Motorsport Legends Speak
Interviews & Words With The Heroes of Motorsports
This is where the rubber meets the road, where the smell of burnt rubber and high-octane fuel mingles with the sharp insights of those who have lived and breathed motorsports. Here, the legends of racing take the wheel, sharing their firsthand experiences, hard-won wisdom, and unique perspectives in a collection of captivating articles and exclusive interviews.
The Driver's Seat: Insights from Motorsports Legends
This is where the rubber meets the road, where the smell of burnt rubber and high-octane fuel mingles with the sharp insights of those who have lived and breathed motorsports. Here, the legends of racing take the wheel, sharing their firsthand experiences, hard-won wisdom, and unique perspectives in a collection of captivating articles and exclusive interviews. Get ready to dive deep into the minds of champions as they dissect race strategy, reflect on career-defining moments, and offer a glimpse into the intense pressure and exhilaration of life at the limit. Hear from visionary engineers, team owners, motorsport executives, and influential figures who shape the sport from behind the scenes.
We speak with Sandro Garbo, driving force behind the new “Steve McQueen in Le Mans” graphic novel about the draw of McQueen, what sets Le Mans apart and how racing at Le Mans has changed over the years. You have a movie star’s last name, but drawing is your passion....
Two names have become synonymous with Corvette over the years – Zora Arkus-Duntov and Dick Guldstrand. From the airport circuits of California to the open roads of LeMans, Guldstrand’s list of racing accomplishments is long and legendary. Casey Annis recently caught up with him in his Culver City, California, shop....
Haskell Wexler is an Oscar-winning cinematographer, taking home the coveted golden trophies for his work on Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Bound for Glory. Not many car enthusiasts, however, know about his racing experiences. Wexler took driving lessons from Carroll Shelby, but gave it up when he discovered just...
Luigi Bazzi Biography He was called the soul of Ferrari. He had been there from the beginning and Enzo Ferrari recalled his trusted friend as “the founding member of the old guard of collaborators. Working at Ferrari till he was over eighty when health finally forced him to leave Ferrari’s side. Due...
President and COO of Black Horse Garage in Bridgeport, Connecticut Vintage Roadcar’s J. Michael Hemsley met John Buonanno at The Elegance at Hershey. Buonanno is the President and COO of Black Horse Garage in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After chatting about the Alfa Romeo he had accompanied to the show, talk turned...
My first race was a small event at a BARC Goodwood Members Meeting, at the wheel of my Jowett Jupiter. Although my father enjoyed cars, there was no history of anyone in my family competing, so I was on new territory and learned as I went along from personal mistakes...
In addition to being a successful real estate developer, Ted Gildred was appointed Ambassador to Argentina during the Reagan administration. VR: You were born in Mexico, as I understand. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your account here....
Richie Ginther Biography Those readers familiar with the Grand Prix History website know that central to this site is the Hall of Fame. Illustrating that section is a famous photograph by Gary Bramstedt entitled Heroes. Amongst such giants of the sport as Clark, Brabham and Hill is a small freckle-faced driver...
Fathers and their sons who have each won the Formula 1 World Championship are few and far between. There are only two dads and their lads who have pulled it off. The first to climb that particular Everest were the Hills: Graham won the 1962 world title driving a BRM...
Following a chance trip to Monza with a friend, Almo Coppelli found a passion for a sport that would totally dominate his life. This passion not only took him away from school and University study to follow a dream, but also from his family and his Italian home. Motor racing...
Richard Attwood started his racing career in 1960 driving a Triumph TR3, but by 1963 had won the Monaco Formula Junior race and was a fast rising star. Success in Formula Two saw Attwood quickly move up to Formula One, with BRM in 1964, but the following years in F1...
Someone once said that Indy car drivers would be lost if they had to turn right as well as left. They also said that at Le Mans they’d never find their behinds with both hands when it got dark or if it rained. Obviously, they never met Lloyd Ruby. During...
Lorina Boughton McLaughlin was the first woman to ever win the “Man of the Meeting” Award given regularly by BP and Alcoa in British race events in the 1970s and 1980s! She is also one of the very few female full members of the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC). With...
My early days of racing gave very few opportunities, starting with a Sprite I slowly progressed to Formula Ford and then onto Formula Three. However, had it not been for the support of Alan McKechnie, I may not have “made it” at all. Injury, too, was something that hindered me....
Manfred von Brauchitsch Biography He was called die Pechvogel, the unlucky bird. He was known more for the races that he lost than those that he had won, but to dismiss him as a journeyman driver would do him a great disservice. While not at the level of his teammates Caracciola, Fagioli...
Author Brock Yates once described Judy Stropus as a “racing personality,” since her career in motorsports has covered a gamut of disciplines including, her almost savant ability to accurately time and score endurance sports car races before the introduction of computers, driving race cars, and becoming an author and an...
Phil Hill Biography Overshadowed by his fellow Americans Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt it was Phil Hill who became America’s first World Champion after the death of the popular German driver Wolfgang von Trips. Born in Florida his family would soon move to Santa Monica, California. Hill soon immersed himself...
What is it among first experiences that’s supposed to be the most unforgettable? A boy’s first kiss? I certainly remember that. First bicycle? Ditto. A boy’s first By Golly Racing Victory? That’ll do just fine. Toly Arutunoff No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member?...
Phil Garratt and Kieron BrownPhoto: Mike Jiggle Phil Garratt and Kieron Brown recently won their category in the gruelling 7,610-mile, 2013 Peking to Paris Rally. VR’s European Editor, Mike Jiggle, wanted to know just how this was achieved, from the spark of the idea to participate, to the selection of...
Unlike those of Jim Clark, Mario Andretti and Michael Schumacher, not a name at the forefront of all our minds. Yet it was one that had been hovering about in my subconscious for years, though I never took the trouble to find out who the hell he was. Then Renault...
In the days before data logging transformed our sport into a science, the judge of all things was the simple stopwatch. This meant that the men in the cockpits could still make a difference in the performance of their cars, and George Follmer was one of those men. The Phoenix-born...
Rick Mears will always be known as one of the few men ever to win the Indianapolis 500 four times, but despite an Indycar career of legendary proportions, the guy once called “Rocket Rick: The Fastest Man on Four Wheels” was no one-trick pony. As we know, he started out...
Teddy Pilette Belgian racing driver Teddy Pilette is a third-generation racer of the Pilette motor racing family. His grandfather, Theodore, famously took part in the 1913 Indy 500 where, driving a small-engined Mercedes, he finished 5th. His father, André, took to the track too, and participated in 14 Grands Prix between 1951...
Three weeks after he had won the 1966 Grand Prix of Monaco in an aging, works, 2-liter, V-8 BRM P261, Jackie Stewart lay trapped in the wreckage of his car after having left Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the pouring rain at 165 mph. His BRM had smashed into a telegraph pole,...
Last month we presented the first half of European Editor Mike Jiggle’s interview with engine wizard John Judd, and the discussion continues in this month’s conclusion, as Judd explains how he became an engine manufacturer and talks about his interactions with motor sport luminaries such as Ken Tyrrell and Tom...
In Mass’ last full year, 1991, he teamed with Jean-Louis Schlesser in this C11 for the Mercedes-Benz WSC team as they shared 7th in the championship. With no less than 32 World Championship victories to his credit, Jochen Mass is one of the most successful sports car racers of all...
Tony Griffiths. Photo: Kary Jiggle No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your account here....
From a European perspective, during the 1990s Reynard had expanded as far as it could go with the various F3 and F3000 Championships. My appetite was for a further challenge in single-seaters, I had little interest in sportscars, and so, the logical next step for us was to look at...
Lory Lockwood, David Snyder and Dan Reed During The Elegance at Hershey, this past June, VR Contributor J. Michael Hemsley moderated a seminar on collecting automotive art, where three artists shared insights into the origins of their automotive art and the process of how it is created. No Subscription? You’re...
Rabin’s customers include such hobby notables as Ralph Lauren and Jay Leno, pictured here with a 1919 Rolls-Royce that Rabin created the wheel covers for. VR: Mike, how did first come to be bitten by the car bug? No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a...
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