Between covering auctions, events, rallies and vintage races, in addition to profiling and reviewing modern and classic cars, collections, historic races and more, 2012 was, thankfully, an increasingly busy year at Sports Car Digest. The grand total of stories published during the year came to nearly 550, an average of more than ten per week and growing the archives to nearly 2,800 articles.
And how could we call ourselves car enthusiasts if we didn’t obsess over numerical statistics and analyses? A mere tally of stories published wasn’t the only thing we were keeping our eye on, we also kept track of the stories and galleries that were getting the most views, too, and compiled the most popular here. Leading the way in page views for 2012 was the Goodwood Festival of Speed, followed by the vast photo galleries from the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the Le Mans Classic. Just as in 2009, 2010 and 2011, nearly all of the top stories included extensive photo galleries, which accounted for a majority of the page views.
So without further ado, enjoy the year in retrospect with our Top 10 Most Popular Stories of 2012.
Top 10 Most Popular Stories on Sports Car Digest – 2012
Most Popular Stories of 2012 – Honorable Mention
11. John Fitch – A Pictorial Remembrance
12. 1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Race Profile
13. Hawk at Road America – Report and Photos
14. Goodwood Revival – Photo Gallery
15. Tour Auto Rally – Report and Photos
16. Lime Rock Historic Festival – Report and Photos
17. Concorso Italiano – Photo Gallery
18. Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance – Photo Gallery
19. Best of the Goodwood Revival – Photo Gallery
20. U.S. Vintage Grand Prix – Report and Photos
Coverage of Kuwait concours was all artsy stuff showing PARTS of cars, not complete cars.
I thought this was inexcusable. Also, in Wayne Carini’s program, he showed glimpses of a
lot of cars I hoped would be in your coverage. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
I didn’t mean to be anonymous with the comment on the Kuwait concours. So, here I am!
Hi Charlie –
Thanks for the comments, and for making yourself known. We would imagine that you saw our “Behind the Scenes” at the Kuwait Concours, which, as you’ve suggested, is in fact the detail pictures and other items.
Here is our coverage of the event: https://dev.sportscardigest.com/kuwait-concours-delegance-2012-report-and-photos/
You’ll find all of the cars that you’d like to see.
I have just finished the Tim Scott photo series on Bonneville. I was there in 1954/55/56; saw
the Kenz-Leslie twin flathead {a first} streamliner {their push truck was timed at 150+}. Met Ed
Iskenderian. The Bean Bandits; from Mexico. I asked one of them “What percent {nitro} are
you guys using?” This was a standard question; usual answer might be as much as 50%.
He replied “100%; it’s easier to mix”. When running nitro, you had to drain your oil while it
was hot; I saw one guy who left his overnight. He had to drop the pan and scrape the oil {?}
out. Three of us ran a ’32 3-window with a Chrysler hemi and roller cam; think we went in the
160s. In 1956, one of us got a Golden Hawk. He milled the heads, added a cam. Loaded wife
and kids and camping gear. Drove there {from Seattle}, ran a 152, loaded up and drove home.
That was his daily driver. Saw Mickey Thompson and his collection of Pontiac- powered cars
and engines. Aside from the 4-engine streamliner, he had a Studebaker Hawk, a belly-tanker,
and maybe one or two others. In addition to the V8s, he also had 4-cyl {half a V8} and a
2-cyl {1/4 of a V8}. These lasted real quick. The streamliner did well; broke 400, I think.
One of the cars in Tim’s series is of a hot rod wearing a sign “Real hot rods don’t have valve
covers”; unless of course they have Ardun heads! God bless the flatheads!
Bonneville is a special place; was then and still is today. Wish I wasn’t so old and my health
was better. But at least I got to go.
The photo of the Ferrari in your story of the 1956 Sebring race brought back a lot of memories.
This is an 860 Monza driven by Fangio/Castellotti, S/N 0604M; one of three such cars entered
by the Scuderia. I owned and raced this car from 1959-1967. I last saw it in 1996 at Spa; it was
then owned by Jean Sage. Jean and I had struck up a correspondence regarding “our” car.
He had done a complete restoration/documentation of it, even to having the engine work
done by the same mechanics who built it originally. Jean invited me to come to the Ferrari
Historics and meet him and see the car. What an experience that was! Jean was the PERFECT
host; the car was likewise. Correctly done, not over-restored; and very thoroughly too.
We continued corresponding, but he soon sold the car, and later died tragically of a rare
form of cancer {of the thymus}. Did you know you have a thymus? And why? I didn’t.
Jean was a real loss, not just to me but to the Ferrari community at large. He was a major
repository of information on Ferraris in general with connections within the factory, and
a thoroughly nice guy and generous host.
Somewhere in my cluttered house I have copies of SCD dating back to {I think} the 1960s.
I remember in one you were describing cars the staff drove; one such was a Lister-Buick.
That is, a 1939 Buick with a Lister engine …. ! I really enjoyed those SCDs!
Charles – if you check my shots from Goodwood Revival 2011 and 2012, you’ll find shots of 0604.
In 2012, the car was driven on the owner’s behalf by Danny Sullivan.
I hope you eventually found your way to the full Kuwait Concours coverage, and found the coverage somewhat better than “inexcusable” !