleife for some time."

Following Ferrari's subsequent announcement, Tony's follow-up post includes the screengrab published here. "It's worth mentioning that I was the only person reporting on the story who was actually there," he quips.

So, in the manner of the 'Top Tenuous' spot on Chris Evan's breakfast show, who else has had a walk-on part in somebody else's moment of automotive history - with the video to prove it?

[soad]

Cool snap - me likey.

[Turbobanana]

Quiet day for news in the Pistonheads office, is it?

[Chris-R]

Turbobanana said:

Quiet day for news in the Pistonheads office, is it?

Dammit - I bet good money this would be the first post...

[TheRoadWarrior]

No video evidence, but I managed to get into the pit garages during the first D1 GP exhibition match at silverstone back in 2005 with a mate, we were merrily wandering around snapping pictures of anything interesting we saw(Which was quite a lot tbh!). There were lots of official photographers there too but we didnt think that much about it.

The following month I picked up a copy of either Banzai or Japanese Performance and there was an article on the event, one of the pictures was of the pit garage and you could see the back of my friend in the picture, I quickly looked back at my photos and found almost the same picture.. but looking the opposite way, and there was the photographer from Banzai with his camera raised to his eye snapping the very picture that would later appear in the magazine!

[matty!]

Well 'i was there' too we all just happened to be at the tourisfarhten gate as the 599xx went screaming by and we wondered why it was out on its own as it had been on the destination nurburgring trackday a day or two before.

[juansolo]

Please tell me that is a massive cock and balls painted on the track behind the car...

[Belfast Boy]

juansolo said:

Please tell me that is a massive cock and balls painted on the track behind the car...

subliminal messages on the Nordschlief

[Turbobanana]

Chris-R said:

Turbobanana said:

Quiet day for news in the Pistonheads office, is it?

Dammit - I bet good money this would be the first post...

Sorry Chris. If it's any consolation it's quiet in retail car sales at the moment too. But I leave at the end of the week!

[Hugo a Gogo]

juansolo said:

Please tell me that is a massive cock and balls painted on the track behind the car...

I wouldn't call it massive but yeah........

[mybrainhurts]

story said:

Touristen Fahrten

>snigger<

[Lucozade]

I met Tony Dewhurst the last time I was at the 'Ring. He took some brilliant pictures of my Tuscan on track.

[r11co]

mybrainhurts said:

story said:

Touristen Fahrten

>snigger<

I see the spirit of Finbarr Saunders is alive and well...

[DodoRacing]

These are also taken on the same day I think by Jochen @ frozenspeed.com
http://frozenspeed-staging.selincite.com/gallery_e...
http://frozenspeed-staging.selincite.com/gallery_e...

[Dale@RSRNurburg]

Tony's right, some of us weren't there, but in my defence the baumarkt was about to shut and I REALLY needed to stop the sink leaking...

Anyways, slicks and a prototype Fezza and it's only just under 7 minutes? Piffle!

[youbeenspied]

Did you manage to fix the leaking sink Dale?

Ive been trying to watch the 6:11 lap record with MR Bellof documentory awesome but showing my limited german

Edited by youbeenspied on Tuesday 27th April 21:52

Edited by youbeenspied on Tuesday 27th April 21:53

Edited by youbeenspied on Tuesday 27th April 21:53