Nigel Mansell Biography Nigel Ernest James Mansell OBE was born the 8th of August 1953 in Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, England. His...
1958 BRM P25 Chassis 258 It may come as a surprise to many people that Stirling Moss always regarded the...
British racer Trevor Taylor is perhaps best known for being the Lotus Formula One teammate to Jim Clark in the early 1960s. However, Taylor earned his spot in Formula One by sharing the 1960 Formula Junior Championship, with Clark, at the wheel of a Lotus 18 [see this month’s Racecar...
This year’s Monterey Historic Automobile Races marks the 35th running of this classic event. As shown schematically in the Laguna...
1959 OSCA | 1960 Lotus 18 | 1963 Brabham BT6 Regular readers of VR will know that we have a fondness for...
At the tender age of 15, John Fenning started his racing career competing in small, 500-cc racecars, like many postwar...
Emerson Fittipaldi has an impish sense of humor and, one day at Brands Hatch, he unloaded it on my poor...
The Lotus 19 took sports car racing to a whole new level upon its debut in 1960, rendering rivals such as the Cooper Monaco and Maserati Birdcage obsolete overnight and leading photojournalist Pete Biro to label it the “Birdcage Cleaner.” A real “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” it was essentially a...
Our South Pacific Editor, Patrick Quinn, recently caught up with ex-British Motor Corporation works driver John Sprinzel in Sydney, while...
August 2009 Man vs. Machine Dear Editor, With respect to Pete Lyons’s column, “Man? Or Machine?” [VR, March ’09], I get the feeling that Pete Lyons and I must share some similar DNA. For many years, I couldn’t understand why I had gradually lost interest in the current modern racing scene....
Today almost exclusively remembered as the genius behind the competition cars named for a road-running bird in the southwest, Jim...
There has been much rejoicing over the return to F1 next year of Team Lotus and I cannot understand what...
My father, the late Colin Chapman and founder of the Lotus name, was driven by ambition—ambition to be the best at what he put his mind to. It was an overriding characteristic of his makeup. There are a lot of intelligent people who have the ability to do certain things,...
I’ve spoken here, on several occasions, about the numerous unfulfilled rumors that have swirled through Formula One over the years,...
Keith Duckworth Biography Since the partnership was formed in 1958 by Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth along with Bill Brown...
When I first talked with Vintage Racecar editor Casey Annis in 2005, the conversation revolved around the subject of me writing about the fifties, the fabulous fifties as it were. After all, this was what I was known for. I had written seven books about the decade. One of my...
1974 Matra M670B The name Matra became familiar to thousands of motor racing fans from the mid-1960s through the 1970s....
The death of Peter Arundell promptsmemory of a challenge. Formula Junior was once Formula Arundell; he won twice as many...
For all the talk today of “level playing fields” and equal opportunities for all, it has to be understood that motor sport has never really been egalitarian. Contrary to popular belief, racing runs not on gasoline, but on money. From its humble beginnings at the turn of the 20 century, the combined...
Although he will probably be remembered mainly for a contrasting pair of Indycar accomplishments, Jerry Grant was yet another of...
Despite a still-recessionary economic climate, the annual International Racing Car Show in Birmingham, UK, celebrated it’s 20th Anniversary in a...
April 2010 Racing for Mercedes-Benz By Hartmut Lehbrink With the re-entry of Mercedes-Benz into Grand Prix racing as a factory effort, and the naming of seven-time titlist Michael Schumacher as one of the team’s drivers comes renewed interest in the marque. Schumacher is not the only famous name ever to...
I think it was in 1957 that I saw Fangio race at Silverstone, it was a catalyst for me to...
There is a section in The Sunday Times called In Gear and it is basically boys’ toys, with cars as...
Illustrating Patrick Quinn’s article on the Bira MG K3 (VR December, 2009) was a photograph of Ron Uffindel, who frequently raced it. A theme of that issue was the return of the Lotus name to F1. I saw Uffindel’s name and bells rang. Australian motor racing often reflected the British...
During the sixties, Carroll Shelby tried almost anything having to do with cars and racing. A little-known episode was his...
A unique event took place at England’s Snetterton race circuit when many thousands of fans turned out to see a...
It is always amazing when I get a chance to drive some of the cars I raced many years ago. This year at the Goodwood Festival I was back in the John Player Special Lotus 72 that I drove many times. Everytime I get in that car I go back...