Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR race car
A new television series, hailed as the "Mad Men" of racing and called "The Drivers," is currently being developed by British directors Ridley and Tony Scott. It will focus on 1950s and 1960s Le Mans racing, based on the book Shelby: The Man, The Cars, the Legend by Wallace A. Wyss.
We can't wait. If there's one thing America has lacked for too long, it's a compelling form of popular entertainment centered on cars that doesn't involve Miller Lite, cartoons, or permutations on the pejorative form of "rice."
With larger-than-life drivers like Carroll Shelby, Jim Clark, John Fitch, Sterling Moss, Phil Hill, and many more to draw on, not to mention the worst catastrophe in racing history in the 1955 Le Mans crash sparked by an unfortunate confluence of events between Mike Hawthorn, Pierre Levegh, and Lance Macklin with Juan Manuel Fangio close behind, there's no shortage of material to work with.
According to Ridley Scott, the series is "an epic story of courage and ambition and a history of racing which has never been told on such a grand scale."
Network, timing, and further details remain under sraps, but we'll keep you posted as the series progresses toward air.
[Adam Cooper's F1 Blog via Jalopnik, Deadline, Image via Lothar Spurzem]
