Racing History

He's been a racing driver for 40 years, but still there remains a boyish enthusiasm about Tiff Needell. His autobiography (see Reviews, p129) tells his roller coaster story of 'could've…

If ever proof was needed that for some people, things come all too easily, then look no further than the case of one Stirling Moss. In 1961 he secured his…

Broadley speaking It is hard to pinpoint precisely when Eric Broadley went from being a special builder to becoming a constructor, but in 1958 he appeared with his Lola-Climax Mk1…

Few competitors have made the transition from motorcycle racing to the world of Formula One with the same success as Mike Hailwood. John Surtees of course, for whom Hailwood drove…

Neil Davis was one of Ken Tyrrell’s most trusted and loyal employees, preferring to down tools rather than move to Brackley when BAR took over the team. “I wasn’t terribly…

Dan Gurney's 1967 Belgian Grand Prix-winning Eagle-Weslake is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful grand prix cars ever constructed. From the tip of its shapely Eagle beak, through…

Ray Rowe joined Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd at its lock-up garage in Chessington in April 1965. And he’s still working for Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes at the McLaren Technology Centre in…

Life, for Stirling Moss, continues at 150 mph, a series of bends and obstacles to be taken at maximum throttle. But instead of balancing a Maserati 250F, a Vanwall, a…

As a young engineer at Rolls-Royce, I needed a source of inspiration, like most people, and I looked towards the Alfa Romeo 158/159. Then I was lent by R-R to…

May 1940 was a month of immense drama as General Heinz Guderian's tanks crossed the River Meuse near Sedan and brought blitzkrieg to northern France, thrusting a spearhead between the…

Cooper T72. Goodwood. 1964 by Jean-Pierre Jaussaud Jim Russell opened a school at Magny-Cours, and I won a Cooper-BMC F3 car. I had to collect this car from England and…

The other day I listened again to an interview, recorded in early 1957, with the Marquis Alfonso de Portago. Originally put out on a Riverside LP, it was reissued on…

Alan Brinton was a good old-school journalist. He was 1950s Fleet Street personified. He addressed everyone as “old boy” or “my dear”, could actually touch-type but, cast adrift by the…

In order to appropriately mythologise Jackie Stewart, he really should be dead, the better to fulfil the time-served, cruelly macho parapsychology of his chosen sport. Not suburban-dead, felled by atherosclerosis…

More motor racing on sand courses has occurred than may be generally realised. The inaugural use of such a venue appears to have been in 1904 by the Irish Automobile…

When we started Williams Grand Prix Engineering, for 1977,” said Patrick Head, “I think we had eight employees at the start of the season, and 11 at the end of…

I have often wondered what became of the fixtures and fittings and artefacts of The Steering Wheel Club. There were innumerable great photographs, but also more unconventional items, like the…