Browsing: Vintage Racecar Articles
Endorphin
This month’s featured Web site is interesting in that it features on-screen mpeg videos about a variety of topics that get people’s endorphins flowing. Of particular interest to our readers is the extensive section of video features on automobiles, and in particular, historic racecars. Some of the videos include a lap of Laguna Seca behind...
Paramount Ranch Reunion
On April 16, the Fabulous Fifties Association staged a reunion of cars and participants that competed at Southern California’s Paramount Ranch road course in 1956 and 1957. Part of the festivities included a Concours d’Provenance that saw more than 50 cars and 200 attendees take part. Some of the personalities who attended the reunion included Andy Porterfield, Dick Guldstrand, Al Moss, Bobby Brigham, Jim Parkinson, Ruth Levy, Bill Dixon and Stan Peterson. In the concours, Dr. Mike Jacobsen’s 1934 MG N Magnette Special, which his father raced at Paramount in the inaugural 1956 event, won the honor of Best in…
TGP Opens at Hockenheim
Exactly 37 years to the month after Jim Clark was tragically killed in an F2 car at Hockenheim, the FIA TGP Championship made the pilgrimage to the Black Forest circuit to star as the feature race of the Jim Clark Memorial event. This was the first such historic meeting at the circuit and the four classes of TGP machines were all represented for round 1 of the 2005 championship. Christian Glasel, in his Brabham BT49, led the field away for the start, only to be red flagged on Lap 3 when the block in Hubertus Bahlsen’s Arrows A4 decided it…
First NART Spyder to be Auctioned
Gooding and Company will be offering the first 275 GTS/4 Ferrari built during its August 21 auction following the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. This Ferrari, carrying serial number 09437, was the brainchild of Luigi Chinetti, Snr., the American Ferrari distributor and New York City dealer whose North American Racing Team activities lent these cars their NART designation. This car, the prototype, is one of two built with alloy bodies while the 3rd and 4th examples were crafted with all-steel bodies. All four bodies were constructed individually by Scaglietti but the final six cars, also steel bodied, were converted to Spyders…
Cobra to be Auctioned at Monterey
Russo and Steele Collector Automobile Auctions will offer another historically important Shelby factory Cobra racecar at its August 20 auction in Monterey, CA. This will be the second Factory Team racecar offered in 2005 by the Scottsdale-based company, and it will be sold at no reserve. Shelby Cobra chassis CSX2138 was one of three 1963 competition Cobras raced by Shelby American, and one of eight 289 factory racers ever produced. It was built to Le Mans specifications and was originally raced with a hard top for the Shelby American team by Dave McDonald. It is one of two such cars…
Road Racing in Aspen?
America’s highest-altitude road racing course, Aspen Raceway, has announced the creation of The Aspen Racing & Sports Car Club. This new “country club”-style organization is now offering memberships that include the unlimited use of its 1.1-mile road course and clubhouse. Located in Woody Creek, Colorado, Aspen Raceway is 7,500 feet high and features a history of sports car racing that dates back to its creation in 1963. In addition to the country club format, Aspen Raceway is also available for club racing and would serve as an interesting venue for a historic event. For more information, call (970) 923-0713.
Prodigal Son
Nico Rosberg, son of World Champion Keke Rosberg, took a major step in his father’s footsteps in early May when he completed a day of Formula One testing at Silverstone. Perhaps not coincidentally, Rosberg’s test was with the Williams Formula One team, with which his father won his 1982 World Driving Championship. Rosberg hopes to join Alberto Ascari, Graham Hill, Michael Andretti and Jacques Villeneuve as one of only a handful of second-generation Formula One drivers.
Gerry Marshall Dies at the Wheel
Long-time British saloon and sports car driver Gerry Marshall died at Silverstone on April 21 of a heart attack, while driving an ex-IROC Richard Petty Camaro. Born in 1941, Marshall was considered one of the winningest U.K. drivers on record. His professional driving career spanned four decades, having started winning in Minis in 1964. He is remembered for his flamboyant and often aggressive driving of the Dealer Team Vauxhall Firenzas in the 1970s, and his larger-than-life behavior off-track. He epitomized that group of hard-drinking, high-living racing drivers that attracted crowds in the past, though in recent years his poor health…
Alfas Invade Seattle
The American Alfa Romeo Owners Club (AROC) will be holding its annual national convention in Seattle, Washington this year, from July 27–31. Hosted at the Double Tree Hotel in Bellevue, this year’s convention will feature five days of festivities for the Alfisti, including time trials at Pacific Raceway, an autocross and a concours, as well as rallies, driving tours, a banquet, tech sessions, a vendor midway and, interestingly, tours of both John Shirley’s and Greg Whitten’s impressive car collections. For more information, visit www.alfapotlatch.com or call (425) 241-9307.
Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance
From March 10–13, Florida’s Amelia Island played host to what, over the past 10 years, has become perhaps the East Coast’s preeminent concours. And, as in previous years, racecars and the history of racing played a central role. Located on the sprawling grounds of The Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island, this year’s event honored the Alfa Romeo marque, as well as NASCAR racing legend Bobby Allison. A display of many of the racecars that played a role in the career of Allison stood as a colorful contrast to the 50 significant, gleaming red Alfa Romeos that spanned everything from the early 1750…
Bertone to the Rescue
Famed Italian carrozzeria Bertone has announced the opening of a new workshop, Bertone Classic, which will now offer restoration work on any Bertone-bodied vehicle. Based in Turin, Bertone Classic will be a service aimed at allowing collectors of Bertone vehicles access to restoration services certified by Bertone, which make use of all the latest technologies used by Stile Bertone to construct its own concept cars and to restore the historic vehicles that already belong to the Bertone Collection. “We have a very competent and professional team,” said Roberto Piatti, managing director of Stile Bertone, “and it was natural to think…