We all love to be gob-smacked. It’s part of what keeps the hobby fresh and exciting. You know what I’m...
Oscar Wilde wrote, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” This sounds a lot like the car hobby to...
I love Italian sports cars, and if they were built in the 1950s or 1960s, even better. At the top of my personal list are those constructed in small numbers, with bodies hand-crafted from aluminum. And, if the coachwork was executed by Carrozzeria Zagato, all the more glorious. This month’s...
An unabashed devotee of The Simpsons, Fred Phillips is living the slightly-north-of-American dream. Nestled away among the snow drifts of...
My time with the BMC competitions department saw me racing the big Austin Healeys, and later racing at Le Mans...
It’s confession time again. For my entire automotive collecting career, now entering its third decade, I’ve been both intrigued and confused by the early MOPAR performance and racing machinery. For years, I’ve been nodding with a wide smile and a blank cranium as people talk about Ramchargers, Max Wedge, Super...
By the early 1950s, several British automotive manufacturers had completely devoted themselves to satisfying the seemingly insatiable postwar appetite for...
If you were going to build an 850-cc sports racer in the 1960s, which engine would you choose? Larry Kropp...
The year was 1980; the place, Road Atlanta. During the parade lap, Motor Racing Network’s sportscaster Mike Joy set the stage for one of the most memorable SCCA Championship races of all time. “C Production Class. These are production sports cars with a limited number of modifications allowed in the...
If you’re reading this magazine, you’re probably passionate about vintage racecars. You love the sounds they make, the smells that...
Few cars in the history of the automobile can be viewed as more revolutionary than the Mini. Designed by Sir...
How many vintage racing machines can you name that were originally powered by an ear-piercing DKW power plant? Not such an easy question, but I’m able to recall a few. In the Formula Junior class, there was Erick Sobriery’s 1959 FJ and Lyle Powell’s 1960 FJ, both well-constructed one-offs with...
I don’t have one favorite racecar; I have several: the Daytona Coupe I raced at Le Mans with Dan Gurney,...
Trevor Wilkinson started his engineering business, in 1946, in Beverly Grove, Blackpool. It was named Trevcar Motors and the business...
Several months ago I received an irate email from a VR reader with one simple, albeit piercing, question; “Mark, why in the hell don’t you ever write about British drag racing cars?” British drag racing? What did I know about that? And how would I ever find a “hidden” one...
This month we bring you the first of a new monthly column devoted to the many racing barn finds and...
1966 24 Hours of Le Mans The iconic finish of the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans – Ford crosses...
There is a certain indescribable thrill associated with the resurrection of a long lost automobile. It’s often more than the joy of the find and the journey of returning a special car to its former state of glory through restoration. Sometimes the process includes rediscovery of forgotten history and reassembling...
Ever wonder what it must’ve been like way back when during those early shade-tree mechanic days when racers would vanish...
This year is the 50th anniversary of the 911. Its first public viewing was at the September 1963 Frankfurt Auto...
Built to showcase Vauxhall’s design innovation and autonomy in the mid-’60s, the XVR project was managed by the legendary Wayne Cherry at Luton’s industry-leading Design & Engineering Centre, later to become Vauxhall’s Griffin House HQ. Inspired by parent company GM’s work with concepts in the U.S. – including the ‘65...
The genesis for Volkswagen’s near-ubiquitous Transporter, or Microbus, was a combination of post-war necessity and the clever instincts of a...
The initial design for the Amphicar—a contraction of Amphibious and Car—came from German racer and engineer Hans Trippel, who in...
We raced the car with the V-12 for the first time at Brands Hatch, at the Race of Champions.I remember it clearly as a very good handling car, and the engine had a lot of power for its time. By that time I had been racing in Europe for a...
Greg Smith is a long time vintage racing enthusiast and runs a restoration shop that has traditionally specialized in European...
In the mid-1960s, as fuel injection systems swiftly replaced carburetors, Porsche enlisted Bosch to install a state-of-the-art slide-valve injection system...
Every now and then something magical happens in vintage racing. Some happenings are spectacular, like Jim Hall and Vic Elford flinging the Chaparrals around Laguna Seca at the 2005 Monterey Historics. Others are glorious, like Stirling Moss ringing out his 1955 Mille Miglia winning Mercedes 300SLR. But not all magical...
The Sebring 12 Hours; Sebring, Florida; April 1, 1967 On the grid before the start is one of two factory...
Then. I love Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) automobiles. These were cars built specifically for the Japanese market, and the best...
Deep inside Hunter Valley Wine Country of New South Wales (NSW) lives a very interesting automotive treasure-seeker. By day Aaron Lewis is CEO of the Rover Coaches bus company, a business that has been in continuous operation in Cessnock, NSW for more than 85 years. At night, when the valley...
