Wealthy Belgian aristocrat Olivier Gendebien has the unique distinction of being Ferrari’s most successful GT and sports car racer. He...
Jack was born on April 2, 1926, and I think it’s appropriate that we all wish him a happy birthday....
John Michael “Mike” Hawthorn won the Formula One World Championship in 1958, and in doing so became the first British driver ever to win it. He first appeared at Goodwood in 1952 as a comparatively unknown and amazed everyone by driving this very, very quick Cooper-Bristol, and became a star...
1972 Lola T290-Tecno Here is your first question for 10 points: How many racing car manufacturers have been going nonstop...
Having grown up the son of racer and team owner Reg Parnell, it’s little wonder that Tim Parnell has lived...
One of a baker’s dozen of American citizens to have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall, Carroll Shelby accomplished the feat 50 years ago this month, driving an Aston Martin DBR1 in company with Roy Salvadori. Shelby had begun racing back in his native Texas shortly after returning...
It is an unfortunate fact of life that as we age, so we lose more and more friends to the...
Carroll ShelbyPhoto: Jim Williams In observance of Carroll Shelby’s recent passing, VR is presenting an edited combination of the interviews...
This is the story of a hero who was more heroic than most. You may not have heard of Archie Scott-Brown, but that shrewd judge of racing driver talent Juan Manuel Fangio, who won the Formula One World Championship five times, called this diminutive Scot phenomenal, and said he showed...
Peter Bryant, best known in motor racing circles as the creator of the Titanium-chassied Ti22 Can-Am car, died of a...
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1967 Brabham BT24-Repco Sometimes all your birthdays and Christmases come at once. Shaking down the BT24 on Australia’s legendary Phillip Island circuit revealed it to be a nimble, responsive and forgiving beast. Photo: Casey Annis Picture the scene: It is February 2006 and the Vintage Racecar team has gathered at the...
Heavy Duty Lightweights 1961 Jaguar XKE “Coombs Lightweight” & 1963 Jaguar XKE “Qvale Lightweight” Photo: Pete Austin The year 2011 marks 50...
Le Mans champion Roy Salvadori once wrote in a UK magazine, decades ago, about driving his winning Aston Martin DBR1...
Tall, handsome, and charming, Roy Salvadori was everything Hollywood ever wanted a racing driver to be. He was a ’50s–’60s swashbuckler and would not have looked out of place swinging down from the rigging of a man o’ war, sword in hand, instead of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Fantasy perhaps, but...
I have been quoted as saying that I didn’t much like the Tommy Atkins Cooper-Maserati. Now, I don’t know if...
July 2007 Porsche 917—Zuffenhausen’s Le Mans and Can-Am Champion Introduction by Karl Ludvigsen By now well-known to the readers of...
1958 BRM P25 Chassis 258 It may come as a surprise to many people that Stirling Moss always regarded the BRM P25 front-engine car as one of the best cars he has ever driven. “Great car–bad team” was basically his view. More about that later, though it was especially interesting...
Aston Martin DBR4/2 In Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, the tragi-comical Mr. Wilkins Micawber, despite his predicament, always had the most...
During the fifties, Aston Martin produced sports cars with the designation, DB, which, of course, stands for David Brown. In...
1957 Lotus Eleven LM 150Photo: Shifting Focus It was still very early days for the small, but growing firm of Lotus Cars. In just nine short years, Colin Chapman’s designs had evolved from an Austin 7-based trials special with a plywood and alloy body, to a sophisticated spaceframe design in what...
1959 Cooper T-51 and 1960 Cooper T-53 The two Formula 1 Coopers you see here represent one of the key...
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Aston Martin’s one and only victory at Le Mans. With such a major...
The Guards Trophy Race; Brands Hatch, August 23, 1963. Roger Penske with his John Mecom-entered Zerex Special, which was actually an F1 Cooper in a sort of two-seat configuration. Penske won handily from the Cooper Monacos of Roy Salvadori and Tim Mayer. Once again he showed that he was both...
Ed Leavens’ career in racing could be compared to an iceberg where 9/10ths of the details of his career lie...
It is an extraordinary difficult question to answer, “What is my greatest racecar?” One can consider cars one has won races with, that always leave a nice flavor. What makes the question even more difficult is that most racecars I drove are not entirely comparable with each other, though some...
The International Tourist Trophy was first awarded by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) in 1905 and continues to be awarded...
1957 Aston Martin DBR1 Aston Martin’s relationship with the 24 Hours of Le Mans goes all the way back to...
John Coombs was literally born into the motoring business, as his multi-talented craftsman father was already working with automobiles when John appeared on the scene. As John grew up he eventually began racing, soon moving successfully into 500-cc Formula Three. Eventually, the family firm, Coombs & Sons, Ltd., became known for...
