Mike Hawthorn In-Car Camera

This video is a bit out of the historical era my site focuses on, but I like it so much I wanted to point it out. This is rare footage of 1958 Formula One world champion Mike Hawthorn taking a lap around the Le Mans circuit in his Jaguar sports car. What is terrific about this is that it utilizes an in-car camera with a special microphone hook-up (it looks like an air line for a deep-sea diver) so Hawthorn could narrate the run. Note how much traffic (bicycles and passenger cars) there are on the road as he drives. While Hawthorn won the world driving title, in the end he was a tragic figure. After losing his dear friend Peter Collins in a racing accident, Hawthorn retired only to die in a passenger car accident less than a year later. This marvelous video - shot in 1958 - is just one of many things he left us.