If he lasted long enough—that is, if he didn’t get killed in the process—canny observers thought this young South African...
Neville HayPhoto: Kary Jiggle After a very successful year in 1935, Prince Chula Chakrabongse, who financed Prince Birabongse’s racing, decided...
Can you imagine two cars chained together, nose to nose, engines thundering on the infield of the 1930 Indianapolis 500? In one corner, wearing black coachwork with gray interior weighing in at 3,650 pounds, the 1929 Ruxton factory special known as the Muller Front Drive Special. And in the other...
The tragic death earlier this year of Jules Bianchi has reignited an on-again, off-again discussion of whether Formula One cars...
Born to a Paris butcher and his wife in April 1937, the late Jean-Pierre Beltoise had won the incredible number...
As I write these notes, the 2015 season is coming to an end with just a few more Formula One races. There may still be a surprise winner of the Championship…at least one competitor hopes! From the start of 2015 many people seemed to write off the chances of everyone...
I love Italian sports cars, and if they were built in the 1950s or 1960s, even better. At the top...
As you’ll see from the extensive coverage, on both sides of the magazine this month, this year’s Monterey Car Week...
Like his uncle Gianni Agnelli, Ludovico Scarfiotti was a suave, well-mannered gentleman who was no stranger to the privileges of wealth. He was, perhaps, no Grand Prix star—except on one gifted day in 1966—but he turned himself into an immensely capable hillclimber and sports car racer. Born in Turin in...
Neville HayPhoto: Kary Jiggle As a small boy my love of cars and motor sport meant I went to every...
Sex, infidelity, theft, intrigue, a lightly raced car, a tragic airplane crash and a pack of lifelong friends…some famous, some...
I wrote in this space, last month, that racecar drivers are just like us in that they too are human and suffer many of the same issues and problems that we all do. Of course, our image of the professional racecar driver tends to be more along the lines of...
Now Auto Union’s number one driver after replacing the dead Bernd Rosemeyer, Tazio Nuvolari and his Auto Union Type D...
Mike Lawrence Australia has decided to demote FF1600 and install Formula 4 as its national starter series. Formula 4 gives...
Then. Etceterini.com is the place to be if you’re obsessed with small displacement Italian wizardry of the 1950s. If it’s swoopy, aluminum, high-revving, low torqueing and ends in an “i” this is a domicile you can call home. Let us not forget, however, that there are some non-i-ending cars here...
It’s sometime easy to loose sight of the fact that the heroes of racing are, by and large, just people....
Manfred von Brauchitsch Biography He was called die Pechvogel, the unlucky bird. He was known more for the races that he lost...
Mike Lawrence Mike Jiggle’s recent article on the ex-Moss Cooper Mk IV-J.A.P. (VR, July 2015) prodded a few memories about the formula. I assisted the late David Hodges on his wonderful book, A-Z of Formula Racing Cars. Entries on 500-cc makers were down to me, and I thought that would...
Then. I love Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) automobiles. These were cars built specifically for the Japanese market, and the best...
Not long ago, our resident sage—the good Dr. Lawrence—noted that innovations in road cars have always come from sports cars,...
Miss Moss wrestled the beastly Austin-Healey 3000 to victory in the 1960 Liege-Rome-Liege Rally, likely the greatest drive of her distinguished career. Really, this column should be called “Heroine” this time, because it’s about one of the greatest stars of post-war world rallying, a woman who took on the best...
Mike Lawrence Recently, I was contacted by a chap in New Jersey who labored under the impression that I know...
Then. I’ve been hiding something from you. I’m not proud of it, and it’s been going on for way too...
Racing cars and airplanes have shared an inter-connection dating all the way back to the dawn of the 20th Century. The development of more efficient and lighter weight internal combustion engines benefitted aircraft development, while rapid advances in aeronautical engineering and aerodynamics have played profound roles in auto racing. Even...
Up from 4th on the grid, Mairesse (#40) battles Graham Hill (#10) and Dan Gurney (#4) for the lead into...
Mike Lawrence There has been some debate within these pages about the wood used to make Frank Costin’s Protos F2...
Then. Aristotle Socrates Onassis was a Greek shipping magnate with enormous wealth, an iconic style and a passion for objects of beauty. He is, however, most widely remembered for marrying Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968. Five years ago, Onassis would have been the only Greek shipping magnate I could have named...
Recently, well known collector and conservation stalwart Fred Simeone commented, “Certain cars nowadays have become so historically important that their...
In Mass’ last full year, 1991, he teamed with Jean-Louis Schlesser in this C11 for the Mercedes-Benz WSC team as...
Mike Lawrence Here is a question to ponder: when was there last welding equipment in a Formula One pitlane, or that of any top category? After Innes Ireland drove his Lotus 16 around the bumps of the Monza banking in 1959, no fewer than 40 cracks were found in the...
