Racer Hurdles Crowd and Lives.” This was the Sunday, August 31, 1952 headline story in the Buffalo Courier Express. The...
For as long as he can remember, James Peacock of Long Beach, California, has been afflicted with a palate for...
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...
Then. By his own admission, Geoff Hacker specializes in finding cars that no one is looking for. It’s actually an...
Much like the animal it was named for, the precise origin of the Unicorn H-Modified sports racer remains a mystery....
What was Jud Phillips thinking? This has been the question that’s tormented Bill Fester for nearly a decade. Fester, from Houston, Texas, is not your ordinary car collector. Although he and his wife are very much city dwellers, their domicile is not only home to a wonderful collection of four-,...
Before WWII, the term “sports car” was an alien phrase in the USA. There was no such thing. Returning G.I.s...
“Their hopes, their dreams, their love; tied to a ribbon of road…and a boy’s unflinching faith…in a girl!” “A story...
The German Grand Prix; Nürburgring, August 2, 1953. World Champion Alberto Ascari sits in his Ferrari 500/F2 in front of the pits with Mike Hawthorn in another of the Ferraris behind him. The Italian led from pole position, but his car retired. He then took over a similar car from...
Then. I’ve been hiding something from you. I’m not proud of it, and it’s been going on for way too...
In the March 2009 VRJ I wrote about Don Blenderman’s Kurtis obsession and his wonderful Sutton-bodied 500KK. What I failed...
1953 Leson Simca Special Progress is not always a good thing. In the early 1950s, if you wanted to go racing in America you could build yourself a car or have one professionally constructed to your exact specifications. Sure, that meant some homebuilt, crude and dangerous machines were flying around...
This month’s awesome Hidden Treasure was discovered in 1995, sitting behind a house in Glendale, Arizona. How awesome? You tell...
There is no hidden racecar in this story, but there are four treasures, one mechanical and three human. I love...
In the early 1950s, Americans looked forward to attending auto shows for the unveiling of the manufacture’s latest offerings. Adding to the excitement was the increasing number of concept cars that debuted at these events, presenting a possible glimpse into the future of the automobile that they may someday be...
“For nearly a half-century, wherever Americans powered their way to automobile glory, whether on the two-and-a-half-mile Speedway at Indianapolis, the...
Karl Kling, Mercedes W196.Photo: courtesy of Chris Bayley Automobilia (www.chrisbayleyautomobilia.co.uk) Lost in the sands of time for nearly 60 years...
How many of you would journey 500 miles across country to race a freshly built car whose engine had never even been fired? That’s exactly what California-based James Kamboor did in 1954, and the lack of preparation didn’t seem to slow him down one bit. Become a Member & Get...
Then After back-to-back wins at the Indianapolis 500 in 1953 and 1954, Bill Vukovich returned for the ’55 race with...
Terry Bennett says he grew up as both a nerd and a motor-head. It was hardly his fault. His father...
The 7th running of the fall races at Watkins Glen, N.Y., was held at the Interim Course, a 4.6-mile, 9-turn circuit on public roads, up the hill from the village, in Dix Township—the second year for that course. People would later call it “the course on the hill.” It was...
One of the wildest racecar designs of the 1950s was penned by Mario Boano, for Carlo Abarth, in 1954. From...
“Wow, I could have had an 8V!” Can you imagine if Fiat had hired actor Ronald Reagan in 1952 to...
I worked for Jaguar from 1952 to 1986 as Chief Test and Development Engineer. Throughout that time I drove some really interesting and special cars, but nothing compares to the 1955 long-nosed D-Type Jaguar, a car that I drove flat out down the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans—192 mph—passing Karl...
Don Blenderman is koo-koo for Kurtis cars. And why not? Frank Kurtis is arguably the greatest American racecar builder of...
The Pikes Peak Hill Climb is the second-oldest major motor racing event in North America. The inaugural race was held...
When I moved to Tennessee a few years ago, one of the first things I did was look for a British car club. I have a split personality when it comes to cars – I prefer Italian and British automobiles. The club I found, Southern British Car Club (SBCC) is...
In my book Vintage American Road Racing Cars, I wrote, “Of all the Kurtis road racing cars, the 500X is...
Few cars have had more racing success and are more legendary than the Porsche 550 Spyder. From the model’s first...
1955 was the last year of racing on public roads for Watkins Glen—September 17. It was the 4.6-mile course up on the hill in Dix Township—the one with the mile and a third steep downhill straight ending in a hairpin turn. If you ran out of brakes or just weren’t...
