This was another powerful year for Sports Car Digest. There was rarely a dull moment in 2015 as we covered hundreds of historic rallies, vintage races, classic car auctions and events around the world. The grand total of stories published during the year came to nearly 450, growing the archives to more than 4,000 articles. And we again offer sincere thanks to our audience of historic car enthusiasts for actually reading them!
Leading the way in popularity for 2015 was coverage of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, followed by the photo galleries from the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este and Mille Miglia. Similar to 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, nearly all of the top stories included extensive photo galleries that accounted for a majority of the page views.
Top 20 Most Popular Stories of 2015 (click photo for story)
1. Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance Report and Photo Gallery – The Amelia Island Concours took the top spot for the first time, as Chairman Bill Warner pulled out all the stops celebrating their 20th anniversary. Our 310-image gallery focused on the race cars of Stirling Moss, World Rally Cars, BMW 327/328, among others.
2. Goodwood Festival of Speed Report and Photo Gallery – After dropping out of the top three last year for the first time since 2009, the Festival of Speed regained its footing with Tim Scott’s 454-image gallery from Lord March’s annual Goodwood hill climb.
3. Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Report and Photo Gallery – Always a contender, Tim Scott’s 160-image gallery from the 65th annual Pebble Beach Concours focused on the otherworldly gathering of Ferrari classes, among others.
4. Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este Photo Gallery – Tim Scott’s 249-image gallery from Concorso Villa d’Este highlighted the breathtaking backdrop of Northern Italy’s Lake Como, in addition to stunners such as this 1958 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider.
5. Mille Miglia Report and Photo Gallery – Julien Mahiels’ 120-image gallery from the 33rd running of the Mille Miglia retrospective expertly shined the spotlight on the strong field of entrants and Italian countryside.
Exactly how was the selection determined ? In any case, great photos and interesting articles as always in Sports Car Digest.
Many thanks! The totals were determined by the number of page views.
With all the ugly “wings” on racing cars and the Niki Lauda F1 has to be ‘the ‘ most ugly GP car ever. If racing drivers need wings to drive around a circuit….then they should not be racing. It does not matter if they can drive faster. We come to see racing at any speed and the pure skill of the driver. After 1968 F1 took a turn for the worse in cars and has not yet recovered.
Stephen, I happen to think that the 1968 Eagle and the original Lotus 49 are prettiest race cars ever made, but lighten up. Each era of technology has one thing in common. It still takes exceptional talent to get the most out of it. People win because they are the best at what they do.
I am so glad that the 1965 Sebring event photo and stories were included. I worked that race doing Timing and Scoring, and the night before, in an Airstream Trailer in the paddock area, owned by my best friend’s father, Howard Hively, a group of us, including John Bond and a few drivers sat and discussed who might win the next day. As a brash senior in high school I exclaimed “no automatic transmissioned car will ever win a sports car race!” So much for my ability to predict future events.