Balthazar, late for a high school class...

[A Horse With No Name]

Caught on Camera...

[ocnblu]

I've always been fascinated by the fact that, in old racing photos like this, the whole car is leaning forward. How was this effect achieved?

Edited January 2, 2012 by ocnblu

[A Horse With No Name]

Not really sure.

[67impss]

A prism maybe?

[A Horse With No Name]

That would do it...never thought of that but...yeah, I think your right, IMP SS.

[Robert Hall]

Something about the speed of the car and the speed of the film in that era, maybe? I love how they always seem to lean in old photos with speed...

1911 Indy 500 winner Marmon Wasp:

Here's a pic I took of that car this past May at the 2011 Indy 500:

Edited January 2, 2012 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[ocnblu]

Odd, it's only the cars themselves leaning forward, not the background scenery. Very cool effect.

[Robert Hall]

How about this pic from the old Brooklands track..

[ocnblu]

Cool, wild gravity defyer. Reminds me of a Bugatti grille, and the one behind calls out Auto Union, I think. I should be double-checked though.

[balthazar]

Yea, I recall reading that was the reason: had to do with the camera/film of the day.

I mean, what else could it be, anyway?

Nice pics in here!

[SAmadei]

Balthy is right. The cameras had a slit shutter, which exposes the film top to bottom... which is inverted, of course, but during the exposure, the car moves... giving it the forward lean. The whole effect is called focal plane shutter distortion.

Read more here... http://people.rit.edu/andpph/text-slit-scan.html

[ocnblu]

Nift!

[A Horse With No Name]

Something about the speed of the car and the speed of the film in that era, maybe? I love how they always seem to lean in old photos with speed...

1911 Indy 500 winner Marmon Wasp:

Here's a pic I took of that car this past May at the 2011 Indy 500:

Neat pics...

Yea, I recall reading that was the reason: had to do with the camera/film of the day.

I mean, what else could it be, anyway?

Nice pics in here!

Trying to bring some of the old school into old school...

[daves87rs]

Nice pics!

[Turbojett]

How about this pic from the old Brooklands track..

now that we've solved the mystery of the film...what's with the positive camber?

[cletus8269]

Balthy is right. The cameras had a slit shutter, which exposes the film top to bottom... which is inverted, of course, but during the exposure, the car moves... giving it the forward lean. The whole effect is called focal plane shutter distortion.

Read more here... http://people.rit.ed...-slit-scan.html

yup i was going to say as an xray tech we can get that effect with motion on slow speed film.

[Camino LS6]

Cool, wild gravity defyer. Reminds me of a Bugatti grille, and the one behind calls out Auto Union, I think. I should be double-checked though.

The airborne car is a Bugatti.

[Drew Dowdell]

How about this pic from the old Brooklands track..

now that we've solved the mystery of the film...what's with the positive camber?

it's airborn...

[Turbojett]

How about this pic from the old Brooklands track..

now that we've solved the mystery of the film...what's with the positive camber?

it's airborn...

yes, but the one behind it is planted (isn't it?) and has the same camber.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Turbojett

[SAmadei]

If I had to guess, I'd say that tall, narrow wheel/tire combo makes the camber look much more extreme than it really is.

It still, however, has a lot of camber, and perhaps Wiki can help...

Also, some single-engined general aviation aircraft that are primarily meant to operate from unimproved surfaces, such as bush planes and cropdusters, have their taildragger gear's main wheels equipped with positive-cambered main wheels to better handle the deflection of the landing gear, as the aircraft settles on rough, unpaved airstrips.

Given that the Brooklands surface is rough enough than cars are airborne at times, they probably needed all the handling help they could get.

[Turbojett]

I see. Interesting.