Opinion
Lots to Say About Cars, Motorsports, History, Design & More
Embarking on an exhilarating journey through the realms of motorsports and automotive wisdom, our esteemed team of editors stands as a testament to the indomitable spirit of seasoned enthusiasts. With a collective reservoir of experience that spans decades, these venerable individuals bring not only a wealth of knowledge but also a hearty dose of humor and strong-willed opinions to the table. Each member of the team is like a fine-tuned engine, navigating the twists and turns of the racing and automotive landscape with a blend of wit, sagacity, and a dash of irreverence. Buckle up for a ride filled with laughter, nostalgia, and the unbridled passion of those who have lived and breathed the essence of motorsports and automotive excellence.
Recent / The Editor / By Design / Fast Lines / First & Last Lap / Legends Speak / Heroes / Fabulous Fifties / The Golden Age
Before the ad offering it for sale was published in February 1982, ALP 598 was mine. “One of the prettiest of all the famous Le Mans cars,” it was called,...
AC Cars, Britain’s oldest active vehicle manufacturer, has unveiled the AC Ace Classic electric at the SEMA 2024 show in Las Vegas with electrified performance technologies partner TREMEC Electric GT....
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...
Unusual marques are often seen at the major Concours d’Elegance, but what is the chance of seeing a little-known marque at a car show established by a local museum in...
Celebrating 55 years of the 1969 European Hill Climb Championship crown, where the Ferrari 212E Montagna finally gave Scuderia Ferrari its first title in this motorsport discipline, Sports Car Digest...
If you had to choose the worst decade of automobile design, it would be hard to surpass the period spanning 1972 – 1982. Rapidly changing regulations, government interventions resulting in...
My wife made an offer on a house in New Zealand while vacationing there with her family a few years ago. She is a realtor, and not an impulsive person,...
Yes, Jaguar made this car and one other D-Type, bright red with matching red seats. One theory is that it was intended to be sold new in Italy, where red...
Editor’s Note: Check out Sean Smith’s review of the Nissan Z Performance in 2023 for an in-depth read. I went back to the Mt. Equinox Hillclimb this year. The drive...
From The Editor
These are not happy times for Aston Martin. The British luxury carmaker is fighting ferociously for its survival in a...
Car design has always been a passion of mine. The idea that you can begin with just a drawing, blend...
Casey Annis (Editor) Today, I’m going to confess two of my most deeply held, darkest secrets: 1) For the past...
Tomorrow is filled with promise. We are already witnessing glimpses of a future where cars will be able to drive...
One of the more interesting developments in the classic car hobby, over the past few years, has been the broader...
I can think of few feelings worse than that moment of instant shock, when you turn the ignition key and...
You may have read the news piece we posted a week ago about Jaguar’s announcement that their Classic division will...
Over the course of the past month, a surge of activism has swirled through the American car collecting community. What...
By Design
If you had to choose the worst decade of automobile design, it would be hard to surpass the period spanning...
When Porsche first unveiled the 911, we lived in steady but gently progressive times. The 1960s was a turning point...
Photo credits courtesy of Fantasy Junction Automotive history offers a bounty of well-made sportscars. Tracing back to the earliest years...
Ferrari has always been a leader in high-performance engineering and design. Although many of their most innovative ideas were often...
Though not well-known in North America for performance cars, Renault has always been a leader in clever engineering, leveraging platforms...
Very few machines are more engaging than an Italian automobile built during the post war era. Literally every Italian manufacturer...
If you had to pick the most challenging era of sports cars development, it would have to be the late...
If you’ve never seen a Lancia Stratos in person, you owe it to yourself to seek one out. The Stratos...
Fast Lines
Pete Lyons F1’s 3-liter formula that began in 1966 was hospitable to American constructors. All three U.S. domestic marques that...
One day during an autowriters’ junket in Europe, we checked into our small country hotel with a good hour to...
Pete Lyons Fair warning: I know very little about my topic, which is Rush, the new movie set in the...
Try throwing your arms around all the richness of racing … too immense to embrace, isn’t it? Racecars, raceways, races,...
Corvette didn’t show well at Le Mans this year, which is unusual, and I suppose in time we’ll find out...
Pete Lyons Fifty years ago, when people communicated on paper delivered by hand, her brother’s letters from far-off England would...
Our reigning World Champion has forced us to think, once again, about sportsmanship in motorsport. Whether or not you monitor...
Photo: Pete Lyons / www.petelyons.com If you have a two-car garage, do you keep two cars in it? That would...
First Turn & Last Lap
This past weekend my younger daughter turned 21 and during a brief lull between morning Mimosas and evening Margaritas, she...
Recently, my family and I had to venture back to Scotland for a funeral, which was sad, but we decided...
The car hobby has many tropes, but one of the more common — and perhaps most accurate — is that...
This past weekend I made the annual pilgrimage to the Long Beach Grand Prix. This year was the event’s 48th...
If you’ve been reading the editorials written by Casey Annis for a long time, you might already know of me....
I was pleasantly surprised to receive so many positive emails supporting my premise last week that the Ferrari 365 GTC/4...
I think I’ve well established, in this space, my bona fides as an old school Ferrari snob. I grew up...
If you’re an automotive enthusiast, and you spent any kind of time in Southern California from 2006 to 2014, then...
Legends Speak
Stirling etc
On May 23, 1945, the British wartime government came to an end and on July 5 voting took place to...
Photo: Chris Mann This was going to be an important year for me. My win at Oulton Park, in Richard...
Jim Crawford would have turned 70 this year. After a brief stint in Formula One with Lotus he rebuilt his...
Our Pepsi Challenger Eagle from 1981 was sort of unique. It didn’t owe anything to Europe, it was developed right...
Growing up as young lad near the metropolitan borough of Wolverhampton, a city in the West Midlands of England, I...
When the sports car scene started to heat up again in ’65-’66, I went to work for Motorsport Design in...
My racing started during the spring of 1962 at the Goodwood racing circuit, I was racing a Lotus Elite. I...
Heroes
Not long before his untimely death a few years ago, our Robert Newman wrote this tribute to his friend and...
Lloyd Ruby hailed from Wichita Falls, Texas, up in the north central part of the state, not far from the...
When he competed in his first Formula One race, Eddie Cheever was even more baby-faced than when I got to...
It was a word-of-mouth, invitation-only affair organized by his lovely wife Susie and a friend without Stirling Moss knowing a...
I have admired Tazio Nuvolari all my life and so has just about every other motor racing enthusiast of my...
Tucked away in a little potato-farming town, 250 miles south east of Buenos Aires, is one of the most important...
Robert KubicaPhoto: Stefan Brending He was a spectacular Formula 1 driver and the first Polish addition to the F1 circus,...
He is literally the fastest man on the planet, and has been since October 15, 1997. That was when Andy...
Fabulous Fifties
In 1953, the Rootes Group in England, which had acquired the Sunbeam Company in 1935, produced a handsome sports car, the...
By 1963, Cobras were doing very well in Sports Car Club of America races. Cars driven by Shelby American drivers...
My column in the October 2006 edition of Vintage Racecar was titled, “Shelby, the Early Years.” For the most part,...
As everyone knows, after the 1960 racing season, Carroll Shelby retired as a driver and became even better known for...
It is well known that some great stock car road racing took place at the Riverside International Raceway. Dan Gurney...
During the fifties, Aston Martin produced sports cars with the designation, DB, which, of course, stands for David Brown. In...
This is a little-known story, but the real father of Riverside Raceway was Jim Peterson. I thought this would be...
One of the most successful relationships in motor sports during the sixties was between Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles. It...
The Golden Age
The Design Concepts of Jean Bugatti As a freethinking engineer and designer, his automobile creations were exceptional, daring to break...
Last month I wrote about the road race that took place in Palm Springs in 1950. It was the first...
Sports car road racing started after WWII on the East Coast during the late forties. The first wheel-to-wheel event was...
The original Trans-Am was part and parcel of one of the things that made the Golden Age golden. Many of...
In 1953, the very first Corvettes hit Chevrolet Dealers’ show rooms. Hailed by some as the long-awaited American sports car,...
After WWII, sports cars became more and more popular. As a consequence, road racing took hold in the U.S. For...
During the years following WWII, road racing in the U.S. initially developed as an amateur sport, mostly run by the...
A number of those among us stood head and shoulder above all others during the Golden Age of Motorsports. Juan...
