Never exactly one to kowtow to convention, Patrick Head. But then great race engineers never are.

It’s written in their DNA to kick against established thinking as they search for ‘the next big thing’, the ‘unfair advantage’ – the clever techie breakthrough that might expose another grey area in the rules and exploit it to the maximum.

For over 30 years, such thinking has been the sole motivating factor in Patrick Head’s professional life at Williams Grand Prix Engineering. His contribution to the sport, from the eras of ground effects to turbos to ‘active ride’ and on into these days of ever more restrictive rules, has been immense.

And as he steps away from the F1 frontline to concentrate on the technologies of the future at Williams’ hybrid power offshoot, we acknowledge that contribution with a special celebration of an incredible career in the March issue of Motor Sport – including a mammoth ‘Lunch with’ interview that breaks our record for length. It’s a glorious monster!

Typically, Patrick breaks a few myths in the issue as he reflects on some of the high points of life at Williams. He’s written, especially for us, the definitive account of the ‘gizmo’-laden masterpiece and game-changer, the FW14B in which Nigel Mansell totally dominated Formula 1 during 1992. In terms of technical excellence, those days are considered a ‘golden era’ when Grand Prix racing broke through new boundaries – to the point where the rule-makers had to drag the designers back and ban their clever systems for the good of the sport. But Patrick rejects the ‘halcyon days’ theory.

“There were more freedoms within the regulations in those days but I would not call it a ‘golden period’ for engineers,” he writes (without frills, as you’d expect).

“I have heard the FW14B described as one of the most technologically advanced racing cars ever built but the technologies we see today are of a very high standard right across the field and things like KERS and DRS are still a strong engineering challenge.”

In other words, the idea that F1 was more advanced 20 years ago than it is today is a fallacy. F1 cars in 2012 are created to a tighter rulebook, but they are vastly more sophisticated than they ever have been. Even to the layman’s eye (in other words, mine!), our new photoshoot of FW14B emphasises just how far F1 cars have come, particularly in terms of packaging and aerodynamics.

But even if the current generation of cars are vastly superior pieces of engineering than those of the early 1990s, what cannot be denied is that they are far uglier. As Pat Symonds predicts in our most recent podcast, the 2012 cars won’t be remembered for their aesthetic qualities – as the first sight of the new Caterham F1 confirms (it’s all to do with new regs lowering the noses, but not the front bulkheads, as Pat explains here).

Back in the issue, Patrick also talks about the drivers he’s worked with over the years, and as I highlight in Matters of Moment, his matter-of-fact verdict on Mansell again challenges convention. Let’s just say his view would not have been shared by the late Peter Warr, whose posthumous autobiography is reviewed this month…

From Williams and the analysis of ‘active ride’, we make a seamless shift (geddit?) on to Lotus and the car where the system was pioneered. Andrew Frankel’s piece on Colin Chapman’s final F1 car, the Type 92, is fascinating and complements Patrick’s article perfectly. Firsthand insight from Peter Wright and Tim Densham tells the story of how Chapman once again found inspiration from an idea that would change everything – in this case long after he had departed…

Elsewhere, Nigel Roebuck talks to Martin Brundle about his controversial move from the BBC to Sky – in his words, like going from Manchester United to Manchester City. If you’ve leapt to conclusions about his decision, take the time to read his side of the story. It’s quite revealing.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this one. Part of me – a big part of me – resents having to pay Rupert Murdoch to watch F1. But I don’t resent having to pay for coverage per se, and I am intrigued by the plans Sky have for a dedicated channel. The BBC has done a great job, but I suspect the ‘evil empire’ is about to come up with a game-changer that is the TV equivalent of active ride…

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

According to that surreal 140-character world that is Twitter (I wrote it off as a waste of cyberspace, but now I’ve signed up I’m hooked), Jenson Button has been sunning himself in Hawaii this winter.

I’m sure he’s been training hard being the masochistic triathlon-loving sort of bloke he is, but I hope he’s enjoyed a break too. It’s been well earned after the incredible (and long) season he’s just driven through.

I wonder what he was up to when news broke that both Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi were facing immediate unemployment following Scuderia Toro Rosso’s decision to drop them for doing little wrong, but not quite enough right? I’d like to think that whether he’d just returned from a run, swim or cycle – or was in fact propping up a bar drinking something colourful with an umbrella sticking out the top – that he’d taken a moment to consider: ‘it so easily could have been me not so long ago’.

Alguersuari and Buemi might well pitch up somewhere else on a Formula 1 grid in the future, but for now there appears to be an oh-so-real chance that Red Bull has spent years grooming these two for stardom, only to chew them up and spit them out before either have got anywhere near their mid-twenties. I feel sorry for them. But not too sorry. As Alguersuari so eloquently put it in his post-sacking statement, there are an awful lot more people worse off in the world right now. Racing is hard, and if you don’t deliver, you’re out. Fact.

Button knows. He could have been cast afloat at the end of his disappointing sophomore season at Benetton when he was just 21 years old. After the bright promise of his rookie season at Williams, he found himself in the ejection seat through no fault of his own because Juan Pablo Montoya had always been earmarked to partner Ralf Schumacher in 2001. Instead, Button was placed at Flavio Briatore’s team – and almost sunk in a car that was both uncompetitive and set up for Giancarlo Fisichella. He was just a ‘playboy’, with just two World Championship points to his name.

It could have ended then, and again at the end of his next season, if he hadn’t made a career-saving deal with David Richards and BAR.

Then, most famously, he was almost out of the game at the end of 2008 when Honda gave up on F1 – and was even briefly linked to a drive at Toro Rosso, until clever old Ross Brawn pulled off the trick of the century and gave him a team and a car good enough to win that most unlikely World Championship. And now look where he is, in his ‘happy place’ at McLaren, as we put it in our 2011 F1 season review issue of Motor Sport. Just incredible.

Perhaps Alguersuari and Buemi should take heart from Button’s example – perhaps not. As we discuss in our review (which went to press before they were sacked), they never convinced anyone at Red Bull that they were ready to step up to the ‘A-team’ alongside champion Vettel – which is exactly why two more youngsters, Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo, have been pitched in to try their luck instead. A convoluted stream of circumstances kept Button in the game, which often had little to do with his level of talent, but the STR rejects might not be so lucky.

As for both Vergne and Ricciardo, they are touted to deliver, but will they? Talent alone won’t see them through.

Our Button interview shows once again how fortunate we are in this era to be watching such a talented bunch of top-liners at the sharp end who have a high degree of respect for one another. Jenson speaks candidly to David Tremayne about his main rivals and what they are like to race against. Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Webber… who, in his opinion, is the toughest opponent? Read the interview to find out.

Beyond the modern F1 stuff, we’re particularly proud of the 50^th anniversary celebration of sports car racing at Daytona in this February issue. Now, we’re careful not to say we’re marking a half-century of the Speedway’s 24-hour enduro, because we can’t, of course. The first Daytona 24 Hours didn’t take place until 1966, but as Gary Watkins explains ahead of his excellent selection of the great races, sports cars were introduced to the Speedway in 1962 with a three-hour race, to justify the use of ‘International’ in the official title of the track. Daytona’s sports car race has never, and will never, be as big a deal as NASCAR’s great 500-miler – but it’s got a special character of its own, and it’s that which we celebrate this month.

Elsewhere, Simon Taylor listens to tales of Cosworth over lunch with Mike Costin; Andrew Frankel tries the all-new Porsche 911 (which is actually called the 991 for some reason); and in Reflections editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck recalls a few choice memories of his old friend Innes Ireland. Now there’s another man whose career swung on rejection at a critical stage of his career.

The difference in Ireland’s case was that he lost his drive just after he’d won a Grand Prix… Fair? It’s never had a place in F1, has it?

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Just over a month ago our team expanded again with the arrival of Zamir Walimohamed, who was tasked with doing a digital version of Motor Sport magazine.

He’s spent the last few weeks converting the entire September issue into the digital format that iPads use and we are extremely happy to announce that it is now available on iTunes absolutely free.

He’s already started work on the February issue (out the day the magazine goes on sale – December 30), but the September issue is our Christmas present to you all to show you what to expect.

The iPad version will be free to all our print subscribers in the future and will not only include all the same great content as the magazine, but also extra photographs and slideshows, videos to enhance features, and links to audio podcasts and the website.  You will also be able buy single digital editions from iTunes.

For now, we hope you enjoy the free version and do please let us know what you think by rating it on iTunes and leaving us a comment. A big ‘well done’ to Zamir from the rest of us on the editorial team.

Download it by clicking here.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

If anyone walks in now, how ever am I going to explain this? That was the question that crept into my mind as I sat facing Johnny Herbert, only too aware of the sterile emptiness that inhabited the stark white hospitality suite. Johnny, three-time Grand Prix winner and much-loved British sports car hero, was bouncing up and down in his plastic chair, screeching and wailing with total abandon, his arms jerking about wildly in front of him. My face had frozen into a fixed, rabbit-in-headlights smile of bewilderment. Was this really happening?

It was. But I’m pleased to report that the 1995 British Grand Prix winner wasn’t going through some personal trauma of a mental meltdown – although had the cleaner who interrupted us a few minutes later walked in mid-frenzy he could have been forgiven for jumping to that conclusion. No, Johnny was just taking himself back to the crazy cacophony that was the cockpit of the Mazda 787B in which he won the Le Mans 24 Hours in the distant past of 1991.

And it was clearly a journey he’d taken before. His impression of the banshee rotary engine squalling its way through the Porsche Curves was uncanny. He’s clearly practiced this more than most of us would ever care to admit…

You’ve got to hear it. I’ve tried to describe it in the January issue of the magazine, alongside Aston Martin racer Sam Hancock’s test-drive of the bright orange and green Mazda. But no matter how hard I tried, words on the page just could not do it justice. So close the windows, lock the door (just to make sure no one walks in and wonders what the hell you’re doing)… and go to the bottom of the page. I guarantee it’ll make you smile.

It’s impossible to be around Johnny and not have fun, as I found during a very special day at Misano recently. We’ve been offered tests of Le Mans winners before, but it’s super-rare to have a chance to sample the most recent car to conquer the 24 Hours – in the same calendar year it won the race. When Audi’s message landed that its stunning stealth-like R18 would be ours for a day, I almost choked on my tea.

So who should we ask to drive it? Johnny’s experience and history – which includes racing Audi’s five-time Le Mans-winning R8 – made him the ideal choice. And as he hadn’t driven a contemporary prototype in anger for seven years, let alone a modern turbodiesel, we reckoned he’d offer an interesting perspective on the evolution of the breed. And so it proved. You can read how he got on in the January issue.

As I write, we are preparing for the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix and at this time of the year we naturally reflect on what we’ve seen in the past months. Our full review of the F1 season will follow in next month’s issue, but for now you might be interested to find out more about the architect of Sebastian Vettel’s stunning success in 2011.

Christian Horner is the man responsible for putting the pieces together at Red Bull Racing, taking the team from the midfield mire to double World Champions in just seven seasons. He was responsible for luring Adrian Newey from McLaren and the steady hand of his leadership deserves huge credit during this super-competitive era.

Simon Taylor met Christian for lunch between the Korean and Indian GPs and discovered, to our delight, that there’s no big secret to his success. Like the best bosses, Horner doesn’t get lost in meaningless management speak. He’s straightforward, grounded – and as Simon found, a true racing man with the sport in his blood.

Nigel Roebuck reflects this month on the blossoming of Vettel during a season in which he has grown into a great champion – and one who has the potential to break every record going in the future. Nigel also takes us back 30 years to the bizarre story of Formula 1 in Las Vegas. At a time when Bernie Ecclestone is once again gambling on the US, with a race that might not happen in Texas next year and another pencilled in for New York a season later, Nigel’s account of a sport trying to shoe-horn itself into a country that doesn’t seem to want or understand it might ring a few bells.

Finally, I can’t sign off without mentioning our brand-new website and the 2012 Motor Sport Hall of Fame. Thanks to the hard work of Ed Foster and the team here at Motor Sport, we have an online site to be proud of. And to kick off a new era, we’re launching a competition to win tickets to our star-studded night.

The third annual Hall of Fame will take place in London on February 16, 2012 and we’re offering five pairs of tickets for you to join us at the Roundhouse. All you have to do is tell us who you think we should be inducting into our exclusive club of motor sport greats this time around. Please click here to find out more.

Enjoy the issue and please do take the time to explore the website. I’d love to know what you think of it.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Of all the months we should ask Sir Jackie Stewart to be guest editor, it was fitting that it was this one. Three World Championships and nearly a one-in-three win rate from his 99 Grand Prix starts is impressive enough, but it is his pioneering work in the name of safety that makes Sir Jackie equally as proud of his career in motor sport. And safety was a subject on all our minds as we put the finishing touches to the December issue of the magazine – complete with the odd touch of Stewart tartan here and there.

Most of our work was complete when news of Dan Wheldon’s death filtered through from Las Vegas. Jackie had already penned his editorial for the issue in which he’d been keen to use his opportunity in the Motor Sport chair to say something with meaning and resonance. When he joined us in the office for an afternoon during September, we’d discussed what he wanted to say and as usual, he made some interesting points about modern racing drivers – some of which you might already have heard on the podcast we recorded that afternoon.

Jackie had just returned from Singapore at the time, where he’d witnessed another difficult weekend for Lewis Hamilton, and so we discussed the approach of Formula 1 drivers to one of his favourite subjects: ‘mind management’. As you can read further in the issue, our guest editor believes motor racing could learn a few lessons from other sports such as golf, where players benefit from the experience of personal coaches to help them perform.

“Racing drivers seem to be so clever that they don’t need that kind of help,” says Sir Jackie. “They are totally wrong. There is no point in saying, ‘I’m alone in my car – how can anyone else influence the way I drive?’. That is presumptuous and simply wrong. Drivers employ managers to assist them in their commercial dealings, so why should they not, from time to time, be in need of counsel with regard to their performance in the cockpit.”

As he says, the attitude that drivers somehow don’t need this sort of help is outdated, and it was a point I heard Red Bull team principal Christian Horner touch upon when talking to a bunch of young drivers at the BRDC club house recently. As professional sportsman, why shouldn’t racing drivers employ full-time coaches? It’s not exactly a new idea – Rob Wilson is one respected driver coach that springs to mind – but even the best F1 aces would benefit from a confidante who could give them another perspective on what is, after all, the most important part of their jobs.

Within his editorial, Sir Jackie writes about how motor racing can never be totally safe, and that rather than wrap the sport in cotton wool his motivation had always been to simply eliminate all “unnecessary risk” from the sport he loves. Those words took on greater relevance after Las Vegas, in the wake of an Indycar race that stepped beyond the boundaries of acceptable safety standards in 2011.

Since we closed for press, poor Marco Simoncelli has also lost his life, live on television, in a similarly horrible MotoGP accident. From both deaths, lessons will be learned as they always are, but the true impact on the sport is still only beginning to sink in.

As Sir Jackie said to us, the impact of death in motor sport is somehow greater today than it used to be in the years when it was all too common. Not that life had any less meaning in past decades, but its loss was so regular in racing it was almost accepted by those who took part in, and organised, events. That attitude changed during and directly after Stewart’s career in the cockpit, and the result is that today modern drivers and riders don’t often have to deal with death. Thus when it happens it hits them – and us – all the harder.

Elsewhere in the issue, Sir Jackie deals with the happier aspects of our sport: the friendships he built during his career in racing and the relationships that most influenced his sporting life. The details of his career are so well documented and known, we thought long and hard about what Sir Jackie could offer as guest editor, and between us we thought his perspective on those around him rather than repeating his own achievements would be much more worthwhile.

Editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck talks to Sir Jackie about Ken Tyrrell, the man with whom he built such an effective partnership that went far beyond the limits of team boss and driver. Sir Jackie also has some fun with a bit of fantasy inspired by a bit of ‘Desert Island Discs’ thinking: if he could choose any guests to invite to a dinner party, friends or heroes, alive or dead, who would he sit around a table? His choice reflects Sir Jackie’s wide experience of life and is far from limited to those he most admired in motor racing, and he had fun putting his list together. Jim Clark sitting between Peter Ustinov and David Niven… just imagine what they’d talk about.

We also took the opportunity to ask Sir Jackie for his thoughts on the best drivers of 2011 (no great surprises on who he picked for this one) and also those he thinks make up the top five drivers in history. Like most of us, JYS doesn’t believe in ranking drivers from different eras – it’s impossible to compare like for like – but his shortlist is significant for whom it doesn’t include as much as who is on it. Let’s just say his choice isn’t influenced by mere statistics and iconic reputations.

Elsewhere in the issue, Simon Taylor travels to Austria to meet Hans Stuck for lunch. We knew the 60-year-old would be full of stories from his long career in F1, saloon and sports car racing – and so it proved.

We also take a closer look at the revolutionary Delta Wing racer that used to be an Indycar and is now a Le Mans sports prototype… and take an emotional road trip to remember Richard Burns, who became England’s first and only World Rally Champion 10 years ago this month.

At times, it was a challenge putting this issue together, but for varying reasons it’s one none of us will easily forget. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

For our November issue we included a supplement by Nigel Roebuck on the Formula 1 World Champions. It was only available to UK readers, however, so that no one misses out it is available to download here.

Click here to download the supplement.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Ideas for Motor Sport stories can spring from anywhere, and in my experience the best ones often come when you least expect them, totally out of the blue. Or in the case of the November issue, I should say totally out of the pink! Allow me to explain.

I was reading a great book earlier this year about the Le Mans 24 Hours in the 1970s. The task was officially work because I was planning to review it for the magazine, but as work goes it was hardly a chore. Delving into one of my favourite subjects, guided by the words of Quentin Spurring – one of the finest racing journalists and editors there has ever been – was somewhat more appealing than the pile of mind-numbing paperwork I was doing my best to ignore.

I’d got to the chapter on 1971, exactly 40 years ago, of course, and the final Le Mans in which Porsche’s glorious 917 would rule – before the pesky regulators pulled the rug and abruptly ended a fantastic era of sports car racing. I turned the page and there it was: the ‘Pink Pig’. I smiled. What a beautifully ugly racing car, and what a livery, I thought. That would look great on the cover of Motor Sport…

Imagine the same thing happening today: a manufacturer commissions a specialist aerodynamics company to refine its already pace-setting prototype. The result, no matter how potent, is so reviled by the team sponsor it refuses to allow its colours anywhere near the car. So the cheeky engineers and mechanics come up with their own porcine-inspired paint job, literally butchering the design in the process…

The ‘joke’ goes all the way to the world’s greatest motor race, and not only that, the car even proves to be competitive. Add to that an unresolved 40-year argument about what caused it to crash out during the night and you have the bare bones of a great cameo story revolving around one of the greatest racing cars we’ve ever seen.

Duly inspired (thanks Q), I contacted the ever-helpful people at the Porsche museum in Stuttgart and organised a photo shoot. Photographer Matt Howell and art editor Damon Cogman took on the enviable mission to capture Porsche’s porkiest ‘Porker’, while Rob Widdows tackled the words. The man who crashed the Pink Pig was one Reinhold Joest, who would of course enjoy greater success as a team owner in later years. Rob caught up with him at the Silverstone 1000Kms and briefly diverted him from Audi’s 2011 campaign to track back to his days when he was ‘in the pink’ (or to be more accurate, salmon – as Matt and Damon would discover, the car isn’t even truly the colour it’s supposed to be!).

Racing cameos are so often more fascinating than the A-list stories, and we have two more in the November issue. Andrew Frankel has increased his already-impressive roster of significant racing cars he has driven by two this month. I know, I’m jealous too. After Can-Am McLarens and Lolas last month, it’s Porsche Grand Prix cars and 1980s Le Mans ‘street’ cars this time. His dual tales of unfulfilled promise are the perfect side dish to the ‘Pink Pig’ main course.

Porsche history was in mind, too, when I asked veteran journalist Mike Cotton to revisit the life and career of Jo Siffert, a man he knew well. The Swiss master of the 917 died 40 years ago this month in an inconsequential non-championship F1 race at Brands Hatch – and ‘Seppi’s’ story is yet another reminder of how one aspect of motor racing has definitely changed for the better these past four decades.

Tragedy also shades our story from 50 years ago, as we revisit the year of the ‘Sharknose’ Ferraris and Wolfgang von Trips, the man who should have been Germany’s first World Champion – long before Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. Opportunities to hear from first-hand sources from so long ago don’t come up every day, and when Anthony Pritchard approached me to say he could interview Ferrari’s great sporting director Romolo Tavoni I didn’t need much convincing. Tavoni’s memories of Ferrari’s dominant season, its tragic finale and his own traumatic exit from the team are as sharp now as they ever were. It’s a fascinating insight into life at Ferrari under the Old Man.

And what of Nigel Roebuck this month? Well, as usual his eight-page Reflections column is essential reading as he ruminates on Spa and Monza, both in F1 today and way back when. But there is something extra special for UK readers and subscribers this month: a free supplement written by Nigel about all 32 F1 World Champions.

From Farina to Vettel, our supplement offers a fascinating snapshot of each champion since 1950 – and because it’s written by our eminent editor-in-chief their achievements are put into perfect perspective.

Vettel is nearing another career landmark, joining the ranks of the back-to-back champions alongside Ascari, Fangio, Brabham, Prost, Senna, Schumacher, Häkkinen and Alonso. In the wake of the Singapore GP, he needs just a single point to add that second title – all at the tender age of 24. We’re beginning to wonder: if we reproduce this supplement in 10 years’ time, how many titles will Sebastian have against his name?

We always thought (and hoped) Schumacher’s record of seven would stand forever. At Vettel’s current rate, that opinion might need some revision.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

It was just after midnight on a Saturday back in June when art editor Damon Cogman and I stood up on the steep hill that looks down on Steilstrecke, the right-hander that precedes the short blast into the famous Karussel hairpin. We were panting a little, having pushed our bikes up the grassy slope, but as we took a breather and turned to look down on the track, we knew the effort had been worth it. The magnificence of the Nordschleife, at night, during the madcap annual 24 Hours, is something to behold.

Memories of that night – complete with the fireworks, the higgledy-piggledy campsites, the heady aroma of beer and barbecues, the drunken Germans in various states of dishevelment – will always stick with me. And they came flooding back once again when we chose the cover shot for the October issue, taken 40-odd years earlier from exactly the same place on that hillside. Out here, away from the modern Grand Prix circuit, the Nürburgring hasn’t changed at all.

The trip to the 24 Hours was intended to offer some inspiration for this latest issue of the magazine. Well, that was the excuse anyway. In reality, you don’t need to go there to feel the spirit of the place. The glorious photographs from the archives and the heroic – and often mentally unhinged – stories the circuit has thrown up over the years catch the imagination every time. With the help of Vic Elford, who gives us his guide to the great track, we hope we’ve tapped into that magic in the October issue.

Fittingly, given that some of his greatest days behind the wheel came at the ’Ring, Jacky Ickx joins Simon Taylor for lunch this month. Simon has been chasing Jacky to add to his roster of interviews for years. Each time he spoke to Jacky, the urbane Belgian would always reply politely that he’d be delighted to meet Simon for lunch – but tying him down to a date and place proved challenging.

Fortunately, Simon is persistent! Eventually, Jacky invited him to his wonderful home for a lunch cooked by his wife. We always knew this one would be worth the wait, and so it has proved.

Other highlights of the issue include a fantastic McLaren M1B vs Lola T70 Spyder track test, a revealing interview with Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon and Nigel Roebuck’s insightful view of the Sky/BBC deal for Formula 1 TV coverage in 2012.

Looking ahead, we’re delighted to reveal details of our next reader evening. Following our highly enjoyable viewing of the Senna film in the company of Jo Ramirez earlier in the year, this time we’re delving into the sports car world – and for me, this one is extra special.

Truth in 24 is a fly-on-the-wall documentary following Audi’s successful attempt to win the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2008, in the face of a strong challenge from Peugeot. The film, which was never commercially released in the UK, is obviously a few years old now, but Nigel Roebuck and I only saw it for the first time earlier this year. We were both blown away by the film.

As an insight into life within a modern racing team, I’ve never seen anything as good as this. It shows the oh-so-human side of the Audi racing machine that is usually hidden from view behind the sheen of perfection they like to project. Personally, I think it’s at least a match for Senna as a must-see racing film.

Readers will watch the documentary in the company of Audi’s star drivers Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish, plus race engineers Howden ‘H’ Haynes and Leena Gade. ‘H’ ran Tom, Allan and Dindo Capello’s car to victory in that ’08 race and steals the show in Truth in 24, as we follow his story from the pitwall (I won’t give any more away here…). Leena was ‘H’’s number two back in ’08, but has stepped up since then and engineered the winning R18 in this year’s 24 Hours at La Sarthe.

The quartet will join Nigel Roebuck and I after the film for what promises to be an entertaining forum, as we discuss all things Le Mans and gain further insight into what it’s like to live and race within the crack Audi team. We will, of course, open up the discussion to the floor to take any questions the audience might want to ask.

The event takes place on Saturday October 8 at the stunning Audi quattro rooms, just off the A4 in London. Tickets cost £145, although there is a special price for subscribers of £125 – that’s a 14 per cent discount.

To book, call the office on 020 7349 8472 or e-mail at readersevents@motorsportmagazine.co.uk. If you are not a subscriber, you will be eligible for the special price if you take out a subscription when you book tickets.

The readers’ evening, run in association with Audi UK, will offer a golden opportunity to meet two legends of sports car racing in a fabulous setting. It should be a great evening.

A week earlier, on Saturday October 1, you can also join us at Brooklands for the Bill Boddy Tribute Day. The event, organised by former deputy editor Clive Richardson and the Brooklands Museum, will bring together a collection of cars associated with WB’s life and career, plus some special guests, too. What better place to honour our late founder editor? For a discounted admission price for magazine readers, e-mail info@motorsportmagazine.co.uk

I hope to see you at either – or even both – events.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

As months go, this was one we’ll never forget. The pages were flowing and the deadline was looming as usual when we heard Bill Boddy had died. We’d had some warning that the sad day was coming, but still it shook us all. WB, our founder editor, was 98 years old. As someone said, that’s a lot of laps and it was a more than a decent stint. But he was so vital to this magazine for so long, and to the whole automotive world for that matter, that his passing was always going to hit us hard, no matter how old he might be.

Bill had already filed his stories for the September issue, which goes on sale this week, and we thought it fitting to run them as usual. Elsewhere, we cleared some space and deputy editor Gordon Cruickshank set to work polishing the obituary he always knew we’d have to publish one day.

For Gordon, this was a busy and difficult time. Thankfully, he’d already finished his fabulous cover story on taking a factory semi-Lightweight Jaguar E-type and Stirling Moss’s famous Ferrari 250SWB to the Scottish highlands, for the (significant) pleasure of modern Jaguar design guru Ian Callum. Now he prepared to pay his respects to WB, the man he had worked for and with for 30 years. As we passed The Bod’s final pages, we both paused for a moment. It felt odd that we’d never be doing this again.

You might have read obituaries in the UK’s broadsheet papers, but if you’ve read Motor Sport for some time and the WB initials mean anything to you, please do take the time to read our tribute. Gordon, you’ve done him proud.

The cover story took a lot of organising and there was a collective sigh of relief when it all came together so beautifully. The idea sprung from our old 20 Questions road car column, which ran last year. Ian Callum had been quizzed, and when asked what would be his dream drive, he replied 250SWB on the fantastic roads surrounding Ullapool.

A few weeks later, Gordon received a message from his friend Clive Beecham who happens to own the 250SWB – the Rob Walker Moss car that Stirling twirled so effectively around Goodwood and such during 1961. Clive said to Gordon, “if Ian would like to do it, he can”. It was an offer Ian was not about to turn down – even if our scheduling meant a clash with the launch of his new Jaguar C-X75 supercar, itself a significant day in the history of his beloved employer.

In this E-type 50th anniversary year, we knew this was the perfect opportunity to get a Lightweight involved. Comparing the two standout GT cars of this – and any other – generation just seemed obvious. Oh, and I guess I don’t really need to tell you this, but Ian had a ball…

Fortunately for Gordon, he didn’t have to write everything in the issue. Our regular team also pitched in with some great stories. Editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck reflects on a great British GP and the Indy 500 celebrations at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and also discusses modern F1 with a typically forthright Niki Lauda; Andrew Frankel delivers an exclusive track test in the super-rare and very special Mercedes-Benz W165 Silver Arrow (see below); and Simon Taylor meets saloon and sports car ace John Fitzpatrick for lunch. I remember squelching around a sopping Brands Hatch in 1983 watching him win the 1000Kms in his J David Porsche 956, sharing with Derek Warwick. It was the last big win of an amazing career, and when he met Simon the stories flowed thick and fast.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fitz caps a special issue of Motor Sport. But it’s WB who, for me, has made it one that will always be a landmark. An era is at an end.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

A memorial service for Bill Boddy was held on Friday July 15 at St Andrews Church, Presteigne. The service took place at 2pm, afterwhich the congregation gathered at the Radnorshire Arms at 3pm to enjoy sandwiches and chocolate cake (WB’s favourites). The family have requested no flowers, preferring the alternative of donations to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Motor Sport is deeply saddened to announce the death at the age 98 of Bill Boddy, the mainstay of the magazine throughout most of its existence. Universally known as WB, Boddy was officially the Editor of Motor Sport for an astonishing 55 years, from 1936 to 1991, during which time he made the title an opinionated and highly influential voice in the worlds of racing and motoring. Remarkably, he continued to write for the magazine every single month since, dictating his last column only days before his death.

But his significance extended much further than one publication. He was also arguably the single most important figure in the vintage and classic car movement, using Motor Sport to promote interest in old cars at a time when few were interested. He became a human encyclopaedia on Brooklands, the world’s first race circuit, and apart from writing the definitive history he founded the Brooklands Society which saved the derelict track. A stalwart of vintage and veteran racing – he went on 39 Brighton Runs – he also supported low-cost racing during the 1950s by helping to found the 750MC and promoting the 500cc racing movement which later led to Britain’s domination of the racing scene.

WB’s frank and fearless road tests became the industry benchmark, and by recruiting ‘Jenks’ (the forthright Denis Jenkinson) to the magazine as Grand Prix correspondent he created a pairing which genuinely was, as our masthead proclaimed, “the authoritative voice of the sport”. Boddy used this power to campaign actively on many topics, notably against the introduction of the 70mph speed limit. With a string of books on cars and racing, WB’s deep knowledge was well known and he made countless appearances on radio and TV. In 1997 he received an MBE for services to journalism.

There has probably never been such a long working career in any field: Boddy’s first article was in Motor Sport in 1930, an amazing 81 years ago. WB saw both Nuvolari and Vettel race, knew Caracciola, Hawthorn and Clark, and tested Austin Sevens when they were brand-new. He turned Motor Sport from a tiny specialist title into a major player with great influence in the motoring world, and its continued existence is his legacy.

A full appreciation will appear in the September issue. Following a private cremation, there will be a memorial service for all those who wish to pay their respects. Details at the top.

By Gordon Cruickshank

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

They dish out the same number of points for every race on the calendar. But for the drivers some races are more important than others. A win at Monaco, Monza – or Silverstone: they’ll always mean more than a victory in Shanghai, Istanbul – or Valencia.

Sebastian Vettel dominated the European Grand Prix on the anodyne Spanish port circuit last weekend, and he had every right to take great satisfaction from the win. It was another consummate performance by this wonderfully gifted young man. But ask him in 10 years time to recall the days that stand out and I doubt this will be one of them. The same sort of unchallenged victory would mean something at Monaco. But here? It’s just another haul of 25 points.

The next GP will be different, and not just for Vettel. Sebastian has won at Silverstone before, of course. In 2009 he scored the third GP victory of his career at the old airfield track, becoming the youngest ever winner of a British Grand Prix. He knows how sweet it feels to win at a place with real history (despite being almost unrecognisable from how it used to be). Lewis Hamilton understands. So does Mark Webber. Jenson Button? Well, he’s desperate to join that elite club. The British GP is worth more than 25 points.

Jingoism on our part? I don’t think so. We like to think that Motor Sport has a broad outlook and doesn’t stoop to national bias. But at the same time we’re proud to be a British magazine and it’s only natural that our home GP should hold a special place in our psyche for us.

It’s that dear familiarity and shared experience of Silverstone, Brands Hatch and even Aintree (at least for the older contributors!) that inspired our A-Z of the British GP, the cover story of the August issue that is on sale now.

It was fun putting it together, and for those of you who never miss a British GP (and I know there are many), we hope the alphabetic guide will ring a few bells. Essentially, it’s a celebration of everything we love (and perhaps less than love…) about being a motor racing fan.

Perhaps you might have your own suggestions of British GP staples. To give you a taster, the entry we came up with for K is Keke’s lap. R is for Red Arrows. U is for Useless PA systems – and so on. Fancy getting into the spirit ahead of this year’s race? We look forward to reading your suggestions.

And for those of you who count another GP as ‘home’, we hope the A-Z will offer a few universal home truths about the experience of fans whatever part of the world you live in. We’d love to hear what you associate with your own GP, whether it be Interlagos, Monza, Melbourne, Montréal…

Elsewhere in the August issue, we continue the British GP theme by asking three past winners of the race – Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and John Watson – to give their verdicts on the F1 season so far, and what to expect at Silverstone and beyond. Three guesses whom they expect to win on July 10…

As usual, it’s not all modern F1 in Motor Sport. We head back 25 years to recall Henri Toivonen, rallying’s greatest cult hero. He and co-driver Sergio Cresto perished in a terrible accident in Corsica back in 1986 that not only robbed us of a gigantic talent, but also spelt the end of the wonderful – but deadly – Group B monsters. Anthony Peacock returns to Corsica to visit a corner of the beautiful island that will be forever Finnish.

As well as all that Eoin Young completes his story about his first season trekking round the European racing scene 50 years ago; Simon Taylor lunches with former BRM team manager Tim Parnell who gives his unique insight into the racing world of the 1950s through to the ’70s; and Mat Oxley hits the road on Norton’s retro café racer, our first motorcycle test of 2011.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Do you remember where you were the day Ayrton Senna died? I bet you do. For motor racing fans, May 1 1994 is a ‘JFK moment’. Older readers vividly recall where they were on April 7 1968 and how they heard Jimmy Clark was gone. For younger generations, Senna’s death reverberated to the same shattering degree.

That May Day, I’d returned home from university for a family function. We had to leave the house during the race, but I knew there’d be time to watch the opening laps from Imola before I’d be dragged away.

In the wake of Roland Ratzenberger’s death the day before, not to mention Rubens Barrichello’s lucky escape on Friday, the tension of that weekend transported itself over the airwaves. You didn’t have to be in Imola to sense the unease felt by everyone in the Formula 1 world.

Images of the startline shunt, when Pedro Lamy’s Lotus slammed into the back of JJ Lehto’s stalled Benetton, remain vivid. It was immediately clear that spectators must have been hurt as debris landed in the grandstand. The weekend was turning into F1’s worst nightmare, but none of us could have guessed at the seismic shock that was to come.

The laps under the safety car, the aggressive attitude of Senna’s Williams as he tore away at the restart – and then the moment he hit the wall. I’d sat in the same living room five years earlier when Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari burst into flames at Tamburello, and apart from some burns to his hands, he’d been all right. Senna would be too – wouldn’t he?

The shots from the chopper hovering over the wreck live with all of us who love this sport. ‘Damn, a third win on the bounce for that bloody Schumacher’ – that was my first thought. Senna would really have his work cut out to claw back the championship now. And then the moment of realisation, as the camera panned in on the yellow helmet slumped in the cockpit.

Thankfully, the BBC cut away from the scene – and I had to cut away from the TV to join my family function. But I couldn’t really focus on anything on that sunny afternoon. From those helicopter images, I feared the worst. So this is what it was like to be a racing fan in the 1960s and ’70s…

I heard the news from Radio 5 Live later that evening. This was strange. Of course, apart from getting his autograph when I was 10 and watching him among the masses at various British GPs, I’d never had any personal contact with this man. So what right did I have to be experiencing symptoms of grief? On my return to uni the next day, I found my friends treated with me kid gloves for a while. I wasn’t even what you’d describe as a Senna fan – but the manner of his loss, and that of Ratzenberger too, shook those of us not old enough to remember the days of Clark, Rindt, Cevert, Williamson – and so on…

Today, Senna is far from forgotten. His legacy still looms large over Formula 1, which is why the release of the new Senna movie is such a major event. It helps that the film also happens to be breathtaking.

As Adam Cooper describes in his ‘making of’ story in the August issue of Motor Sport, the movie is so much more than the sort of TV documentary that pops up on BBC2 from time to time. Senna, which is released in the UK on June 3, is a stunning cinematic experience and I’d urge you to catch it on a big screen rather than wait for the DVD.

As Nigel Roebuck describes in our issue, those lucky enough to gain first-hand experience of the man discovered a character so much more complex than any film could hope to show. It does not – and cannot – tell the whole story, and Alain Prost fans might feel it is unfair. Yes, it is solely made up of fabulous archive footage, much of it never seen before – but this isn’t supposed to be a documentary, retelling history to the letter. It is a pure movie, and it’s a monumental achievement.

David Coulthard had the daunting task of taking Senna’s place at Williams. He meets Simon Taylor for lunch in the August issue and describes the experiences of 1994 from his unique perspective. In his early days in F1, Coulthard earned a reputation for being something of a PR robot in interviews. It was always an unfair tag. Coulthard took his job seriously and was the professional archetype, but he was – as he remains – frank, honest and very funny. And there were moments in his career of extreme bravery, too: surviving an air crash on a Tuesday and finishing second in the Spanish Grand Prix the following Sunday will always be my personal stand-out memory of his long career. His poise and stoicism that weekend was deeply remarkable.

Elsewhere in the issue, Eoin Young changes the pace with his entertaining diary tales of his first season in Europe, lived through 50 years ago this summer, and we’re particularly delighted to print some rare colour photographs of Le Mans in 1959 and ’60. They took our breath away when we first saw them. I hope they’ll have the same impact on you.

Enjoy the issue.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Le Mans 24 Hours

Andy Wallace and James Weaver were special guests at a media dinner hosted by Audi in the splendid surroundings of Goodwood House during April. Fine British sports car aces both, but I wondered to myself: what’s their link to Vorsprung durch Technik?

Then it dawned on me. Ah yes, they were on the driving strength when Audi first took the Le Mans plunge 12 long years ago.

Their chapter at the very beginning of the manufacturer’s remarkable endurance racing story was short and unsuccessful, but Audi is at pains to stress that they haven’t been forgotten. They are still ‘part of the family’ apparently, despite their one and only appearances as four-ringed factory drivers back in 1999.

The link to today, of course, is that Wallace and Weaver – great mates who enjoyed many years of sports car success together in the US – drove the only closed-cockpit Le Mans prototype built by Audi until this year’s all-new R18 which will take on La Sarthe on June 11/12.

How things have changed. In ’99 Audi was so raw at this enduro game that it built two different cars to hedge its bets. The R8R open car would ultimately set the agenda that led directly to the all-conquering R8. But the neat R8C coupé, financed by Audi UK and run by the British-based Richard Lloyd Racing, lacked “about six months of development” according to Wallace. It was produced so late, it’s potential was never close to being tapped at Le Mans, and as the R8R scored a surprise podium as more fancied rivals fell by the wayside, so the closed-concept racer became a development cul-de-sac in Ingolstadt.

Until now. After nine victories, three of which were achieved with groundbreaking turbodiesel power, dramatic rule revisions have forced Audi back down the coupé route. As we discuss in the June issue of Motor Sport, the exciting and striking R18 has been tasked with blasting the company into a new era, in the race Audi counts before all others.

In our preview we tell the inside story behind the stealth-like car, and also delve into the theory behind its two manufacturer rivals in the top prototype class.

Peugeot also has a brand new car, even if it carries the same name as its predecessor and to the untrained eye looks very similar. As for Aston Martin, well, it has chosen a very different path to achieve its aim of winning the race overall for the first time since 1959. Open cockpit, dramatic aerodynamics, a 2-litre straight-six petrol engine… Once again, Le Mans rules have thrown up technical variety and innovation like no other major race on earth – in the modern era.

Since we closed for press on our Le Mans preview issue, the cars have shown their hands at the Le Mans test day, and it’s with some relief that I can say our analysis of where they should stand has so far been borne out!

The R18 set the pace, but lap time has indeed been increased as intended by the new rules, closer to the ACO’s magic mark of 3m 30sec (Tom Kristensen’s benchmark during the test was 3m 27.867sec); the fastest 908 was only two tenths shy of the fastest time, indicating our hopes for a ‘classic’ come June are not in vain; and as we feared, Aston Martin has a mountain to climb. The British cars managed only 12 laps all day.

I guess we must remember that this is only the beginning of what is intended to be a multi-year campaign for the Prodrive-run squad. We have to be patient.

As ever, we’re pumped up about Le Mans, as you’ll gather when you read the issue. But also as ever, our new issue is far from one-dimensional.

Highlights include a lovely story by Nigel Roebuck, who turns the clock back 40 years to recount how he first became a Formula 1 journalist. No Castle Combe clubbies for our editor-in-chief. Oh no. His first race as a working reporter was the 1971 Spanish GP at Montjuich Park!

Nigel also gets his teeth into the current state of Grand Prix racing, explaining in Reflections why his enthusiasm for what was undoubtedly an exciting Chinese GP is well under control. As we’ve seen from the comments on our website, many of you – but not all – will carry some sympathy with his sentiments about the ‘gimmicky’ nature of the entertainment on offer in F1 2011.

Other highlights of the June issue include a wonderful profile of Elio de Angelis, the cultured Italian who died in a senseless testing accident 25 years ago. Mike Doodson, who knew Elio well, has done a fine job of revisiting his career – with the help of his loyal mechanic, one Nigel Stepney. Remember him?

I cannot sign off this month without looking ahead to the July issue and an exciting reader evening that I’m sure many of you won’t want to miss. Next month we’ll be reviewing a new cinematic documentary that is released in the UK on June 3. Senna is probably the most anticipated big-screen motor racing film since Steve McQueen’s Le Mans (no, I haven’t forgotten about Bobby Deerfield…). Having already seen Senna, I’d say for good reason.

To mark the release, we have organised an evening in London during which you can see the film, in company with the writer and producer Mannish Pandey, our own Nigel Roebuck and Rob Widdows – and Senna’s close friend from his McLaren days, the incomparable Jo Ramirez. After the film, Rob will host a forum in which you will have a chance to question Mannish and Jo about the making of the movie, and of course the great man himself.

For any Senna fan, it will be a night not to be missed. To find out more about the evening click here or contact us on readersevents@motorsportmagazine.co.uk. Alternatively you can call +44 (0)20 7349 8472.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

When Dario Franchitti first went to the Indianapolis 500, he tried to approach it like any other motor race. But as he admits during his lunch interview with Simon Taylor in the May issue of Motor Sport, he couldn’t help being affected by ‘The Brickyard’. The size and scale of the place, the buzz surrounding the town through the month of May, how much it mattered to everyone around him: he knew this was special, and for a driver with a rare passion for racing history and an obsession with Jim Clark, Dario couldn’t avoid the magical draw of America’s greatest race.

That it remains in 2011, despite the scars of the split that almost destroyed the sport of Indycars. The ‘500’ was the glue that kept single-seater oval racing intact in an era dominated by NASCAR. The race – the event – was quite simply too big to go down.

This May Indianapolis will celebrate the 100th anniversary of a yearly occasion that fired a nondescript Midwestern city into the consciousness of any true sports fan anywhere in the world. It is a landmark that we at Motor Sport felt compelled to celebrate – which is why we have dedicated a sizeable chunk of the May issue to the wonderful history of the race.

So why should a British magazine get so excited about an event in which 33 drivers only turn left around a four-corner rectangle for 500 miles? Read Robin Miller’s article on his own personal relationship with the Speedway to find out. The determination, strength and humour of the racing spirit is the oxygen that gives life to our magazine, and Robin’s piece is high on it! At the Speedway, it’s so strong you can taste it, as John Cooper, Colin Chapman, Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell, Dan Wheldon, Franchitti and many others from ‘over here’ found out when they travelled ‘over there’.

Britain’s relationship with the 500 has ebbed and flowed over the century, but it’s always existed. Take the Speedway’s great historian Donald Davidson: you wouldn’t know it speaking to him now, but he’s a Brit. But on his first visit to the Speedway in 1964, he knew he’d found his true home. As the locals found out, no one has more understanding and knowledge of the race, and he was the obvious choice to put a 100 years of racing history into context.

Now, that sounds like the subject of a doorstop-sized book, so how could we distil it into a magazine article? Donald thought long and hard. What he came up with – the greatest, most dramatic finishes in the 500’s history – does so beautifully. Even if you’re an Indy doubter, I’d urge you to read it.

The British theme continues via Ian Wagstaff, who has written a recent book on the subject. We’ve steered clear of the rear-engined revolution of the 1960s because so much has already been said, as any regular reader of Motor Sport will know. No, too obvious for us! So Ian tells the story of the second British invasion of Indianapolis that in its own way changed the shape of the race as much as the pioneering years of the mid-60s.

Add the interview with Dario and another with the Unsers – the first family of the 500 – and I hope you’ll find it does justice to 100 years of incredible speed and action.

Now, I know US oval racing is not everyone’s shot of bourbon. So as usual there is plenty more in the May issue to keep you reading for the month. Nigel Roebuck is typically forthright in his assessment of Formula 1’s recent entanglement in real-world politics, and as usual he puts the Bahrain debacle in context beautifully by reflecting on previous occasions when the sport has found itself on dodgy ethical ground. Then there’s his description of the Cuban Grand Prix – a race at which Juan Manuel Fangio found himself being kidnapped. Writing about it in 2011, it’s hard to imagine it actually took place. Fernando, count yourself lucky…

Nigel also sits down with Stirling Moss to revisit what many consider his greatest race, the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix – yes, another anniversary, this time just a mere half-century ago. We also print an edited version (God, he’d go mad at us for cutting his copy!) of Denis Jenkinson’s original race report for Motor Sport and reproduce some of his beautifully neat and detailed notes from the weekend when Moss beat the ‘Sharknose’ Ferraris.

Alan Henry talks to Ron Dennis about his formative years in team management, in Formula 2 during the early 1970s; Patrick Head recalls the breakthrough years of the Williams FW07; and Tiff Needell opens his personal scrapbooks to show us his collection of racing photos that he snapped from the spectator banks of the 1960s – when his love of the sport took hold.

And if that’s not enough, don’t miss our free supplement* on the Motor Sport Hall of Fame, in association with TAG Heuer, which took place in London during February. It seems like ages ago already. Before we know it, we’ll be heading back to the Roundhouse in 2012 for the next one…

*Available in the UK only

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Imagine if James Hunt was still around today, I mused to Martin Brundle at Daytona a few weeks ago. “Well, if he was I’d be out of a job!”, the BBC’s new lead commentator fired back.

The truth would probably be somewhat different. Hunt, who died of a heart attack at the age of just 45, would have struggled to hold on to a high-profile media role in the modern world. Richard Keys and Andy Gray would have had nothing on Master James! Had he lived, he’d have said something outrageous long ago and would probably have been handed his cards after a short and very nasty tabloid campaign against him. After this, I like to think he would have settled down into his new role as an outspoken, politically incorrect star columnist here at Motor Sport… and how refreshingly outspoken and irreverent those columns would have been. Such a shame he was taken from us all so early.

Hunt was a brilliant, instinctive broadcaster during his time sharing a mike with the long-suffering Murray Walker from 1980-93, in much the same way that he was a brilliant, instinctive racing driver. He shot from the hip and carried lasting prejudices (yes, poor Riccardo Patrese), and that attitude would not have sat well in this sensitive age. Can you imagine the froth that would have been generated on the web forums if Hunt was broadcasting today? They’d have loved him and lynched him.

For me, Hunt was all the greater because of his imperfections (He once turned me down for an autograph at a Brands Hatch Grand Prix because he was late for the celebrity race. Somehow, I didn’t mind  – because it was him. Even as a kid I was aware of his reputation for timing, so found the polite but firm ‘no’ and the mad rush he was in very amusing).

He took his racing intensely seriously, to the extreme of vomiting before the starts and so on, because he knew only too well how dangerous was his chosen vocation. But at the same time he refused to take life seriously away from the races – which is exactly why he agreed to pose for Patrick Lichfield’s cheeky photoshoot that adorns the cover of the April issue.

Nubile young ladies on the cover of Motor Sport? Sacrilege! Mr Tee (Motor Sport’s former proprietor) must be spinning… But if there is an image that sums up the man our writer Eoin Young struggled so hard to like, it’s this one. All that’s missing is a bottle of something strong and a fag in his mouth. Like James, we don’t like to take life too seriously here at Motor Sport, and we couldn’t resist. Especially as it highlights once again how different our world is today compared to the 1970s. Can you imagine Jenson Button taking part in such a photo shoot? (I can actually – but I don’t think McLaren, Vodafone etc would like it much! Imagine the airbrushing…)

Eoin was James’s original – and very reluctant – biographer. His personal impressions of a man who he came to know well, and eventually like a great deal, are fascinating. For those of us who only knew him as an image in photographs or as a voice on television, they are truly revealing. Incidentally, Eoin lives back in New Zealand these days and we were alarmed to hear this week of the dreadful earthquake that has devastated Christchurch. We were relieved to hear that Eoin was unhurt, although he has suffered damage to his property. From everyone at the magazine, and I’m sure all of you who read it, we send you our best wishes, Eoin.

James Hunt pops up again elsewhere in the April issue, his serious racing side highlighted within Rob Widdows’ entertaining Dispatches column on an eye-opening trip to Monaco with Hesketh Racing, and also within this month’s riveting Lunch with Murray Walker. Now, you won’t be surprised to read that Murray was typically eloquent when Simon Taylor met up with him recently. But even for Murray, this one is special. Despite suffering from a heavy bout of ’flu, he saved his best form for Motor Sport. I’ve never read a more frank and insightful piece on a man who is always a great interview.

We also look ahead to the forthcoming F1 season, with a bumper preview featuring Nigel Roebuck in discussion with Sir Jackie Stewart, a definitive explanation of the new rules – including those gimmicky moveable rear wings – and a study of the overtaking debate by former Renault technical boss Pat Symonds. Since we went to press, the Bahrain GP has been cancelled, of course, so we’re down to ‘only’ 19 races beginning in Australia on March 27. Within our issue, Jackie Stewart has some strong words on the circuits that F1 visits today and the changes that he believes are needed to inject a greater challenge into the sport. We quite agree.

You can also read our verdict on the new McLaren MP4-12C road car, find out more about Mini’s return to world rallying and catch up with comeback kings Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell during their impressive return to the cockpit at the Rolex Daytona 24 Hours.

Before I close, I should mention that our founder editor Bill Boddy celebrated his birthday this week. On February 22 WB turned 98 years old. His stories continue to file into our inbox for each issue and the magazine simply would not be the same without him. Happy birthday, WB, from all the team at Motor Sport.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Steve Soper never used to be the friendliest of racing drivers. The first time I met him was at the Sebring 12 Hours in 1999, when he was racing a BMW V12 LM sports prototype for wealthy amateur Thomas Bscher. As first encounters go, it wasn’t the best.

As a child of the 1980s, Soper had always been a bit of a hero to me. Here was a Brit who’d been schooled in the rough-and-tumble world of British saloon car racing, taking on – and beating – the cream of Europe in the exotic DTM. We’re used to it these days, thanks to the likes of Gary Paffett and Paul di Resta, but Soper’s exploits abroad back then marked him out as special. Whenever he returned to the BTCC, as trouble-shooting team-mate to Tim Harvey in 1992 and full-time with the crack Schnitzer squad the following year, he carried an air of authority and intimidating quality. Everyone knew Soper was an A-list draw, the man they all wanted to beat.

He continued to carry some of that power into sports cars, but at Sebring in ’99 things had not gone well. The story goes that team manager Dave Price got on the radio to warn him of a full-course yellow, that someone had gone off. “I know,” said Steve. “It’s me.” He’d smacked the BMW into the concrete wall at the final corner.

Now, as Autosport’s race reporter I had to go and ask him what had happened, cursing that I hadn’t introduced myself before the race. I approached him with plenty of trepidation, only too aware of his prickly reputation – plus it’s never a good time to talk to a driver when they’ve just stuffed it.

“Steve,-I’m-Damien-Smith-from-Autosport,-glad-to-see-you’re-OK,-can-you-tell-me-what-happened-please?” I blurted. He didn’t even look at me. “I crashed,” he replied flatly, then turned on his heel and stalked away. Oh dear. So much for bringing the reader that exclusive one-on-one insight.

I told him about our unfortunate encounter recently when we met at a BMW dinner where the marque launched its new UK ‘Classic’ arm. “I’m sorry about that,” he said with a wry smile. “I wasn’t always the easiest of racing drivers to deal with.”

He’s different now. Today, he sells cars for BMW as a respected dealer, and he has definitely mellowed. You can still sense the old intensity below the surface, but he is engaging, friendly and clearly very relaxed with his legacy as one of the great touring car legends. He said he’d be happy to help if we had any feature ideas for the magazine – so we took him up on it!

At a cold and windy Brands Hatch in November, BMW helped us gather three classic racers from three very different eras: the modern 320Si which races in the World Touring Car Championship, a Bigazzi M3 from the heart of Soper-era DTM and a fabulously botoxed CSL ‘Batmobile’ from the 1970s. We then teamed Steve with Britain’s modern-day BMW tin-top hero, triple World Champion Andy Priaulx – who came straight off a plane from Macau – to join him for our test and compare notes.

As you can read in Gordon Cruickshank’s excellent story in the March issue, Soper and Priaulx have a bit of shared history and get on well. They thoroughly enjoyed swapping mounts for the day – and trying something completely different in the form of the Batmobile. So two genuine stars of the touring car world who together span over 30 years of frontline action, three of the finest Munich ‘road rockets’ and Britain’s best-loved race track: it’s a heady mix.

Elsewhere in the March issue, Adam Cooper pays tribute to another touring car ace, Tom Walkinshaw – who of course went on to greater acclaim as the man who made Jaguar a force once again at Le Mans, and helped Michael Schumacher to his first F1 world title at Benetton. Tom died of cancer in December and Adam’s profile of this complex man frames his career in perfect perspective.

Ed Foster meets Dany Bahar and Claudio Berro, the men behind the revolution currently taking place at Lotus; Simon Taylor has lunch with two-time Le Mans winner and, er, BMX World Champion Alex Wurz; Rob Widdows interviews veteran team boss Mike Earle; and I get to meet the charismatic – and eccentric – Italian hero of the 1970s, Arturo Merzario. Reuniting motor racing’s very own ‘Marlboro Man’ with the car he raced for Frank Williams in 1974 and ’75 was a real treat, if a little nerve-wracking…

Finally, if you usually skip over my Matters of Moment editorial (and I don’t blame you if you do!) you might miss the chance to enter a special competition. So allow me to tell you about it here. We’re offering five tickets (plus a guest each) to our exclusive Motor Sport Hall of Fame event, to be held at the Roundhouse in London on February 15. The evening is sure to be one to remember, so click here to answer a simple question and give yourself a chance of being there on the night. Hopefully, I’ll see you there!

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

When it comes to trying something new, uncovering the latest trick, getting an edge on the opposition, there are few examples in Formula 1 as visually striking and obviously unusual as the year Tyrrell decided to add two more wheels to its Grand Prix cars. As the February edition of Motor Sport celebrates, innovation is at the heart of F1 – it always has been, it always will be. And Tyrrell was brave enough to stick its neck out and run the risk of ridicule. That the P34 six-wheeler became a GP winner vindicated Derek Gardner’s decision to aggressively chase the ‘unfair advantage’.

The car that appears on our front cover this month is a museum piece from the Donington Collection. It’s Patrick Depailler’s car just as he left it at the end of 1977, and our man Andrew Frankel was lucky enough to get the chance to drive it. Meanwhile, editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck revisits a period interview with Gardner and looks back at the shockwaves the P34 created when it was unveiled in ’76. As is often the case in Motor Sport, it’s a story of what might have been because, even though Jody Scheckter won the Swedish GP in its first season, the car never fulfilled the potential Gardner saw in it. Both March and Williams experimented with two extra wheels at the back, but six-wheeled F1 cars proved to be a cul de sac rather than the road to the future. Such is the way with innovation. Even when it works it doesn’t always stick. And when it does it’s usually banned.

That is certainly true in today’s F1, as former Renault technical director Pat Symonds discusses in his first feature for Motor Sport. We’re delighted to welcome him to our pages because, as you might have noticed in our recent audio podcast with the man, he is brilliant at explaining the complexities of our sport. A restrictive rule book stymies the modern designer, but forward thinking still allows them to gain an edge – as McLaren’s F-duct proved last season. And like all great innovations, it is now outlawed. Nothing really changes.

The theme of innovation in the February issue focused our minds on the big breakthroughs in history. I asked former editor Paul Fearnley to look back at some of the ‘epoch’ moments from the past, which was a gigantic task. His vast research distilled to a clear conclusion: the 1970s and early ’80s – the ‘analogue’ era – was an intense time for experimentation and high-reaching concepts. It was a time that directly shaped today’s ‘digital’ age, which is why Paul talked to five men – Tony Southgate, Robin Herd, John Barnard, Gordon Murray and Peter Wright – who all pushed the boundaries of what could be achieved.

Our snapshot of 40 years of F1 innovation is completed by Nick Wirth, who argues the case for designing an F1 car purely by computer. Like Gardner back in the mid-70s, he is putting his reputation on the line by bucking the trend with what he is trying to achieve at Marussia Virgin Racing. Grand thinking and ambitious pioneers – whether they fail or succeed – still give F1 its edge in the modern age.

It’s fitting that in an issue that is themed around innovative thinking one of the great racing car designers should join our team. Williams co-founder Patrick Head has signed up as our new columnist for the next 12 months, and is sure to bring us great tales from the past, as well as personal insight into life in F1 today. We’re delighted to welcome him on board.

The February issue also marks the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s passing, US editor Gordon Kirby putting into true perspective the giant legacy of NASCAR’s Man in Black. Meanwhile, Simon Taylor travels to Spain to meet John Webb for lunch. For 30 years the man who ran Brands Hatch was perhaps the most influential, forward-thinking figure in British motor sport. In his own way, Webb was as innovative as the great designers who shaped the races he promoted.

A happy new year to you. Enjoy the issue.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Where is the best place to chew the cud on the 2010 Grand Prix season? In the office? Too dull – naturally, it’s where we talk motor racing every day. A plush restaurant? That’s Simon Taylor’s territory, surely! So how about the local pub? Now that’s more like it!

The Chelsea Ram is Motor Sport’s regular watering hole, and the perfect place to blot out the realities of economic meltdown and a freezing British winter to concentrate on what really matters. And no, I don’t just mean beer.

To give our pub debate some structure – and thus ensure our natter was actually of some use for the magazine’s pages – we picked on the major themes of the season and began talking. You won’t be surprised to hear that editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck led the discussion and made the best stab at putting the season past into some sort of context, while Rob Widdows, Ed Foster and yours truly chipped in here and there. There are worse ways to spend a couple of hours and we enjoyed looking back at the past year in Formula 1, the result forming the backbone of the January issue, on sale now. Do let us know if you think the beer was talking too much!

Deserving World Champion Sebastian Vettel graces the cover, but the young German’s image will be vying for attention with a very special giveaway this month. We’ve compiled an audio CD of our podcast ‘chat shows’ that have been gaining a growing audience on our website over the past year, and it’s free with the January issue. The list of guests we have pulled in to join us in 2010 is a role call of the great and the good: Mario Andretti, Brian Redman, Damon Hill, Patrick Head, Christian Horner, Sir Stirling Moss, Tom Kristensen, Jochen Mass, Bobby Rahal, Martin Brundle, Emanuele Pirro and Richard Attwood all feature in this ‘best of’ compilation. Each time we pressed the record button, the stories flowed and all the guests got into the true spirit of things here at Motor Sport: in other words, saying exactly what they think on any given subject.

We hope the CD is an added bonus to complement another varied issue of the magazine. Other features this month include Simon Taylor’s lunch with David Hobbs – a man who drove a huge variety of great racing cars during a 30-year career on both sides of the pond; Eoin Young’s memories of meeting Jim Clark for the first time at the Wigram Trophy meeting of 1961; a fond recollection of the F1 team that raced in ‘British Racing Brown’ – the privateer heroes at Hexagon Racing; and a fascinating inside story on NASCAR from an old hand of F1.

I should also mention that we bid farewell to our special guest columnist this month. For the past year Bobby Rahal has brought us snapshots of his fascinating and varied life in racing, for which we thank him and wish him all the best for a successful 2011. Tune in next month to welcome our new guest columnist, who will bring his own unique perspective to our pages as we head into a new racing season.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The Targa Florio: a race that conjures vivid images of big, hairy sports cars on claustrophobic, winding roads; of large crowds of maniacal Sicilians, hanging off stone walls and sun-scorched hillsides, within touching distance of their beloved red machines from Ferrari and Alfa Romeo; of rustic villages through which the true heroes refuse to lift, flashing past the peeling walls of houses daubed with graffiti hailing The Man – Viva Vaccarella!

How exotic, how charismatic – how out of reach. It’s all so long ago now. The last great Targa took place in 1973, and it had gone completely by the end of the decade. Sure, historic events try to capture its spirit, but it can never be the same. It’s history. But does its legend linger still in the rugged hills of the Madonie? I’d heard the locals have not forgotten, but how many signs of the epic battles, how many echoes, still survive? I wanted to find out.

To trace the roads of the Targa was a thrill, an ambition to be savoured. Then to do it at the wheel of a car as spectacular as the Ferrari 458 Italia… well, what a juxtaposition between the brute force of the past and the controlled power of the present. Such an occasion deserved something more than a humble Fiat hire car.

The story within the pages of the December issue of Motor Sport has a single purpose: to inspire our readers, and perhaps tempt a few to make the trip themselves. I’d recommend it: an Easyjet flight to Palermo, an hour’s drive east and follow the signs to Cerda. The island is beautiful, the hotels are pleasant and the beaches are sandy – so even the family would enjoy it. Go on. Check it out for next summer.

And if you don’t believe me, perhaps you’ll listen to Vic Elford. His love of Sicily was probably consummated during that incredible comeback drive to victory in 1968. Whatever, it endures to this day. Having provided me with the perfect briefing for my trip, he then offered to write his memories of how to conquer the great road race. You’ll find he’s pretty handy behind a keyboard as well as the wheel of a Porsche 907 – we’ve hardly changed a word of the fascinating article he submitted.

Elsewhere in the issue, Nigel Roebuck brings us a rarity: a one-on-one interview with modern-day Ferrari ace Fernando Alonso. The new World Championship leader hasn’t exactly enjoyed a happy relationship with the British press since his tricky season with McLaren in 2007. But as we’d recently interviewed his good friend Robert Kubica and he enjoys reading the magazine… no problem! Our timing to run the interview now, in the wake of his Korean GP victory, couldn’t be better. A happy coincidence for lucky magazine editors…

A Ferrari thread runs through ‘Lunch with’ this month, too, as Simon Taylor catches up with 1980s F1 ace Stefan Johansson. Then we switch from Maranello to Milan for Andrew Frankel’s very special multi-car Alfa Romeo test. One hundred years of racing history in one day? Not really possible, but the five cars he had lined up at the Balocco test track certainly got to the heart of the matter.

Andrew also gives a definitive verdict on the 458 Italia. Now, I’m no road tester, so I was glad to leave that bit to him. All I’ll say is that I found it more than satisfying! What a car – and what a road to drive it on.

Enjoy the issue.

The December issue is on sale Friday 29 October.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Motor Sport offers you the ultimate line up of Christmas gift ideas. From prints and DVDs, to race car accessories and membership to exclusive car clubs. Have a look below and don’t get stuck for Christmas present ideas! Please click on the images to go to the company’s website.

Airflow has it all: air chambers, car covers, battery conditioners, wheel nut guns, drip trays and polish kits. The Airflow chambers have been a huge success as they can protect classic and racing cars from the elements, and most importantly moisture and therefore rust. The company is now also well-known for its selection of car accessories and customer service.

Gearbox Gifts.com has a great passion for classic cars and historic racing and offers plenty of motoring gifts from clothing to artwork. It also stocks official licensed merchandise from Stirling Moss, Carroll Shelby, Mercedes-Benz and the Mille Miglia. it’s definitely worth looking at the clothing and office accessories – there’s plenty there for a car enthusiast!

Moto-Lita hardly needs any introduction, as it is the world leader in handcrafted wood and leather rim steering wheels. In fact, the first steering wheel they built was in the ’50s for a certain Arthur Moss, Stirling’s father. There are options available for classic, racing and replica cars and they also sell genuine IRVIN RAF flying jackets from their Thruxton base.

Be a part of motor racing history by becoming a custodian of your very own square yard of the Brooklands Banking! You’ll receive a personalised certificate as well as being able to name or dedicate a square yard on a virtual reconstruction of the famous Members’ Banking. Your contribution will help them to preserve this iconic site for current and future visitors.

Auto Art specialises in stunning motoring prints that are all based on its portfolio of photographs and have been digitally enhanced using the latest computerised graphic technology.The prints are evocative ‘Pop Art-style’ images that include F1 from the ’60s to the present day, classic cars, military vehicles and can be made into mouse mats, t-shirts and mugs.

Established in 1972, Grand Prix Models are the
model world’s best-known model car specialists
with over 20,000 items available to us. Whether you’re looking for a £20 diecast, a £20,000 super detailed hand built model or anything in between, check our online catalogue or contact our friendly and knowledgeable staff.

Motoprint has a large collection of images available from its private stock that have been taken over the past 50 years at many different locations. All of the photographs on its website are available in digital and printed format and may be purchased with its secure payment partner Paygate, cheque or transfer. Most recent uploads include national races at Kyalami.

Studio 88’s extensive range of prints and Christmas cards, reproduced from original paintings by Michael Turner – one of today’s best known motor sport and aviation artists – and Graham Turner, includes subjects from all eras of motor racing and has something to suit all budgets with over 100 prints in their comprehensive range.

Re-live a bygone era, in colour, with motor racing DVDs from JMW. Stars from the golden age of motor sport, like Moss, Clark, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart, feature in a range of different machinery from tin tops to Formula 1 machinery, battling it out at classic venues such as Brands, Castle Combe and Oulton Park. McLaren – The Dynasty Begins is a must.

RacingChristmas offers the perfect seasonal greetings for motor sport fans who like to surprise their friends. Its special range of Christmas cards marries unique motifs from each type of motor sport on snow-covered circuits with humorous christmas themes. The cards can be shipped anywhere in the world. ‘Say Merry Christmas with Racing Christmas!’

A series of 30 illustrations featuring Grand Prix, Group C cars and MotoGP bikes, that has been produced as signed limited edition cards and numbered prints. The images were drawn from Peter Hutton’s photos and sketches of the actual cars with the co-operation of their owners. The 1990 Leyton House March and 2005 Ducati Desmosedici are just two examples.

Greycar has earned a reputation amongst discerning drivers as the place to go for the very best in period motoring clothing. It offers a range of jackets, eyewear, overalls, driving gloves, scarves, headgear and glovebox accessories, all of which are of the very highest quality. As they say ‘the perfect place for period petrolheads worldwide’.

One of the first, but arguably still the most hilarious of all the motor racing autobiographies, Touch Wood! charts the career of the larger-than-life Hamilton who between 1947-1957 was one of Britain’s foremost racing drivers. The book is punctuated with side-splitting stories like trespassing at Brooklands, this is a non-stop read for any enthusiast.

Give someone you love the unforgettable thrill of driving a world-famous motorsport circuit this Christmas with MSV’s driving gifts. Choose between an F1-style single seater, BMW M3, Porsche 911, rally car or off-road Land Rover Defender at either Brands Hatch, Oulton Park or Bedford Autodrome. Prices start from just £99.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Imagine looking in your mirrors and seeing Stirling Moss right up your chuff, that familiar white-dome peaked helmet and goggles, face set in grim determination, as you’ve seen in a thousand photographs. He’s behind the wheel of a dark blue Formula 1 car, its signature white nose stripe and number seven roundel looming large each time you snatch a glance. Your ears ring to a Coventry Climax song, but it doesn’t sound happy. It’s coughing and spluttering, so Stirling blips the throttle to keep the song in tune. Grand Prix cars were not built to go so slowly.

Yes, I felt a bit of pressure as I drove the camera car for our latest cover photo shoot. Thanks to help from RM Auctions, the HSCC and MotorSport Vision, we had organised to reunite Sir Stirling Moss with one of his favourite and most interesting racing cars: the four-wheel-drive Ferguson P99 Grand Prix car, in which he scored a very special victory in 1961. When he crossed the Oulton Park finish line to clinch his fifth Gold Cup, Moss became the first – and only – man to win a Formula 1 race in a car with four driven wheels.

I’d always had an ambition for Motor Sport to run this story. But it was one thing to reunite Stirling and the car (he has driven it before in recent years); I never expected to get him back to Oulton Park as well.

And yet somehow the stars aligned themselves to allow it all to come together. RM is selling the car at its Battersea auction on October 27 and had approached me to feature it in our next issue. It just so happened that the timing coincided with the HSCC’s Gold Cup historic meeting – at which that man Moss was down to race his OSCA.

It had seemed so unlikely, a logistical nightmare – but it really looked like it was going to come together. Sure enough, once P99 owner Jamie Sheldon was told Moss would be up for driving the car at, of all places, the circuit where he’d written a special chapter in history, consent was a given. So the boys from Calbourne Garage brought the car up from the Isle of Wight, Graeme White at the HSCC reserved a garage and we were all ready to go. Even the sun was shining (good for photos, even if rain would have been more fitting for 4WD!).

The only problem was that such photo shoots are usually conducted at quiet mid-week test sessions. This time, we would be in the gaze of a large race-day crowd and had strict instructions to limit our time with Stirling and the Ferguson to one single lap. Our run was taking place as part of a lunchtime demo at the Bank Holiday Monday meeting and the pressure was on to keep to schedule.

Photographer Matt Howell is an old hand at this sort of stuff, but even he was nervous. As you will read in Gordon Cruickshank’s excellent story, we briefed Stirling on what we needed (no waving to the crowd until the photographer has got his shots) and waited patiently for our 1.15pm window. As the lunch break began I drove Matt’s Ford Focus into the pitlane, he opened the tailgate and made himself comfortable.

The Calbourne boys fired up P99, Stirling gingerly eased himself into the car and off we went.

Now, when you have a mad snapper hanging out of the boot appealing for a race car to run just a couple of feet away from his face, you don’t try to do these shoots at speed. In every magazine, car-to-car photo shoots are conducted at 30-40mph. I was under orders from Matt to keep it slow and smooth – just my style!

But for Stirling, it wasn’t so easy. As we left the pitlane at the exit of Old Hall the Ferguson stuttered and Stirling spread his arms, as if to say ‘what can I do?’ This car had broken down on him once before, at Monaco. If it happened now, we wouldn’t get our cover shot and the reunion would have been for nothing.

Thankfully, our 80-year-old hero cured the cough with a couple of throttle blips, the P99 picked up and we headed down the Avenue on our way to Cascades. Matt breathed a sigh of relief and started shooting.

As you can see from our cover, the lap ended happily. Matt bagged the shot we needed and after one of the slowest laps in Oulton history, I peeled off into the pitlane to allow Stirling a quicker run where he waved to the enthusiastic crowd and got properly reacquainted with the old girl.

Reuniting Stirling Moss with the experimental Ferguson in which he stunned Oulton Park in 1961 was a special day, for all of us involved. The result is Gordon’s story, the centrepiece of an issue also featuring Fangio, Jenson Button and Lunch with John Fitch (what a fascinating man and what an incredible life, by the way). I hope you enjoy it.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Were I to ask you to name the most desirable car ever built, what would you say? Your answer would of course be totally biased towards your own tastes: classic or modern, road car or racer. Where you’re from might be a factor and perhaps your age would play a part, too.

Polls aren’t really Motor Sport’s thing, but I’m hardly going out on a limb to predict that if we were to run one, Ferraris would feature heavily in the desirability stakes. And of those Ferraris, one in particular would be in with a shout to top the list.

The 250GTO matches performance with beauty like few other cars, both on the road and on the race track. Enzo’s masterpiece? By price alone, you’d have to say yes (this summer radio DJ Chris Evans is believed to have paid £12 million for one). But it’s about much more than money. You know what I mean, don’t you?

All 39 that were built (in two different body configurations) are special, but the one that graces Motor Sport’s cover this month is particularly memorable – partly because it’s that pasty shade of green!

Ahead of the Goodwood Revival, Andrew Frankel was lucky enough to achieve a lifetime’s ambition and plant himself behind the steering wheel of the newly-restored British Racing Partnership 250GTO, complete with its tartan nose strip. Chassis 3505GT will always be intrinsically linked to the Sussex circuit, thanks to Innes Ireland who used it to win the 1962 TT, Britain’s biggest sports car race back then. A fitting result, given that the man who should have been driving it had ended his career against the bank at St Mary’s earlier that spring.

To accompany the 250GTO in the October issue, dep ed Gordon Cruickshank tells the tale of the team, BRP, talking to the men behind the green, Ken Gregory and Tony Robinson. It’s a tale of corporate sponsorship, nervous breakdowns and jealousy, set against the backdrop of the team’s Chelsea home in Lots Road. Hang on, that’s where we’re based. I thought it sounded familiar…

In stark contrast to all this history, Nigel Roebuck talks to Robert Kubica and enjoys what he hears. When I first read this interview it occurred to me that Poland’s Formula 1 star is something of a throwback to eras past. His no-nonsense approach, deadpan acceptance of danger and pure love of driving would have made him a contender in any era. This guy deserves to add to his paltry tally of one GP win and once he is given a competitive car, he undoubtedly will.

‘Lunch with…’ is another corker this month, but I’m particularly biased. I was a junior reporter when gravel-voiced Irishman Martin Donnelly was establishing his single-seater team in Formula Vauxhall. I used to phone him every week for a gossip, but he was never my first call on a Monday morning. I’d have to make sure I had something juicy to tell him first. “Got any dirt ’n filth,” he’d rasp at me. If I didn’t, it would be a very short conversation.

I was at Druids when Donnelly won his very first Formula 3000 race, at Brands Hatch in 1988 following Johnny Herbert’s leg-shattering crash. In the sadness of that day, Martin’s victory was understandably overlooked, but it was clear even then that he was a contender for great things – only for his own horror crash two years later to rob him of all that promise. His story is inspiring – and despite the sadness, very funny.

I should probably also mention the BMW motorcycle test that appears in this issue, but given the ‘welcome’ our new road car section received last month, I do so with care! Two-wheel road tests won’t appear in every issue, but they will from time to time when we have an interesting story to tell. Lest we forget, Denis Jenkinson loved bikes as much as cars, and didn’t think twice when it came to writing about them in MS from time to time. We’re looking at the motorcycle world with the same appreciative and open-minded attitude.

Oh, and my vote for the most desirable car in history? Well, it’ll always be racing cars first for me. So I’ll go for the 1975 Ferrari 312T. What about you?

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Evolution, not revolution. It’s something of a mantra in motor racing circles, as teams refine and improve the breed. In the Motor Sport office this month, I caught myself quietly muttering it too, as the September issue began to take shape (I don’t think anyone heard me, which is probably just as well).

You see, we’ve made another tweak to the magazine as we strive to add greater depth and diversity. Nothing too dramatic, you understand, and certainly not a departure from tradition. In fact, you could describe it as an echo of times past.

Road cars always featured prominently in the ‘Green ’un’, thanks to the road tests and commentaries provided by the, er, independently-minded missives from editor Bill Boddy. He didn’t pull his punches when delivering a verdict. Today, we’ve continued to dip a toe into the industry waters thanks to the columns and tests of another forthright ex-editor, Andrew Frankel. But now we’ve dived back in head-first, with full commitment!

No more token efforts. Now the road car industry has its own section within the magazine, as Andrew guides us through the latest happenings, events and – most importantly – significant cars on the market. Each month, he’ll be cutting through the PR-speak to explain what is going on in the world of road cars: who is doing what, who is saying what – and what you should consider driving.

This month, Andrew kicks off by delivering his verdict on Goodwood’s first Moving Motor Show, finds out whether the new Mercedes-Benz SLS lives up to its classic ‘Gullwing’ forefather and bombards Bentley’s head man Dr Ulrich Eichorn for our new feature ‘20 Questions’.

And that’s not all. He’s been a busy boy. We also sent Andrew to McLaren to uncover exactly how Formula 1 thinking has influenced and shaped the stunning new MP4-12C road car. Want to know how motor racing brilliance can feed into the real world in the 21st century? Look no further than our cover story.

If you’re reading this and wondering what’s happened to the usual mix of racing stories past and present, never fear! Where else can you read about life in a Le Mans team, Ferrari P4 Can-Am cars, what Mika Häkkinen talks about over lunch, how F1 teams hit the track in Abu Dhabi – five days after racing at Interlagos, what Stuart Turner remembers about a colourful career in rallying… and why Nigel Roebuck found a kindred spirit in smokin’ daredevil Patrick Depailler?

You know the answer. So lock the door, turn off the phone and lose yourself in Motor Sport – a world with a proper sense of perspective.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

‘Iconic’ is a much overused word these days, and it’s a particular bugbear for one of my team here at Motor Sport. But sometimes it’s a word that’s hard to avoid. Sometimes it’s the first thing that springs to mind when presented with a certain image. And if anything deserves this hallowed status it has to be the Gulf Porsche 917 on the cover of the August issue, perhaps the greatest racing car ever built – depending on your point of view.

Like everything of the ‘greatest ever’ nature, it is purely subjective, of course. It’ll depend on your age, your bias towards sports cars or Formula 1, and so on. And the same came be said for our assertion that 1970, a year of thrills and turmoil in equal measure, is ‘Year Zero for the Modern Age’.

We thought long and hard about such a tag when we decided to theme an issue around a single season, 40 long years ago. It seemed to fit. Rampant commercialism and concerns about safety really took hold in the final years of the 1960s, but certainly on the point of safety this was the year when people finally started to listen to Jackie Stewart. After 1970, the sport had to change.

As Nigel Roebuck writes in his introduction to our special section, this was the year when F1 drivers managed to change the venue of the German Grand Prix from the Nürburgring to Hockenheim at less than six weeks’ notice – all in the name of safety. The deaths of Bruce McLaren, Piers Courage and, later in the season, Jochen Rindt focused the drivers like never before on their attitudes to the sport. Rindt’s own mixed feelings on racing are captured in this issue with an extract from David Tremayne’s new biography. The Austrian would become F1’s only posthumous World Champion. But had he lived, the dangers and loss of close friends appear to suggest he would have retired anyway.

It went beyond safety. 1970 was the start of a new decade where the whole world changed dramatically – in some respects for the better and in others for the worse. The 1960s are often depicted, rightly or wrongly, as the end of the age of innocence. In a decade that featured the assassination of a US president and the futile war in Vietnam that’s perhaps too trite. Nevertheless, it’s a fact that nostalgia for the ’60s remains stronger than for any other decade. Nostalgia for the ’70s is popular, but it’s also remembered as a tougher, more cynical decade. The colour and extravagances of the world today can be traced back 40 years, to a time when the old values, fashions and expectations were being overtaken by new attitudes – with a harder edge. As usual, motor racing ran in parallel to the world at large. Life would never be the same again.

We chose the Gulf 917 as the image most linked to the year even though the monster was actually born a year earlier. It didn’t even win Le Mans in the blue and orange colours. But it’s so familiar, so of the time and – aided by Steve McQueen – so of that specific year.

Perhaps you might disagree with our ‘Year Zero’ premise. If there were such a thing, maybe you’d care to argue it was 1968, or ’69 or ’71… We’ll be awaiting your comments. But in the meantime, whatever your feelings, I hope you enjoy a group of features that will surely entertain you. Just check out this line-up: Rindt, Stewart, Amon, Rodríguez, March, BRM, Porsche 917s – and of course that man McQueen. With that lot, you can’t go wrong!

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

As my namesake Hannibal Smith said in just about every episode of The A-Team: “I love it when a plan comes together.” The 1980s TV-gold catchphrase, not to mention George Peppard’s cigar-chomping grin, sprang to mind several times as the deadline loomed for the August issue. Why? Because this one made us sweat even more than Jacky Ickx and Mario Andretti last month, and when our cover story plan finally did come together, it was Havanas all round.

Last summer Jim Clark’s Indy 500-winning Lotus 38 returned to these shores and stole the show at the Goodwood Festival of Speed as a static display. Clive Chapman, son of Colin and the boss of Classic Team Lotus, told us about a plan to carry out the most sensitive of restorations to this monumentally important relic of racing history in order for the car to run up the hill in 2010. That was enough for me. I decided there and then that the restored 38 had to be on the cover of Motor Sport ahead of this year’s Festival – and luckily for me, Clive agreed.

Deputy editor Gordon Cruickshank tracked progress at CTL through the winter, paying a visit to Norfolk in January to witness the original Team Lotus ‘boys’ get reacquainted with the old girl. But as winter turned to spring, Clive had bad news. He had doubts that 38 would be ready for us to photograph in time to make the issue. Crikey. Now where did I file that plan B?

But in true Lotus style, Clive gritted his teeth and made a decision. His boys would meet their deadline – and hence help us hit ours – and do whatever it took to get the car ready. He was determined that Jimmy’s Indy winner would grace Motor Sport’s front cover, as we’d all hoped.

We booked one of our favourite snappers, Greg Pajo, lined up a studio local to the team and crossed our fingers. Clive had asked if the shoot could be carried out in the evening, to give the team more time to complete the finishing touches. It was that tight. In the office we pressed on with other pages, nervously waiting for news. Then a message from Greg: the green-with-a-yellow-stripe racer with the odd-looking offset wishbones was being wheeled out of a truck and into the studio. It was gonna be all right.

In the days that followed, Greg delivered his gorgeous images, Gordon’s words were laid out on the page, we put the cover together and the anxiety drained away. Thanks to Clive and everyone at CTL, we had our cover and a cracking story to match. It’s one I’m particularly proud of. When you see the issue, I think you’ll see why.

Don’t miss the chance to see the Lotus 38 and two other Jim Clark classics – the 25 and 49 – at the Lotus Festival at Snetterton on June 20. Motor Sport will be there to join the celebrations. Do come and say hello.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Jacky Ickx and Mario Andretti. Quite simply, two of the greatest racing drivers in motor racing history. Even their names, which carry the resonance of Grand Prix wins from a golden era, heroic sports car feats and more, are dripping with style and class.

As far as we’re aware, these two have never been interviewed together before, and yet these giants of racing formed a bond 40 years ago as team-mates at Ferrari racing in both Formula 1 and sports cars. When they joined us for our inaugural Motor Sport Hall of Fame event in February we had the perfect opportunity to reunite them – and get them talking about the Prancing Horse. The result is the cover story for the June issue of Motor Sport.

Editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck was handed this enviable task, but it wasn’t exactly smooth running. He was made to sweat. Nigel had arranged to meet the pair in Signor Sassi, a favourite Italian restaurant, on the day of the Hall of Fame in London. Andretti had arrived from the States safe and sound the night before, but Ickx wouldn’t be so lucky.

Jacky spends much of his time in Mali these days, but he’d told us flying in from Africa would not be a problem. As it turned out, it wasn’t. But taking the short connecting trip from Brussels would be – his flight was cancelled. Typical!

I got the message in the morning and started to sweat. Jacky was one of our star guests for this special night and now I had images of him failing to make it (the message I got was that his flight was cancelled and I had images of him stranded in Africa!). But with characteristic coolness, Jacky came through for us. He jumped on the Eurostar, came straight to the restaurant and being a true gent was full of apologies (even though it wasn’t his fault, of course). Phew! The Hall of Fame was saved and I’d still get my future cover story.

Following the entertaining lunch, Nigel met up with Andretti again in Bahrain at the Grand Prix and Ickx at the Goodwood press day, topping up the material he’d already got from the two of them together. The result was 19,000 words of transcription from his Dictaphone – and he hates transcribing! I know, it’s hard to complain when you’re listening back to gems from such heroes, but we have to hand it to Nigel this month: he’s put in the hours…

Aside from Ickx and Andretti, there is an eclectic mix of stories in the new issue, from just about every era. Highlights for me include Anthony Rowlinson’s terrific interview with design genius John Barnard, Bruno Giacomelli talking to Paul Fearnley – and the photos of outlandish second-generation Can-Am cars in Gordon Kirby’s retrospective. The stars that passed through that series in the 1970s and early ’80s – including Jones, Villeneuve, Tambay, Rosberg and that man Ickx – has bestowed cult status on the era. So right up our street, then.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Sixty years ago, the world was still recovering from the ravages of a world war. But it’s always remarkable how quickly people return to normal life after such devastation. By 1950, Grand Prix racing was already very well re-established, even if the cars (and most of the drivers) dated back to the immediate pre-war era. As a new decade began, the time was right to launch the first World Championship.

At the Bahrain Grand Prix last month Formula 1 acknowledged its heritage by celebrating the diamond anniversary of the World Championship in fitting style. All the living World Champions bar two (Kimi Räikkönen and Nelson Piquet) congregated at the desert circuit, along with a collection of fabulous cars from the past 60 years. Such a gathering is unlikely to ever happen again.

As F1 marks the anniversary, we at Motor Sport have decided to do the same. We’ve chosen this, the May issue, because it was on May 13 1950 that Silverstone hosted that landmark Grand Prix, the first to carry the weight of World Championship status.

To celebrate, we pooled some of the best motor racing writers to tell the story of 60 glorious years of GP action.

Doug Nye kicks things off with an overview of the 1950s. Now, as he says in his article, Doug was only a young child when the World Championship was born, but he was always a “good listener”. There is no better authority alive to look back at the decade of Fangio, Hawthorn, Moss, Mercedes and so on.

Into the 1960s, and Eoin Young takes up the story. The Kiwi was smack in the middle of it all back then, working with his mate Bruce McLaren and as a respected journalist, among other things.

We chose Alan Henry to tell the story of the 1970s. AH built his formidable reputation in the decade of flares and fuel shortages, enjoying friendships with the likes of Ronnie Peterson and Niki Lauda.

Our own editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck covers the 1980s, an era as volatile as any he has known in the sport. It was the decade of the ‘superpowers’ – Villeneuve, Prost, Senna, Mansell and those magnificent turbos. For Nigel, the memories are recalled with a clarity as if they were yesterday.

Seasoned newspaper journalist Maurice Hamilton steps up for the 1990s and regular Motor Sport man Adam Cooper brings the story right up to date with the most recent decade. The ‘magnificent six’ put 60 years of F1 history into context just perfectly.

To complement the story of the decades, Simon Taylor lunched with the man who has started more Grands Prix than any other (except Rubens Barrichello, who took the lead in the longevity stakes two years ago). Yes, it’s Riccardo Patrese. He’s a true Italian gent, who tells us of his racing life, from enfant terrible to respected veteran. Former editor Simon Arron also makes his first appearance in our pages since 1996 to bring us the story of those Bahrain 60th anniversary celebrations.

It’s been a pleasure and a treat putting this issue together. There was a palpable sense of excitement in the office as each of the decade features landed and we began to build the pages. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Is this the greatest grid we’ve ever seen in 60 years of Formula 1? That’s a key question we couldn’t resist asking within our 2010 Grand Prix season preview, the cornerstone of the April issue of Motor Sport.

Now, I know better than anyone that making ‘greatest ever’ claims risks the wrath of many readers! So let’s be clear here: we’re not saying the 2010 is the greatest ever – we’re just asking the question! It should at least provoke some debate…

What isn’t in doubt is that this is the most anticipated F1 season for many a year – because of the strength of the line-up. Schumacher in a Mercedes versus Alonso in a Ferrari versus Hamilton and Button in McLarens versus Vettel and Webber in Red Bulls, not to mention true strength in depth throughout the supporting cast… We can’t wait for Bahrain on March 14.

As always in Motor Sport, we have one eye on the past as we look to the future, which is why we’d like to know how you think the grid compares to the great years of F1. Which is your favourite F1 season and which years featured the strongest line-up of aces? Do let us know what you think.

One decision for our season preview issue was particularly easy this year: who to put on the cover. Michael Schumacher isn’t exactly as well loved as some era-defining drivers from the past, but it cannot be denied that his comeback captures the imagination of anyone with even the slightest interest in F1. “So how will Schumacher get on, then?” is the question I’ve most been asked in recent weeks by anyone I’ve met who finds out what I do for a living, mostly from people with little interest in the sport, too.

In our preview, Adam Cooper has spoken to Schumacher’s closest aide to get the background story on the comeback of the century. Sabine Kehm has worked with Schuey for 10 years and she offers a fascinating insight into the sequence of events that led to the big return. The preview also features editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck in typically entertaining and forthright discussion with Martin Brundle, Anthony Rowlinson on that ‘greatest ever’ grid and that man Cooper again on the new rules that will change the face of the races in 2010.

Away from modern F1, Simon Taylor meets Derek Warwick for lunch in Jersey, Eoin Young profiles Louis Klemantaski – one of the sport’s greatest photographers (and I’m safe on that hyperbole) – and design legend Tony Southgate brings us tales of Shadow, from his forthcoming autobiography.

All this, plus a review of our inaugural Motor Sport Hall of Fame, an event that promises to become an established curtain-raiser for many racing seasons to come.

Enjoy the issue.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The Lotus name returns to Formula 1 this year. Neither Tony Fernandes nor Mike Gascoyne are pretending this new team has any direct link to Colin Chapman’s great squad, but still the use of the Lotus badge is seen as controversial in some quarters. After all, the legacy is a huge one to live up to and anyone who goes racing under the auspices of “Britain’s Ferrari” (as Johnny Herbert so correctly describes the marque) accepts great responsibility.

We have our own reservations about the use of the name by an all-new squad, but would those most closely associated with Team Lotus feel the same? We asked Paul Fearnley to find out as part of our celebration of Lotus in F1, the centrepiece of the March issue of Motor Sport. The verdict? Well, read the magazine to find out!

As part of the Lotus special, editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck recounts his personal memories of Team Lotus and explains why the team means so much to him. Meanwhile, lucky Andrew Frankel gets behind the wheel of the F1 car that first inspired him: Mario Andretti’s Type 79, the ‘wing’ car that stormed the 1978 World Championship. And Rob Widdows meets Fernandes and Gascoyne to hear about the revival of Lotus in F1.

From a personal point of view, this issue felt like a long time coming. In fact, it seemed as if it would never end! Hopefully that should come across when you read it (in a good way) because there is plenty between the covers.

Highlights include more from the 1970s, as dep ed Gordon Cruickshank witnesses a very cool reunion: Andy Rouse and the British Leyland Jaguar XJC tin-topper, the epitome of that romantic motor racing standard – the glorious failure! Then it’s that man Frankel again as we remember the Tour of Britain, which attracted stars from stage and track – plus the odd Radio 1 DJ…

Finally, I must mention Simon Taylor’s latest ‘Lunch with’ interview. He met March co-founder Robin Herd for what would prove to be an entertaining bout of reminiscence, but in a venue with a twist. You’ll find out what I mean on page 74.

The April issue is already well underway, and so far it’s coming together nicely. In fact, I’d better get back to it! In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the March edition and do let us know your thoughts on the return of Lotus to F1.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

This coming year, on May 1, it will be 16 years since the world watched the final moments in the life of Ayrton Senna, played out live on TV. As time passes, his legacy as the fastest, most important, charismatic and ambitious racing driver of his generation continues to grow.

To many, he remains the greatest there has ever been. To others, the flaws that pushed him way beyond the sporting moral code we expect from our heroes will forever smudge his reputation. Whatever, he remains a colossus of our sport, as intriguing now as he ever was in his lifetime – and as time moves on, perhaps more so.

We know the statistics: the 41 Grand Prix wins, the 65 pole positions, the three world titles. But only a lucky few gained a real insight into Senna, the complicated, serious and very private man. One of those was journalist Mike Doodson, who grew close to a young Ayrton in the formative years of his Formula 1 career.

Doodson was fortunate to interview Senna many times, even being welcomed into his São Paulo home early in 1984. Senna trusted Doodson – until Mike wrote something that changed their relationship forever.

In the February issue of Motor Sport, we present Mike Doodson’s story of how he befriended the greatest, most enigmatic racer of his age – and how he lost that trust and access to the Brazilian’s inner circle. It’s a fascinating, and slightly disturbing, tale.

Elsewhere, Adam Cooper meets Nico Rosberg to talk about his new dawn as a Silver Arrows Grand Prix driver with Mercedes-Benz; Andrew Frankel adds to the three-pointed star theme by driving a Merc-powered Penske Indycar – the last of its breed to win races; and Simon Taylor lunches with Desiré Wilson, perhaps the fastest woman racing driver we have yet seen.

To cap another eclectic mix of the past and the present, we introduce two new columns.

The first is by a man who has done it all. He’s been an Indy 500 winner, a GP driver, a team owner, a series president and now the creator of an exciting new historic racing initiative. He’s Bobby Rahal, and you can read his thoughts on racing every month in Motor Sport.

Ed Foster, our promising young writer (not to mention tech-whizz web editor and podcast producer), is the other new columnist taking his bow in the February edition. Ed has the use of the bright yellow Motor Sport Lotus Elise to bring us On the Road, featuring tales from all corners of the motor racing world.

From everyone here at Motor Sport, happy new year.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine