Those eyes! They seem to pierce the screen, the page, the photograph, lasering out and right through us. Paul Newman was colour-blind — it’s what kept him from becoming a fighter pilot — but if he saw the world in black and white, the world saw him in one colour: icy blue.
He was Cool Hand Luke, Fast Eddie, and Butch Cassidy. He was an Academy Award winning actor, a silver screen legend, a real Hollywood legend.
But if you read any obituary or autobiography, you’ll see another descriptor. Paul Newman: actor, legend, race car driver. And don’t think it was just a hobby. Newman was a true racer, methodical and patient and aggressive. Put it this way: Steve McQueen made the film Le Mans; Paul Newman raced at Le Mans — and won.
There’s an excellent documentary just out on the subject, a collection of stories and vintage footage put together by long-time fan and noted gearhead Adam Carolla. It’s called Winning, and it’s well worth the $4.99 rental fee.
The documentary takes its name from a 1969 movie starring Newman, his wife Joanne Woodward, and Robert Wagner. The film is a love triangle set against a background of racing and danger; the old film is not very good, but it was, perhaps, the crystallizing moment that would see the movie star begin his journey towards becoming PLN (Paul Leonard Newman) the racer.
Newman would spend the next four decades honing his racecraft, becoming a legitimate competitor and earning the respect and admiration of the racing community. Here’s a look back at his life in cars.
Volkswagen Beetle
Newman’s early years in racing and regular driving follow a pattern that mirror his everyman appeal. He didn’t drive Ferraris like McQueen, he drove Model As and Volkswagens. He bought his first ‘Bug in 1953, and owned a series of them.
Sometime early in the 1960s, Newman got it into his head that his little commuter needed a bit more zip. At the advice of a mechanic, he had a Porsche engine bored out to 1,800 cc, and added swaybars, Koni shocks, and Porsche brakes up front. “It was a neat little bomb,” he told Motor Trend in a 1970 interview.
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Paul Newman’s VW packed a mid mounted Ford V8!
Supplied, OldBug.com
It wouldn’t be the last. In fact, Newman’s garage would seemingly always have a sleeper in it. Even hotter than the Porsche-powered Beetle was his cherry-red 1963 Convertible, swapped to V8 power and essentially set up like a mid-engined Indy car.
Read more: 10 actors who got bit by the racing bug
Jerry Eisert, a racing-car builder in California, did the swap, shoehorning in a Ford 351 cubic inch crate motor making 300 horsepower. He also bolted a 5-speed ZF transmission into the Bug, and capped the whole thing off with a custom-made suspension akin to the Indy cars sitting alongside in the garage.
It was an unexpected monster, a sheep in wolf’s clothing. Newman’s bug wasn’t just fast, it showed he had a sense of humour about cars.
Datsun 510
On the track, a much more serious side came out. First though, Newman was a questionable driver. It’d probably be the same story for any of us — decent enough on a track day, but dial things up more seriously and the flaws start to show.
Newman had driven a racing car before filming Winning, and shown some talent when attending Bob Bondurant’s school to learn how to drive properly. But unlike James Garner in Grand Prix, where natural talent let the big Oklahoman run away from the pros, Newman would have to work his way to the top.
A late start in racing didn’t help. He took his SCCA licence in a borrowed Lotus Elan 1972 at the age of 47. The plan was to scratch a mild itch, maybe participate in a few club races.
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A Datsun 510 racer at the 2014 British Columbia Historic Motor Races.
Russell Purcell, Driving
His first real racer was a Datsun 510, liveried in the blue-and-red racing colours of Bob Sharp racing, and with a discreet “PLN” on the side. The acronym was for Paul Leonard Newman, and adopted as his racing nom de guerre because he didn’t want people to think it was some kind of publicity stunt. The car wore the number 75, Newman’s favourite number.
According to team owner Sharp, Newman’s first year was a struggle. He was rarely the fastest out there, but there was something special evolving. Newman was disciplined and clean. In the documentary, you hear professional racers mention multiple times their respect for the way they could run hard alongside Newman, and while he wouldn’t give an inch, he wasn’t reckless either.
In the tough little 510 sedan, Newman got faster and faster. Lap by lap. Race by race. The working man’s way, a dedication to the craft. In 1973, he landed on the podium in five of the six SCCA races he attended, including an outright win. It would be the first of many.
Porsche 935
By 1979, Newman was competing in SCCA racing in two classes, as well as running occasionally in the tougher IMSA series. He would win 14 out of 16 SCCA races, six in a Datsun 280ZX and a flawless eight-race sweep in the B-class sedan category with a 200SX. Datsun was clearly a good fit for PLN, but he wanted to move up a notch.
If ever offered the chance to even sit in a Porsche 935, make sure your life insurance is up-to-date first. It’s an absolute beast: a race-prepped version of the famously hairy 930 turbo, boosted to something above 750 horsepower and set to run above 300 km/h on the famous Mulsanne Straight.
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1979 Porsche 935 K3 Coupe at the 2013 Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance near Monterey, California.
Gabriel Gelinas, Postmedia News
For Newman, Le Mans was very nearly a fairy-tale victory. Another 935 in a slightly different class would clinch outright victory, but PLN was on a team that could claim both a class-win and second-place finish overall, beating the prototype racing machines in a car that was nominally a street car.
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Overall victory for the team, which comprised of team owner Dick Barbour, pro-driver Rolf Stommelen, and Newman, was foiled by a blown headgasket — that’s how close they came. Unfortunately, Paul’s experience at perhaps the greatest single motorsport event in the world was marred by his celebrity. He was mobbed by crowds, the very thing he’d been trying to escape. In the racing community, he was respected but not idolized. There, Newman was a member of a noble fraternity; here, he reported feeling like a piece of meat. He wouldn’t come back.
Hudson Hornet
It is not possible, in the space of a single article, to list all the cars Newman raced, nor all the races he won or came close to winning. There’s barely enough space for a mention of his nutty supercharged Volvo station wagons, one of which he had built for David Letterman. For a more in-depth look, check out Matt Stone and Preston Learner’s book Winning: the Racing Life of Paul Newman.
He drove other Datsuns, Porsches, Sprint cars, Ferraris, Mustangs, Oldsmobiles. He ran at IMSA, SCCA, Trans-Am, you name it. He became a team owner along with Carl Haas. And Mario Andretti drove for them.
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Paul Newman, left, walks down pit road with fellow driver Elliott Forbes-Robinson prior to the start of the Rolex 24 Grand American Rolex Series sports car race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, February 2005. Newman, who turned 80 years old that January, became the oldest driver in the race.
Brian Cleary, AFP/Getty Images
PLN drove his last professionally-sanctioned race in 2007, behind the wheel of a GT-1 class Chevrolet Corvette, at New York’s Lime Rock circuit. He was 82, and just one year away from the checkered flag on his life. He won the damn race.
That was a personal achievement, to be sure, but there’s a different car that is perhaps more fitting to conclude with. Newman spent as much time doing charitable works and founding kids’ camps as he did challenging himself in the driver’s seat.
Thus, the ’51 Hudson Hornet he voiced for the Pixar movie Cars. Gunnar Racing actually built a working version: a tube-frame NASCAR with a built Ford 6.7L V8. Newman took it around the circuit, surpassing 260 km/h.
Racing was, Newman said, “the first thing that I ever found I had any grace in.” In September of 2008, those blue eyes shut forever. Before they did, we saw them shining in triumph.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
