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.
John SurteesPhoto: Mike Jiggle I first drove what was to become Graham Hill’s 1966 American Red Ball Special Indy winner at the Brickyard, in a test organized by George Bignotti, during the latter months of 1965. George was the very distinguished chief mechanic who, I believe, holds the record of...
For three short years, in the early 1960s, Christabel Carlisle, now Lady Watson, was the name on the lips of everyone who attended race meetings in the UK. At that time, it was controversial for women to race cars. However, from out of nowhere she was an instant success. During...
Paddy Hopkirk’s name is almost synonymous with the rise of the rallying Mini Cooper. His win in the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964 made him a household name. However, he raced as much as he rallied and has a phenomenal 280 events to his credit. He started rallying in a...
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...
Clive Cussler is an American adventure novelist and marine archaeologist. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than seventeen times. Cussler is the founder and chairman of the real-life National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which has discovered...
Brian RedmanPhoto: John Zimmermann Honored with his own night by the Road Racing Drivers Club this year at Long Beach, Brian Redman remains one of our sport’s treasures. A lifelong racer, he claimed 18 major international endurance race victories in a succession of Fords, Porsches, Ferraris and BMWs, and won...
Car Aficionado and Host of Discovery’s Wheeler Dealers The surroundings we grow up in can sometimes have a profound effect on the future life we lead, that certainly was the case with TV personality and car guru Mike Brewer. Having a father deeply involved in customizing cars, Mike’s passion for...
Even now, three years after his death, I walk to my mailbox in California hoping to miraculously find a letter from Huschke there. For almost three decades, we maintained a very lively correspondence. His notes, cards and letters arrived from all corners of the world. He wrote the most wickedly...
Feature Image via Ignite Media For our latest episode of automotive personality interviews, we caught up with Parker Thompson, who is just fresh off winning the 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup North America. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your account...
Michael Furman spoke with our J. Michael Hemsley about his life, his career and the cars that move him. Michael Furman often attends the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, and that’s where Vintage Roadcar caught up with him. Furman is one of the most prolific, well respected automotive studio photographers in...
I guess I have done most types of motorsport at one time or another…trials, sprints, rallies, hill-climbs and races. I won the British Hill-Climb Championship three times running in the 1950s, and that was the first time that anyone had achieved that particular feat. That was with an ex-Peter Collins...
Zora Arkus-Duntov was a tremendous influence in my life, both personally and professionally. We shared so much, and he was such an influence early on, in the late ’50s, that he’s really the main reason that I got so involved with Corvettes. He led me into things that I never...
Among the guests of honor at the recent opening of a new Motor Sports Gallery at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, England, were Tony Brooks and Jackie Oliver. VRJ reporter Steve Havelock asked them for a quick comment on the gallery, but this evolved into an interesting discussion about...
Although my home was near to the Zandvoort circuit in Holland, my family had nothing to do with the motor industry or motor racing. However, as a young boy I became involved with the ground staff at the track. My job was to help out at the Skid Control Center,...
I had seen this well-used Lotus 18 sitting in a grumpy little foreign car repair shop hard along Ventura Blvd. in Studio City, California. The guy who owned the shop and the Lotus was named “Buck” something or another as I recall. I kept driving by and looking at that...
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? MR: When I was a baby maybe two years old, three years...
“Among my drivers, Giovanni Bracco was, perhaps, the one who scored the most spectacular success,” Enzo Ferrari once said about the fun-loving, booze-loving winner of the 1952 Mille Miglia. Bracco won other races, but he will always be remembered for his climb from nowhere to victory, chain-smoking and swigging red...
Porsches have scored a record 16 overall victories at Le Mans, 14 similar triumphs in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and eight 12-hour wins at Sebring, and upon all of them can be found the fingerprints of Norbert Singer. A 30-year-old graduate engineer with a Masters in Mechanical Engineer, Aviation...
Oosthoek’s first car was this ’50s Fiat 1100, which was so rusty, he covered the holes with decals! VR: How did you first get started with cars? WO: I guess it was around 1959, when I was at the age of 12, I became aware that there was such a...
Tony Parella They say there is no greater zealot, than a recent convert. Though he came to the sport fairly recently in 2011, Corvette racer Tony Parella wasted no time in deeply immersing himself in the deep end of the sport. After selling his highly successful telecommunications company, Parella turned...
Event Director, Motorclassica Having just celebrated its sixth successful year, Australia’s Motorclassica has gone from strength to strength with preparations very much under way for its seventh staging in October 2016, once again in Melbourne’s iconic, heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building. It is the only such event held in Australia. No...
Brian Blain: President, Blain Farms Car Collector, Restorer VR: So when where you first bitten by the car bug? No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your account here....
I started my racing career with BMW in a touring car in the middle of the1960s. It was a BMW 1,800-cc Ti SA; I used it to drive in the Austrian Touring Car Championship, a series that I won, which led to my being supported by the factory for many...
Michael Rich & Joanie Rich, Mark Lizewski VR: How did The Grand Ascent and The Elegance come about? MR: About four years ago, I approached my father (Jack Rich, a long time collector who passed away in December 2011) about putting on an event to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research...
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Southern California is arguably one of the finest museums of its type anywhere in the U.S. Recently, Casey Annis sat down with Dick Messer, the Petersen’s first and now newly appointed director, to discuss the museum’s turbulent past and seemingly bright future. VRJ: The Petersen...
A rather prickly young man from Rome, Luigi Musso had all the qualities of a great champion, but he was killed before he could become one. Enzo Ferrari himself likened this Italian diplomat’s son to two of the sport’s greats, Felice Nazzaro and Achille Varzi. In fact, Musso was a...
During 2016 the UK’s Historic Sports Car Club celebrates 50 years since it’s founding. Looked upon by many as “Mr. HSCC,” the man at the top of the organization, CEO Grahame White, has held the post for some 20 years. Recently, VR’s European Editor, Mike Jiggle, sat down with him...
Following the demise of motor racing during the Second World War years, there were those enthusiastic individuals, at a very much grassroots level, who championed the cause for a revival of motorsport immediately following the cessation of hostilities. Alec Francis Rivers-Fletcher, known simply as “Rivers,” who once worked under the...
When he competed in his first Formula One race, Eddie Cheever was even more baby-faced than when I got to know him, which is saying something. It was the 1978 South African Grand Prix and Eddie, who looked about 16 at the time, had actually just turned 20. He qualified...
That’s some ride from West Lothian, Scotland to winning the great Indianapolis 500 three times, not to mention four IndyCar Series Championships. It’s a ride Dario Franchitti took from 1996 until 2013. On the way Dario, born in Bathgate, West Lothian on May 19, 1973, and whose family has profound...
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