If there is one manufacturer that has dominated the endurance racing landscape over the first two decades of the 21st Century, then it is certainly Audi. The German automaker burst onto the endurance racing scene in 1999 with its R8R, in open Spyder format, and the R8C, a Coupé. The pair of R8Rs claimed third and fourth places in their debut race, while the two R8Cs posted DNFs in the same race.

It is not just in the Le Mans 24 Hours that Audi excelled, it was also the name to beat in the World Endurance Championships (WEC), American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and the European Le Mans Series (ELMS). Between 1999 and 2016, when Audi officially withdrew from the WEC at the end of that season, each new iteration of the Audi endurance racer was dominant, and it all began with the R8, seventeen years earlier.

As author Ian Wagstaff put it, Audi went from being a beginner to favourites in just one year. This was, coincidently, at the start of the new Millennium, and so Audi rose to prominence when the attention of so many motorsport enthusiasts were looking for some new blood in the sport, and it was the Audi R8 that obliged in the most unforgettable way possible.

While the Audi ‘R8-405’, the subject of this book, cannot claim the highest number of victories, it was nevertheless a multiple race winner and had perhaps the longest active life in the R8 family. R8-405 entered the heady world of endurance racing at the 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours, leading the race for six hours in the hands of Laurent Aïello, Allan McNish and Stéphane Ortelli. Thanks to the tenacity of these three drivers, they brought R8-405 home in second place, one lap behind the winning sister car and two laps ahead of the similar third-placed sister car, providing a memorable 1-2-3 for Audi.

While R8-405 first ran at Le Mans as a works car, it was entered by Joest Racing at Le Mans in subsequent years and also by them in the ALMS. Even when a race car performs outstandingly in its debut season, by the end of the season it is often considered obsolete by the factory, and for R8-405 this was no exception. The R8 had provided and exceptionally good platform on which to build the next and successive evolutions of the racer.

The 2001 season saw chassis R8-405 being allocated to the American privateer team of Champion Racing (driven mostly by Johnny Herbert and Andy Wallace), the new series Audi racer being taken by the works team. Ironically, in a corporate twist where the factory called the shots, Champion’s R8-405 was ‘recalled’ for factory duty in 2002 to race against the privateer team!

The list of Audi works drivers who spent time behind the wheel of R8-405 reads like a who-is-who of the world’s best endurance racers, and a profile and a detailed list of achievements by each driver is provided in the text. These names include the likes of Allan McNish, Stéphane Ortelli, Laurent Aïello, Emanuele Pirro, Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen, Rinaldo Capello, Andy Wallace, Johnny Herbert, Ralf Kelleners, Dorsey Schroeder and Jamie Davies.

Of interest to enthusiasts in this form of racing, the author has provided official period Le Mans intermediate and final classification time sheets, and other assorted, similar official documents. Not only are these interesting and provide a supporting role to the text, but they are also a source of accurate information to the enthusiast.

The author has gone to great lengths, right from the beginning of the book, to paint an accurate picture of the arena in which the R8s competed, interviewing drivers, team and personnel connected  with the squad. The book then includes a section devoted to the successors to the R8s. As is now the norm, the world of historic racing has taken off as one of the fastest growing categories in the world of racing today. After R8-405’s in period racing life was over, it was acquired by an enthusiast who is himself a keen racer, and the car continues to entertain the crowds wherever it is seen.

Mention must be made of the truly excellent photography throughout the book, the author using many of his own images taken during his travels to these races around the world. Additional imagery has been sourced from regular professional photographers and photo libraries, enhancing the visual experience. The final section of the book comprises a studio photo study of R8-405, showing the car liveried in both its 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours colours and that of Champion Racing.

The author has done an exceptional job of recalling the life and times of R8-405, and the final presentation is a well-crafted balance of words and images. This book is the 15th in the ‘Great Cars’ series by Porter Press, and comes highly recommended to racing enthusiasts who enjoyed seeing these cars racing. Whether collecting the whole ‘Great Cars’ series or just wanting to add a quality title to your motorsport library, this is well worth your attention.

Book information

• Title: Audi R8 – The Autobiography of R8-405
• Author: Ian Wagstaff
• Publisher: Porter Press International
• Published: 5 December 2022
• ISBN: 978-1-913089-61-0
• Page count: 320 pages
• Image count: More than 350 images
• Format: 285 x 235 mm portrait, hardback with dust jacket
• Language: English
• Price: £69.00 GBP
• Available: www.porterpress.co.uk

The post Audi R8: The Autobiography of R8-405 appeared first on Sports Car Digest.

The JaguarSport XJR-15 is a two-seater roadgoing sports car produced by JaguarSport, a subsidiary of Jaguar and Tom Walkinshaw Racing. The supercar, of which just fifty cars were produced, was based on Jaguar’s Group C racers and was produced between 1990 and 1992.

Tom Walkinshaw, the larger-than-life and colourful character with so much racing a commercial experience behind him, met with designer Peter Stevens at the NEC Motor Show in October 1988. The motivation behind the meeting was to probe Stevens about an idea he had to develop a roadgoing supercar based on Jaguars then current XJR-9 Group C race car. After studying the Jaguar XJ220, designed by Keith Helfet, Walkinshaw and Stevens set about compiling some potential designs. Jaguar was in the process of rising to the top of the international motorsport pyramid, again, and so Walkinshaw had his mind set on playing a part in that climb up the ladder.

The story behind the successful development of the JaguarSport XJR-15 is, inevitably, the result of some ‘big sky’ thinking. Numerous other major manufacturers (Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and others), have over the years been inspired by their motorsport success and converted lessons learned on the race track into iconic road cars. In this way, the JaguarSport XJR-15, was brought into the world. Not averse to taking a risk to develop something special, Walkinshaw drove the JaguarSport XJR-15 project forward with his usual energy, fortunately with Peter Stevens at his side.

The Book

As the book’s subtitle suggests, A Personal History of the Design and development of the Legendary Supercar, it is a study of the early thinking of how this supercar was conceived and eventually delivered into the world. The reader will find within the pages, an entertaining backstory of how Peter Stevens came to be a celebrated automotive designer. With parents who were both artists, his eye was trained from an early age to appreciate design and to understand perspective. Having an uncle in Denis Jenkinson, the celebrated motorsport journalist, it comes as no surprise to find Peter Stevens excelling in the field of automotive design.

Powered by a naturally-aspirated 6-litre V12 engine, the JaguarSport XJR-15 was launched in November 1990 at Silverstone in Northampton, England. The launch was followed by a supporting series, the Intercontinental Challenge, a one-make cup which served as a support event atselected Formula One Grand Prix races in 1991. Use was made of some of the finest sports car drivers of the day, including the likes of Bob Wollek, David Brabham, Derek Warwick, Cor Euser, Tiff Needell, Armin Hahne, and other top drivers. Such a high quality cast was coaxed into the series thanks to the huge international exposure and an attractive purse.

What You Get

JaguarSport XJR-15 is a superb publication about a little-known supercar, often dubbed the ‘supercar that time forgot’. The author reveals how he started his career, progressing swiftly into the top echelons of the automotive design industry. Stevens includes a chapter on his relationship with Tom Walkinshaw, and influences such as racing at Le Mans, before he launches into the nitty gritty of the car’s design and development. Chapters then follow on the model’s launch, production and sales, the 1991 Intercontinental Challenge, ‘further developments,’ and the XJR-15 today. The 240-page book is printed on superior quality paper, and the page designs allow for easy reading, the narrative being well supported by excellent photo selection. Of great interest and value for the story of the JaguarSport XJR-15, is the use of numerous original drawings, showing the development of the car through the design phase.

Recommendation

If you are a Jaguar enthusiast, a motorsport enthusiast, or simply a sportscar enthusiast, then this is a book you won’t want to be without. It is a sizeable publication, and take its place on your automotive library bookshelf with pride. The print run is limited to just 400 signed copies, so make sure you get your copy while the going is good.

Book Information

• Title: JaguarSport XJR-15
• Sub-title: A Personal History of the Design and development of the Legendary Supercar
• Author: Peter Stevens
• Publisher: Porter Press International
• ISBN: 978-1-913089-66-5
• First published: March 2024
• Page count: 240 pages
• Images: 270 images
• Format: Hardback with Dust Jacket
• Dimensions: 315 x 270 mm (portrait)
• Language: English
• Print: Limited and signed by author – 400 copies
• Price: £149.00
• Collector’s and Owner’s Editions also available
• Website: https://porterpress.co.uk/collections/all-books/products/jaguarsport-xjr-15

The post JaguarSport XJR-15 appeared first on Sports Car Digest.

The emergence of the 166 MM Touring gave him his big break in endurance racing in 1949, when Luigi Chinetti and Peter Mitchell-Thomson won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first race to be held by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) after World War II.

Ferrari’s next Le Mans victory came in 1954 with the 375 Plus and again in 1958 with the 250 TR/58, but it was the first half of the 1960s that really belonged to Ferrari. From 1960, wins by the 250 TR59/60, 250 TRI/61, 330 TRI/LM, 250 P, 275 P and 250 LM gave Ferrari six consecutive victories in the French endurance race. But all the while Ferrari was also cleaning up the Grand Touring 3000 class around the world with wins by the V12 front-engined 250 GT LWB, 250 GT SWB, 250 GTO, GTO 64 and 275 GTB.

Ferrari decided to withdraw from sports car racing at the end of the 1965 season, but the ’66 Le Mans 24 Hours saw one of the highest number of Ferrari entrants, all privateer teams. This means that Ferrari’s last win at Le Mans with an official factory team, was back in 1965 (until 2023). Then, the rise of the great 365 GTB/4 (Daytona), saw Ferrari’s fortunes restored in front-engined V12 GT racing through the first part of the 1970s.

As it happens in motorsport, race car models and manufacturers come and go as the rules change, suiting them in some years but not in other years. Turbocharging and mid-engined race cars dominated and sports prototypes came to the fore once again in the ‘70s, while through the 1980s, Porsche ruled the roost with their Group C 956 and 962 cars. As the 1990s dawned and the Group C class was struggling, GT cars once again became the go-to class. The emergence and growth of GT racing through the ‘90s is largely down to the tireless work by Stéphane Ratel and the SRO Group, where the GT1 class attracted the likes of Porsche, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Panoz, Chrysler Viper, Corvette and others. The racing was intoxicating!

The Ferrari 550 Maranello Prodrive

Enter the likes of Frédéric Dor who wanted to drive a Ferrari in GT1, and he purchased a 550  Maranello race car for this purpose. However, he wasn’t happy with the car’s performance on track and approached Dave Richards’ Prodrive Group, to see if there was some way in which they could sort out the car’s problems. A second-hand 550 Maranello was then acquired and stripped back to a bare shell, and the Prodrive team set about rebuilding it in the way it should have been done.

In a period of just fifteen weeks, the first 550 Maranello Prodrive went from being a second-hand car to a fully fledged racer. In its first season, 2001, the 550 Maranello made its intentions very clear, winning its second race (A-1 Ring, Austria) and fourth race (Jarama, Spain) in the FIA GT Championship. In its second year, the car competed in the FIA GT Championship, the ALMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Preparing the 550 Maranello for the European and American series required adhering to a different set of rules for each series, but this Prodrive did in its usually excellent way.

In 2003, the 550 Maranello Prodrive scooped a GTS Class win at Le Mans, also winning the FIA GT Championship that year and finishing second in the ALMS. The following season, the car dominated the FIA GT Championship, winning in comprehensive style, also taking the LMS Endurance Series title. In 2005, the 550 Maranello Prodrive finished fourth and fifth in the GT1 Class at Le Mans, it was third in the FIA GT Championship and scored a 1-2-3-4 finish in the Le Mans Endurance Series.

Book Set Contents

The two-volume set, Ferrari 550 Maranello Prodrive – The Last V12 Ferrari to Win at Le Mans, offers the reader an unparalleled record of how this magnificent race car came to be. Written by long-time Ferrari enthusiast and aficionado, Keith Bluemel, this well-researched and well-written account of this superb race car is top-drawer stuff. Bluemel needs no introduction in the world of Ferrari, and he has done an excellent job in producing this outstanding book.

Part 1 of the two-volume set covers the history of Ferrari’s 12-cylinder GT cars and its racing history, the 550 concept and those behind the project. Also included in this part is the return of Ferrari to the GT fold, as well as a detailed account with chassis-by-chassis statistics of each of the 550 Maranello Prodrive cars.

Part 2 of the two-volume set covers the development and testing of the car which included tests at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track. The final chapter of the book gives a detailed account of the car’s in action, with results for each race, from 2001 to 2009. At the end of the book is a comprehensive Index, plus Acknowledgements which if you take the time to peruse this section, the reader will see the high profile names involved with every aspect of the compilation.

With added knowledge and experience from the publishers, Girardo & Co and DK Engineering, this is a really worthwhile publication. Having this two-volume set on your bookshelf will most definitely be a talking point with like-minded friends and colleagues. Get your copy while you still can, it is bound to be a worthwhile addition to your library!

Book Information

• Title: Ferrari 550 Maranello Prodrive
• Sub-title: The Last V12 Ferrari to Win at Le Mans
• Author: Keith Bluemel
• Foreword: David Richards & Frédéric Dor
• Publisher: Girardo & Co., DK Engineering
• ISBN: 978-1-3999-5783-0
• First published: 2023
• Page count: 592 pages (in 2 volumes)
• Images: 830 images
• Format: Hardback, 2-volumes in Slip Case
• Dimensions: 290 x 290 mm (square)
• Language: English
• Print: Limited and numbered edition – 550 copies
• Price: 630.00 Euros
• Available: McKlein Store – Phone: +49 (0)2203-9242570
• Website: Rally & Racing – Ferrari 550 Maranello Prodrive

Written by: Glen Smale

All images: © Girardo & Co. Archive

The post Book Review: Ferrari 550 Maranello Prodrive appeared first on Sports Car Digest.

ED SWART

From Zandvoort to Daytona

60 Years of cars, characters, and the world’s most challenging race tracks

Published by: Coterie Press Ltd.

Author: Ed Swart with Johnnie Tipler

192 Pages

ISBN: 978-1-902351-71-1

Price: $49.95 US

Recently, I visited author Ed Swart and his wife, Sally, at their Southern California home and had the privilege of seeing the files of this book before it went to press. After we took a look at the “galleys” (as we used to call them before the digital takeover) in Ed’s office, he showed me a bookcase with several folders.

I didn’t count them but there were at least 20 of them, maybe more. Ed took a couple out and showed me the contents: he had archived all the results, notes, magazine clips, credentials and miscellaneous materials from … get this dear reader: almost every race he had entered since the first one 60 years ago.

It was as if he was preparing to write this book almost since the beginning of his life.

Perhaps I should’ve detected this fact when I came upon a photo of a child, about 10-years old, smiling, sitting in the driver’s seat of a Gatso sports car at Zandvoort, or those in the paddock with his parents with racing stars of the day like Giuseppe Farina, Maurice Trintignant or Jean Behra.

Autobiographical works deal with the life of the author, but in this case he expands his descriptions to the world of motorsports that he touched and that touched him giving his story a unique ”journalistic” style.

Here, we learn about the politics of racing, the technical aspects of the cars he drove and the cars he competed against, stories about people (such as Carlo Abarth), the different series, the lifestyle of the times (specially the early years), and the circuits.

From Zandvoort to Daytona (as the subtitle of the book proclaims), each is shown in dedicated sidebars with a map, track length, the corners, lap record and a very special “a lap with Ed Swart”.

The book covers his beginnings with Fiat and Abarth (his father was a Fiat distributor in the Hague) racing the little 850 rocket ships of Scuderia Auto Swart (SAS), with interesting side notes such as his sponsorships by Radio Veronica (a pirate radio station that broadcast from a ship off the coast of Holland) and Team Canon.

Further chapters cover the Abarth Sport Prototypes, the FIA 2-L seasons and also the Springbok Series in South Africa, along with the Tasman Cup in Australia and New Zealand, as well as the Temporada Internacional races in Argentina.

Ed was at the leading edge of professional racing and among the top privateers being this evident by the company he kept during the early ‘70s in the FIA 2 Liter sport Prototype series, first with Abarth and then with Chevron competing against the likes of Arturo Merzario, Jo Bonnier, Brian Redman (who wrote the book’s Foreword), Dieter Quester, Toine Hazemans, Kurt Ahrens, Vic Elford, Hans Herrmann, Jackie Ickx, Jody Scheckter and many more.

There’s also a section devoted to his marriage to Sally Stokes.

Ed was the racing driver but Sally, who herself is a card-carrying member of the racing community, has been his trusty co-piloto and has a well deserved chapter in the book titled “A Racing Romance”, a charming love story of a couple that have been married to each other, and to the world or racing, for over 50 years…and counting.

In 1972, at the age of 35, Swart decided to stop racing and concentrate on his family business. However, thatdidn’t mean he would leave the racing world. The Dutch Royal Automobile Club (KNAC) asked him to be the Clerk of the Course (Race Director in the US) for the Dutch Formula One Grand Prix, a position he held from 1972 to 1987, and started racing classic cars.

In the early ‘80s, he and Sally moved to the U.S. to start two new businesses, a new life and continue racing in historic events.

Swart’s distinctive white and orange helmet and his two personal Chevron rides, the F2 and the 2-L Sport Prototype, became iconic in vintage events. Eventually, he also drove other people’s cars; F5000, F1, prototypes and Can-Am.

Starting in 1999, he founded a new vintage racing club, HSR-West, and that meant a daunting list of new tasks that started just after the early drivers’ meeting when he would suit up and drive his Chevrons (and then come back and make sure that the cones have been restored after some hot jockey eliminated the obvious nuisance known as a “chicane”), organize the Friday wine-and-cheese get together, the dinner on Saturday, listen to every complaint from everybody and his/her mother, suit up again, drive and, at the end of the event … make sure that everyone got paid before leaving the track. I was a witness to all that.

In 2012, he sold HSR-West to Tony Parella, a steam-roller promoter that has been building a nationwide racing empire acquiring some other vintage clubs and series (such as Trans-Am) around the country and operating under the SVRA (Sport Vintage Racing Association) banner.

Ed officially retired from racing at the VARA Lucas Oil Big Bore Bash at Willow Springs on November 6^th, 2022, the day of his 84^th birthday, that special day was celebrated with a small but charismatic party after the last race of the weekend at his garage.

The photography in this book (over 300 shots in all) is spectacular with images of some of the lesser known small bore series of the European Touring Car Championships showing swarms of rabid Fiats 850 Abarths fighting for position, along with action scenes at the Nurburgring, at the old banked section of Monza and panoramic shots showing the ambiance at Brands Hatch, Nürburgring, Hockenheim and the Autodromo de Buenos Aires for the 1000 Kms.

My favorite shot in this book is one of Ed flying over a hill at the Nürburgring during the 1970 500 Kms; with all four wheels in the air of his Abarth 2000SP which, for my money, was the best looking car in the series at the time.

Swart has included great photos that his father, Ger Swart, an amateur but accomplished photographer, took at racing events. Action shots and wonderful portraits of drivers such as Farina, Hawthorn, Taruffi, Frere, Landi, Villoresi and many others.

In brief, what we’re looking at here is a multi-faceted book that reflects the multi-faceted life of its author.

I would like to take the opportunity to compliment Ms. Violet Cruz, credited by Coterie Press as the designer of the book, tastefully decorated with vignettes of period posters, credentials, trophies, advertisements and magazine covers which carry the feeling throughout the pages.

The balance between vintage materials and modern graphics and the use of entire pages dedicated to great photos and many small details (like lapel pins and classic pit passes) make for a very attractive package that tells of a fascinating life in motorsports.

For more information and to order go to www.coteriepress.com

Copy courtesy of LACar.com

The post ED SWART — From Zandvoort to Daytona appeared first on Sports Car Digest.

The same year, Porsche’s rally-proven 4WD system would also make its Le Mans debut, fitted to car No. 180, a Porsche 962, which was driven by René Metge and Claude Ballot-Léna. The team placed 7th overall, with 321 laps completed against the winning cars – a Porsche 962C – 368 laps.

In fact, the top-10 ranked cars for the 1986 Le Mans were entirely made up of Porsche’s. This was an incredible feat, but not a totally unsurprising one considering Porsche’s excellent performance in the 1985 Le Mans, where it dominated, occupying 8 of the top 10 spots.

1986 was also a year of loss, with esteemed racer Jo Gartner losing his life in a fatal accident during the 169th lap. Jo’s was one of three 962’s involved in an accident that year, though his was the most impactful.

A Story of Le Mans Every Porsche Fan Will Enjoy

The above facts about 1986’s Le Mans aren’t new to any serious Le Mans enthusiast, but they are among the trove of important facts, events, statistics, photographs, and race records that Glen Smale’s Porsche at Le Mans: 70 Years perfectly encapsulates.

Smale provides appropriate exposition, with the extensive gallery of photos, many from Porsche’s corporate archives, given plenty of context. Everything presented feels in-frame, significant, and an important part of the story being told.

Made for Every Generation

Each decade is treated to a brief introduction that calls out the more notable events, cars, and drivers of the era. These overviews paint a very human picture of the environment of the day, starting with the 1950s’ plucky optimism and continuing through the changing competitive landscape throughout the 2000s and 2010s.

In Appreciation of the Porsche Perspective

Smale does an excellent job presenting Porsche’s accomplishments and technological achievements without needlessly disparaging other teams, cars, or platforms. His presentation throughout the book is pragmatic and honest – a refreshing take from today’s opinionated online environment.

Smale’s expertise as a Porsche historian bleeds through the pages. Conscientious and detail-obsessed readers will especially enjoy the specificity paid to image captions, which are filled with interesting anecdotes and vehicle-specific stats. Each photo and accompanying caption adds an important element to the story.

Featuring Some of Porsche’s Most Iconic Le Mans Cars

The strength of the copy is equaled by the gallery the book contains. Smale’s relationships with Porsche and talented photographers rewards the reader with a selection of images that perfectly compliment the story being told.

Readers will dive deep into the makings and performance of legendary Porsches, such as the 356, 917, 962, and more. The book’s year-over-year view walks the reader through how Porsche adapted strategies and innovated with new technologies as racing regulations and competitors changed over time. 

Featuring Some of Le Mans Most Notable Drivers & Privateers

The drivers and race teams are given equal significance as the cars themselves. Smale gives the reader a glimpse into the thoughts and emotions of the racers at Le Mans, with numerous drivers providing their own take on notable events and the cars they piloted

The True Porsche at Le Mans Encyclopedia

Clearly the work of a dedicated creator that has an equal love for both Porsche and Le Mans, books like this are increasingly rare. Fans of the brand will appreciate the detail paid to the cars, drivers, and circumstances motivating the team(s) for each years’ race. 

Best of all? The book is fun to read and anyone that considers themselves a fan of Porsche, Le Mans, or both is sure to enjoy their time with it.

Get Yours

Porsche at Le Mans: 70 years was released in late November 2021 is available in bookstores and online.

Author: Glen Smale

Price: $75 USD / $99 CAD

Where: Amazon

Pages: 320

Type: Hardcover

Publisher: The Quarto Group

Authors note: a copy of this book was provided at no charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. Images used in this article are illustrative and do not appear in the book.

The post Book Review: Porsche at Le Mans: 70 Years appeared first on Sports Car Digest.

While there are a number of post-war automotive designers that have penned significant, lasting designs, few have had the sheer number of ionic and influential designs as American-born designer Tom Tjaarda.

Tjaarda’s name and style has become synonymous with the De Tomaso brand, as well as Ferrari, Fiat, Ford, Innocenti and Lancia. Among his better known designs are the De Tomaso Pantera, Deauville and Longchamp, as well as the Fiat 124 Spider, the Ferrari 365 California and the Ford Fiesta. But Tjaarda also created a wealth of influential design prototypes and concepts including the stunning Corvette Rondine and the Serenissima Ghia GT.

In “Tom Tjaarda: Master of Proportions”, author Guatam Sen takes an in-depth, comprehensive look at Tjaarda’s life, resulting in a catalogue raisonné of his body of work. Early chapters are devoted to Tjaarda’s early days growing up in Detroit and his complicated relationship with his designer father John Tjaarda.

The book then traces Tjaarda’s education and eventual debut into the design world with Ghia in 1958. From here, each and every one of Tjaarda’s designs is chronicled both in words and photographs/illustrations, right up to his death in 2017.

With 474 pages and 823 illustrations, “Tom Tjaarda: Master of Proportions” is an insightful, significant work and a fitting tribute to one of the design greats of the post-war era.

Published by Dalton Watson Fine Books

• Hard cover with dust jacket

• 472 pages

• 823 Photographs

• ISBN: 978-1-85443-313-8

$150

Click here for more information and to order

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Sam’s Scrapbook:

Even the most casual racing enthusiast will recognize the name Sam Posey. Posey raced a huge variety of sports cars, saloons and open-wheel machines in numerous racing arenas — Can-Am, USRRC, Trans-Am, IMSA, Indy, NASCAR, Formula 5000 and Formula 1 — against rivals and friends such as George Follmer, Parnelli Jones, Mark Donohue, Peter Revson, Dan Gurney, David Hobbs and Brian Redman. And after Sam hung up his racing helmet, he went on to become a highly regarded TV racing commentator and author, all resulting in him being inducted into the Motorsports Hall of fame in 2016. So it would go without saying that Sam might have a few interesting stories to tell!

“Sam’s Scrapbook” is an erudite and entertaining look back at some of the more significant, funny and thoughtful events in Sam’s rich racing life. As the name implies, it is organized in scrapbook format, with over 275 photos from Sam’s private collection, many of them never published before.

The range of topics covered includes:

• Sam’s early days: racing around his mother’s house on a farm in Connecticut against his friend John Whitman.
• The start of his career: driving at Lime Rock, his local track, under the mentorship of John Fitch; a ride as the then-youngest American at Le Mans, with a Bizzarrini in 1966.
• Can-Am: racing against John Surtees, Bruce McLaren and Jim Hall in this famous “anything goes” sports car championship with a car he and Ray Caldwell designed and built.
• Trans-Am: competing in this spectacular saloon series during its golden age, first for Roger Penske and then as a factory driver for Dodge, against George Follmer, Parnelli Jones and Swede Savage.
• Later years at Le Mans: finishing third overall in a Ferrari 512 M with the North American Racing Team (NART) team in 1971; driving the first BMW 3.0 CSL ‘Art Car’ in 1975, featuring a paint scheme by American sculptor Alexander Calder.
• Open-wheel racing: a duel with Dan Gurney in the USAC Championship, finishing fifth at Indy in 1972; two drives for John Surtees in Formula 1; battling his friend and rival David Hobbs on the track and off in Formula 5000.
• Even more variety: three years of off-road adventures in the Baja 1000; rides with the BMW factory team at Sebring and Daytona; and his late career in the IMSA championship with actor Paul Newman and Brian Redman.

Anything Sam writes is a treat, but “Sam’s Scrapbook” is particularly so because it’s like sitting down with Sam, next to a warm fireside, and listening to hours of insider stories. Treat yourself, you won’t be sorry.

US price: $40.00
ISBN: 9781910505656
Format: 8.3in x 10.6in (landscape)
Hardback
Page extent: 160
Illustration: approximately 275 photos

Click here for more information and to order

The post Sam’s Scrapbook—My motorsports memories appeared first on Sports Car Digest.

Fine Art Auto Racing Posters

The artworks in this book show the history of the car from its creation up until the start of the 1970s. The posters have been chosen for their importance, rarity, beauty and innovation, as well as for what they represent in terms of significant historical, technical and artistic stages of the motor car. They showcase the work of the designers and illustrators who constantly strove to come up with new ideas and styles to match the technological progress of famous names such as Peugeot, Mercedes Daimler, Renault, Citröen, Bugatti, Buick, Fiat, Rolls Royce and Chrysler, as well as others that are less well-known nowadays.

It was not just the cars that changed during this time; the illustrative styles did too. The work of artists such as Berhard, de Valério, Cappiello, Cassandre, Chéret, Ernst, Falucci, Gaudy, Grün, Hohlwein, McKnight Kauffer, Pal, Privat-Livemont and Rochegrosse shows the important variety of styles used by illustrators in this era and brings the wonderful cars and races to life in vivid color.

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Dive into 16 months of the most beautiful and successful Formula 1 race cars in history. Art of the Formula 1 Race Car 2017 presents some of the most beautiful and successful Formula 1 race cars in history, captured in the studio portraits of master automotive photographer James Mann. The photographs in this 16-month calendar portray not just these vehicles’ engineering brilliance, but also their inherent beauty – the fascinating result of Formula 1’s mix of competition, creativity, and human ingenuity that has made these vehicles into works of art. Buy from Amazon James Mann is one of the world’s leading car and motorcycle photographers, with more than 20 years of experience shooting for enthusiast publications, the motor industry, and businesses around the world. His work has appeared within and on the covers of more than 50 books and has provided stunning visuals for numerous magazines, including Classic and Sports Car, CAR magazine, Forza, The Sunday Times, and Automobile magazine as well as being chosen to photograph the British Auto Legends stamps for the Royal Mail. Visit his website at www.jamesmann.com
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Fine Art Auto Racing Photography

Fine Art Auto Racing Photography
Buy from Photos.comBentley Team at the 1930 Le Mans Endurance Race		Buy from Photos.com Auto Union team in the pits		Buy from Photos.com Mercedes returns to Formula 1 at the French GP, Rheims
Buy from Photos.comJim Clark	Buy from Photos.com James Hunt	Buy from Photos.com Graham Hill	Buy from Photos.com Richie Ginther	Buy from Photos.com Jackie Ickx	Buy from Photos.com Jack Brabham
Buy from Art.comPhil Hill	Buy from Art.com Jochen Rindt	Buy from Art.comNigel Mansell		Buy from Art.comJohn Surtees	Buy from Art.comJackie Srewart
Be sure to visit our Auto Racing Book Store
Buy from Art.comTazio Nuvolari Buy from Art.comGerman Grand Prix, Nürburgring, 1935 Buy from Art.comNuvolari driving an Auto Union Buy from Art.comUlster TT race, 1933 Buy from Art.comVarzi leading Nuvolari at Monaco, 1933
Dive into 16 months of the most beautiful and successful Formula 1 race cars in history. Art of the Formula 1 Race Car 2017 presents some of the most beautiful and successful Formula 1 race cars in history, captured in the studio portraits of master automotive photographer James Mann. The photographs in this 16-month calendar portray not just these vehicles’ engineering brilliance, but also their inherent beauty – the fascinating result of Formula 1’s mix of competition, creativity, and human ingenuity that has made these vehicles into works of art. Buy from Amazon James Mann is one of the world’s leading car and motorcycle photographers, with more than 20 years of experience shooting for enthusiast publications, the motor industry, and businesses around the world. His work has appeared within and on the covers of more than 50 books and has provided stunning visuals for numerous magazines, including Classic and Sports Car, CAR magazine, Forza, The Sunday Times, and Automobile magazine as well as being chosen to photograph the British Auto Legends stamps for the Royal Mail. Visit his website at www.jamesmann.com
Buy from Photos.com Stirling Moss at Goodwood, 1954		Buy from Photos.com Alberto Ascari is hoisted aloft after winning the 1951 Italian Grand Prix at Monza		Buy from Photos.comJuan-Manuel Fangio wins the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, 14th July 1956.
Buy from Photos.com Hill in his Lotus, Monaco Grand Prix on 26 May 1968		Buy from Photos.com A relaxed Jacky Ickx at Clermont-Ferrand on 6 July 1969		Buy from Photos.com Jim Clark in front of Monaco’s old railway station, 1964
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Buy from Art.com Graham Hill, crouches down alongside BRM, talking to Jack Brabham.		Buy from Art.comGraham Hill driving a BRM P261, British Grand Prix, 1966.		Buy from Art.comDamon Hill, son of Graham in his Williams-Renault, 1993.
Buy from Art.comCars lining up on the starting grid, French Grand Prix, Le Mans, France, 1967		Buy from Art.comDenny Hulme’s McLaren Ford at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone, 1969		Buy from Art.comA Ferrari team member filling a car with fuel, Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, 1963

The post Vintage Auto Racing Posters appeared first on Sports Car Digest.

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes. – Desiderius Erasmus

Vintage Motorsport Books

The vintage books displayed below are for the most part used and no longer in print. These are the same books that form the basis of the Grand Prix History Library and the links provided should assist you in obtaining similar copies. As with any used book purchase please read all descriptions carefully and “good luck hunting!”.

Two Summers offers a fresh, revealing and highly personal window into the culture of Grand Prix racing as it was during the 1954 and 1955 championships. The core of this book is devoted to individual portraits of the twelve races that comprised the 1954-55 seasons in which the W 196 R participated. Of those races, Fangio won seven and Moss won two. With its carefully-crafted observations and conclusions, given added drama by its richly-detailed illustrations, there are numerous examples of the energy and dynamic nature of these racing seasons â?? not the least being abundant evidence that Fangio was indeed the ultimate master of the art and science of racing a Grand Prix automobile, and that the W 196 R was the instrument with which he honed his skills. This book captures the decisive moments when victory – hanging in the balance – was tilted towards Fangio by his own steady hand on the wheel and iron discipline. The W 196 R’s racing days may be long gone, but it remains a shining star of Mercedes-Benz’ participation in motor sport heritage events worldwide. It’s this timeless appeal of the W196R that gives this book its vitality, charm and enduring attraction. Buy from Amazon
Buy from AmazonBrian Redman: Daring Drivers, Deadly Tracks by Brian Redman, Jim Mullen		Buy from Amazon1967: Chris Amon, Scuderia Ferrari and a Year of Living Dangerously by John Julian		Buy from AmazonThe Brothers Rodriguez by Carlos Eduardo Jalife-Villalon
Dive into 16 months of the most beautiful and successful Formula 1 race cars in history. Art of the Formula 1 Race Car 2017 presents some of the most beautiful and successful Formula 1 race cars in history, captured in the studio portraits of master automotive photographer James Mann. The photographs in this 16-month calendar portray not just these vehicles’ engineering brilliance, but also their inherent beauty – the fascinating result of Formula 1’s mix of competition, creativity, and human ingenuity that has made these vehicles into works of art. Buy from Amazon James Mann is one of the world’s leading car and motorcycle photographers, with more than 20 years of experience shooting for enthusiast publications, the motor industry, and businesses around the world. His work has appeared within and on the covers of more than 50 books and has provided stunning visuals for numerous magazines, including Classic and Sports Car, CAR magazine, Forza, The Sunday Times, and Automobile magazine as well as being chosen to photograph the British Auto Legends stamps for the Royal Mail. Visit his website at www.jamesmann.com
Buy from AlibrisThe 1903 Irish Gordon Bennett by Bob Montgomery	Buy from AlibrisThe Gordon Bennett Races by Lord Montagu	Buy from AlibrisThe Art and Science of Grand Prix Driving by Niki Lauda	Buy from AlibrisAyrton Senna’s Principles of Race Driving by Ayrton Senna	Buy from AlibrisCompetition Driving by Alain Prost	Buy from AlibrisSpeed was my Life by Alfred Neubauer
A completely revised version of one of the best-selling motorcycle riding skills books of all time. Today’s super high-performance bikes are the most potent vehicles ever sold to the public and they demand advanced riding skills. Get it right, and a modern motorcycle will provide you with the thrill of a lifetime; get it wrong and you’ll be carted off in a meat wagon. The line between ecstasy and agony is so thin that there is absolutely no margin for error. Total Control provides you with the information you need to stay on the healthy side of that line, providing a training course developed and perfected through decades of professional training in Lee Parks’ Total Control Advanced Riding Clinic. This is the perfect book for riders who want to take their street riding skills to a higher level. Total Control explains the ins and outs of high-performance street riding. Lee Parks, one of the most accomplished riders, racers, authors and instructors in the world, helps riders master the awe-inspiring performance potential of modern motorcycles. This book gives riders everything they need to develop the techniques and survival skills necessary to become a proficient, accomplished, and safer street rider. High quality photos, detailed instructions, and professional diagrams highlight the intricacies and proper techniques of street riding and the knowledge gained will apply to all brands of bikes from Harley-Davidson and Suzuki to Ducati and Kawaski to Honda and BMW and more! Readers will come away with a better understanding of everything from braking and cornering to proper throttle control, resulting in a more exhilarating yet safer ride. Buy from Amazon
Buy from AmazonFormula 1: Technical Analysis 2011/2012 by Giorgio Piola	Buy from AmazonFormula 1: Technical Analysis 2010/2011 by Giorgio Piola	Buy from AmazonFormula 1: Technical Analysis 2009/2010 by Giorgio Piola	Buy from AmazonFormula 1: Technical Analysis 2008/2009 by Giorgio Piola	Buy from AmazonFormula 1: Technical Analysis 2007/2008 by Giorgio Piola	Buy from AmazonThe Racing Driver by Denis Jenkinson
Buy from AmazonSpeed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques by Ross Bentley	Buy from AmazonSpeed Secrets 2: More Professional Race Driving Techniques by Ross Bentley	Buy from AmazonInner Speed Secrets: Mental Strategies by Ross Bentley	Buy from AmazonSpeed Secrets 4: Engineering the Driver by Ross Bentley	Buy from AmazonSpeed Secrets 5: The Complete Driver by Ross Bentley	Buy from AmazonThe Technique of Motor Racing by Piero Taruffi
Buy from Amazon by René Dreyfus with Beverly Rae KimesThe average modern driver, who must keep his nose to the grindstone from an early age, has no time to learn about life so that he tends to be something less than a brilliant intellect. Denis Jenkinson As an anecdote to the cookie cutter books that seem to come out the day after a driver turns his first wheel in a Grand Prix car. I purchased “My Two Lives” by René Dreyfus. During the 20’s and 30’s he drove Maseratis, Ferraris and especially Bugattis on the Grand Prix circuits of the world. In 1938 he won his greatest victory in a Delahaye at Pau where he beat the best that Mercedes had to offer. When World War II started he joined the French Army but while on leave to compete in the Indianapolis 500 he found himself stranded when Paris was overrun. Without visible means of support he opened a French restaurant and began his second career. Upon the United States entering the war, Dreyfus joined the American Army. In 1980 he returned to Europe to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his victory in the Grand Prix of Monaco. The story begins in 1914 when René was nine years old. The middle of three children he speaks of his early life with fondness, growing up in Nice. He later joined the Moto Club de Nice, which was sort of a junior league Automobile Club de Nice. Forging his mother’s signature René entered his first race and won, due to him being the only car in his class. During this time he and his brother Maurice owned a paper company with René the salesman. He somehow convinced his mother that if he had a Bugatti he would be able to get around faster and see more customers. His mother was duped and soon the boys had their first race car. In the coming years René finds himself at the center of the greatest period in the history of Grand Prix racing. His contemporaries included Chiron, Caracciola, Varzi and Nuvolari. It his observations of this period that makes this book special. As a French patriot driving against the German cars we learn how it felt for himself and his friend Louis Chiron. His second life as a restaurateur is also covered in detail both during and after the war. While this might not be of direct interest to my motorsport readers it actually covers a longer period of his life. We learn of the reunion with his brother and sister and of course his famous restaurant – Le Chanteclair which over its 25-year history was the gathering place for motosport iluminaries from around the world. In closing there is a touching chapter of René and Maurice returning to Europe and the celebration of René’s victory at Manaco 50 years previous. The following are some quotes from his book. … Meantime, there was a new presence on the Grand Prix scene. At the Swiss GP at Bern on August 26th, I took a good long look at the Auto Union and Mercedes for the first time. There were swastikas all around, but all of us were looking at the cars. They were most unusual and enormously powerful. Four hundred fifty horsepower already, with the promise for much more. There were as many engineers in the pits as drivers. It was a gargantuan operation. The political significance of all this eluded us. All we realized was that Germany’s new chancellor was an automobile enthusiast and wanted the country’s cars to be supreme, the most powerful, the fastest, the most everything. René Dreyfus – 1934 The “racing enthusiast” was of course Adolf Hitler. …Stuck’s Auto Union was leading, but Tazio was giving him fits, until suddenly Nuvolari lost a piston just past the grandstand. He got out of his car and started walking slowly back to the pits. I was now in second place. My car was performing beautifully. Stuck’s brakes, I could sense were fading. This was Italy, and this was Tazio – and the crowd, seeing him walking, started a vigorous chant: “Nuvolari in macchina, Nuvolari in macchina!” When I pulled into the pits to refuel, Enzo and Gobbato asked me if I’d mind giving my car to Nuvolari. Of course, I wouldn’t; Tazio was the team captain. Tazio beamed, and said grazie, and I shouted a few things about how the car was behaving and he took off. He drove like only Nuvolari could, and was challenging Stuck fantastically, but he was also wearing down the Alfa’s brakes, had to pit to have them adjusted, and finished second. To show you the man Tazio was, I was entitled to my percentage of the prize money only on the laps I had run, Tazio was to get his percentage on the laps he had accomplished with my car – but he refused any money at all. He told the Scuderia people that I should receive the entire prize because had I remained in the car I might have won the race. He recognized, he told me afterwards, that instead of trying frantically to catch up, he might better have played it cooler and waited to see if the other man would falter. René Dreyfus at Monza – 1935 For Nuvolari to play it cool and wait for something to happen to the car of Hans Stuck would be like a cat barking! It would not have been Nuvolari who only knows how to drive – flat out. While in the American Army Dreyfus had many humorous encounters especially when it related to the English language. While attending an interrogation class he was called upon to name the various battalions in a regiment. …I stood up, and rattled off the list in my best English – and when I finished, the teaching lieutenant said, fine, you missed just one. I remembered it immediately, and remembered how my English teacher in Spartenburg had told me to always aspirate an “h” sound, difficult for a Frenchman, and so I aspirated with a vengeance and :assault” came out “asshole” battalion. The room fell apart in laughter.” The lieutenant was very kind, and when everyone had quieted down, told me that I was right but my pronunciation was wrong. He wrote the word “assault” on the blackboard, and I pronounced it once more, exactly the same way I had the first time. The room broke up again. Finally, the lieutenant said that actually, on reflection, I was probably right. And we got on to other things.” Dreyfus, René and Beverly Rae Kimes. “My Two Lives”. Aztex Corporation, 1995, 1983 pp., ISBN 0-89404-080-4.
Buy from Alibris Mon Ami Mate by Chris Nixon	Buy from AlibrisAlf Francis Racing Mechanic 1948-58 as told to Peter Lewis	Buy from AlibrisA Racing Motorist by S.C.H. Davis	Buy from AlibrisBits and Pieces by Prince Birabongse	Buy from AlibrisBRM by Raymond Mays and Peter Roberts	Buy from AlibrisThe Cruel Sport by Robert Daley
Buy from AlibrisDick Seaman A racing Champion by H.R.H. Prince Chula Chakrabongse	Buy from AlibrisGentlemen, Start Your Engines by Wilbur Shaw	Buy from AlibrisGrand Prix by Barre Lyndon	Buy from AlibrisGrand Prix Driver by Hermann Lang	Buy from AlibrisWorks Driver by Piero Taruffi	Buy from AlibrisThe Star and The Laurel by Beverly Rae Kimes
Buy from AmazonWinning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman by Matt Stone		Buy from AmazonMcQueen’s Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon by Matt Stone		Buy from AmazonJames Garner’s Motoring Life by Matt Stone

Buy from AmazonRaymond Mays’ Magnificent Obsession by Bryan Apps		Buy from AmazonTyler Alexander: A Life and Times with McLaren by Tyler Alexander		Buy from AmazonFirst Principles: The Official Biography of Keith Duckworth OBE by Norman Burr
The book is based on Moss’ own scrapbooks, albums and great memories. It is a beautifully reproduced and presented book, capturing in glossy period photography and stylish archival text the excitement of motor racing in its heyday. Stirling Moss is an icon. Even just the words ‘Stirling Moss’ conjure up an immediate picture – an image of speed, excitement, daring, jet-setting and beautiful women. By 1961 he was at the height of his remarkable career. He was unquestionably the finest racing driver in the world, the benchmark by which lesser mortals were judged, and a charismatic sportsman, known the world over. Buy from Alibris
For 1961, though, the uncrowned champion was handicapped in four ways. Stirling was driving last year’s car, a car with considerably less power and one entered by a private team. He had no team mates to help him but was on his own – a David against several Goliaths. The scrapbook includes over 500 illustrations
Buy from AlibrisStirling Moss Scrapbook 1956-1960 by Stirling Moss		Buy from AlibrisStirling Moss Scrapbook 1955 by Stirling Moss		Buy from AlibrisStirling Moss Scrapbook 1929-1954 by Stirling Moss
Buy from AlibrisAll My Races by Stirling Moss	Buy from AlibrisJo Siffert: Swiss Racing Legend by Ed Heuvink	Buy from AlibrisInside The Archives by Jesse Alexande	Buy from AlibrisThe Fast Ones by Peter Miller	Buy from AlibrisThe Encyclopedia of Motor Sport by GN Georgano	Buy from AlibrisMotor Racing Through the Fifties by Peter Lewis
Buy from AlibrisGrands Prix 1934-1939 by Rodney Walkerley	Buy from AlibrisSir Henry Segrave by Cyril Posthumus	Buy from AlibrisRed Arrows: Ferraris At The Mille Miglia by Giannino Marzotto	Buy from AlibrisStirling Moss by Robert Edwards	Buy from AlibrisThe Complete History of Grand Prix Motor Racing by Adriano Cimarosti	Buy from AlibrisGrand Prix Racing Facts & Figures by George Monkhouse
Dive into 16 months of the most beautiful and successful Formula 1 race cars in history. Art of the Formula 1 Race Car 2017 presents some of the most beautiful and successful Formula 1 race cars in history, captured in the studio portraits of master automotive photographer James Mann. The photographs in this 16-month calendar portray not just these vehicles’ engineering brilliance, but also their inherent beauty – the fascinating result of Formula 1’s mix of competition, creativity, and human ingenuity that has made these vehicles into works of art. Buy from Amazon James Mann is one of the world’s leading car and motorcycle photographers, with more than 20 years of experience shooting for enthusiast publications, the motor industry, and businesses around the world. His work has appeared within and on the covers of more than 50 books and has provided stunning visuals for numerous magazines, including Classic and Sports Car, CAR magazine, Forza, The Sunday Times, and Automobile magazine as well as being chosen to photograph the British Auto Legends stamps for the Royal Mail. Visit his website at www.jamesmann.com
Buy from AlibrisPower and Glory Vol 1 by William Court	Buy from AlibrisPower and Glory Vol 2 by William Court	Buy from AlibrisMercedes-Benz W196 by Michael Riedner	Buy from AlibrisThe Race Bugatti Missed by Michael Ulrich	Buy from AlibrisPiloti, Che Gente by Enzo Ferrari	Buy from AlibrisRacing the Silver Arrows by Chris Nixon
Buy from AmazonFull Throttle by Tim Birkin	Buy from AmazonHistory of the Grand Prix Car 1945-65 by Doug Nye	Buy from AmazonHistory of the Grand Prix Car 1966-91 by Doug Nye	Buy from AlibrisRed-Hot Rivals: Ferrari vs. Maserati by Karl Ludvigsen	Buy from AlibrisThe Constant Search by Charles Mortimer	Buy from AlibrisChallenge me the Race by Mike Hawthorn
Buy from AlibrisTouch Wood by Duncan Hamilton	Buy from AlibrisAuto Union V16 A Technical Appraisal by Ian Bamsey	Buy from AlibrisMaserati 250F: A Technical Appraisal by Andy Hall	Buy from AlibrisVanwall 2.5 Litre F1: A Technical Appraisal by Ian Bamsey	Buy from AlibrisLotus 25 Coventry Clima: A Technical Appraisal by Ian Bamsey	Buy from AlibrisCooper Cars by Doug Nye
Buy from AlibrisThe Grand Prix Car 1954 to 1966 by L. J. K. Setright	Buy from AlibrisBRM Volume 1 by Doug Nye	Buy from AlibrisBRM Volume 2 by Doug Nye	Buy from AlibrisBRM Volume 3 by Doug Nye	Buy from AlibrisBRM: A Mechanic’s Tale by Dick Salmon	Buy from AlibrisWhen the Flag Drops by Jack Brabham
by Peter Lewis Buy from Amazon This small (152 pages, 12 chapters) book is comprised of a series of race chronicles spanning the years 1953-1959. It covers in the words of the author … A decade in the history of motor racing Juan-Manuel Fangio, known affectionately as “bandy legs”, won the World Championships five times, and when British drivers like Mike Hawthorn, Stirling Moss, Peter Collins and Tony Brooks emerged to challenge the Italians and Argentineans who had dominated the Grand Prix scene since the end of World War 2. While the book pays special attention to the leading British drivers he treats drivers from other nations with the respect that they deserve. In fact an important facet of the first decade after the Second World War was England’s emergence in the sport that spearheaded the efforts of the nations of the British Commonwealth that would dominate racing in the 60’s and 70’s. Chapter 7 of the book entitled “Sensation at Syracuse” tells of Tony Brooks’ win in 1955 driving a British designed and built Connaught, the first victory of its kind. The writing gives the reader the sense of being there and partaking in the astonishment of this most improbable win. The first practice session on Friday was well under way, yet the transporter carrying the Connaught teams cars was nowhere to be seen. This forced the British teammates, Brooks and Les Leston to reconnoiter the circuit on borrowed Vespa motor scooters which was not exactly conducive to finding the correct racing line or late breaking points! A more inauspicious beginning to a remarkable weekend could not have been written. Tony Brooks a full-time dental student and part-time driver had only been racing for less than three years. Arrayed against them were nine Maseratis and various Ferraris and Gordinis. The Maserati was led by a pair of Italian aces Musso and Villoresi who were turning in lap times of nearly 100 mph. On Saturday the Connaught teams cars finally arrived from England. The Italians were secure in their belief that their Friday times were sufficient to award them the leading positions on the grid and were only running sporadically. Brooks after some familiarization laps soon got down to business. Suddenly the loudspeakers announced the unbelievable news that the young dental student had recorded the fastest time of the session. Upon hearing this the Maserati engines burst to life, the whole team rose to the challenge of this brash young driver. The final grid showed Musso on the pole followed by Villoresi and Brooks. Since this was a non-championship event, missing were such top drivers as Moss and Fangio. This did not in any way diminish the accomplishment of the small British team. At the drop of the flag the Maseratis surged into the lead. rather than become discouraged Brooks pressed on and soon passed Villoresi into second place. When he passed the leading Maserati of Musso the Italian tried every trick that he knew to regain the lead. Finally getting by he lost the lead again on the next lap. Both cars were turning laps faster than those run during qualifying. The Maserati could out break the Connaught at the hairpin but in doing so was dangerously abusing its breaks. Musso could not have been pleased when the Connaught was able to match his 150 mph on the straighter pieces. Eventually, the British car was able to draw away. Now the question was could the Connaught maintain this torrid pace. When the checkered flag finally flew the Connaught pit crew erupted in jubilation. Musso was one of the first to congratulate the quite unassuming young dental student. Other chapters include the disaster at Le Mans in 1955, Moss’ great victory in the Mille Miglia, Fangio’s victory at Nurburgring over Hawthorn and Collins and what was known as the “Race of the Century” at Rheims. Each race is a legend in its own right and all are described in an excellent reporting style as if gleamed from the very best newspapers of the day which in fact they were by a writer who witnessed each one in person. As you can probably guess this is one of my favorite books which unfortunately is out of print. It should be found in one of the specialized motoring book stores in England such as Chater’s Motoring Booksellers. Lewis, Peter. “Motor Racing Through the Fifties”. Navel & Military Press, 1992, 152pp., ISBN 1-897632-15-0
Buy from AmazonAlfa Romeo la Monaposto Tipo A del 1931 by Luigi Fus	Buy from AlibrisDesign and Behaviour of The Racing Car by Stirling Moss and Laurence Pomeroy	Buy from AlibrisGrand Prix Tripoli 1925-1940 by Valerio Moretti	Buy from AlibrisMotor Racing Circuits of Europe by Klemantaski & Frostick	Buy from AlibrisGreat Auto Races by Richard Hough	Buy from AlibrisA Racing Car Driver’s World by Rudolf Caracciola
Buy from AlibrisCliff Allison by Graham Gauld	Buy from AlibrisThe Great Road Races 1894-1914 by Henry Serrano Villard	Buy from AlibrisThe Roaring Races by Giulio Schmidt	Buy from AlibrisCase History by Norman Smith	Buy from AlibrisThe Mercedes-Benz Racing Cars by Karl Ludvigsen	Buy from AlibrisThe History of the Racing Car by Giovanni Lurani
Buy from AlibrisFangio – Racing Driver by Olivier Merlin	Buy from AlibrisFifty Famous Motor Races by Alan Henry	Buy from AlibrisIt was Fun!: My Fifty Years of High Performance by Tony Rudd	Buy from AlibrisThe Viking Drivers by Fredrik Petersens	Buy from AlibrisHow to Watch Motor Racing by Stirling Moss	Buy from AlibrisManaging a Legend by Robert Edwards

Buy from AmazonSenna by Maurice Hamilton		Buy from AmazonGiacomo Agostini: Champion of Champions by Mick Walker		Buy from AmazonAmedee Gordini: A True Racing Legend by Roy Smith
Buy from Amazon The 1961 Formula 1 season came up with a completely new rule type. The racing teams had to switch their engines from 2.5 to 1.5 liters. Ferrari found itself in a very good position. They had developed a V6 mid-mounted engine with a 120 degrees cylinder angle and a maximum output of 190 hp. The new 156 F1 had a very unusual front design. So pretty soon, many people gave it the nickname Sharknose. Technically and ostensibly, the 156F1 was the most successful development in 1961. The season ended for the Scuderia with a large success but also with a disastrous tragedy. Phil Hill became the first American Formula 1 World Champion. The German Ferrari star Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips, that led the ranking for most of the season, became involved in a deadly accident in Monza. Never before joy and teariness was that close on just one day. Our three different models represent all different successful GP appearances of the 156 F1 during the 1961 season. As a matter of course, all three models will reflect the special features of the respective race. Annotation: It is factual that no original Ferrari 156 F1 exists in the whole world. But after months of meticulous research and contacting countless Ferrari experts, CMC was able to get all necessary data for a harmonious model development. Thanks to that kind of knowledge about the car and its famous drivers, we are in a position to accomplish this mission impossible with true-to-the-original details and the well known CMC craftsmanship and quality.
Peter Helck was born in New York City in 1893. He studied art at the Art Students League in Manhattan and later studied in England with muralist Frank Brangwyn. From the 1920’s through the 1940’s Helck was very successful as a magazine illustrator and advertising artist. His commissions frequently were of industrial scenes, or featured cars, trucks and locomotives. During that period he also painted pictures of famous automobile races — having been an avid fan of the sport since childhood. In 1944 he did a series of paintings for Esquire magazine in which he recreated the excitement of automobile races from the first decades of the 20th century. Buy from Alibris
To his great satisfaction, these pictures proved very popular, and in the following decades he developed a large market for paintings of old cars. Peter Helck Gallery
Buy from AlibrisBritish Grand Prix by Maurice Hamilton	Buy from AlibrisAlfa Romeo by David Owen	Buy from AlibrisTrack Record by Maurice Rowe	Buy from AlibrisVilleneuve – A Racing Legend by Allan de la Plante	Buy from AlibrisThe German Grand Prix by Cyril Posthumus	Buy from AlibrisMarch: The Rise and Fall of a Motor Racing Legend by Mike Lawrence
Buy from AlibrisThe Checkered Flag by Peter Helck	Buy from AlibrisGrand Prix Carpetbagger by John Cooper with John Bentley	Buy from AlibrisThe Checquered Flag by Douglas Rutherford	Buy from AlibrisMemoirs of a Bugatti Hunter by Antoine Raffaelli	Buy from AlibrisMy Cars, My Career by Stirling Moss	Buy from AlibrisConte Maggi’s Mille Miglia
Dive into 16 months of the most beautiful and successful Formula 1 race cars in history. Art of the Formula 1 Race Car 2017 presents some of the most beautiful and successful Formula 1 race cars in history, captured in the studio portraits of master automotive photographer James Mann. The photographs in this 16-month calendar portray not just these vehicles’ engineering brilliance, but also their inherent beauty – the fascinating result of Formula 1’s mix of competition, creativity, and human ingenuity that has made these vehicles into works of art. Buy from Amazon James Mann is one of the world’s leading car and motorcycle photographers, with more than 20 years of experience shooting for enthusiast publications, the motor industry, and businesses around the world. His work has appeared within and on the covers of more than 50 books and has provided stunning visuals for numerous magazines, including Classic and Sports Car, CAR magazine, Forza, The Sunday Times, and Automobile magazine as well as being chosen to photograph the British Auto Legends stamps for the Royal Mail. Visit his website at www.jamesmann.com
Buy from AlibrisWhen Nuvolari Raced … by Valerio Moretti		Buy from AlibrisRivals: Lancia D50 & Mercedes W196 by Cris Nixon		Buy from AlibrisThe Incredible Blitzen Benz by Karl Ludvigsen
GEORGE MONKHOUSE was one of the world’s greatest motor racing photographers, and his books Motoraces, Motor Racing with Mercedes-Benz and Grand Prix Motor Racing Facts and Figures (1950), are regarded as the principal records of a golden age in motor racing in the 1930s and the immediate post-war era. Monkhouse was a senior executive of the Kodak company, later their chief engineer in the United Kingdom. He dealt with grand prix, not any other lesser sort of racing, and only with Mercedes. His views were forthright but were not universally popular in British motor racing circles in the mid-1930s. Buy from Alibris
He and his friends Dick Seaman and Laurence Pomeroy Jnr saw how it was done by Mercedes and they looked for a similar attitude from the British teams. At that time there was indeed a great gulf between the predominantly amateur albeit well-heeled British teams and the professional, government-backed German racing.
Buy from Amazon The racing world had been awaiting the new “mini“ Silver Arrows, Mercedes-Benz W165 with great suspense. Its debut was scheduled for the GP of Tripolis, at the race track of Mellaha, on the 7th of May in 1939. Mercedes-Benz had managed to develop and build this new race car within 6 months. That was all the time they had to adapt it to the new rules that allowed only 1.5 liter engines. Hermann Lang with starting number 16 and Rudolf Caracciola with starting number 24, were the pilots of choice and they achieved a sensational double victory. Herman Lang became the victor with starting number 16 (CMC released that model already in a limited edition). Rudolf Caracciola with starting number 24 became second. With the Caracciola model, starting number 24, CMC completes its presentation of the victorious W165 twins of Tripolis that achieved an outstanding triumph for Mercedes-Benz. This zinc alloy model is hand-assembled from more than 400 parts. Each of the 30 individual stainless steel spokes is mounted by the hand. M-074 is a limited-edition of 5,000 pieces.
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I’ve known Clyde Berryman for now almost 20 years. We first came together because his wife, Gulay, is a very talented automotive artist. But as a byproduct of occasionally featuring his wife’s artwork, Clyde would periodically include me in an annual email, where he would do a very thorough, statistical analysis of that year’s Formula One Championship. In these emails he would rank the driver’s and car’s performance, not just by the points they received from the FIA, but also by weighting the relative level of competition both that year and against other years. To be honest, it seemed a little bit like an anorak’s obsession(!), but hey, who was I to judge?

But then recently, I heard the news that Clyde had teamed up with Dalton Watson Publishing to create a massive tome that combined all of Clyde’s statistical analysis, for every F1 season from 1950 to 2019, with over 325 pieces of original artwork from over 25 artists. The results are nothing short of amazing.

“QPRS Quality Point Rating System—F1 Grand Prix Racing by the Numbers 1950–2019” is a stunning, 544-page, large format book, that chronicles the history of Formula One like no other title before it. Like any good scientist, Berryman first lays out all of his methodology and assumptions, followed by an in-depth look at how Formula One evolved and how that evolution potentially influences the way one should evaluate the drivers and their cars.

Then Berryman launches into his analysis, looking at every race and championship year, with a weighted scoring system that ranks driver, car and combined driver/car combination. Now if this sounds kind of dry, it’s actually not. Berryman groups these sections into chapters by decade, with both insightful overviews of the championships in question, as well as overall take-aways and verdicts on what made each championship year unique. But perhaps best of all, each year (and in fact each page spread) is lavishly illustrated with original pieces of artwork depicting the cars, drivers and races from that year. Quite frankly, the book would be worth the price for the artwork alone!

But this should not detract in any way from what Berryman’s 20-plus year passion project has achieved. While one could potentially quibble with Berryman’s assumptions that he bases his system on, the results and the conclusions that come from those results are fascinating and provide the reader with a very new perspective on almost 70 years of Formula One drivers and how they potentially stack up against each other. It’s a remarkable piece of work and a must-have for any fan of the sport.

286 mm x 229 mm, landscape hard cover with dust jacket.

544 pages

325 illustrations.

US$95/ £69

Available at www.daltonwatson.com

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By John Zimmermann

Readers of VR&R will be well acquainted with the quality and detail of Associate Editor John Zimmermann’s writing. In addition to his countless articles here, John is also well known for his authoritative book on Formula Atlantic and later his definitive work on Dan Gurney’s Eagle racecars. So it goes without saying that we’ve anxiously looked forward to John’s latest book devoted to the history of Formula 5000 in North America—and we weren’t disappointed!

As David Hobb’s points out in the introduction, if you’re of a certain age, you likely have never heard of Formula 5000 (Formula A in it’s earliest form). But for those of us “over” a certain age, it is fondly remembered as one of the greatest open-wheel racing series of all time, and for a very brief period in the mid-1970s, a very real competitor to Formula One for talent, prestige and world-class racing.

Rather than a dry, linear approach to the nine years of F5000 history, John initially sets the stage and the players, by first devoting chapters to the genesis and execution of the F5000 series, followed by a track-by-track analysis of the various circuits the series ran on. Next, John devotes an entire chapter to the cars, examining every brand and model raced, including some rarities you may never have heard of like the “Secret Chaparral”? Finally, John dedicates another chapter to the drivers that made F5000 so special, names like Redman, Scheckter, Andretti and Unser, as well as lesser-known but equally as talented drivers like Sell, Wietzes and McRae.

So having devoted the first 100 pages to setting the stage and the players, John then launches into the seasons, with an overview and analysis of how each season unfolded, with first-hand accounts from numerous players on the scene at the time, both behind the wheel and behind the wall.

After devoting a further chapter to the analysis of why this seemingly winning series perished (spoiler alert: greed and politics), John then provides for the anoraks amongst us with a complete, race-by-race compilation of results, as well as a closing chapter with all the interesting data needed to be a F5000 know-it-all at quiz night (most races won=Redman 15; Winningest team= Haas-Hall 14; etc).

At 224 pages, stylishly laid out with over 100 rare and/or previously unseen photos, “Lost in Time” is the definitive F5000 book fans have been longing for, for decades. The only question left unanswered is who will do the same for the European and Antipodean series?

Available directly from Racemaker Press

$85.00

Click here for more information and ordering

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Editor Casey Annis selects some of his favorite 2020 book choices for the automotive enthusiast.

Shadow—The Magnificent Machines of a Man of Mystery
By Pete Lyons

Enigmatic American Don Nichols, D-Day paratrooper, Army counter-intelligence officer and controversial entrepreneur, went on to create a racing marque that seems as cloaked as the man himself. Shadow was the only US-based team to win a Can-Am championship, and one of only three to score a victory in Formula 1. Yet history lavishly celebrates his nominal rivals Dan Gurney and Roger Penske, while Nichols has long remained, yes, a shadowy figure — despite staying the difficult international course far longer, for 11 racing seasons, 1970 to 1980. But at last Pete Lyons, who was there in the day, lifts the veil from this secretive man and the innovative, extraordinary, magnificent racing cars and world-class team he created.’

Longtime VR contributor Pete Lyons does it again with a stunning tour de force examining Don Nichols’ famed Shadow racecars. In his usual erudite style, Lyons has created a definitive work on Shadow that is also a fun page-turner with excellent supportive illustrations from his deep archive.

Casey Annis, Editor

Hardback
464 pages
Over 500 photographs

$99.00 (£75.00)
Available from Evro Publishing

Ferrari 333 SP: A Pictoral History 1993 – 2003
by Terry O’Neil

In this richly illustrated book, Terry O’Neil details the origins of a remarkable racecar, the Ferrari 333 SP. This vehicle heralded the automaker’s return to professional sports car competition after an absence of more than twenty years. The car was built specifically for use by privateers with the assistance of Dallara and then Michelotto, and none of the 40 models w ere entered into races by the Ferrari factory. The cars were sold to customer teams and individuals with a purchase price of US$900,000. Introduced on the American racing circuit in 1994, it found instant success and continued to be a major player in numerous races in the US and Europe. Of the 126 races the 333 SP entered, it emerged victorious in nearly fifty, making it one of the most successful sport prototype cars in Ferrari’s history.

Of the original 40 cars built, 27 were raced and these cars are pictur ed in this book along with details of the races and results . Containing more than 800 images – many never previously published – it is a vivid look at this inimitable automobile. An appendix reprints the car’s Certificate of Authenticity and lists the vari ous race entries and result s by chassis.

The combination of Terry O’Neil and Dalton Watson Publishing is always a guarantee of a great, in-depth work on a fascinating slice of racing history. If you’re a fan of Ferrari or this period of endurance racing history, this book will be a valued must-have.

Casey Annis, Editor

Hard cover with dust jacket
240mm x 330mm (portrait format)
420 pages
850 color photographs
ISBN: 978-1-85443-305-3

$150 (£115)
Available from Dalton Watson Publishing

The Racers: Langstreckenrennen – Endurance Motor Racing – 1963-1973
by Al Satterwhite

In this lavishly illustrated book, prize-winning American photographer Al Satterwhite has captured the most exciting era of the legendary endurance car races – such as Le Mans, Sebring, and Daytona – on camera. Between 1963 and 1973 race cars became faster than ever before, making quantum leaps in handling and aerodynamics with revolutionary results. In these photos, Satterwhite captures the drivers and the action of endurance motor races from up close. Drivers and manufacturers of that time are legends today: Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby, Dan Gurney, Hans Herrmann, Mario Andretti, Steve McQueen, Jacky Ickx, among others.

Al Satterwhite was a photographer on the scene for some of the greatest endurance races of all time. This photo scrapbook is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look back at those great drivers, races and cars. A fun, under-the-radar treat.

Casey Annis, Editor

Hardback
Text in English and German.
192 pages

€ 78.00
Available from Delius-Klasing Publishing

Kirk F White—Don’t Wash Mine
by Kirk F White

Filled with fabulous and entertaining tales, Don’t Wash Mine chronicles Kirk White’s fascinating journey through the golden age of motorsports and car collecting. From running a Ferrari dealership in Philadelphia to fielding some of the most memorable competition vehicles of the time through his eponymous racing stable, White crossed paths with iconic figures such as Roger Penske, Brock Yates, Mark Donohue and Dan Gurney. The founder of the modern collector car auction industry, White left an indelible impression on automotive enthusiasts around the world and collected stories of a life well lived that are sure to delight readers of every age and interest.

While a recognized name in the automotive world due to his fielding of legendary cars with the likes of Roger Penske, few know the true depth of Kirk F White’s involvement and influence. This autobiographical book, released not long after his passing, is a fascinating look into the life of one of the truly great enthusiasts of the post-war era.

Casey Annis, Editor

Hard cover in dust jacket
11 x 9 inches
400 pages, 450 images

$95.00
Available from Dalton Watson Publishing

The MGC GTS Lightweights – Abingdon’s Last Racers
by David Morys

In early 1968 a works competition MGC GTS scored the MG Car Company’s best ever result at the Sebring 12-hour race, finishing in tenth position. Buoyed by this success a second car was built, with both entered in the Marathon de la Route but without success. Closure of the MG Competitions Department at Abingdon was not far off, however the team gallantly prepared both cars for their final race in 1969. Under the banner of the American importer the newer car finished in fifteenth position.

The book covers the development of the production road car, its conception, compromised design and subsequent failure to attract loyal MG customers. This is followed by an in-depth technical analysis of the development, construction and build of the MGC GTS. Specific attention is given to the specialized components utilised, particular emphasis placed on the unique aluminium bodyshell that for the first time is laid bare. The competition history and race results are comprehensively covered, and lastly the subsequent fall from grace and rediscovery of these last and much loved MG competition cars to emerge from Abingdon.

As an archivist for the Bugatti Trust, Morys has taken his professional research skills and applied them to the examination of one of the MG marque’s last and most interesting racers. Well researched and illustrated this will be a must-have for any MG enthusiast.

Casey Annis, Editor

Hardback
144 pages
103 images

$47.33
Available from Veloce Publishing

BERTONE
Masterpieces of Style
by Luciano Greggio

For almost a century, Carrozzeria Bertone has created some of the most sensational models in automotive history. The extraordinary concept cars such as the B.A.T.Mobiles, the Testudo, the Canguro, the Carabo and the futuristic Stratos – to mention but a few – were joined by iconic sportscars such as the numerous Lamborghini Miuras, Marzals, Espadas and Countachs and the Alfa Romeo Montreal, as well as more “down-to-earth” cars that went into mass production. This last category features the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint, the Fiat X1/9 and the Nuova Mini Innocenti along with the many Citroëns designed between the late 1980s and early 2000s. These are just a few of the models featured in the extensive and varied Bertone catalogue to which great designers of the calibre of Giorgetto Giugiaro and Marcello Gandini have contributed.
In-depth historical contextualization by Luciano Greggio, a great connoisseur of the Bertone marque, and a magnificent collection of photographs make up this latest volume in the series Masterpieces of Style.

This latest installment in Giorgio Nada’s excellent “Masterpieces of Style” series is a beautifully illustrated homage to the great Bertone styling house. With similar works devoted to Pininfarina, Touring, Vignale and Zagato, this series is the “Encyclopedia Britannica” of style and as such should have a pride of place on every enthusiast’s shelf.

Casey Annis, Editor

Hardback
216 pages
149 color and 255 b/w photos

€ 45.60
Available from Giorgio Nada Editore

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Niki Lauda’s Racing career will forever be remembered for his horrifying crash, during the 1976 German Grand Prix and his superhuman recovery to return to the cockpit jutst 6 weeks later.  While the saga of that year, and the battle with James Hunt for the World Championship, has been told many times, the rest of Lauda’s racing has received much less attention. This new book by author Jon Saltinstall tackles this straight on by documenting, race by race, his diverse driving career from 1968 to 1985. Through detailed dissection of each of his 316 races—in an eclectic mix of cars—a vivid picture emerges of a hugely determined and vastly talented racer who, despite many setbacks, left a remarkable legacy.

Lauda’s career can be broken down into five main periods:

• Climbing the ladder: starting against his family’s wishes with a Mini in 1968, Lauda drove a Formula Vee Kaimann in 1969 and had a disastrous Formula 3 season with McNamara in 1970 before switching to a Porsche sports car; with progress stalling, he took out a loan to buy a Formula 2 seat at March in 1971.
• Faltering in Formula 1: he débuted with March at the 1971 Austrian Grand Prix, then stayed with the team in 1972; he moved to BRM for 1973, still paying his way with further borrowing and some income from racing touring cars — but in all this time he had only one points-scoring Formula 1 finish.

• The Ferrari years: finally Lauda fulfilled his promise after receiving the call to Maranello, winning the World Championship twice in his four years there, in 1975 and 1977, but he left after tensions with the team arose in his final season.

• The Brabham years: Lauda famously won the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix in Brabham’s ‘fan car’, but thereafter the team’s competitiveness declined and he retired at the end of 1979, tired of ‘driving round in circles’ and focused instead on his new airline, Lauda Air.
• The McLaren years: tempted by a salary of unprecedented size, Lauda returned in 1982 after a two-year absence, silenced doubters by winning his third race, and in 1984 secured his third World Championship; at the end of 1985, with a career tally of 25 Grand Prix victories, he hung up his helmet for good.

While not an analysis of the man behind the helmet necessarily, “Niki Lauda” provides a remarkably complete picture of Lauda’s racing career, literally every singe race and what transpired at each event. Interestingly, Saltinstall also includes historical sidebars of specific testing sessions, one-off drives and demonstration runs. A truly complete historical compendium of one of Formula One’s most remarkable champions.

• ISBN: 978-1-910505-46-5
• Format: 280x235mm hardback
• Pages: 376
• Illustrations: 500 photos, mainly color
• £45.00

Available at https://www.evropublishing.com/products/niki-lauda-his-competition-history

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In “Richie Ginther: Motor Racing’s Free Thinker” author Richard Jenkins  explores Ginther’s life in what is the first authorized biography and reveals that this diminutive Californian enjoyed astonishing triumphs in racing as a driver, a mechanic and as a team manager. His 59 years on the planet also saw him overcome bullying and terrible personal and professional tragedy to live an enriched and absorbing life.

Still just one of five Americans to have won a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, Ginther helped two of motor racing’s most iconic teams, BRM and Ferrari, to World Championship glory, as well as being instrumental in Honda’s initial foray into Formula One, all of which is explored comprehensively.

With memories from his family, friends and fellow racers, this biography is also packed, after meticulous research, with an abundance of quotes from Richie himself to create as thorough and as deeply personal a life story as possible.

However, it’s not just the words that bring Richie to life, but also the abundance of photographs, with the vast majority of them never seen before.

A fitting tribute to a great, but complicated American racing legend.

132-pages, softbound with over 180 photographs.

£27

Click here for more information and to order

The post Richie Ginther—Motor Racing’s Free Thinker appeared first on Sports Car Digest.

Longtime VR&R contributor Art Evans (a WWII veteran and post-war motorsport influencer himself) takes a historical—and persona—look back at the careers and service of a host of influential motorsport personalities, including his close friends Ken Miles, Vasek Polak, Carroll Shelby and John Von Neumann. Others examined include more well-known names like John Fitch and Paul Newman, as well as unsung heroes like Ed Hugus, Chuck Daigh, Bill Stroppe, Max Balchowsky, Jay Chamberlain, and Jim Peterson.

Evans provides some unique and fascinating pre-racing backstory to these great names from the Golden Age of sports car racing.

softcover (7 x 10), uncoated stock
202 pages, 148 b/w photos

$39.95

Click here for more details and to order.

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By Pete Lyons
Foreword by Emerson Fittipaldi

Longtime readers of VR&R will be well acquainted with the prosaic work of Pete Lyons from his monthly column Fast Lines and his seminal book on the Can-Am series. Now Lyons has teamed up British publisher Evro to produce the latest in their new Formula 1 Greats series, covering one of the most revered Formula 1 cars ever made, the Lotus 72.

Introduced in 1970, the wedge-shaped Lotus 72 competed for six seasons, winning 20 World Championship Grands Prix, two Drivers’ titles (for Jochen Rindt in 1970 and Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972) and three Constructors’ titles (in 1970, 1972 and 1973), racing first in Lotus’s evocative red, white and gold livery, then the equally eye-catching black and gold of the John Player Special period.

Lyons, who was Autosport’s renowned Formula 1 reporter for part of the Lotus 72 era, explores the car’s entire race-by-race career in his insightful commentary accompanying a magnificent array of over 360 photos. This new work is a must have for any fan of Lotus or the golden age of Formula One.

Hardbound, 11 x 9.25 inches, 320 pages, approx. 55,000 words and more than 360 in-period photos.

In the United States
$79.95
Click here to order

In the UK & Europe
£50
Click here to order

The post Lotus 72—1970–75 appeared first on Sports Car Digest.

Meister Bräuser:
Harry Heuer’s Championship Racing Team

In early 1959, young Harry Heuer, Executive Vice President of the Peter Hand Brewery, Chicago, Illinois, caught the racing bug. He immediately bought a race carand entered it in the May 1959 Meadowdale USAC professional race. At the same time, Reventlow Automobiles Inc., builder and racer of the Scarab, put both of its 1958 race-winning Scarabs up for sale. Heuer bought one, hired Augie Pabst to drive it, and an unprecedented run of wins and championships resulted.

An unforeseen chain of events later in 1959 resulted in the newly-formed Meister Bräuser Racing Team purchasing the second of the two Scarabs, which meant that Heuer had what were arguably the two best sports racing cars in the country united in one team. The results were immediate. A championship in 1959, and a streak of race wins throughout 1960 that earned a second championship. Over the next three seasons three more championships were garnered.

Besides its on-track successes, Meister Bräuser was a leader in promoting team identity. It was one of the first to utilize an enclosed tractor trailer rig to, not only transport the cars, but also to be a rolling at-track machine shop. They owned a small pit tractor to tow the cars around the paddock and had support passenger vehicles available for the crew. All the vehicles were painted in the team colors of dark metallic blue trimmed with white and accented by red pin stripes. The team members were outfitted in matching uniforms and were often flown to the races rather than left to drive cross-country.

The Team ran for only five years, but in that time set a mark for professionalism, wins and championships. They raced hard and played hard. This book recounts the history of the team with their triumphs and their failures.

Author Schultz, in addition to being a periodic contributor to VR, also serves was the acting track historian at Road America. With a wealth of historical material at his disposal, Schultz has created a fascinating insight into the history and genesis of this highly recognizable ’60s racing team, that so few really know much detail about. Highly recommended for any fan of ’60s American sports car racing.

Signed & Numbered Edition Now Available Worldwide

$95.00
Page Size: 230 x 280 mm
Page Count: 324
Photographs: 370 images
ISBN: 978-1-85443-304-6

Click here for more information or to order

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In 1968, Porsche won the Monte Carlo Rally for the first time. After that, Porsche would go on to win the grueling “Monte” another five times. This comprehensive, two-volume set, takes a deep, in-depth look at every Porsche that raced in the Monte Carlo Rally from 1952 to 1982.

The very first Porsche team entered the rally in 1952. However, in the overall classification the unique regulations of the rally, which employed various handicaps and coefficients designed to level out the differences between the cars, made a final placing in the middle of the field the only possibility for the teams driving Porsches. It wasn’t until 1956 that the first Porsche team could celebrate a class win. Class wins followed in 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966 and 1967.

In 1968, the Automoblie-Club de Monaco changed the regulations and ditched all manner of handicap and coefficient, allowing the fastest team to win. From that moment Porsche teams had a genuine chance of an overall win. Vic Elford and David Stone grabbed the opportunity in 1968 and presented Porsche with its first Monte Carlo Rally overall victory. The victories continued, with overall wins in 1969 and 1970, after which Porsche endured a long dry spell before the champagne corks could be popped again – due in part to Porsche’s withdrawal of its official works teams from motorsport at the end of 1971. It took until 1978 before Porsche could record another Monte win, achieved by the privateer team of Jean-Pierre Nicolas and Vincent Laverne in a Porsche 911. Porsche teams returned to winning ways, taking class wins in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982.

This two-book set examines each race, year-by-year with both text—written in three languages (French – English – German)—and an amazing collection of well-produced photographs. A must have for any fan of Porsche or the golden age of rallying.

Two volumes in a presentation case:

Volume 1:
 Porsche 1952 – 1967
432 pages, 299 black and white photographs and 44 color photographs.

Volume 2: Porsche 1968 – 1982
480 pages, 236 black and white photographs and 304 color photographs.

Price: €175.00

Available at dingwort-verlag.de/en

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The Maserati 300S was one of the most successful sports racing cars of the 1950s and considered by many to be one of the most beautiful of that, or any, period. It was the main opponent for the Ferraris in the World Sportscar Championships of 1956 and 1957. Described by Sir Stirling Moss as one of the best racecars he had ever driven and loved by every racing driver due to its balanced handling qualities, the 300S left an indelible mark on endurance racing history. Its star-crossed history, that included both glory and disaster, has added a certain mystique to the 300S’s legend.

This is a completely updated, second edition of Bäumer’s definitive work on the 300S and benefits from both new information unearthed over the 10 years since the first edition was published, as well as an almost entirely new compliment of previously unpublished photographs.

Organized by chassis, Bäumer delves deep into the history of each of the 25 cars built by Officine Maserati S.p.A., in Modena, including its: detailed race history, specifications and developments; and ownership history.

While the detailed text reflects Bäumer’s meticulous work for the past 20 years to carefully document these 25 cars, perhaps one of the greatest treats of this new edition is the excellent, large format photography. Publisher’s Dalton Watson can always be relied upon to produce the finest books for the discerning enthusiast and again here, they did not disappoint. Produced as a large format (295-mm X 302-mm) hardbound, 2-volume set, in a slipcase, the full-page reproduction of almost 500 period photographs is of a quality that you could (God forbid!) cut them out and frame them. With this second edition, Bäumer uncovered so many more period photographs, that this edition also includes a second, 112-page volume of black and white and color photography of just the factory team cars.

A must-have for any fan of Maserati, ’50s endurance racing or just high-quality automotive books.

$250 (£195)

Click here for more information or to order

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Underneath the modern, slick bodywork is a British-built Cooper Monaco fitted with a powerful Ford V8 engine. The car, which took its name from the sponsor Craig Lang, heir to the Olympia brewery fortune, was driven by Ed Leslie in 1964. It was later sold to Charlie Hayes in 1965 before being used in club racing and finally ending up in a scrap yard in South Carolina.

After several restorations, the car is now in the N-Anadol Collection in Switzerland and, since it is in both pristine and race-worthy condition, is currently being entered in historic events by its current owner.

This book not only tells the history of the first Lang Cooper built for Dave MacDonald, but also follows the second car’s life from the USRRC right up until today, it also features chapters on the Cooper Car Company and tells the story of the creation of Shelby’s own V8-powered sports car, the King Cobra.

Limited edition, 999 copies, with slipcover
$109.95

Click here to order

Pages: 158
Size: 11.4 X 11.4 (inches)
Format: Hardback
Illustrations: 168 b/w, 91 color
Publisher: McKlein Distribution
ISBN: 9783947156016

The post Lang Cooper 97 appeared first on Sports Car Digest.

“Alfa Romeo Arese”

In 1963, the first section of Alfa Romeo’s new production and assembly plant in Arese became operational. From then on the bodies of both the saloon and the coupé of the Tipo 105 would be produced there. Final assembly of the cars would also be carried out in Arese, although the engine and various other mechanical components were still made in the old works in Portello at that time. Production of these parts would be moved to Arese over the following years as shop floor space was completed and made available.

Fortunately over the years much of the production process of the various Tipo 105 models was photographed.

This is a book for the enthusiast who is interested in seeing how car components and Tipo 105 cars were produced, a model which still today is considered to have played an important role in Alfa Romeo’s enviable reputation.

The photographs in this book, for the most part published for the very first time, were taken in Portello and Arese between the years 1963 and 1972 and document the production of the Tipo 105 models at the works.

384 pages, 364 black and white photographs

€89.00

“Alfa Romeo Giulia”

This book focuses exclusively on the various model variants of the saloon bodied Giulia from the Tipo 105 series mounting 1300cc and 1600cc engines.

The 528 pages contain solely contemporary photographs, which for the most part are published here for the first time, documenting the different variants of the model. In the respective chapters the modifications to the cars that Alfa Romeo made over the years are documented in detail for each model.

The documentation covers the following models produced by Alfa Romeo between 1962 and 1977 in Portello and Arese:

Tipo 105.14 Giulia TI
Tipo 105.08 Giulia TI
Tipo 105.16 Giulia TI Super
Tipo 105.06 Giulia 1300
Tipo 105.26 Giulia Super / Giulia Super 1.6 / Nuova Super 1600
Tipo 105.39 Giulia 1300 TI
Tipo 105.85 Giulia 1600S
Tipo 115.09 Giulia 1300 Super / Giulia Super 1.3 / Nuova Super 1300
Tipo 115.40 Nuova Super Diesel

Also included is information concerning the vehicle identification numbers and production numbers of the models.

528 pages, 418 black and white photographs and 69 color photographs.

€119.00

“Alfa Romeo Giulia GT”

This book focuses exclusively on the various model variants of the Giulia GT from the Tipo 105 series.

The 528 pages contain solely contemporary photographs, which for the most part are published here for the first time, documenting the different variants of the model. In the respective chapters the modifications to the cars that Alfa Romeo made over the years are documented in detail for each model.

The documentation covers the following models produced by Alfa Romeo between 1963 and 1976 in Arese:

Tipo 105.02 Giulia Sprint GT
Tipo 105.02/A Giulia Sprint GTA
Tipo 105.25 Giulia GTC
Tipo 105.30 GT 1300 Junior
Tipo 105.44 1750 GT Veloce
Tipo 105.59 GTA 1300 Junior
Tipo 105.51 1750 GT Veloce U.S.A.
Tipo 105.21 2000 GT Veloce
Tipo 115.01 2000 GT Veloce U.S.A.
Tipo 115.03 GT 1600 Junior
Tipo 115.34 GT 1600 Junior

Also included is information concerning the vehicle identification numbers and production numbers of the models.

528 pages, 370 black and white photographs and 109 color photographs.

€119.00

“Alfa Romeo Junior Z”

This book focuses exclusively on the Tipo 105.93 Junior Z and the Tipo 115.24 1600 Junior Z.

The 192 pages contain solely contemporary photographs, which for the most part are published here for the first time, documenting the two models.

The documentation covers both of the models produced by Alfa Romeo between 1970 and 1975.

Also included is information concerning the vehicle identification numbers and production numbers of the two models.

192 pages, 126 black and white photographs and 53 color photographs.

€59.00

“Alfa Romeo Montreal”

This book focuses exclusively on the Tipo 105.64 Alfa Romeo Montreal.

The 264 pages contain solely contemporary photographs, which for the most part are published here for the first time, documenting this car.

In addition to the story of the car’s development the european motorsport activity of the Montreal is covered, documenting the relatively small number of races entered between 1973 and 1975.

The documentation covers the Montreal models produced by Alfa Romeo between 1971 and 1977.

Also included is information concerning the vehicle identification numbers and production numbers.

264 pages, 187 black and white photographs and 67 color photographs.

€69.00

“Alfa Romeo Spider”

This book focuses exclusively on several model variants of the Spider from the Tipo 105 series which were produced between the years 1966 and 1977.

The 312 pages contain solely contemporary photographs, which for the most part are published here for the first time, documenting different variants of the model. In the respective chapters the modifications to the cars that Alfa Romeo made over the years are documented in detail for each model.

The documentation covers the following models produced by Alfa Romeo between 1966 and 1977:

Tipo 105.03 Spider 1600
Tipo 105.57 1750 Spider Veloce
Tipo 105.91 Spider 1300 Junior
Tipo 105.62 1750 Spider Veloce U.S.A.
Tipo 105.24 2000 Spider Veloce
Tipo 115.02 2000 Spider Veloce U.S.A.
Tipo 115.07 Spider 1600 Junior

Also included is information concerning the vehicle identification numbers and production numbers.

312 pages, 226 black and white photographs and 30 color photographs.

€79.00

“Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 / 1967”

This book focuses exclusively on the development of the Tipo 33 and the motorsport activities of the car during 1967.

It was a long held belief that there was only scarce documentation available concerning Autodelta, the motorsport company. With the help of Dr. Marco Fazio we were able to unearth various diverse records from the Alfa Romeo archives which contained detailed reports of the race activities of Autodelta. With such records to hand we were able to build an complete picture, free of any doubt, of the cars that participated in races during 1967 in the works team.

In addition to the racing participation of the Tipo 33 we have also covered aspects of the Tipo 33 Stradale and the related Alfa Romeo OSI Scarabeo.

Work on a second book covering the 1968 racing season is currently under way and is planned for release in 2019.

312 pages, 224 black and white photographs and 114 color photographs

€79.00

All can be ordered at https://dingwort-verlag.de/en/alfa-romeo/

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By Giles Chapman & Clare Hay

Some of the best automotive books of the past 30 years have been passion projects. Works devoted to a very narrow or esoteric topic that might not make larger commercial sense, but in fulfilling the need to explore a specific snippet of history, end up making a much larger contribution to our appreciation and understanding of automotive history. “Gentleman Heroes” is just such a book.

This beautifully produced and illustrated book tells the story of the birth of the infamous Blower Bentley, through the life and history of the first example – Tim Birkin’s pet project, YU 3250. Starting with W.O. Bentley and his band of brothers, Chapman and Hay take up the story at the end of the Great War, following the Bentley story from the prototype 3-liter through to the “Bentley Boys” and other notable investors, before Tim Birkin takes on the production of his now historic Blower project, at Welwyn.

Extensively researched by Bentley authority Clare Hay and written by Giles Chapman, this hard-back book offers a wealth of rare period photography, as well as contemporary studio images of YU 3250 taken by Michael Furman.

A wonderful addition to any collection, “Gentleman Heroes” will appeal to any Bentley enthusiast, as well as any fan of pre-war racing history.

248 pages
Hardcover in slipcase
Limited edition of 1,000

$149.95
Click here to order from Autobooks-Aerobooks

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Building upon the history of how the Porsche 917 program came about, and its early development, author Gillotti then examines the now famous partnership between Porsche, Gulf Oil and JW Automotive Engineering to tackle international endurance racing and its crown jewel, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The cars painted in the distinctive pale blue and orange of Gulf Oil would prove to be instrumental in Porsche’s taking of the 1970 and 1971 World Sportscar Championship titles when the cars from Zuffenhausen won 11 of the 17 championship races entered. Of course, no examination of the Gulf 917 story could be complete without attention paid to the exploits of the team’s driving legends Jo Siffert, Pedro Rodriguez, Brian Redman, Leo Kinnunen, Derek Bell and Jackie Oliver. Written with assistance from JWAE Chief Engineer, John Horsman, “Gulf 917” includes reproductions of his original race data sheets, along with numerous rarely-seen photographs, many from Porsche’s archive. And while the Gulf 917 racecars may have been replaced after the 1971 season, their respective lives and stories carried on into the subsequent decades, which are also chronicled on a chassis-by-chassis basis.

A must-have for any fans of the Gulf racing program, the Porsche 917 or ’70s endurance racing.

For those wanting the ultimate Gulf 917 reference, a publisher’s edition is also available that incudes an additional Volume 2 containing 160 pages of bonus material, including all the JWAE race data sheets not included in Volume 1, plus additional archival documents and over 90 extra photographs along with background on the book’s preparation, the 917’s main competitors and a summary listing of chassis histories.

Regular Edition

230 mm x 280 mm, 496-pages
Hardcover with dust jacket and slipcase.
$150/£125

Click here to order

Publisher’s Edition

230 mm x 280 mm
Vol 1= 496-pages
Vol 2= 152-pages
Hardcover with dust jackets and slipcase
$350/£275

Click here to order

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Robbins first book was “Road Trip!,” and it was good enough that I bought his second book, “”Highways, Byways, and Racetracks,” subtitled “Adventures on Asphalt.” They were also good enough that I have recommended them to my car freak friends, whether they be Walter Mittys, or are like Robbins, and act on their dreams.

In “Road Trip!,” he talks about how he developed the “toy car” disease, and describes how he became addicted to Lotus. He takes us on road trips with a variety of Lotus cars he has owned – an Elite on the Texas 1000, a trip in his Seven in bad weather that caused he and his wife, Ann, to wrap their faces in bandanas, and with the LOUTS (Lotus Owners Up To Something) and their adventures in Europe. Robbins lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, so many of his adventures in a Lotus involved thousands of miles. Such was his trip to the Lotus Owner’s Gathering (LOG) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by way of the Atlantic Ocean. Four guys in two Lotus – a 1968 Lotus Seven and a 1965 Elan – traveled a total of over 4000 miles without any real problems.

His second book continues his tales of trips and adds some travails. One story is about how he found and acquired the Elan +2 in the Profile article. This is a one-of-a-kind +2 in the U.S. – it had a full Spyder conversion, the most important piece of the conversion being the Zetec engine, not to mention the air conditioning. His adventure included tracking down the car that he has seen at a LOG and doing a deal to acquire it. The deal included an additional car in pieces and many extra parts that he really didn’t want. Asking what the price of the Lotus was without all the extras, he was told it was $5000 more than the price with the parts. The solution he developed really makes the story. It is also in this book where he talks about his adventures racing several different cars, including an Elan. And then there are additional road trips – including one that traced the Great River Road from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Robbins writing style is very conversational, which makes reading his stories all the more enjoyable. He takes you with him, and often with his wife and the LOUTS, on his adventures. You can see yourself doing the same things he has done – if you are brave enough. Maybe, most of us will just be happy with being Walter Mitty and enjoying the adventures while sitting in our recliners and sipping a little single malt Scotch – that’s the way I did it.

[button link=”https://www.amazon.com/Road-Trip-Chasing-skies-forever/dp/0615771971/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538768336&sr=8-1&keywords=Road+Trip%2C+book%2C+robbins” color=”blue”]Click here to order “Road Trip”[/button]

[button link=”https://www.amazon.com/Highways-Byways-Racetracks-Road-Trip/dp/1984949594/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1538768336&sr=8-2&keywords=Road+Trip%2C+book%2C+robbins” color=”blue”]Click here to order “Highways, Byways and Racetracks”[/button]

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Occasionally a spark of inspiration can become the catalyst for change. Just such a convergence took place with the construction of Thompson Speedway in 1940, a 5/8^thmile oval track, dubbed “The Indianapolis of the East.” A road course soon joined to the oval in 1952, which enlarged the track to form the first privately owned complex where sports car drivers could race safely. Upon reflection, the creation of Thompson transformed the face of sports car racing in America (or, at a minimum, on the East Coast), and hastened the demise of the dangerous open-road events such as those held at Watkins Glen.

While the history of what transpired at Thompson had been all but forgotten by the racing fraternity, fortunately author Terry O’Neil has devoted an amazing amount of effort and research into chronicling the complete history of the track from its birth through to today. These almost obsessive-compulsive two volumes tell the story of the ground-breaking racetrack and, as far as humanly possible, detail the drivers and cars that participated in the races. Each tome is profusely illustrated with contemporary photographs showing well-known drivers such as Briggs Cunningham, Bill Lloyd, Bill Spear, Lance Reventlow, Walt Hansgen, George Constantine and Denise McCluggage in action driving everything from Maseratis, Jaguars and Porsches, to Coopers, Ferraris and as well as a host of lesser-known marques.

Volume One, The Formative Years: 1945-1959, covers the years 1938-1960 and describes the developments of sports car racing at Thompson, which dates as early as 1945. It further explains the complicated and often antagonistic relationship between the landowner, John Hoenig, and raceway manager George Weaver, and their unsuccessful attempts to find common ground. Their disagreements led to the development of the raceway’s second layout by Weaver as it separated from the Speedway oval in 1958.

Volume Two, Changing Fortunes: 1960-1977, sees Hoenig and Thompson Raceway land in Windham County court in 1961, the culmination of a long-standing dispute over share holdings. SCCA policy changes in the first half of the 1960s involving the conflict between professional and amateur status also contributed to the eventual demise of the raceway under Weaver’s control in 1967. Subsequently, the venue was revived by the Hoenig family, with a new track that incorporated the original Speedway oval, but the unfortunate timing of the OPEC fuel crisis, combined with a lack of investment and general decline in spectator interest, ultimately led to its eventual closure again in 1977. Fortunately, today the raceway has been resurrected yet again and runs as a successful venture under the control of Jonathon Hoenig, a great-grandson of the original owner.

This definitive history of a key a venue in the development of American road racing is a must-have for history buffs and the casual fan alike.

Two volumes (330 mm x 240 mm), 760 pages, hard cover with dust jackets and slip case, limited to 500 copies, all signed by the author.

$225 (£170)

www.daltonwatson.com

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In recent years, German carmaker Audi has dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans, banking 10 victories from 13 attempts since first appearing there in 1999. Half of those wins were registered by the R8, and even though it’s since been superseded by subsequent models, the R8 remains an appropriate subject for this latest offering in Veloce Publishing’s “WSC Giants” series.

Of course there has been no WSC for the R8 to contest, but it did rule the USA’s American Le Mans Series, playing a leading (6) or supporting (2) role in eight consecutive championships beginning in Y2K. The car was sufficiently sturdy and reliable that those working with it took to calling it “The Locomotive.”

The R8 pioneered many endurance racing concepts, perhaps foremost among them the direct fuel injection system introduced at Le Mans in 2001 and the practice (since outlawed) of changing the entire rear end of the car in the event of trouble, a procedure that clever engineering allowed to be completed in about five minutes! Similar nuggets are to be found throughout this worthwhile read, available for US$29.95 / £15.99 from enthusiast bookstores or direct from Veloce at www.veloce.co.uk

Rating= 3 stars

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By Ercole Columbo

Thirty-six years after his untimely death at Zolder, the legend of Gilles Villeneuve remains intact, alive and well, even celebrated, as fans around the world refuse to forget him. The diminutive French Canadian possessed a spirit that did not understand either giving up or going slow, and when he applied it in a racing car—generally a Ferrari—his performances drew legions of fans to his cause.

This book of primarily Columbo’s photographs is complemented with occasional quotes from some of those who knew him and worked with him, as well as brief introductory text by Giorgio Terruzzi, all very relevant, but subservient to the photography. The five years of Gilles’ F1 career are chronicled visually, both on and off the track, and in some cases with images never seen before.

While the nearly 200 color photographs surely tell the story, quotes from the likes of Enzo Ferrari, “I loved him like a son,” Keke Rosberg, “He was the hardest bastard I ever knew, but absolutely fair” or Niki Lauda, “He was the craziest devil I ever came across in Formula One,” bolster impressions formed by fans around the world from watching Gilles or reading about his exploits.

This landscape format coffee-table book is well worthy of addition to any true enthusiast’s library. Available for US$50.00/CDN$67.50/£40.00 from enthusiast bookstores or direct from publisher Fouchard Filippi Communications at www.fouchardfilippi.com

Reviewed by John Zimmermann

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April 2018

Whatever Happened to the Gold Cup?

by Mike Allen

Once retirement is upon us, whether forced by age or other circumstances, how to fill the time is an initial worry. Author Mike Allen’s project to fill his time was to research the Oulton Park International Gold Cup races. As Allen’s acknowledgements bear out, his task involved many, many others—writing a book of this type relies on so many people involved in the sport whether they be drivers, mechanics, marshals or enthusiasts.

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March 2018

Second to None

The European Formula 2 Story: From Ickx to Thackwell and from Rindt to Streiff

By Chris Ellard

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February 2018

Mario Andretti: A Life in Pictures

By Mario Donnini

The latest in author Donnini’s series of “Life in Pictures” reflections on prominent racers and events is devoted to the 1978 F1 World Champion and four-time U.S. National Indycar Champion Mario Andretti. Mario’s story should be familiar to most readers, and here it’s told exquisitely in photographs accompanied by many of his own words as he offers illuminating insights from his career.

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