Tall, handsome, and charming, Roy Salvadori was everything Hollywood ever wanted a racing driver to be. He was a ’50s–’60s...
With no fewer than 32 world championship victories to his credit, Jochen Mass is one of the most successful sports...
Some time ago, Vintage Racecar published ”Absent Friends,” my story of astonishing heroism of another kind. It involved three motor racing greats, Robert Benoist, William Grover-Williams and, to a lesser extent, Jean-Pierre Wimille. The story told of their selfless devotion to their country, their indignation at the theft of their...
St. Chamond in the Loire Valley of France was once known as a production center of ribbon and rayon, as...
A graduate in mechanical engineering, they called the nephew of Pinin Farina il dottore, the doctor. An austere, intolerant man,...
Three weeks after he had won the 1966 Grand Prix of Monaco in an aging, works, 2-liter, V-8 BRM P261, Jackie Stewart lay trapped in the wreckage of his car after having left Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the pouring rain at 165 mph. His BRM had smashed into a telegraph pole,...
How will history remember Count Wolf-gang Alexander Albert Eduard Maximillian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips? “Von Krash,” as the dim-witted sniggeringly...
Georges Louis Frederic Boillot Biography Georges Louis Frederic Boillot was born in Valentigney, France on August 3rd, 1884 A mechanic...
Denny Hulme was one of the most reserved men in motor racing. He seldom showed his emotions, which he camouflaged with a likable but sometimes gruff personality. Hulme never regarded himself a star, even if that were the case, and often went unrecognized in the most public of places, among...
The story of the Alfa Romeo 158 is packed with heroes, starting with its designer, Gioacchino Colombo. He submitted his...
It may sound corny, but Dick Seaman’s short life really was the stuff of Hollywood movies. He was tall, handsome,...
The man at the wheel of the 2.8-liter, six-cylinder, Ford Sierra XR4i may have been a schoolmaster, but he certainly did not drive like one. In fact, beads of sweat were breaking out on my forehead as he stylishly doorhandled the winged Ford along the narrow roads of the Targa...
Nelson Piquet Biography Nelson Piquet was born on August 17, 1952 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The son of a...
If you ever see a photograph of Philippe Etancelin in action, chances are you will never forget him. Because he’s...
Tazio Nuvolari always used to say that if your car burst into flame, jump out and save yourself before it crashes. A similar philosophy to that of the bespectacled Masten Gregory, who often shocked fellow competitors and spectators alike by standing up and leaping from his troubled cars, once or...
Rene Arnoux learned his trade the hard way, as he fought for the European Formula Two Championship against tough nuts...
Richie Ginther Biography Those readers familiar with the Grand Prix History website know that central to this site is the...
Until the outbreak of World War I (1914–18), a Targa Florio had been staged every year since 1906, so Vincenzo Florio was determined to get it going again before the end of 1919. However, it was May before the wealthy Sicilian began to tour Europe to drum up entries, so...
There was never any doubt that Chris Amon was an exceptional talent. Mauro Forghieri, Ferrari’s chief designer for almost 20...
At the end of 1969, during the height of the Ferrari-Porsche World Sports Car Championship “wars,” Jo Siffert was wined...
His contemporaries called him the “Garibaldino,” a term they reserved for the best of their select band. Like Giuseppe Garibaldi, the general who kicked the Austrians and French out of Italy in the mid-19th century, Antonio Ascari, was a courageous and determined fighter. He was the one who always got...
One was born in Shelbyville, Indiana, in 1902 and the other in a cramped workshop in Bologna, northern Italy, 35...
Like Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi is one of the elite. A driver who has won the Formula...
Louis Chiron Biography Born in August 1899, the son of a French hotelier in Monaco he became that principalities most famous sportsman. Holding dual citizenship Chiron joined the French army prior to his 18th birthday, serving as an artilleryman during World War I. He later became the personal driver to...
David Purley was a hero you have probably never even heard of, but a hero he most certainly was. If...
This son of a German garage owner had never raced a car until May 26, 1935, at the superfast Avus...
Achille Varzi was the opposite of his capricious nemesis Tazio Nuvolari, who was steeped in instinctive talent. Varzi was a controlled, calculating driver, a ruthless opponent, ferocious in exploiting his adversaries’ weaknesses and was, of course, immensely fast. As a man, he could be charming, had a sardonic sense of...
Niki Lauda Biography Andreas Nikolaus Lauda was born to a well-to-do Vienna family on February 22, 1949. His family’s social status...
John Michael Hawthorn was a Yorkshire lad of 24 with hardly any top-level motor racing experience when he drove the...
Pietro Bordino Biography Bordino was born in Turin, November 22, 1887. The son of a Fiat caretaker he would spend his early years around the factory before he was given a job as a mechanic. In 1904 he would become a racing mechanic to the works drivers, Vincenzo Lancia and...
