Category Archives: Auto Racing
Classic Car Race Festivals: 2022 Goodwood Revival
After a year of mind-blowing car events, it was fantastic to return to Goodwood Motor Circuit for the 2022 Goodwood Revival. As ever, the first thing that hits you upon entering the UK’s foremost classic car festival is the atmosphere.
With pristine vintage metal and immaculately prepared period outfits swirling around Goodwood’s picturesque grounds, the only giveaway that we weren’t in fact back in the 1960s was the flurry of smartphones held aloft to capture the weekend’s most unforgettable moments. Of course, we had to join in ourselves, and so we present to you our favourite memories from this year’s Revival.
This year, Ferrari celebrated its 75th anniversary, and what better place could there be to showcase Scuderia’s finest race cars than the Goodwood Revival? Lining up on the grid this weekend were some of the greatest racing machines of all time, including two Le Mans winners – the Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta that won the 24 Hours in 1949 and the Ferrari 275 P that claimed an overall win at the Circuit de la Sarthe in 1963 and 1964.
As part of the tribute, Graham Hill’s son and fellow F1 World Champion, Damon Hill, took to the track in ‘Old Faithful’, the 1962 title-winning BRM P578, among a cavalcade of cars from Graham Hill’s illustrious motorsport career. A fitting tribute to one of history’s greatest drivers, especially as Saturday was Damon’s birthday!
Classic Cars: 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta
For 1960, Ferrari built 46 of these race-prepared, aluminum-bodied Competizione SWBs, a model that is now commonly referred to as the Comp/60.
While many variations existed with regards to aesthetic and mechanical features, most Comp/60s can be identified by a few key visual characteristics: the more elegant front grille and side windows of the original design, a prominent external fuel filler on the rear deck, and a cockpit air vent at the top of the rear window.
The car presented here is a fascinating example of the 250 SWB Comp/60 Berlinetta; it claims a fantastic period-competition history, well-documented provenance, and recent, show-quality restoration.
Classic Italian Cars: 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider
The American sports car racing scene of the 1950s was a time like no other, when fiercely independent, deep-pocketed men could acquire ex-factory racecars and campaign them with some of history’s most legendary drivers. Admirably pure in its essence, this was a golden era of racing that fielded some of the decade’s most beautifully sculpted and ferociously specified competition machines.
One of the most significant purpose-built Ferrari “big block” sports-racing prototypes from the 1950s, this 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider by Scaglietti is one of just two factory-campaigned 410 Sports equipped with a 24-spark plug 4.9-liter V-12 and is one of a select few Ferrari models with coachwork both designed and built by Sergio Scaglietti.
0598 CM was the Scuderia Ferrari team car driven by Juan Manuel Fangio at the 1956 1000 KM Buenos Aires and later piloted by Carroll Shelby during his landmark 1956 and 1957 seasons when driving for the renowned Southern California-based team principal John Edgar. Shelby won more races as a driver in 0598 CM than any other car in his racing career, with eight wins and ten podium finishes.
There seemed to be no race it could not win as Shelby told a Los Angeles Times reporter, “Nothing can touch this Ferrari if it runs” and decades later he added, “It was the best Ferrari I ever drove.” Also raced in-period by legendary drivers Phil Hill, Eugenio Castellotti, Masten Gregory, Richie Ginther, Joakim Bonnier, Bruce Kessler, Jim Rathmann, and Chuck Daigh, 0598 CM is, without exaggeration, one of the most important and colorful Ferraris to compete in racing during the 1950s. It is among the most successful of all even-numbered sports-racing Ferraris, entering nearly 40 races in-period with 11 victories and 19 total podium finishes from 1956-1958.
As it remains a highly original example retaining the matching-numbers engine, chassis, and body, and fitted with the original fuel tank inscribed by Shelby, “Mr. Ferrari told me that this was the best Ferrari he ever built,” this example offers an unparalleled opportunity to acquire a purpose-built, even chassis-numbered racing sports car of unequaled provenance. Faithfully presented in its period livery and desirably maintained, including the recent engine rebuild by a team of Ferrari experts, this 410 Sport can expect an enthusiastic welcome at the most exclusive vintage racing and exhibition events worldwide and will go to its new owners with the first (1956) and last (1958) trophies won by Shelby driving 0598 CM, along with the original 1957 Nassau racing license plate.
Like the famed men who rode it to such success in-period, the illustrious John Edgar and the inimitable Carroll Shelby, this Scaglietti-built spider is a powerful and nuanced character that cannot be repeated—and will never be forgotten.
Classic Cars: 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Grand Prix Racer
FROM THE MAGAZINE
Racing towards Villa d’Este in a rather royal Bugatti 59
One of the absolute stars of this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este will be the Bugatti 59 once owned by King Leopold III of Belgium. We met the remarkable car and its owner for a last shakedown in the Swiss Alps.
There is no doubt that this will be the star of the next Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, taking place on the shores of Lake Como from 20 to 22 May 2022. But what is it? The car before you is nothing less than the very first of the six Type 59 Bugatti Grand Prix cars, and the one that’s considered the most desirable of all, due to its remarkable race records, its captivating history, and its extraordinary condition.
1950’s British Racing: A V16 At BRMA Track Day (2022)
A BRM V16 at the 2022 BRMA Track Day, held at Blyton Park.
1950s
The V16 is very much still in development and despite Raymond Mays protestations, the V16 makes its racing debut at Silverstone in 1950 in front of a record crowd of over 150,000 and Their Majesties the King and Queen. The V16 shears a driveshaft and the Alfas dominate. It is later established that it failed due to the steel not being to specification. The Trust sells BRM to Sir Alfred Owen (the great Midlands industrialist) in 1952. Regulations are changed to F2 rules (2 litre un-supercharged) leaving the V16 with no long term Formula One race prospects just as its development was providing positive results on the track. Parnell wins the Goodwood Trophy in the V16. The last of the front engine BRMs and the birth of the new P25 with a 2.5 litre straight 4-cylinder engine. The P25 was to herald a change in BRM’s fortunes with Jo Bonnier winning their first Grand Prix at Zandvoort in 1959.
Classics: A 1951 Ferrari 500 F2 Exhibited At Lake Como
Envisioned by Enzo Ferrari and driven to victory by Alberto Ascari, this modest Ferrari 500 F2 paved the way for Maranello’s racing glory. Once gifted by ‘Il Commendatore’ to the MAUTO museum in Turin, the iconic race car will star at this year’s FuoriConcorso Open Museum exhibition at Lake Como.
Classic Racing Cars: 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SLR ‘722’
This short film by Mercedes-Benz Classic pays tribute to the late Sir Stirling Moss and the 300SLR ‘722’ he and Denis Jenkison won the 1955 Mille Miglia in, ahead of the car’s retirement to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.
And enjoy the behind-the-scenes footage here: https://youtu.be/Y0Tryt1-VHw.
Classic Races: The Spirit Of La Carrera Panamericana
The Carrera Panamericana was a border-to-border sedan and sports car racing event on open roads in Mexico similar to the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio in Italy. Running for five consecutive years from 1950 to 1954, it was widely held by contemporaries to be the most dangerous race of any type in the world.
Views: Driving An Audi Formula E FE07 Race Car Through Berlin (Video)
The Audi e-tron FE07 is the thoroughbred fully electric race car from the brand with the four rings, part of the third season with the second generation of Formula E race cars. It carried Audi factory drivers Lucas di Grassi and René Rast in the seventh Formula E season, Audi’s farewell season.
Boomers Daily 