The Portuguese Grand Prix at Monsanto, August 23, 1959. Stirling Moss, in the Cooper, on his way to another victory....
Two-liter sports racing cars have always had a place to compete within the ever-changing regulations of international motor sports: the...
Two-liter sports racing cars have always had a place to compete within the ever-changing regulations of international motor sports: the World Sports Car Championship from 1953–1961; the Speedworld Challenge from 1962–1963; the International Championship of Makes from 1964–1971; and the World Championship of Makes from 1972–1981. There was even a...
Mainstream media are chattering these days about “green” cars. Like it’s some new idea. Well, I’ve been a fan of...
With a dad like Stan Jones it was hardly surprising that Alan became a motor racing nut when he was...
1957 Climax-powered Jomar 1957 Climax-powered Jomar. Photo: Harold Pace You know the story. Start with a svelte English chassis, add an American V-8, clothe it in a lightweight body and go racing. It worked for Carroll Shelby. It worked for Sydney Allard. Worked for a lot of other folks too,...
My story of Formula One came into being after I’d driven my GT40 and got all that out of the...
His signature sky blue helmet firmly strapped to his head, Alberto Ascari poses for a Pirelli publicity picture before the...
Photo: Harold Pace Just in case anyone hadn’t heard the famous Sheb Wooley song, one car carried a license plate that spelled it out.Photo: Harold Pace The Minis raced in the SCCA’s Texas Region, which had its own popular Drivers Club for those competing in the 1960s.Photo: Harold Pace Everyone...
1976 Holden Torana L34 A month or so back, Vintage Racecar interviewed Leo Geoghegan, a true icon of Australian motorsport....
Last month, in this space, I spoke about our newest contributor Howden Ganley, whose incredible motorsport career saw him go...
Howden Ganley stopped by our vendor booth at the recent Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, where one of the old photos we showed him started a discussion so interesting that I’m keen to share it with you. The picture was made by Art Evans at Palm Springs in November, 1956. It...
Black Jack and his Brabham biplane are evidence of the aerodynamic wilderness in which the Grand Prix teams found themselves...
Interview most any racecar designer and you’ll likely hear a beautifully turned tale of insight, and enlightenment, and clever science artfully applied. Then, there were the Coopers. Neither father Charles, nor son John, were science-minded. In fact, they had no more than basic formal education. What they did bring to...
The story of the Cooper Car Company is well known where father and son team Charles and John Cooper in...
Mike Lawrence There is a minor industry in new James Bond novels and if we include Young James Bond and...
1972 Lotus 72D and 1986 Lotus 98T Emerson Fittipaldi drove Lotus 72 chassis 72/5 in no less than 39 races from 1970 to 1973. Ayrton Senna drove 98T/4 in eight races and several test sessions in 1986. These cars were the very first and the very last John Player Specials…they...
We called it the “Bruce and Denny Show,” and it was total dominance of the Can-Am Championship by McLaren Cars...
Bruce Leslie McLaren won the first-ever Grand Prix of the United States in 1959, but really established his life’s legacy...
Since the very beginning of motorsports competition, a common thread has run through the sport: It takes money to go fast. An old joke goes something like, “You know how to make a million dollars at racing? Start with five million!” In this day of Formula One teams spending half...
Carroll ShelbyPhoto: Jim Williams In observance of Carroll Shelby’s recent passing, VR is presenting an edited combination of the interviews...
The man who held honorary SCCA Competition License No. 1, Ohioan Chuck Dietrich, has died at the age of 88....
There was never any doubt that Chris Amon was an exceptional talent. Mauro Forghieri, Ferrari’s chief designer for almost 20 years, put him in the same sparsely populated category as the legendary Jim Clark. But even though he was in Formula One for 14 years and a works Ferrari driver...
By 1963, Cobras were doing very well in Sports Car Club of America races. Cars driven by Shelby American drivers...
Pete Lyons Stirling Moss deliberately steering his Lotus into rain puddles around the Nürburgring—reading about that may have been the first time I ever really thought about racing tires. It was the German Grand Prix of 1961. The 1.5-liter formula had just come in, and the tiny, 4-cylinder Coventry Climax...
While not the greatest racecar of all time, the Cooper 86B-Maserati was that for me, as it gave me a...
After reading this issue, and re-discovering the breadth and significance of Cooper racing cars to the history and progression of modern motorsport, it seems absolutely bewildering that the Internet is virtually devoid of Web sites devoted to the history of Cooper! In fact, to the best of our (and Google’s)...