In a recent letter to Vintage Racecar, David Carroll mentioned that he owns an HRG. Regardless of anything else, like what it might do to your dental fillings, the “Hurg” is one of the most elegant cars of the 1930s. It also reminded me about what government decisions have done...
There was something missing from the recent Olympics—motor sport. I can think of no good reason why, when we have...
For the 1955 season, Monza was refurbished and the Milan Auto Club considered an oval race. Contact was made with...
I was intrigued by the letter from Rob Connearney in the August issue of Vintage Racecar. Crosley Hot Shots were, indeed, fitted with Goodyear-Hawley “spot” disc brakes for a spell, but these were prone to bind and were replaced by Bendix drum brakes. Crosley was the first, but the system...
Foretelling the future is impossible, yet that is what executives in car companies have to do. When I was a...
This year, Crosslé, Lola, and Mallock will all celebrate their fiftieth anniversaries. The exact date of each birthday is unknown,...
When I was young, career advice was rudimentary. On hearing that I was interested in literature, an advisor told me that there was an opening for a printer’s apprentice in Stratford-upon-Avon. Nobody mentioned jobs that paid you millions for being incompetent. A classmate of mine got a job in a...
I was surprised to read in the March issue of this magazine a letter from Bob Krueger on “train racing,”...
Once, I set out to write the “Great Motor Racing Novel.” There was no firm plot in my mind, but...
Where I live I often see an Alvis TA 14 “woodie,” the owner’s sole car. It has no catalytic converter and “economy” is not a word you associate with its fuel consumption. It is enough to bring tears to the eyes of an eco-warrior, but the owner is a distinguished...
On a bleak day in November 1983, I was at Silverstone. Ken Tyrrell had promised a test drive to the...
Lotus was the star of the 1957 London Motor Show, which was remarkable since prior to that Lotus only made...
It took time for me to become enthusiastic about anything German. I have been hit by the blast of a V1 flying bomb. My mother had just risen from a chair with my baby brother and a dagger of glass pierced the back of the chair. Hollywood explosions are all...
I have just marked my half-century of being a motor racing enthusiast. On February 1, 1957, I bought a copy...
Last year we celebrated a century of Grand Prix racing. The Grand Prix de l’Auto Club France was the first...
As I mentioned here, a few months ago, for several years I sorted the boxes of stuff that Eoin Young had picked up at auctions or autojumbles. One day I came upon a program for a motorcycle speedway meeting in 1937—it was only a sheet of foolscap folded in two,...
Recently, I bought a ticket for the European Lottery, prompted by the fact that the jackpot was £66 million. The...
In the early 1980s, the Marlboro British F3 Championship was reckoned the most desirable to be in. The top three in the series received a run in a Marlboro McLaren. I attended some of these sessions and they were proper tests, but 25 years ago that meant three mechanics and...
A friend phoned saying he had been offered a CTG, and the vendor claimed it had been designed by Len...
There is an outfit in England making simulacre Vanwalls, road equipped, and with the choice of one seat or two. I’ve seen them only in green, but their natural livery must be fluorescent pink with whitewall tires. There was another Vanwall project in the late 1980s. The conglomerate, GKN, had...
This year’s Goodwood Revival Meeting was the seventh in the series—time flies when you’re having fun. One thing that marks...
A reader, Sam Gage, objected to the use of the term “Yellow Peril” to caption a picture of an Alfa...
At one of the Goodwood Revival meetings, I was chatting with Rob Wilson, racing driver, bass guitarist and Kiwi, not necessarily in that order. Soon, we were joined by Howden Ganley. Then Eoin Young and our mutual pal from New Zealand, Michael Clarke, appeared. As far as the eye could...
