On New Year’s Day of 1967 the South African Champion, John Love, was pipped at the post in the season opening South African Grand Prix at Kyalami when his Tasman Cooper faltered in the closing stages whilst comfortably in the lead and was forced to stop for fuel because of a defective fuel pump. The...
Sixty years ago, Chevrolet had the guts to introduce a model that was drastically different than anything they had ever done before. Time had come for a small, economical Chevrolet. Ford was working on the Falcon, and Chrysler was close to introducing the Valiant, both very traditional automobiles. The car Chevrolet would use to compete...
Sydney pharmacist John Hallihan is the man who brought a rare D-Type to Australia, in very interesting circumstances. During the obligatory overseas working holiday in the mid-’60s, Hallihan met legendary Jaguar PR Manager Andrew Whyte. Hallihan was keen to buy a ‘cheap’ Jaguar, and asked Whyte if he knew of any cars already ‘on the...
In 1977, Porsche’s “improvised” Type 936/77 took on the full-court press of four Renaults at Le Mans. Retirements and technical troubles suggested that winning was out of the question. But neither its drivers nor Porsche number 4 believed that. Against strong opposition from Alpine-Renault and Alfa Romeo, Porsche took the world sports car championship in...
The holy grail of land speed records resides in the vast solitude of a formerly thriving prehistoric lake. 14,000 years ago, this epic lake flooded out, evacuating the equivalent of Lake Michigan into Idaho’s Red Rock Pass. This devastating flood would last for over a year, continuously moving trillions of gallons of water with speed...
Texas professional and historic racer Charles Nearburg has a long and diversified motorsport resume. At the profession level, he’s competed in everything from Super Vee and Toyota Atlantic to Le Mans and Champ cars, while even breaking the Land Speed Record for piston-powered, wheel-driven vehicles at 414.316 mph along the way. Most recently, Nearburg has been a winning competitor in the The Masters Historic Formula One and sports car championships. Your best day in motor racing? “Probably my first professional podium. That came on the Mile Oval at Nazareth in the Bosch Super Vee championship. I finished second that day…
During the late ’50s and early ’60s American racers were doing battle in a wide variety of homebuilt racecars and Specials. Taking production car engines and chassis and creating their own unique take on a competition car. They may have been quick, but many had a look only a mother (their creator) could love. This...
The powers-that-be in 1920s auto racing, namely the American Automobile Association’s Contest Board, barred anyone who wasn’t a white male from the sport. But Dewey Gatson, a black man who went by the name “Rajo Jack”, drove into the center of “outlaw” auto racing in California, refusing to let the pervasive racism of his day stop him from competing against entire fields of white drivers. In the new book “The Brown Bullet”, journalist Bill Poehler uncovers the life of a long-forgotten trailblazer and the great lengths he took to even get on the track, showing ultimately how Rajo Jack proved…
In the 1950s, Britain struggled to find its place in Formula One racing. Fed up with BRM’s attempt, Tony Vandervell took the bit between his teeth and fielded cars of his own devising. The result was heartening success against the dominant Italians. At the age of 32, Guy Anthony “Tony” Vandervell had an epiphany. A...
In late December 1959, Bill Jennings packed his tools, spares and suitcase into the passenger seat of his self-assembled GSM Dart sports car and drove from his home in Cape Town to East London – a trip of over 600 miles in the days before highways. Jennings then took part in the Sixth International South...
When Rod Millen hit the starter on his custom-designed and built four-wheel drive, four-rotor 1985 Mazda RX7 the explosion made photographer Dennis Fregger and I jump. It shattered the morning quiet, and flushed the birds out of the bushes a hundred yards away. The sound of an unfettered rotary engine at full song is like...