Oscar Wilde wrote, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” This sounds a lot like the car hobby to...
Don Blenderman is koo-koo for Kurtis cars. And why not? Frank Kurtis is arguably the greatest American racecar builder of...
(Chassis #Z1058301) Vintage Racecar’s Siamese Twin, Vintage Roadcar, features a monthly column, “By Design,” inked by automotive and industrial designer Raffi Minasian. Minasian inherited his obsession from his father and by early childhood was thoroughly consumed by all objects with engines and wheels. The duo owned a long string of...
Hot Rods are more than just auto-mobiles. They define a culture; a way of life. And at their best, they...
What was Jud Phillips thinking? This has been the question that’s tormented Bill Fester for nearly a decade. Fester, from...
Then. The year 1963 gave us the Lava Lamp, touch-tone phones, instant coffee and Johnny Depp. That same year Jim Clark captured his first Formula One championship, Ferrari won Le Mans for the seventh time, and Parnelli Jones chugged the milk at Indy. Down under, Australian-born John Dickenson gave the...
Then. Who wants to be Tony Curtis in the 1950s? That man had cars and women, fast and smokin’, in...
There are few things that car guys love more than the story of a fabulous automotive find…the wilder, the better....
Bruce Bromme Sr. was born in 1917, and shortly thereafter was thrust into the world of racing. His father, Louis Bromme, was a highly skilled mechanic who worked for Fred Duesenberg during the board track era. By age seven Bruce was a regular at Legion Ascot Speedway and the...
This month’s Hidden Treasure comes to us courtesy of Gertrude Schmedley of Pascagoula, Mississippi. Schmedley found me via the internet...
The story of Chet Herbert is pure inspiration. Afflicted with polio at age 20, Herbert spent his life building a...
If you were going to build an 850-cc sports racer in the 1960s, which engine would you choose? Larry Kropp answered that question with a Deutsch Bonnet air-cooled two-cylinder, and to this day he remains steadfast that his decision was spot on. In the ’60s Kropp was a toolmaker living...
Then After back-to-back wins at the Indianapolis 500 in 1953 and 1954, Bill Vukovich returned for the ’55 race with...
If you don’t know the Furlows of Dallas, Texas, you’ve definitely been hanging with the wrong vintage racing crowd. Father...
We all love to be gob-smacked. It’s part of what keeps the hobby fresh and exciting. You know what I’m talking about. We covet those “Holy s@#&, what is that thing?” moments of blissful discovery. These are the flashes of brilliance that nurture us as we move through life and...
What is this thing they call Contessa? The term Contessa originates from the Italian language and translates as “countess.” In...
It takes all kinds of digging to unearth a Hidden Treasure. Sometimes you even have to bring a shovel. Chip...
In my book Vintage American Road Racing Cars, I wrote, “Of all the Kurtis road racing cars, the 500X is shrouded in the most mystery regarding how many cars were constructed. By some accounts as many as 12 were built, but some believe six or even fewer cars were actually...
On July 12, 2009, thousands of onlookers witnessed as a 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia Roadster was plucked from Lake...
This month’s Hidden Treasure begins with the sound of J. Why do I bring this up? Because for years I’ve...
If there are so many of us desperately searching for our old racing cars, why in the heck are we ever crazy enough to sell them in the first place? That is the very question that has intrigued Charlie Miller for the past 26 years. Miller is an engineer who...
This month’s awesome Hidden Treasure was discovered in 1995, sitting behind a house in Glendale, Arizona. How awesome? You tell...
Road racing in America started just after World War II and rapidly grew into a phenomenon. While many of the...
“Wow, I could have had an 8V!” Can you imagine if Fiat had hired actor Ronald Reagan in 1952 to promote its brand-new sports car with that mostly familiar slogan? Had Fiat done that, is there any doubt that thousands of units would have been sold? Instead, in 1975 Campbell’s...
Few early American racers did more than Ak Miller. He was a well-known hot rodder, successful long-distance racer, had more...
I love Italian sports cars, and if they were built in the 1950s or 1960s, even better. At the top...
There’s always been something magical about the H-Modified cars of the ’50s and early ’60s. These 750-cc (and later 850-cc) weapons were driven with zing and enthusiasm, not grunt and anger. And the very best drove ’em foot to the floor all the way around, not hard on brakes, hard...
In 1958, former Huntington Park High School friends Larry Kent and Ray Weaver decided to take a shot at the...
The lunacy of automotive collecting has no bounds. My personal journey has taken me from Italian coach-builts to vintage racecars...
Then Was Juan Manuel Fangio the greatest racecar driver of all time? He was World Champion five times (1951, 1954 to 1957) and his career winning percentage of 46.2-percent in Formula One is better than anyone else by a sizeable margin (Alberto Ascari, 39.4; Jim Clark, 34.3; Michael Schumacher, 29.6;...