How on earth does someone with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin become known as “Wacky?” Apparently, a young Stanley Howard Arnolt II purchased the rights to a small marine engine from a manufacturer who went bust during the Depression – more on that later. Arnolt felt that he needed...
In January 1957, a big mustached man wrestled with a mighty Studebaker racing car on a narrow, twisty and bumpy hillclimb at Krugersdorp in South Africa. What was a racing car that had been purpose built for the 1932 Indianapolis 500 doing there, 25 years later and 12,000 miles from South Bend, Indiana? It is...
Duncan was initially entranced by record keeping and statistics in racing events. This interest morphed into a desire to race and so he has for 22 years. However, with a keen eye for the history of the sport, his desire to race eventually juxtaposed into a desire to keep alive a class of racecars that served as a stepping stone into the higher formulae. So it was that he became the genial godfather of Formula Junior, advancing the cause especially for the diamond anniversary of the class. Advancing the cause led to Duncan’s spearheading events for Formula Juniors all over…
Fitting an engine many times the size of the original is never a sure fire recipe for racing success. Mark Walker and Duncan Pittaway have done just that with their GN-based, Vintage Sports Car Club-eligible specials, using components originally intended for the aviation industry. Joseph Mark Bates evaluates the results… The noble art of building...
As Rolf Stommelen climbed behind the wheel of the front-running Andial/Meister Porsche 935K3 after co-driver Derek Bell had pitted to refuel and take on four new tires, rising American star Bobby Rahal found himself leading Mid-Ohio’s $50,000-to-win “all-comers” Lumbermens 500 in the Group 6 Red Roof Inns Ralt RT-2 he was sharing with patron Jim...
In the earlier days of his racing career, Craig Fisher (who recently passed away) raced just about everything he could get his hands on, from used DKW Monzas at Harewood Acres to Abarth Simcas at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant and even the ferocious Comstock EXP at Mosport. He also raced at tracks across the USA...
Seeing the Darracq 120 racer that Louis Wagner (also a pioneer aviator) drove to victory in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup race in Wallace McNair’s shed in Hamilton, New Zealand, felt a little like finding a Rembrandt at a garage sale. The car ranks up there with Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp, the first Indianapolis 500 winner, for...
In the midst of Britain’s post-war turmoil engineer Reid Railton was freshly out of a job at the beginning of 1923. So was his friend Henry Spurrier III, although he was still working at Leyland Motors but on a reduced salary. Born in June of 1898, Henry Spurrier “Junior” was three years less eight days...
Author Brock Yates once described Judy Stropus as a “racing personality,” since her career in motorsports has covered a gamut of disciplines including, her almost savant ability to accurately time and score endurance sports car races before the introduction of computers, driving race cars, and becoming an author and an award-winning public relations expert. Perhaps...
By the early 1960s, Ford had carved a very specific niche for itself in the UK. Having built low cost, entry-level cars like the Anglia, in Great Britain since the 1930s, Ford had a dependable—if not somewhat stodgy—reputation for reliable, but basically bland offerings. On September 20, 1962, Ford UK launched a newly designed, entry...
[Click here to read the second installment] Sure enough, the more liberal formula of the 1949 Mille Miglia attracted a record number of 375 entries for the 1950 event. Many of the drivers simply regarded the race in their tiny, uncompetitive cars as a fun day out. But the seriously talented racers, like pre-and post-war...