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,...
Remember when Hollywood used to produce the odd “fun” movie—in somewhat the same theme as “the Grand Old Opry?” A young guy (our hero) would be motoring along with his girlfriend in a sports car, usually a MG TC or similar, and suddenly he sees a sign telling him that there is a “Grand Prix“...
There comes a time, all too often in history, when there arrives the “end of an era,” and with the sad passing of Dan Gurney so it has happened once more. Dan was part of that wave of American drivers from the ’50s sports car racing scene who all arrived in Formula One at about...
Have you ever stopped to add up all of the different driver nationalities in motor racing and perhaps spotted a trend? It is an interesting study. As the world has shrunk travel-wise, so the mobility of younger people has opened up many an opportunity to them—which is by no means confined to motor racing, but...