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.
In the first two installments of our multi-part interview with John Barnard he discussed his early years with Lola and McLaren, how he developed his design philosophy and then looked at his experiences in Indycar racing and, back in Formula One, with McLaren and Ferrari. In this third and final...
Today, Franco Cortese is, perhaps, one of motor sport’s forgotten stars—and he shouldn’t be. He was the driver who put Ferrari on the map. All in a career spanning 156 races and 20 victories in 36 years of racing in his own cars and those of the cream of the...
You know how it is when a friend dies; you wish you had done more, visited him more, telephoned him more, at least thought of him more? That is how it was with me when Luigi Villoresi, distinguished gentleman and heroic racing driver, died eight years ago. I had known...
Derek Bell initially made a name for himself, racing in open-wheeled cars including Formula 2 and Formula 1. However, it is long-distance sports car racing, particularly in Porsches, where Bell forged his legacy as a champion with five overall victories at Le Mans, three victories in the 24 Hours of...
One of a baker’s dozen of American citizens to have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall, Carroll Shelby accomplished the feat 50 years ago this month, driving an Aston Martin DBR1 in company with Roy Salvadori. Shelby had begun racing back in his native Texas shortly after returning...
Oklahoma-Based Collector, Brass-Era Enthusiast VR: How did you develop your interest in automobiles and brass era cars in particular? No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your account here....
I’m not too sure who first referred to me as “the Professor” of Grand Prix motor racing, it may have been something a journalist, or TV reporter said, or it may just be a respectful remark from some motor racing fans that somehow made its way into motor racing conversation....
Dan Gurney is a man whose accomplishments need no introduction. In addition to winning in everything from Formula One to NASCAR, Gurney can also lay claim to a long and successful career as a team owner, car constructor and truly one of racing’s nicest and most approachable individuals. In this...
The picturesque village of Cropredy, Oxfordshire, home to approximately 700 souls, is little known to most, even to those living within a 20-mile radius of the place. However, it is acknowledged by three groups of people on a world-wide basis. First, the village has strong links with the folk group...
Tom Kendall may be best remembered for his dominant 1997 championship season in the SCCA’s Trans-Am series when he set a record with 11 consecutive victories in Jack Roush’s All Sport Ford Mustang on the way to his fourth Trans-Am crown, but he’s much more than that. He began his...
I remember the 1968 Oulton Park Gold Cup Race very well because it was my first Formula 1 drive, and Oulton Park was a circuit I knew very well from previous years in F3. We went there, and I qualified on the third row, next to Oliver in the Lotus...
An invitation to drive in the Tulip Rally of 1959 led to my meeting Norman Garrad, manager of the Rootes Competitions Department. He was a rather gruff old chap, known to many as the “Fuehrer.” On reflection, with the aforementioned description, it was rather naïve of me to approach him...
Donald Campbell was a hero, like his famous father. But that is where the resemblance ended. Sir Malcolm, who broke no fewer than nine Land Speed Records and four on water, was an arrogant, domineering father. He ridiculed his son and actively tried to dissuade Donald from following in his...
There is but a short list of automotive names, from the post-World War II period, that shine brightly. Names that when they come to mind, cause us to think about significant marques or types of vehicles that are renowned amongst enthusiasts today. Someone like Enzo Ferrari, who started his career...
It was 11 in the morning. A 25-year-old German pastry cook was sleeping after a hard night’s baking. Until the phone squealed. He decided to ignore it, turn over and go back to sleep, but it was no good, the phone just rang and rang. So he answered it. At...
This is the story of a hero who was more heroic than most. You may not have heard of Archie Scott-Brown, but that shrewd judge of racing driver talent Juan Manuel Fangio, who won the Formula One World Championship five times, called this diminutive Scot phenomenal, and said he showed...
Dr. Lou Sell I got a Brabham in 1967 and it was supplied by the Russell Racing Organisation, which was like a driving school. They bought a bunch of Brabhams, with one for me that cost like half as much, and I ran their name on the side, as long...
In 1980, people laughed when they heard Audi was developing a four-wheel-drive rally car. Hadn’t Ford tried that with their Capri 10 years earlier and drawn a blank? But the detractors stopped laughing when an Audi Quattro won the 1981 Janner Rally in Austria by 20 minutes. And they were...
I think I would point to three big moments in my past career, in addition to what I am doing now in team management in the FIA GT Championship. The first was when I won the European Championship in Formula 2. The next moment wasn’t my first win in Formula...
With no fewer than 32 world championship victories to his credit, Jochen Mass is one of the most successful sports car racers of all time. He was only beaten to the unofficial title of the most successful by his longtime co-driver, Jacky Ickx, who has 37 wins. Born in Munich,...
Horst Kroll started off his involvement with automobiles as an apprentice in the Porsche factory in Stuttgart. Porsche sent him to Canada in 1959 to assist at Volkswagen, Canada. By 1963, he was winning his first races both on ice and road circuits. In 1964, he won the first of...
Rene Arnoux learned his trade the hard way, as he fought for the European Formula Two Championship against tough nuts like future Formula One World Champion Keke Rosberg, double Can-Am Champion Patrick Tambay, Indy 500 winners Danny Sullivan and Eddie Cheever, and FIA-GT Champion Klaus Ludwig. He got to within...
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...
The Kremer Brothers, Erwin and Manfred, have been in the racecar preparation and construction business for nearly 40 years. Their names are virtually synonymous with Porsche racing machines, and they have won races and championships in GT, sports, prototype, IMSA, Group C, Porsche Cup and many other series over that...
Bev BondPhoto: Pete Austin I was born with a competitive spirit, my father represented Great Britain at Speedway, my mother and two of my aunts rode Speedway bikes, too. I suppose Speedway should have been my sport, on the contrary, I preferred four wheels and made my mark in kart...
British racer Trevor Taylor is perhaps best known for being the Lotus Formula One teammate to Jim Clark in the early 1960s. However, Taylor earned his spot in Formula One by sharing the 1960 Formula Junior Championship, with Clark, at the wheel of a Lotus 18 [see this month’s Racecar...
Probably the most important thing I considered in designing a racecar back in the ’50s was to try to achieve the maximum possible power-to-weight ratio. To that end, I was always figuring out how I could safely reduce the car’s weight while maximizing the horsepower. Of course, things like handling,...
I was a student at the University of Grenoble, when I became very friendly with the children of the organizer of the sports car races at Le Mans. This would be in July 1956. I was invited to go to the Le Mans 24 Hour race because I could speak...
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...
Lots More Motorsports Goodness
Thousands of articles across decades of racing.
