In remembering and memorializing John Fitch upon the occasion of his death, Vintage Racecar has produced this brief photographic summary...
There are a number of cars that are better known by their nicknames, than their original designation, like the Alfa...
Two months before the end of WWII, an American P-51 Mustang was shot down over Germany. The pilot was Captain John Fitch and he spent the rest of the war as a POW. Ten years later, that same John Fitch teamed up with a German co-driver to drive a German...
Russo and Steele Collector Automobile Auctions have announced the final sales results from their Fisherman’s Wharf Monterey Auction where a...
Max Hoffman was a racecar driver in Europe before immigrating to the United States to avoid the Nazis. Hoffman became...
September 2017 Departing Drivers Photo: BRDC Archive Dear Mr. Ganley: Your article “Departing Drivers,” in the current issue of Vintage Racecar is quite good, although Sir Jackie Stewart won 27 Grands Prix, not 33. Moreover, Juan Manuel Fangio did not “depart” in 1952. He had every intention of defending his...
Enzo FerrariPhoto: Ferrari Juan Manuel FangioPhoto: Mercedes 1 Chuck Daigh, driving Frank Arciero’s Lotus 19-Climax, wins both heats of the...
As you’ll see, throughout both sides of the magazine, this month we recognize and celebrate the 60th anniversary of Mercedes-Benz’s...
USAC Road Racing Fades as the SCCA Overcomes Its Aversion to Racing for Money When we left the USAC road racing championship last month it was coming off its most successful season yet, with 11 races producing nine different winners, but the schedule for 1960 would feature only five races,...
Jaguar’s XK120 Roadster was introduced at the London Motor Show in the fall of 1948. A year later, cars began...
Whether or not most of us realize it, a most unusual man is among us. Until the late ’50s, he...
The Dawn of the Modern Super Car If you haven’t been behind the wheel of a brand new supercar recently,...
There were a number of outstanding road-race weekends during the fifties. Phil Hill’s win at the first Pebble Beach comes to mind as well as Carroll Shelby’s at the last. In Southern California, one of the best-loved venues was Palm Springs. It had everything: a famous resort, wonderful winter weather,...
Karl Kling was born too late to join Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred Von Brauchitsch and Hermann Lang in their rampage through...
Like so many great automobiles of our time, the Mercedes-Benz SL series can trace its origins directly to the racetrack....
On June 7–8, 1958, the Texas Region of the SCCA hosted a weekend of sports car racing 10 miles north of Fort Worth. The organizers laid out a 3-mile course at the National Guard Air Base near Eagle Mountain Lake, where 112 entries showed up to contest 10 scheduled “Sunburn”...
The 1,000th Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Gullwing” rolls off the production line, in the Sindelfingen plant, in December 1955, a little...
A number of those among us stood head and shoulder above all others during the Golden Age of Motorsports. Juan Fangio, Stirling Moss, Carroll Shelby, John Fitch, Dan Gurney and Phil Hill immediately come to mind. Only one from that exhalted group, however, was proposed for President of the United...
Fewer cars rolled across the block than in recent years during the auctions in Scottsdale, but the amount bid for...
I have included a few remembrances about Lance in some previous Vintage Racecar columns, but because he was such a...
Warren Olson arrived in Southern California fresh out of South Dakota in the late 1940s, just in time to take part in the motor racing revolution there that changed motor sport forever in the USA. The list of people and projects he worked with would fill a book. He initially...
This 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster is one of only five examples originally finished in Fantasy Yellow and will be offered...
After rising from the ashes of postwar Europe, Mercedes-Benz returned to racing in 1952, winning the World Sports Car Championship...
An image of the dirty and pitted Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing practice car used for pre-race reconnaisance, prior to the 1955 Mille Miglia. Built by Damler-Benz AG, this model was based on the company’s highly successful racecar, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL W194. Become a Member & Get Ad-Free Access To This Article...
Sixty years ago was when—for me—the world became modern. Many people will laugh at that; some will understand but have...
Highlighting RM Sotheby’s February 3 sale during the world-famous Retromobile show week in Paris will be a rare 1955 Porsche...
2013 Mercedes-Benz SL550 Photo: Mercedes-Benz 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL550 While the 300 SL of the 1950s was unquestioningly a sports car and the seed of the now 60-year-old SL line, some would argue that in later years the SL roadster drifted away from its sport car roots. Over time, the SL...
