Reflections on the only man to win Formula 1 titles as both driver and constructor, by a Motor Sport contributor who knew him well
Writer Doug Nye
On hearing of Sir Jack Brabham’s recent death – at the age of 88 – Australian enthusiast Alec Hawkins sat down at a computer keyboard and submitted the following to one of the internet motor racing forums. I believe his words speak for a generation of...
Renowned for his expertise as both racing car restorer and driver, former F1 mechanic Simon Hadfield lives at the heart of Europe’s historic motor racing boomWriter Gordon Cruickshank, Photographer Howard Simmons
If I hadn’t seen the roof of an articulated transporter over the hedge I’d swear I was in the wrong place. I’m looking for Simon Hadfield Racing, preparers of race cars for meetings all...
Rallye Monte Carlo Historique
I have a curious relationship with the Monte Carlo Rally. The night that I was born, my dad (John Davenport) was baffling up the Col de Couillole with Ove Andersson in a Renault-Alpine A110. As such, during my early years, I thought 'Monte' was a good friend of Dad's, since he seemed to visit him most years and always came back with plenty of stories to tell. It wasn...
Not a Marendaz Shortcoming
Sir,
I have been asked to write to you in reply to the two letters in your April and June issues which you have captioned "A Marendaz Shortcoming" - that I am assured is not a term used by Dr. Brown Kelly, the author of the letter you published in April. Firstly I am, as others have described so in books and articles, "Of the Heroic Age", as Rolls, Austin, Morris,...
Remarkable Australian Murray Rainey built a remarkable Cooper 500 in the late Fifties. Following his reunion with it after 42 years, his daughter Joy reminisces...
I was just a kid when Dad took delivery of a Cooper in Australia in 1955. But when, almost 50 years and half a world later, I sat behind its wheel at Shelsley and watched him inspect his handiwork — its independent front suspension and...
The 2003 Formula One season began on November 26, 2002 — not racing, you understand, but the endless grind of testing. Just 44 days after the last engine was shut off in the Suzuka paddock, the circus was up and running at Barcelona and Valencia.
Over the next few days every F1 team ran at one or other of the Spanish circuits except Jordan, which is busy trying to replace its lost Deutsche Post...
He was already 31 when his career began in earnest, but a late start was no impediment for one of racing's true gents
Writer Simon Taylor
Analyse the human make-up of successful racing drivers, and you uncover fascinating variety. There'll always be a powerful will to win, of course, although this may manifest itself in differing ways. Plus you'd expect aggression: maybe openly on display, maybe...
Switzerland may have banned circuit racing in the 1950s, but it still had this gem of a hillclimbBy Ed Foster
Ollon-Villars was only used between 1953 and 1971, and yet it remains one of the best-known European hillclimbs. Playing host to one of the few international motor sporting events held in Switzerland at the time, the climb attracted some big names – including a certain Jim Clark – and was...