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The name ‘Grifo’ is Italian for Griffin, the mythological beast that’s half lion and half eagle. The lion half represents the coat of arms of the Iso company’s founder, Renzo...
1967 Ferrari 330 GT Michelotti Coupe Following footsteps of the 250 GTE, the 330 resided in Ferrari’s family of 2 + 2 cars, that is, the cars with a significant...
William Morrison 1855-1927 No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your account here....
1935 Tripoli Grand Prix – The Victory Report By Rudolf Caracciola We stood by the cars and waited. Music drifting across in snatches from the grandstands was interrupted by the...
As you’ll read in this month’s news, Bloomberg News recently confirmed that a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO has been sold via private transaction for an all-time record $35 million. I’ll...
Ronnie Peterson Biography Ronnie Peterson was born on 1944 in Örebro, Sweden, the son of an avid racer of moderate accomplishments. His father’s love for all things mechanical was inherited by...
A young Art Center College of Design student, named Peter Elbert Brock, became the youngest designer ever hired by Bill Mitchell, the Vice President of Design at General Motors. He...
2009 Concorso Italiano – Gallery 2 Main Article: 2009 Concorso Italiano Held August 13th at Laguna Seca Golf Ranch, Monterey California. Notable cars included the three classic Alfa Romeo BATs and...
Trevor Wilkinson started his engineering business, in 1946, in Beverly Grove, Blackpool. It was named Trevcar Motors and the business was general engineering, work was not always automotive-related. A year...
Can-Am McLaren M8B – The Perfect Race Car Story and Photos by Pete Lyons Arguably McLaren\’s best-ever car, certainly its most successful Can-Am car, the M8B carried Bruce to 6...
Monterey Car Week Event Coverage Sports Car Digest has coverage on a variety of shows during the 2021 Monterey Car Week. Don’t forget to check out our other galleries: Monterey...
The original idea for this “special” feature had been to do a test on Porsche’s famed Moby Dick…the 935/78 long-tail beast from 1978, the company’s first racecar with water-cooled cylinder...
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...
“Among my drivers, Giovanni Bracco was, perhaps, the one who scored the most spectacular success,” Enzo Ferrari once said about the fun-loving, booze-loving winner of the 1952 Mille Miglia. Bracco...
The World’s Most Dangerous Racetracks If you love adrenaline and fast rides, you are probably familiar with Grand Prix races. You can feel the excitement of watching these vehicles generating...
Just how far are you prepared to go for exclusivity? In January, Bentley announced that its famed Mulliner coachbuilding team would now offer interiors trimmed in…slate and quartzite. You read...
I’ve been associated with many great racecars over the years, and for the most part Indycars. I’m particularly proud of the 1970 and ’71 Johnny Lightning cars that Al (Unser)...
Pete Lyons The little Speedster stared out the dealership’s window like a puppy, its big eyes pleading mournfully: Won’t you take me home? No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text...
As a result of my 1967 win in the Kyalami Nine Hours, in South Africa with Jacky Ickx in the JW Automotive Mirage M1, John Wyer signed us to continue...
1964 Cooper T70 For a youthful 26 year old, the lure of winning your own country’s premier motor race in a car of your own design must have been overwhelming....
Magazines are a funny thing. You hold in your hand the August issue, but you’re likely reading it in July and I’m writing this column in May! Go figure. It’s...
By Art Evans | Photos as credited On the morning of April 18, 2012, I received a call that Andy Porterfield had died the night before. I knew he had...
Blisteringly fast, sometimes unforgiving and exclusively blue, the Mark I Ford Focus RS is a sublime analog sports car disguised as a boy-racer-ish hot hatchback. In the two decades since...
Whether you are a fan of Formula One or not, it was hard to not read about the recent Bahrain Grand Prix. Due to the spreading “Arab Spring,” which has...
Motor Racing History – The Monsters F1 Turbo Engines The Turbo Years The war between FISA and FOCA continued into 1981 causing the postponement of the Argentine Grand Prix. Bernie...
Not long after making the ridiculous decision to start this magazine back in 1998, I made a trip over to the UK, to plant our first seeds in Great Britain....
Casey Annis In my experience, most auto enthusiasts tend to live dual lives, we have our automotive life (cars, car-friends, events, etc) and then we tend to have a separate...
I guess genius rather than hero is the correct way to describe Ferdinand Porsche, whose cars mobilized humanity and provided employment for tens of thousands. Let’s settle for heroic genius,...
I always look forward to seeing the monthly “Market Guide” in “Vintage Racecar Journal.” Not that it gives me some idea of my next competition vehicle, but I like to...
Stirling Speaks Rates His Greatest Race – The 1961 Monaco Grand Prix. I am often asked what was my “greatest race,” and that is not an easy question. The Mille...
My first exposure to Formula Ford came as a lot of us began hearing about how neat it was in Britain, and certainly in 1968 I was aware of all...
For the majority of VR’s readers, 2019 has been the 50th anniversary of Formula Ford, although it actually started in England in 1967. The nativity stories vary, but most come...
Summit Point’s main circuit was repaved last fall, which enhances an already wonderful track. The Chute through the Carousel is arguably the most challenging—and misunderstood—segment of Bill Scott’s original (there...
In terms of greatest racecars of all time, clearly, Mercedes had some extremely innovative cars like the one Moss drove in the Mille Miglia [300SLR–Ed]. Then Jim Hall came along...
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...
Every car guy, collector and car designer knows the two major categories that separate car designs—Pre-war and Post-war. Pre-war cars are generally regarded as cars that span from the very...
2010 Concorso Italiano – Gallery 5 Main 2010 Concorso Italiano Coverage In its 25th year, Concorso Italiano had the largest display of the 2010 Monterey Weekend. Two fairways at the Laguna...
Ok, Ok… here’s the pitch. You’ve got this kinda mush-mouthed, body-builder guy who is a washed-up racecar driver, see? We’ll get a big name to play him like Sly Stallone...
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...
“My name is Casey; and I’m a recovering Triumph owner.” Or at least that’s how I’ve felt for a number of years. They say you can’t change where you come...
I bought both a Volkswagen Type 1 and a Morris Minor more than 20 years ago when we started coming to New Zealand to escape the winter months in...
A few days ago, I received an email from the media team at De Tomaso Automobili. I am very skeptical about unsolicited mails but this time, my curiosity got the...
Pete Lyons There is no great genius without a trace of madness,” declared the Roman philosopher Seneca, and can we have any doubt he was looking ahead 1.9 millennia to...
Ex-Scuderia Filipinetti 1968 L-88 Corvette As the only sports car model to be in continuous production for more than 50 years, the Chevrolet Corvette holds a very special place in...
In March, 2019, the Hispano Suiza brand was revived when a new luxury hypercar, the Carmen, was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. The Carmen is the new flag bearer...
We aren’t timeless, but our artifacts can be, and the achievements they represent should live forever. That’s at least some comfort as I mourn the loss of a friend while...
I drove the McLaren F1 with the Alfa Romeo engine. It had the same problem that the Alfa Tipo 33 had…weight. With that car, we could have done well even...
On 12 July 1959, the Maserati Tipo 60 ‘Birdcage’, with the 30-year-old Stirling Moss at the wheel, made its race debut in the Sport category at Rouen. The Tipo 60...
Ladies! Gentlemen! Wow, time really flies, and now we are in the midst of our first taste of winter here in Western Canada. It has certainly been a while since...
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!)?...
Story by Leigh Dorrington The story of the Indianapolis 500 is the story of America in a pivotal century—the beginning of the American Century. A rural nation rushing to embrace...
More Cylinders: Jessie Vincent and the Packard Twin Six engine “The greatest piece of machinery that ever went upon the highways,” proclaimed Henry B. Joy, Packard president in 1915, extoling...
For the 1955 season, Monza was refurbished and the Milan Auto Club considered an oval race. Contact was made with USAC, which had taken over Indy car racing from the...
As old age creeps up, I think of things that are a must for me and perhaps also for readers of this magazine. I assume you are not only an...
Mercedes W125 Car: Mercedes W125 / Engine: 8-Cylinder In-line Supercharged / Maker: Daimler-Benz / Bore X Stroke: 94 mm X 102 mm / Year: 1937 / Capacity: 5,660 cc /...
The Spa Classic 2015 was staged 22-24 May on the 4.352 mile, 20-turn Spa-Francorchamps track in Belgium. All three days of the fifth annual Spa Classic in the valley of...
Starting from its first car in 1947 to this very day, Ferrari has created a near-endless array of genuinely legendary automobiles, more than a few per decade for sure. Still,...
Nearly 70 years ago to the day, on April 10, 1950, the great champion Tazio Nuvolari ended his racing career behind the wheel of a Abarth 204A, the first model...
1984 Lancia LC2 Twenty years ago, when Group C sports car racing was in its heyday, the focus of attention was on the moment. As a result there weren’t many...
When I was young, growing up in Spain was very difficult for lovers of motor racing. The Spanish were then known for bull fighting, football and golf. In the 1960s,...
Derek is the epitome of the driver who should have won the Formula One World Championship, but was just about always with the wrong team at the wrong time. He...
For the 1970 Grand Prix season, and still in my very early 20s, I was again a number two mechanic on Jochen Rindt’s car—he was now the number one driver...
Once, I set out to write the “Great Motor Racing Novel.” There was no firm plot in my mind, but I knew how I wanted it to feel and began...
Tears streamed down a thousand faces in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris on September 9, 1945. Tears for the absent French men and women who had been murdered by...
Mercedes W 25 Car: Mercedes W25 / Engine: 8-Cylinder In-line / Maker: Daimler-Benz / Bore X Stroke: 78 mm X 80 mm / Year: 1934 / Capacity: 3,360 cc /...
Lotus was the star of the 1957 London Motor Show, which was remarkable since prior to that Lotus only made competition cars. Every year, the organizers donated a stand to...
The historic Le Mans 24-Hour racing circuit, made up of country roads with constructed racetrack sections, has always been a “horsepower track.” “Give me an extra 40 horsepower on the...
Horribly Beautiful The story of the Mille Miglia begins in 1921 when the Auto Club di Brescia organized the first Italian Grand Prix. Seeing the success of this race the...
The search for speed has motivated every racer since the dawn of the sport, obsessively driving them to go as fast as possible in pursuit of victory. In those early...
Bob Wollek was a champion many times over before he even got into motor racing. He won no fewer than three gold and two silver medals in the World University...
The 2013 running of the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion was held August 15-18 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, California. A solid entry list of 550 historic automobiles competed...
Corvette didn’t show well at Le Mans this year, which is unusual, and I suppose in time we’ll find out where the speed went. But sometimes falling short can emphasize...
It’s tough being British. The lackluster cuisine and stoic monarchy don’t help. Though they did give us the Beatles, Fish and Chips, and the James Bond franchise. For the most...
The Quest for Aerodynamics One day, after learning that I own four Alfa Romeos, a young man asked me, “Why Alfa Romeo? Why do you like Alfas so much?” Difficult...
I was involved with the E-Type Jaguar right from its inception, initially as an employee under the wing of Lofty England. Following my discharge from National Service in the RAF,...
Teddy Pilette It was almost certain that I would be a racing driver because my grandfather raced, my father raced, I raced, and even my sons are racing. That is...
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...
Some of the greatest racecars, in my opinion, would have to be the Mercedes and Auto Unions of the 1930s. The technology of the cars, and the technical abilities of...
This month one of the most iconic Mustangs to ever hit the road is going up for auction, the 1968 Bullit Ford Mustang GT. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text...
The Porsche 962 and 956 generated an everlasting impression in the world of endurance racing, reigning for over a decade across the globe. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text...
As brought home in living color on your television screen—or sadly perhaps your front room if you live on the Eastern seaboard—Hurricane Sandy unleashed an unprecedented amount of fury and...
Fed up with seeing their major races won by the Germans in the 1930s, the Italians allowed only 1½-liter entries in their 1939 races to eliminate their opposition. They reckoned...
Photo: J. Michael Hemsley When you have the only one ever built, you might have trouble convincing people that it is real. It’s a particular problem when what it looks...
The terms Porsche and racing have now become virtually synonymous. In no small part, this is due to the German manufacturer’s stunning 19 overall victories at the 24 Hours of...
Few motoring experiences can compare to the exhilaration of driving a convertible sports car. The open road before you, the wind invigorating you from all angles as the engine roars...
Take a moment. Think back through the years that you’ve been a fan of supercars, be it as a kid with a Lamborghini Countach or Ferrari 40 poster on your...
That’s some ride from West Lothian, Scotland to winning the great Indianapolis 500 three times, not to mention four IndyCar Series Championships. It’s a ride Dario Franchitti took from 1996...
Time flies when you’re having fun…or trying to make a relentless deadline every month! With all the work that went into last month’s Cooper special issue, it almost slipped by...
There is something inherently magical in naming cars after winds. Take the Pagani Zonda as an example, because we won’t talk about the Passat, the Polo, and the Golf. We’re...
