Great Read

The cheek of it. There is nothing wrong with a Peugeot 306 per se, but this one was a particularly tatty, extremely dusty example that happened to be wedged in…

For six days, so the story goes, he plonked himself on the sofa in the reception area at the Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company, Cleveland, Ohio. Guy Anthony Vandervell was a…

Consider the following. "I have to say that what I saw that day at Monza was unethical, unsporting and dangerous. It was the start of a breakdown of discipline among…

Very few Italians would be inclined to acknowledge it, but the unique competition record of the Alfa 158, the original Alfetta, arguably owes as much to the rise of National…

The finish of Le Mans is always a great occasion, but this one is special. The little green and orange Mazda has humiliated the mighty Sauber-Mercedes and Jaguar teams, not…

There’s a glimmer of recognition in his eyes as he walks towards me. We first met in 1978 when he came to England with his Formula 3 team, fresh from…

Ten years ago I wrote a not terribly good book. And while I cannot claim responsibility for its somewhat cheesy Dream Cars title, the content was all mine. My brief…

At his first attempt, Jacques Villeneuve has already enjoyed a more successful Grand Prix year than his legendary father, Gilles, ever did notwithstanding the four-and-a-bit years Villeneuve Snr spent dazzling…

In May, Luigi "Gigi" Villoresi will be 88 years of age, and after a remarkable career he is now the last of the great pre-war Italian racing drivers. His esteemed…

Sitting in the Galleria Ferrari at Maranello, the 126CK is certainly not the most elegant racing car to have emerged from the Gestione Sportive. Yet this in no way debars it from staking…

January 1982. Tears at Number 10, newsreaders scrabbling for a map of north-west Africa and travel agents panicking to get News of the World scribes on the first plane to…

It was nominated by readers of Motor Sport as the world's greatest racing car, and it's not hard to see why. Back-to-back Le Mans wins in 1970 and '71 and…

At 8.46 on the morning of January 4 1967 Donald Campbell took what became the last great gamble of his life on Coniston Water. Only moments after speeding down the…

We sat at the start of the opening special stage. The pace notes were on my knee and, behind our heads, the engine burbled away through its twinchoke Dellortos. We…

Death fully defines a man. Potential for things not yet done no longer exists." Someone said this in a book about jazz great Eric Dolphy, but it applies universally to…

There are numerous cars greater than the sum of all their parts. There are few, though, infinitely greater. And this is one of them. From its Unipart-sourced pressure cap to…

Chapman the designer; Chapman the race team manager; Chapman the business entrepreneur; we are used to these pictures of the charismatic Lotus supremo. But way back at the beginning, he…