During the fifties, everyone’s hero was Juan Manuel Fangio. He won the World Driving Championship five times, an achievement that...
John Von Neumann is an important name in the history of the second half of the twentieth century. A Princeton...
In the Western U.S. during the ’50s, there were a number of road-racing drivers who went on to international success in the following decade. Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby, and Dan Gurney come immediately to mind. However, if a single ’50s-era dominating figure had to be chosen, it would be Ken...
I have included a few remembrances about Lance in some previous Vintage Racecar columns, but because he was such a...
On August 28, we lost our great and good champion, Phil Hill. The entire world of motor sports is saddened....
Like many other sports during WWII, automobile racing experienced a hiatus. Soon thereafter, however, competition resumed. The Formula One World Championship series was initiated in 1950 and became the ultimate goal for both drivers and constructors. At the same time, Southern California became a hotbed of the car craze. Road...
During the early fifties, one of the biggest sports stars in the United States was Sam Hanks. Notice I said...
One of the most successful relationships in motor sports during the sixties was between Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles. It...
Art Evans There used to be a monthly feature in the Reader’s Digest called something like “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Ever Met.” For me, that’s Carroll Shelby. I guess perhaps I’m prejudiced because we’re dear friends. But here’s a guy—83 years old—with two transplants (heart and kidney). He has...
It is well known that some great stock car road racing took place at the Riverside International Raceway. Dan Gurney...
In 1953, the Rootes Group in England, which had acquired the Sunbeam Company in 1935, produced a handsome sports car, the...
During the fifties, Aston Martin produced sports cars with the designation, DB, which, of course, stands for David Brown. In addition to the 2-door hardtops—called saloons by the factory—a series of open sports cars, actually sports racers (later called sports racing cars), were constructed, raced by the factory and sold...
This is a little-known story, but the real father of Riverside Raceway was Jim Peterson. I thought this would be...
Although there were a number of pre-WWII cars that can be described as sports cars, the craze in the U.S....
On this, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Monterey Historics, I thought it would be interesting to look back and see how it all started. The date was August 10, 1974. August 10 that year fell on a Saturday. There was no Sunday racing even though California has no “blue laws”...
Sexual debauchery, a regime’s imminent downfall and a kidnapping fit for a gentleman were some of the highlights of the...
Until Sir Jack Brabham won the Times Grand Prix in 1961, the Ken Miles-driven, John Von Neumann-owned Porsche-Cooper was the...
One of the most enjoyable—at least for me—of fifties events was the Pebble Beach Sports Car Road Races. The last one was held during April 1956 and, from then on, races in the area were held at Laguna Seca Raceway. In my May column in this magazine, I remembered the...
When I first talked with Vintage Racecar editor Casey Annis in 2005, the conversation revolved around the subject of me...
My column in the October 2006 edition of Vintage Racecar was titled, “Shelby, the Early Years.” For the most part,...
The immutable rule of life is that every living thing is born, lives and dies. Publications are living things, and as such, they don’t live forever. Remember Look magazine? During the ’50s, there were four metropolitan daily newspapers in Los Angeles; now there is one. When the sports car craze...
Southern California has always been a hotbed of car aficionados. The hot rod craze started there and, after WWII, it...
During the early fifties, road racing in the United States took place, for the most part, at airports. While airports...
When Porsche introduced the 4-cam racing engine, it was a sensation. Porsche Spyders with this engine soon dominated their class. The problem was that this power plant was complex and difficult to work on. In the U.S., one man emerged who was acknowledged as a genius with the 4-cam. He...
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