During the Fifties and Sixties, one of the most popular sports car racing venues in the West was Palm Springs....
On August 28, we lost our great and good champion, Phil Hill. The entire world of motor sports is saddened....
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...
Art Evans Fifty years ago, the world-famous Laguna Seca race course was created by a tree. It’s interesting as well...
Like many other sports during WWII, automobile racing experienced a hiatus. Soon thereafter, however, competition resumed. The Formula One World...
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,...
During the fifties, I not only had a business relationship with Bill Devin, but we were also friends. We saw...
Southern California has always been a hotbed of car aficionados. The hot rod craze started there and, after WWII, it...
Until Sir Jack Brabham won the Times Grand Prix in 1961, the Ken Miles-driven, John Von Neumann-owned Porsche-Cooper was the most successful Cooper on the U.S. West Coast. Even though its career was short, Miles achieved the ultimate grand slam. He won both an under-1,500-cc and over-1,500-cc main event in...
On this, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Monterey Historics, I thought it would be interesting to look back and see...
During the early fifties, road racing in the United States took place, for the most part, at airports. While airports...
In 1953, the Rootes Group in England, which had acquired the Sunbeam Company in 1935, produced a handsome sports car, the Sunbeam Alpine. Its styling promised more than it could deliver. With a wheelbase of 97.5 inches and an overall length of 168 inches, it weighed in at almost 3,000 pounds....
John Von Neumann is an important name in the history of the second half of the twentieth century. A Princeton...
My column in the October 2006 edition of Vintage Racecar was titled, “Shelby, the Early Years.” For the most part,...
I’m writing this column during the waning days of 2006. Fifty years is traditionally a significant anniversary. What I remember most about 1956 was that we lost Ernie McAfee during the last race held on the Del Monte Properties at Pebble Beach. Ernie was a dear friend and a wonderful...
Quite a few younger folk seek me out and want to hear about how wonderful sports car racing was during...
This is a little-known story, but the real father of Riverside Raceway was Jim Peterson. I thought this would be...
As old age creeps up, I think of things that are a must for me and perhaps also for readers of this magazine. I assume you are not only an automobile enthusiast and racing fan, but also have more than a passing interest in car history and the personalities involved....
As everyone knows, after the 1960 racing season, Carroll Shelby retired as a driver and became even better known for...
Lance Reventlow was the son of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. As most aficionados know, he was active in motorsport during...
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...
It is well known that some great stock car road racing took place at the Riverside International Raceway. Dan Gurney...
My first car after leaving active duty in the Army in 1953 was a 1948 Buick convertible that I sort...
During the fifties, everyone’s hero was Juan Manuel Fangio. He won the World Driving Championship five times, an achievement that would not be equaled for almost 50 years. The race that put the fifth crown on his head was at the world’s most challenging circuit, the old Nürburgring. At the...
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