Ken Tyrrell once said that, contrary to what had been written about him, he had no special talent for spotting...
In 1953, the Rootes Group in England, which had acquired the Sunbeam Company in 1935, produced a handsome sports car, the...
The death of Peter Arundell promptsmemory of a challenge. Formula Junior was once Formula Arundell; he won twice as many major races as any other driver. Actually, the presence of Arundell and his Lotus defined what were major races. After Arundell had won at the Nürburgring at the end of...
The Ferrari 195 Inter was introduced in 1950 as a roadgoing machine to replace the 166. According to Stanley Nowak...
You’ve certainly heard many of us here at Vintage Racecar lament the fact that today’s racecar drivers seem to be...
Now, here was a giant killer. A man who beat the hell out of Mercedes-Benz at least twice and won Ferrari’s very first World Championship Grand Prix by beating the most successful racing car of all time. Born in Arrecifes, Argentina, in October 1922, Gonzalez was a tubby baby who...
When I first talked with Vintage Racecar editor Casey Annis in 2005, the conversation revolved around the subject of me...
Keith Duckworth Biography Since the partnership was formed in 1958 by Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth along with Bill Brown...
The Pikes Peak Hill Climb is the second-oldest major motor racing event in North America. The inaugural race was held in 1916, and the annual happening now attracts tens-of-thousands of spectators. The winding 12.4-mile course features 156 serpentine turns and starts at an altitude of 9,390 feet. The “race to...
Holiday Gift Guide 2009 Oyster Perpetual Datejust II $7,525 41mm, stainless steel case, 18kt white gold fluted bezel, 31 jewel...
I’ve spoken here, on several occasions, about the numerous unfulfilled rumors that have swirled through Formula One over the years,...
When you’re weighed down with a name like Prince Birabongse Bhanutej Bhanubandh, you’ve got to do something about it if you want to go motor racing, so this Siamese tongue twister became B. Bira. That was the pseudonym under which a small, doll-like grandson of King Mongkut, played by Yul...
By 1963, Cobras were doing very well in Sports Car Club of America races. Cars driven by Shelby American drivers...
There has been much rejoicing over the return to F1 next year of Team Lotus and I cannot understand what...
The story of Chet Herbert is pure inspiration. Afflicted with polio at age 20, Herbert spent his life building a string of record-smashers from his wheelchair…and apparently he thought nothing special of it. Following WWII, Herbert opened the doors to his speed shop, grinding some of the finest camshafts that...
I’ve been fairly fortunate in that I have been able to part with various cars in my life, with a...
No way did Elisabeth Junek look like a racing driver. She was, well, a woman to begin with, and there...
My column in the October 2006 edition of Vintage Racecar was titled, “Shelby, the Early Years.” For the most part, it was about Carroll Shelby’s racing career that culminated in winning Le Mans in 1959. I followed up on the column with the publication of my book, Shelby, the Race...
Over the years, I have assembled a fairly large library. In the event of a fire, the cost of replacing...
The lunacy of automotive collecting has no bounds. My personal journey has taken me from Italian coach-builts to vintage racecars...
Call me a jinx if you like. No sooner did I put the finishing touches on last month’s column about history repeating itself with schisms and rebellion in Formula One than the news broke that Steve Earle and his General Racing, Ltd. would no longer be organizing the famed Monterey...
Enzo Ferrari telephoned his driver Peter Collins before the 1956 Grand Prix of Italy for one of “those” conversations. The...
As everyone knows, after the 1960 racing season, Carroll Shelby retired as a driver and became even better known for...
It seems that we may have had the last Grand Prix at Silverstone. There was a time when I lived nearby and, in 1983, I reported on every meeting. At a Saturday “clubbie” I was the whole press corps and a tenth of the crowd. It remains my most enjoyable...
George Valerio of Lincoln, California, has been hunting cars for as long as he can remember. Yes, it’s the way...
As I follow the recent political soap opera, which has become Formula One, I can’t help but think of the...
John Watson was one of those rare beasts: an Irish Grand Prix winner. It was a feat pulled off by the number of his countrymen you could count on the fingers of one hand, and when you add to the equation the fact that he was also a successful world...
It is well known that some great stock car road racing took place at the Riverside International Raceway. Dan Gurney...
People have often expressed surprise that the Indianapolis 500 was included in the World Championship, between 1950 and 1960. For...
Ever wonder what it must’ve been like way back when during those early shade-tree mechanic days when racers would vanish into their garage and emerge months later with a car of their own design? Building a racing special in the ’50s was one thing, but by the time the Can-Am...
