Fellow motorsport nerds, get ready to open your wallets, because I’ve found what may be the greatest retro racing store of all time. With designs from Formula 1 teams like Mastercard Lola to Moneytron, you’re sure to find something that fits your particular nostalgic niche. I’d like to introduce you to Racing Retro.
I first heard of this company a while ago, but only in extremely brief passing, and never with any intention of spending money on what I assumed would be prohibitively expensive merchandise. Then a friend sent me a link to the site, and I found myself hooked. And not merely hooked, but actively geeking out.
My particular nerdy passion in the racing world is vintage Formula 1 — basically anything before 1977, but most especially the late 1960s and early 1970s. That usually involves a lot of digging through old archives and unearthing candid photos of drivers and team personnel on Tumblr, and one of my most coveted items quickly became a Jochen Rindt Fan Club t-shirt sported by the likes of everyone from Colin Chapman to Frank Williams. Guess what, besties? Racing Retro has that shirt.
Maybe you’re also a big F1 trivia buff. Maybe you, like me, absolutely love to talk about our good pal Hans Heyer, the only driver to fail to qualify, fail to finish, and then get disqualified from a race. Guess what? There’s a shirt for that.
Or perhaps your interests trend a little more modern. Maybe you recall the arrest of Bertrand Gachot for literally spraying a taxi driver in the face with CS gas, which is a prohibited substance in the United Kingdom. Gachot was arrested and charged with both possession of a prohibited weapon and Actual Bodily Harm, and as a result, he had to miss the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix. So, what did fellow racer Pascal Witmeur do? He organized a support campaign involving flags, shirts, and literal on-track graffiti begging authorities to Free Gachot. Yep, there’s a shirt for that, too.
Honestly, so many of these shirts scratch an itch for what I can only describe as niche, high-quality content that can also double as a meme. There’s a shirt proclaiming Life Sucks in honor of the ill-fated Life Racing Engines team. There’s an Arturo Merzario shirt, except instead of the man himself driving the car, it’s just his iconic cowboy hat. Hell, there are even some pretty fantastic IndyCar shirts, including an amazing Zink Pink design in the exact Zink Pink color used on Bob Sweikert’s 1955 machine. And even if you’re not totally sure about the context of the design, each sale page includes a little explanation regarding its etymology. Now that is the kind of inclusive fan-forward content I like to see.
Now excuse me while I go spend all my money on Peter Revson merch.