In the March 2009 VRJ I wrote about Don Blenderman’s Kurtis obsession and his wonderful Sutton-bodied 500KK. What I failed...
The inspiration behind the concepts and designs of Lister cars came from the pre-war Mercedes racing cars that would today...
1959 Austin Special The author enjoys a deja vu fling with the Austin Special Sabrina, a car whose path he had crossed many years before.Photo: Ian Welsh It’s interesting how things happen. People you meet throughout your life who don’t necessary become friends, but you run into them occasionally and they...
This is the story of four Reuters, blood relatives… but not necessarily to each other. It’s also the story of...
April 2010 Racing for Mercedes-Benz By Hartmut Lehbrink With the re-entry of Mercedes-Benz into Grand Prix racing as a factory...
The Ferrari 195 Inter was introduced in 1950 as a roadgoing machine to replace the 166. According to Stanley Nowak in Ferrari on the Road, a total of 27 cars left the factory over the short production run. It seems that 26 of the buyers understood Enzo’s intention for this...
The Pikes Peak Hill Climb is the second-oldest major motor racing event in North America. The inaugural race was held...
The story of Chet Herbert is pure inspiration. Afflicted with polio at age 20, Herbert spent his life building a...
Motor racing was banned in Switzerland in the aftermath of the 1955 Le Mans disaster, one of the most catastrophic in the sport’s history. The lifting of the ban has been discussed on a number of occasions by the Swiss authorities, but ultimately to no avail. It was, therefore, very...
This exquisitely done painting depicts Juan Manuel Fangio, the five-time Formula One World Champion, finishing 5th in the 1956 Mille...
The 7th running of the fall races at Watkins Glen, N.Y., was held at the Interim Course, a 4.6-mile, 9-turn...
George Valerio of Lincoln, California, has been hunting cars for as long as he can remember. Yes, it’s the way he earns his living, but it is more of an obsession than a vocation. After a few minutes on the telephone, it’s obvious that Valerio finds great joy in unearthing...
1952 Ferrari 225 S While the history of the Ferrari you see here will forever associate it with the great...
If there is a single quality that best defines Marc Surer it must be determination. When you consider that he...
Sir Stirling Moss scored the first of his three Monaco Grand Prix wins in 1956 with this Maserati 250F, nipping ahead of rival Juan Manuel Fangio’s Ferrari on the opening lap and staying out front the rest of the way. During his pursuit of the leader, Fangio later bent his...
Following the vast destruction of WW II, exciting new sports cars emerged from the rubble, which was just what the...
This fabulous-looking 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa was sold by RM-Sotheby’s “Ferrari Legend and Passion” auction at the famous Fiorano...
1958 Jaguar 3.4 Saloon An unused flying boat base from WWII provided the “test track” where our man Quinn tried out the big Cat’s capabilities.Photo: Steve Oom It has had an impressive competition career in anyone’s language. In simple number of wins it’s up there with some of the greatest...
In my book Vintage American Road Racing Cars, I wrote, “Of all the Kurtis road racing cars, the 500X is...
1957 Aston Martin DBR1 Aston Martin’s relationship with the 24 Hours of Le Mans goes all the way back to...
During the fifties, Aston Martin produced sports cars with the designation, DB, which, of course, stands for David Brown. In addition to the 2-door hardtops—called saloons by the factory—a series of open sports cars, actually sports racers (later called sports racing cars), were constructed, raced by the factory and sold...
Vince di Pierro knows what he likes. So much so that four years ago he sank more than $100,000 into...
The glorious sunshine and exceptional calibre of racing stars brought motorsport enthusiasts out in their thousands to visit Race Retro...
1954 Fiat 8V Zagato If you lived through the ’60s and ’70s, then Sunset Boulevard, in Southern California, likely holds some meaning for you. Whether through your own experiences or through the words of Jan and Dean’s famous “Dead Man’s Curve,” cruising Sunset Boulevard conjures images of the California car...
This is a little-known story, but the real father of Riverside Raceway was Jim Peterson. I thought this would be...
This painting depicts Mike Hawthorn, winner of the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix at Pedralbes, Barcelona, in the Ferrari 553 “Squalo”...
1953 Austin-Healey 100 Is this the ideal sports car of the 1950s? The car that sparked thousands of people into thinking they could buy a production machine and go racing? This 1953 Healey did just that, essentially a production car that found glory at Le Mans and the Mille Miglia....
Don Blenderman is koo-koo for Kurtis cars. And why not? Frank Kurtis is arguably the greatest American racecar builder of...
Road racing in America started just after World War II and rapidly grew into a phenomenon. While many of the...
Since the doors opened in 1924, the MG Car Company of Great Britain has been producing interesting and innovative automobiles. The decade of the 1950s was a particularly magical time for sports and competition cars, and MG was in the thick of it with factory racers and experimental cars. While...
