Automotive History
300+ Stories
Journey through the captivating world of automotive history with "300+ Stories." This collection dives deep into the iconic cars, legendary designers, and groundbreaking innovations that have shaped the industry. From the Ford Model T to the Tesla Model S, explore the evolution of automobiles and the stories behind their creation. Discover tales of famous races, influential figures, and engineering marvels that have defined automotive history. Whether you're a casual enthusiast or a die-hard gearhead, "300+ Stories" offers a fascinating look at the past, present, and future of the automobile.
The Volkswagen Beetle is an icon. Over the years, it has symbolized many different things to many different people, from a classic example of German ingenuity to the calling card...
The 1951 Mille Miglia Race Results: 1951 Mille Miglia Results / Dates: April 28-29, 1951 / Winner: Villoresi – Cassani / Winning Speed: 76.13 mph / Starters: 325 / Finishers:...
It began in Richmond, Indiana, in 1851 when Daniel W. Marmon and his partner, a fellow named Nordyke, began manufacturing millstones. They were so successful that Richmond wasn’t big enough...
Peter Collins examines the meteoric rise and tragic fall of Derek Bennett and his Chevron Cars. Enzo Ferrari was right when he made one of his jibes about the British...
A Good (Car) Guy is Hard to Find: A Girl’s Memoir By Petra Perkins with Louis Galanos No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member?...
The finned Cunningham D-Types of Walt Hansgen and Sherwood Johnston, wait with Duncan Forlong’s AC/Bristol and Curtis Attaway’s XK-120.Photo: Bob Schroeder Over the years Texas has seen its share of...
Not for the first time, one of motor sport’s most successful cars was a huge flop when it made its debut. In this case, it was the Bugatti Tipo 35,...
The 1948 Silverstone Grand Prix will be celebrated at this year’s Silverstone Classic, to be staged 20-22 July 2018 at the historic 3.6-mile Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in Northamptonshire, England....
By Louis Galanos Over the past 60-plus years the legendary Sebring 12 Hour Grand Prix of Endurance has been surrounded by numerous myths, fairy tales, legends and folklore. No Subscription?...
Howden Ganley stopped by our vendor booth at the recent Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, where one of the old photos we showed him started a discussion so interesting that I’m...
Whether it is the FA Cup, Ryder Cup, America’s Cup, Webb Ellis Cup or the Ashes, Britain is famous around the globe for its iconic and inspirational sporting trophies. British...
1938 German Grand Prix – A Briton’s Finest Hour By Cyril Posthumus 1939 Was the first year of the new 3-litre supercharged / 4½-litre unsupercharged GP Formula. Strictly this was...
By Louis Galanos | Photos as Credited The late 1960’s and early 1970’s was a great time for motorsports especially for fans of Can-Am racing and international endurance racing like...
Aston Martin is known worldwide for its high-profile successes in sports car racing. A famous outright win at Le Mans and a third consecutive victory at the Nürburgring 1,000-km saw...
The Greatest Supercars And Sports Cars Of The 1980s The seventies brought us futuristic visions of wedge-shaped supercars with pop-up headlamps. The eighties took things to the next level, with...
Today we think of Fiat’s role in Grand Prix racing as the owner of Ferrari, but the Turin company was once a successful pacesetter in the sport in its own...
The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust has announced a major innovation in the world of industrial heritage. Working with Andrew Nahum, curator and historian, Peter Grimsdale, author and TV producer and...
The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster (W 198) made its premiere 60 years ago at the Geneva Motor Show from 14 to 24 March 1957. The open-top sports car superseded the...
Maverick at Daytona – James Garner and American International Racers By Louis Galanos No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your...
On 9 May 1937, the Mercedes-Benz W125 racing car celebrated its racing debut with a victory at the Tripoli Grand Prix. Following this opening triumph, it went on to dominate...
We all know Bentley as a high-end luxury GT, sedan, or SUV, with cars like the Continental, the Flying Spur, and the Bentayga, but Bentley has been around for 101...
Thirty years ago, Mercedes-Benz achieved a double victory in 1989 with the new Sauber-Mercedes C 9 Silver Arrows. A third Mercedes-Benz car finished in 5th place. This result makes the...
1953 French Grand Prix – The New Boy Makes Good By Rodney Walkerley I find this a most difficult report to write. If I use the superlatives justified by the...
On 19 June 1927, Rudolf Caracciola won the inaugural race for sports cars at the Nürburgring in a Mercedes-Benz Model S, marking the beginning of the Stuttgart car maker’s success...
In June of 2014, Porsche will return to Le Mans with a newly designed LMP1 racing machine. With 16 overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the pinnacle...
Of all the famous nameplates borne by Rolls-Royce motor cars since 1904, few are as celebrated, significant, evocative and enduring as the ‘Silver Ghost’. Formally launched in 1906 as the...
The North American Racing Team: An evocative name that is steeped in history and encompasses one man’s ambitions, his passion, the glory and the despair of motor racing over a...
Alberto Ascari in the Ferrari 125 F1 during the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix (photo: Ferrari SpA) Scuderia Ferrari made its debut in the Formula 1 World Championship on May 21st,...
Debutante’s Ball On a list of the greatest Grand Prix races will be the names of several which will strike a chord for all racing enthusiasts: the German Grand Prix...
Carlo Abarth with his fleet of cars, 1965 Over 10,000 individual race victories, 10 world records and 133 international titles are part of the racing heritage behind the Abarth marque....
It’s the stuff of Hollywood. Likeable, luckless Jimmy Stewart type, after a series of DNFs and an horrific accident that very nearly cost him his life, is about to go...
The Bugatti Type 35 is one of the most successful racing cars of all time. And deservedly so: the French manufacturer’s open-top sports car secured over 2,000 victories between 1924...
In the early 20th century, the motor car was considered a killer. The culprit was the 1903 Paris to Madrid road race that never made it to Madrid. It was stopped by...
From the very first day of its inception, the Bugatti legend was founded primarily by motorsports. In this respect, 1928 was a special year for Bugatti. The rules had changed...
Aston Martin entered the 1959 sports car season targeting just a single race, Le Mans, but walked away the deserving winner of an almost accidental Championship Away at the drop...
Is 263.4 kph, or 163.7 mph, the maximum speed of a new twin-turbo V12 people-carrier? The speed of a motorcyclist when caught on a British motorway by police camera (true!)?...
Emerson Fittipaldi, with the Fittipaldi FD04 entered by his older brother Wilson, runs through the Swimming Pool complex on his way to finishing in sixth place. No Subscription? You’re missing...
The Storied Ferrari California History Last week Ferrari revealed the new California T as the first turbocharged model in the Ferrari lineup since the 1980s. The T has a much smaller...
The hunt for interesting automobiles to profile often leads to some very unusual vehicles. One-off vehicles do not lend themselves to the standard profile format, but they are much too...
A GT40 hot on the “Longtail” of a Porsche 906/6 as they leave the Esses. Photo: Roger Dixon During the 1960s the annual 24-hour auto race near a small town southwest...
Supercars are quite often very aesthetically pleasing, have great engines, produce a lovely sound, and become either status symbols or objects of envy. There are the classic Ferraris, the new...
The 1935 Mille Miglia Race Results: 1935 Mille Miglia Results / Dates: April 14-15, 1935 / Winner: Pintacuda – Della Stufa / Winning Speed: 71.72 mph / Starters: 86 /...
Motor Racing History – The Pre-War Grand Prix Period Formula Libre Grand Prix racing in accordance with a strict formula based on engine size and weight was abandoned in 1928.In...
Jack Johnson behind the wheel. Black participation in American motorsports dates back to 1909, when then heavyweight champion Jack Johnson won several races in a Southern California race carnival. In...
1955 Syracuse Grand Prix – Sensation at Syracuse By Peter Lewis In October 1955, with nearly ten years of motor racing completed since the war, enthusiasts in this country were...
Tonino Ascari, the 63-year-old son of 1952–1953 Formula One World Champion Alberto, stunned the Italian motor racing community on September 10th by saying he believed Eugenio Castellotti asked his father...
You’ll probably get stopped at some point and have to pay off the cops. You will almost certainly have to weld something at what would have been your lunch stop....
Rudolf Caracciola [dropcap]A[/dropcap]t Monaco, the first significant race of the 1933 season, a new Grand Prix team made its debut: Scuderia CC, with Rudi Caracciola and Louis Chiron as its...
On 18 June 1992, Klaus Ludwig driving an AMG-Mercedes 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II won both races of the German Touring Car Championship at the Nürburgring. This double victory was...
What was the first race-meeting you ever went to? For me it was Brands Hatch on Boxing Day 1965. Even though it was not much more than a club meeting,...
By Art Evans As I described in my July column, the first motorized-vehicle race on land is acknowledged by historians to be the 1893 Paris to Rouen. Other place-to-place races...
By Rick Carey | Photos by Mark Coughlin This is by necessity a very personal account, since I arrived late (about 9AM Sunday) and left early (about 3PM to catch...
The Petersen Automotive Museum will celebrate “Dream Cars” from the 1950s with its newest exhibit, “GM’s Marvelous Motorama: Dream Cars From the Joe Bortz Collection,” which will open on March...
On November 6, 1955, Juan Manuel Fangio drove the Maserati Tipo 300s to victory at the Venezuela GP, which started two years of significant accomplishments that pushed the marque’s reputation...
Forty years ago, in 1977 and ’78, Mario Andretti was the man to beat in Grand Prix racing aboard Colin Chapman’s JPS Lotus 78 and 79 Formula One cars. Andretti...
When Tom Sneva took the checkered flag on a sun-drenched May afternoon, in 1983, to win the 67th Indianapolis 500 in his Texaco Star March Cosworth, it marked the culmination...
When last we left Formula 5000 (VR April 2014) Jody Scheckter had just overcome challenger Brian Redman for the 1973 crown, and despite the exit of title sponsor L&M cigarettes...
Quite a few younger folk seek me out and want to hear about how wonderful sports car racing was during the fifties. Without exception, they view those days as halcyon...
The 1950 Mille Miglia Race Results: 1950 Mille Miglia Results / Dates: April 23-24, 1950 / Winner: Marzotto G. – Crosara / Winning Speed: 77.00 mph / Starters: 375 /...
Black Jack and his Brabham biplane are evidence of the aerodynamic wilderness in which the Grand Prix teams found themselves once “The Wing” worked its way into F1’s consciousness.Photo: Chris...
Mercedes have an unparalleled motorsport history. Throughout the years, the German manufacturer has been continuously innovating, testing, and retesting. From the invention of the first modern car, the use of...
The Tasman Cup is long remembered as a time when Australians and New Zealanders flocked to racing circuits to watch overseas names compete with the local stars. While the Cup...
All images by: Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale Some Le Mans 24 Hour Background Do you remember when your favourite band or singer released their latest, long-awaited album? Perhaps it was Bob...
Choosing a name for a new Rolls-Royce motor car is a crucial, highly considered and painstaking process, in which the marque’s unique heritage plays a central part. Of the current...
Motor Racing History – 3.5-litre Naturally-Aspirated Engines, Active Suspension and Electronic Driver Aids 1989 was another McLaren year but this time the championship was won by Alain Prost. With turbos...
Some of you may know the name Ed Iskenderian as one of the high priests of the early days of hot rodding and the birth of the aftermarket speeds parts...
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. I think someone already used that as an opening, but it really does apply to my time in...
The rules were: One lap of Lime Rock, driving backwards from a standing start. You could bring any car, use any tires, sit however you wanted in the car, and...
1902 Paris to Vienna Race By Charles Jarrott CHAMPIGNY looked as it always looked on the morn¬ing of the start of a big race, with thousands of cyclists, touring cars,...
Huffaker Engineering has been more successful, over a longer period of time, and in more forms of motorsport, than any other American racecar manufacturer. Who else has built winning sports...
In June of 2014, Porsche will return to Le Mans with a newly designed LMP1 racing machine. With 16 overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the pinnacle...
No one was exactly thrilled when word reached Maranello, Modena, Arese and points north that the automobile club of an Italian seaside town called Bari was organizing a new Grand...
In March 1964, Automobili Lamborghini was still in its infancy. Established just a few months previously, it had presented its first prototype in October 1963, known as the 350 GTV...
1970 Monaco Grand Prix – The Stuff of Champions By Dennis David The unsuccessful attempt to produce a competitive four-wheel drive car for Formula 1 had finally run its course,...
Alfa Romeo’s place at the heart of motor racing for more than 90 years has not just been down to their official factory participation but, very often, to the enthusiastic...
Photo: Pirelli Eugenio Castellotti was deeply concerned about his best friend and mentor. Four days earlier, Alberto Ascari plunged his Lancia D50 headlong into Monte Carlo harbor at more than...
America’s premier sports car endurance race started at an abandoned WWII Army Air Corps base in Florida. “The 12-Hours of Sebring” is one of the most important racing events in...
This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the race that began as the Daytona Continental in 1962 and evolved into today’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, but not all of those...
A shortish, miserable-looking man with a square moustache strutted into the room, his face non-committal, his uniform vaguely operatic. He had come to see what he had got for his...
Sixty years ago, an American sportsman built his own cars to tackle the world’s greatest endurance race Many in America today see road racing as more a sub-genre of motor...
Targa Florio – The Ultimate Guide The Norman conquest of southern Italy led to the creation of the Kingdom of Sicily, which was subsequently ruled by the Hohenstaufen, the Capetian...
The 1929 Mille Miglia Race Results: 1929 Mille Miglia Results / Dates: April 13-14, 1929 / Winner: Campari – Ramponi / Winning Speed: 56.05 mph / Starters: 83 / Finishers:...
Racing Car New’s Editor Max Stahl chats with Vern Schuppan in the paddock ahead of the 1972 Singapore Grand Prix. “It was lovely and fast-flowing, a wonderful and challenging circuit,...
Maserati is celebrating 50 years of the Bora, their first mid-mounted rear engine road car with four-wheel independent suspension, which was built between 1971 to 1978. No Subscription? You’re missing...
Although it has nearly been forgotten now, in the late 1950s and early 1960s there was a professional road racing series that produced memorable races, fine drivers, and worthy champions....
The 1933 Mille Miglia Race Results: 1933 Mille Miglia Results / Dates: April 8-9, 1933 / Winner: Nuvolari – Compagnoni / Winning Speed: 67.85 mph/ Starters: 85 / Finishers: 52 The...
1968: A Year Like No Other 1968 can be considered as the great year of the 60s: the uprisings in Czechoslovakia against the socialist rules, the increase in intensity and...
By Art Evans The series we now know as Formula One traces its roots back to 1906. Before the term, Formula One, was coined in 1950, essentially the same sequence...
Automobile manufacturers have long used racing as a tool for both exploring new technologies and advancing marketing agendas, and one of the richest of these competition records belongs to Jaguar....
It seems almost unthinkable today, but for decades the only thing between Grand Prix pit workers and destiny was a white line painted on the ground. That was one of...
500 Miglia di Monza – The Race of Two Worlds By Dennis David In 1954, redevelopment of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza included rebuilding the oval portion of the track which...
Scheckter’s Laguna Seca win was his first of four in a row that established a points lead he never relinquished. Photo: Treichler/VR Archive The decade of the 1960s was a historic...
Maserati recently celebrated the 80th anniversary of Luigi “Gigi” Villoresi’s impressive win at the 1939 Targa Florio at the wheel of the Maserati Tipo 6CM. The Milan-born driver achieved victory...
Who invented the motor car, or automobile? There have been several claimants to this title over the years; some justifiable, others hoping for a bit of glory. What is not...
Alfa Romeo had gone from zero to hero and beyond from the 1911 Targa Florio to the 1936 Mille Miglia. Its motor racing exploits were followed by the entire Italian...
The whoosh of a turbine became a familiar sound at the Brickyard during the 1960s, and albeit briefly, in Formula One in the early 1970s. In this, the final installment,...
Story by Louis Galanos | Photos as credited In 1962 I was a junior in high school and living in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, a small anthracite coal mining town, on the...
Images by: Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale and CofGâr, Carmarthenshire County Council Museums and Arts Service Away from the bright lights, and tucked away in West Wales is the village of Pendine,...
After the First World War and into the ’20s, many car manufacturers throughout Europe became involved in Grand Prix racing. They believed that advertising, prestige and development were in...
