Bristol, once a significant marque, has relocated to the “Great Paddock In The Sky.” For some time it had been...
To write this column I am taking time off from completing my contribution to a book. I need to take...
Recently, I bought a ticket for the European Lottery, prompted by the fact that the jackpot was £66 million. The £1.50 I paid for my ticket bought a few days of fantasy, cheaper than Playboy. Apart from the anonymous acts of charity such booty would enable me to perform, my...
Throughout the history of man and machine there have been inextricable links between automobiles and airplanes. Henry Ford’s corrugated Trimotor...
There is an outfit in England making simulacre Vanwalls, road equipped, and with the choice of one seat or two. I’ve seen them only in green, but their natural livery must be fluorescent pink with whitewall tires. There was another Vanwall project in the late 1980s. The conglomerate, GKN, had...
Champ Car racing is in the middle of an ongoing drama, which can be best described as character building. Starting...
Racecar designers are sometimes accused of copying others’ ideas, but are they really “copy cats,” or is it a case of “great minds think alike?” Something worth examining, albeit there is evidence on both sides of the argument. In any case, if a designer sees that one of his rivals...
Illustrating Patrick Quinn’s article on the Bira MG K3 (VR December, 2009) was a photograph of Ron Uffindel, who frequently raced it. A theme of that issue was the return of the Lotus name to F1. I saw Uffindel’s name and bells rang. Australian motor racing often reflected the British...
This year, Crosslé, Lola, and Mallock will all celebrate their fiftieth anniversaries. The exact date of each birthday is unknown,...
Imagine you are a designer in late 1952. One day you are sitting, staring out of the window, when your...
Mike Lawrence This year we celebrated the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Within weeks, what had been RAF Westhampnett, now the Goodwood Motor Circuit, was virtually deserted as operations moved to France. Before the first Revival, I went with Stirling Moss, his manager Ken Gregory, and the engineer, Tony Robinson, to...
Dan Gurney Biography He drove in the last great era of Grand Prix racing before the advent of tobacco advertising...
There comes a time, all too often in history, when there arrives the “end of an era,” and with the...
This year’s Formula One World Championship commenced without the reigning champion in the field, something that has not happened since 1993 when Alain Prost quit the Williams team. So, how many times have we been without the current champion? The easy answer is four, but it depends on the precise...
I have an old friend that works in law enforcement. I’m not talking about the local PD. Serious law enforcement,...
As I mentioned here, a few months ago, for several years I sorted the boxes of stuff that Eoin Young...
When I was at school I used to sit at the back of the French class and I always looked busy though I hardly learned a word of French. I looked engrossed in my work because I was designing an Austin Seven-based 750 Special which would make me the next...
A friend phoned saying he had been offered a CTG, and the vendor claimed it had been designed by Len...
Electric vehicles are suddenly all the rage. Showing one’s “green” credentials is very popular in this low or zero emission age, and in my neighborhood I often see a Tesla with “Zero Emissions” as its license plate, which does give out the message to some of us fossil fuel engine...
Twenty-five years ago, a company called Amstrad launched an inexpensive word processor. The package was crude, each three-inch disk held...
Howden Ganley Do you like your racing cars to be aesthetically pleasing? Most people do, me included. So how do...
Lotus was the star of the 1957 London Motor Show, which was remarkable since prior to that Lotus only made competition cars. Every year, the organizers donated a stand to a company which had flown the flag and Lotus had taken two class wins at Le Mans, plus a 1-2...