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

Motor Sport hosted a special evening in London on June 6 as a group of our enthusiastic readers joined us for a private viewing of the stunning new Ayrton Senna film.

We were honoured to be joined by the movie’s producer Manish Pandey and former McLaren team coordinator Jo Ramirez, the man who somehow managed to remain friends with both Senna and Alain Prost during their incendiary two years as team-mates in 1988-89.

This is the full, unedited, recording of the open discussion after the film which included Jo, Manish, our editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck and features editor Rob Widdows. We apologise for the sound – it was recorded live!

Do let us know your thoughts and keep checking the website for upcoming readers’ evenings. We’ll be doing plenty more.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Motor Sport hosted a special evening in London on Monday as a group of our enthusiastic readers joined us for a private viewing of the stunning new Ayrton Senna film, which was released in UK cinemas last week.

We were honoured to be joined by the movie’s producer Manish Pandey and former McLaren team coordinator Jo Ramirez, the man who somehow managed to remain friends with both Senna and Alain Prost during their incendiary two years as team-mates in 1988-89.

The private viewing took place at the excellent Everyman cinema in Belsize Park, London which features large, leather armchairs rather than the standard seats you’d find in your local multiplex. After drinks and canapés, our guests parked themselves in the comfy chairs, sat back and soaked up the experience of Senna – a movie that you really have to see on a big screen. It’s stunning, as we discussed in our July issue of the magazine.

As the credits rolled, the audience showed their appreciation with a spontaneous round of applause. Then a real treat: a chance for the readers to listen to Jo and Manish discuss the film and the man, then put them on the spot with some direct questions.

Manish Pandey, Jo Ramirez, Nigel Roebuck and Rob Widdows talk Senna

Motor Sport’s Rob Widdows played host on the stage, with editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck completing the quartet. Jo and Nigel have been good friends for years, and with their own personal experiences of Senna they offered a wider perspective on the man we’d just seen on the big screen, embellishing the themes that the film touches upon.

Manish gave us an insight into the making of the film and left the audience in no doubt that he is a true and deeply knowledgeable racing enthusiast. The movie has been a labour of love for him and he’s very close to it – but he’s not above a bit of criticism. On the much-discussed subject of how harsh the movie is to Prost, Manish was candid, admitting that he has some regrets about its portrayal of 1989. Such candour and honesty is refreshing.

It was a privilege to listen to Jo, Manish, Nigel and Rob, who kept the audience rapt before taking questions from the floor. Make sure to check out the website next week to listen to an audio recording of the Senna evening. For those of you who joined us, thank you for coming. For all of us, it was a very special occasion.

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

I have long suffered from a fascination with Mexico.

In the days of the Mexican Grand Prix I was sadly not yet on the roster of those that might be asked to write about events at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, the circuit in Mexico City’s Magdalena Mixhuca park. Named after the country’s two most famous sons, this is the Racetrack of the Rodriguez Brothers, Ricardo and Pedro, who captured the hearts of racing fans worldwide with their skill and daring. Remember Pedro in the rain, in a Porsche 917? Oh, yeah! Nobody told him it was raining.

By some tragic twist of fate, Ricardo was killed at his home circuit in 1962 when he crashed at the spectacular ‘peraltada’ corner in practice for the Grand Prix which that year was a non-championship race. The ‘peraltada’ went on to become the scene of some of the most exciting moves of any race, anywhere in the world, and that includes the ‘curva grande’ at Monza. Were this circuit still in use for Formula One, then the breathtaking ‘peraltada’ curve would surely have been emasculated.

Mexico City, Mexico. 25th October 1964. Rd 10. Jim Clark, Lotus 33-Climax, 5th position

Rumours abounded that F1 was due to return to Mexico as long ago as 2003, and Mr Ecclestone stated, in 2006, that the Grand Prix would be back – on a new circuit in Cancun – in 2009. But nothing more has ever been heard about this plan. Shame.

Mexicans love their cars, the faster and noisier the better, and nowhere is this more passionately expressed than in La Carerra Panamericana – the last truly great road race on the planet. It is fast, it is dangerous and it demands the full attention of its competitors, whether they be in an ancient Chevy or a new Porsche.

1953 Carrera Panamericana, World Sports Car Championship, Eugenio Castellotti (Lancia D23), 3rd position

Imagine my excitement then, when the President of the organising club Eduardo Leon invited me to write about the great event this year – thanks to quite a lot of persuasion from Mexican hero Jo Ramirez who began his motor racing career with the Rodriguez brothers in Mexico City and went on to manage the McLaren Grand Prix team through the extraordinary years of Prost and Senna.

Thanks to some surgery on my right hand, I have been unable to accept this fantastic opportunity and I must wait, yet again, for my first taste of the place that has for so long held my attention. This the land, after all, that is home to the Tarahumara Indians who live in the canyons of the Sierra Madre Occidental and who believe that each star in the night sky is a Tarahumara soul that has finally been extinguished. Then there’s the deserts, the wondrous ancient art and the thin air of the high mountains. And more.

The race starts tomorrow in the southern city of Oaxaca when adventurers from ten nations will go into battle on some of the fastest, and most dramatic, roads in the world. Today Ramirez, and his navigator Alberto Cruz, are in Tuxtla, putting the finishing touches to Mr Cruz’s trusty, and very rapid, Volvo. Last year they convincingly won their class.

“Is very hot here,” Jo tells me, “and no time to use the nice swimming pool at the race hotel… but we are ready, we have scrutineered the car, and done some final practice runs. This year looks like being better than ever, fast and furious all the way!”

The spirit, and soul, of the Rodriguez brothers is still very much alive in Mexico. Once a real star, always a star, and the memory of Ricardo and Pedro is revered by the thousands of fans who line the route of this great race across the country. More news from the 2008 Carrera over the next week or so.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine