Some years ago I was invited to talk “motor sport” at a winter club evening in Bristol and the evening...
Carroll ShelbyPhoto: Jim Williams In observance of Carroll Shelby’s recent passing, VR is presenting an edited combination of the interviews...
1959 Cooper T-51 and 1960 Cooper T-53 The two Formula 1 Coopers you see here represent one of the key moments in the evolution of Grand Prix racing. From the beginning of the Drivers’ Championship in 1950, front-engine cars were the norm. Through the years of the 2.5-liter engine formula,...
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Aston Martin’s one and only victory at Le Mans. With such a major...
1972 Lola T290-Tecno Here is your first question for 10 points: How many racing car manufacturers have been going nonstop...
I have been quoted as saying that I didn’t much like the Tommy Atkins Cooper-Maserati. Now, I don’t know if I was right about that, but I do remember some of its characteristics pretty well. The power range was about a 1,000 revs, maybe 1,200 maximum, and that meant it...
Those looking for vintage photographs frequently contact me. During the fifties, my partner, Dick Sherwin, and I published a short-lived...
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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Le Mans champion Roy Salvadori once wrote in a UK magazine, decades ago, about driving his winning Aston Martin DBR1...
John Coombs was literally born into the motoring business, as his multi-talented craftsman father was already working with automobiles when...
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...
The Guards Trophy Race; Brands Hatch, August 23, 1963. Roger Penske with his John Mecom-entered Zerex Special, which was actually...
Tall, handsome, and charming, Roy Salvadori was everything Hollywood ever wanted a racing driver to be. He was a ’50s–’60s...
Aston Martin DBR4/2 In Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, the tragi-comical Mr. Wilkins Micawber, despite his predicament, always had the most impeccable words of guidance and wisdom. In one part he takes his young and inexperienced tenant, Copperfield, aside and counsels him against being dilatory. Micawber says, “My advice is, never...
Aston Martin entered the1959 sports car season targeting just a single race, Le Mans, but walked away the deserving winner...
It is an unfortunate fact of life that as we age, so we lose more and more friends to the...
February 2018 The Crystal Palace Trophy, Crystal Palace, June 11, 1962. At the start, it’s Roy Salvadori on pole in the Reg Parnell Racing’s Lola 4, with Bruce McLaren’s Cooper 55 alongside and Trevor Taylor, in the works Lotus 24-BRM, on the inside. The eventual winner would be Innes Ireland,...
I guess the best period in motor racing for me was when I managed to have my first drives in...
1957 Aston Martin DBR1 Aston Martin’s relationship with the 24 Hours of Le Mans goes all the way back to...
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...
Having grown up the son of racer and team owner Reg Parnell, it’s little wonder that Tim Parnell has lived...
1967 Brabham BT24-Repco Sometimes all your birthdays and Christmases come at once. Shaking down the BT24 on Australia’s legendary Phillip...
1964 Cooper–Maserati T61P By the time Roy Salvadori chased Bruce McLaren to the checkered flag at the Daily Express International Trophy meeting at Silverstone on May 2, 1964, sports car racing had already begun to change significantly. Roger Penske often gets the credit—or the blame—for what led to the real...
It is an extraordinary difficult question to answer, “What is my greatest racecar?” One can consider cars one has won...
John Michael “Mike” Hawthorn won the Formula One World Championship in 1958, and in doing so became the first British...
Wealthy Belgian aristocrat Olivier Gendebien has the unique distinction of being Ferrari’s most successful GT and sports car racer. He won 24 top endurance classics, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans four years out of five, the Targa Florio, 12 Hours of Sebring, and Tour de France Automobile three...
One of a baker’s dozen of American citizens to have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall, Carroll Shelby...
Ed Leavens’ career in racing could be compared to an iceberg where 9/10ths of the details of his career lie...
Jack was born on April 2, 1926, and I think it’s appropriate that we all wish him a happy birthday. (I realize you are reading the May edition of Vintage Racecar, but subscribers usually get it in April.) On this occasion, I thought you might be interested in some of...