Anyone who has studied literature will know about footnotes and the glossary of terms because the language is constantly changing. When Charles Dickens referred to a “chairman” he did not mean a nabob on a board of directors, he meant a guy at one end of a sedan chair. As governments become ever more keen...
We are frequently told that Formula One is at the cutting edge of technology, but that has been true only occasionally, most recently with new heights being reached in the thermal efficiency of engines. This is something we cannot see and how it is achieved is something that not all of us can understand. Most...
Most people when launching a new product normally try to come up with a new name to reflect innovation. Then it comes to cars, however, there is a trend to resurrect a name from the past so we have had Allard, Connaught, Osca, Lea-Francis, Jensen, Invicta, Spyker, Ermini and that is just scratching the surface. It does not matter that the original went bust, sometimes several times and that is also the likely fate of the revival, people will revive defunct names. Sometimes, not always, the new project has bought the rights to the old name because old companies…
Once upon a time in a bar…well, near a bar…I was talking to a couple who had just bought a new Bentley, a name so famous in motor racing circles that even I, not normally given to huge enthusiasm for motorway cruisers, started asking questions about the technical specs. “Actually,” the friend told me “until...
A recent visit to the famous Donington circuit in England, for the launch of a wonderful book about the history of the place, got me to thinking of many other great circuits of yesteryear and what has become of them. Donington, which was Britain’s first road racing circuit, survives albeit not exactly in its original...
There is an old maxim which says America and Britain are two countries divided by a common language and in the automotive world this does seem to hold true. Not having been born in America, nor in England, I can see the broader picture with what I believe to be some slightly amused detachment. In...
Do you like your racing cars to be aesthetically pleasing? Most people do, me included. So how do we finish up with so many ugly cars? Probably a variety of reasons, starting with the fact that not all stylists have the requisite eye for line, that the regulations have forced designers down the “ugly” route,...
As the calendar year moves into its second half, we come to what motor racing calls its “Silly Season,” when there arises lots of conjecture about who will drive for who in the next year or two. Actually, I think the silliest part of it is the name. Why “silly”? It is a natural reshuffle...
For the Historic Formula Junior Diamond Jubilee World Tour (quite some title) it really was the “last lap” of this three-year long series, when they held the final races as part of the 2018 Silverstone Classic. I apologize for returning to the Formula Junior theme again (so soon?) but I think it is so special...
There is a small town in Lincolnshire, England, which became the home of not one, not two, but three major racing car manufacturers. Bourne (pop 15,000) a small market town up in “Bomber County” as Lincolnshire was known during WWII (due to the large number of bomber bases built on the flat terrain), has counted...
In the history of racing there have been formulae that quickly become popular and continue to grow, while others are launched, but for whatever reason, lack popular appeal and just fade away. Usually after a lot of money has been wasted on them! Who remembers F100, Formula Talbot, or even Formula Vauxhall? All well intentioned,...