These are days of confusion. As I write this, there are either three days left in the Millennium or, depending...
Throughout the history of man and machine there have been inextricable links between automobiles and airplanes. Henry Ford’s corrugated Trimotor...
I have an old friend that works in law enforcement. I’m not talking about the local PD. Serious law enforcement, and that’s all I can say about that. He scares the heck out of me. Not because he carries a gun, no, that’s just fine – always good to have...
Hi there. I am your new back-page columnist. I would like you to think of me as a friend, a...
My father was in the Royal Air Force, so we tended to live on flat bits of England, a long...
I see that Sylvester Stallone has given up the idea of making a movie about Formula One and is looking...
Wales is not a country one readily associates with Formula One, but in September, a small group gathered to celebrate...
I am considering registering my stomach as a trademark. Why not? Damon Hill has registered his eyes as a trademark on the grounds that they immediately identify him. Hill’s eyes, my manly corporation, what’s the difference? Today’s F1 drivers are registering anything they can get away with. A friend of...
Every so often you encounter an image which stops you in your tracks. For me it was a photograph of...
I am not politically correct. I have never met anyone in motor racing who is. Motor racing and political correctness...
I wrote a book on the history of March, which came out in 1989 under the title, “Four Guys And A Telephone.” A telephone was all that Robin Herd, Graham Coaker, Alan Rees and Max Mosley had when they agreed to establish March. They then each put in £2,500 as...
It depends which Nelson you mean – and which Victory. In Portsmouth, there once was a station called Radio Victory,...
Have you noticed how old cars are getting faster and faster? I wish I got faster as I grow older....
Is Renault French? Is the Pope a Catholic? I ask because Renault has bought the Benetton team and has renamed it, but the team’s headquarters is at Enstone in Oxfordshire and most of the employees are British. Benetton began life as Toleman, which was British. Benetton continued to be British...
I have just watched “The Italian Job,” the 1969 original. At the time of writing, the remake has not hit...
Once upon a time in a bar…well, near a bar…I was talking to a couple who had just bought a...
Most people when launching a new product normally try to come up with a new name to reflect innovation. Then it comes to cars, however, there is a trend to resurrect a name from the past so we have had Allard, Connaught, Osca, Lea-Francis, Jensen, Invicta, Spyker, Ermini and that...
We are frequently told that Formula One is at the cutting edge of technology, but that has been true only...
Anyone who has studied literature will know about footnotes and the glossary of terms because the language is constantly changing....
This year is the 60th anniversary of the Morris Mini-Minor and Austin Se7en, and the Goodwood Revival will feature some examples once owned by stars of the period, including the odd Beatle. The Mini was praised for being egalitarian, which fitted the mood of the time when social barriers were...
Bentley is to make 12 “continuation” examples of the supercharged 4.5-liter Birkin “Blower,” one of those cars whose legend far...
For the majority of VR’s readers, 2019 has been the 50th anniversary of Formula Ford, although it actually started in...
Before WWII, the company which became Jaguar was called Swallow Sidecars and it had diversified into making special bodies for cars, most notably for Austin Sevens. A Swallow body added about 15% to the cost of an Austin Seven, but was worth much more in street cred. In the 2018...
Now available on Netflix is “A Life of Speed: The Juan Manuel Fangio Story.” The 92-minute movie originates in Argentina...
One of my favorite automotive books is Doug Nye’s “Motor Racing Mavericks”. Published in 1975, it explores failures—high-end failures—in Grand...
It is with a profound sense of sadness and loss that I must share that long-time contributor and friend Mike Lawrence has passed away at the age of 78. Mike preferred to say, “…that highly qualified medics were fighting the cancer on his behalf, with his body as the battleground,”...