The Greatest Racecars & Their Stories
The Most Iconic Racecars Ever Made
So, buckle up and prepare to be transported to the golden age of motorsports, where legendary machines and fearless drivers pushed the limits of speed and redefined the boundaries of automotive performance. Let these iconic race cars tell their tales, in their own words. These aren't your typical posts; these are a collection of firsthand accounts, as if narrated by the very cars that dominated the track and etched their names into racing legend.
Legends of the Track
Hear the roar of the legendary Ford GT40 as it recounts its epic battles with Ferrari at Le Mans in the 1960s, told through the voices of the drivers and engineers who pushed it to victory. Feel the raw power of the McLaren MP4/4, as Ayrton Senna's spirit guides you through its undefeated 1988 Formula 1 season. Experience the technological marvel of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro, as it describes its hybrid dominance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 2010s. From the ground-breaking Lancia Stratos rally car to the awe-inspiring Porsche 917, we delve into the history of these iconic machines, exploring their design innovations, their triumphs and tribulations, and the legendary drivers who tamed their power. Each article is a tribute to a specific car, a celebration of its unique character and its contribution to the rich tapestry of motorsport history.
Ferrari 250LM Tribute Artwork Artist Jamie Hankin pays tribute to the Ferrari 250LM. Introduced at the 1963 Paris Auto Show as the replacement for the front engined 250 GTO, the 250 LM was a direct evolution of the sport prototype 250 P spyder, which had won the LeMans 24 hours...
Ferrari 290 MM – Car Profiles Introduction Designed for the 1956 Mille Miglia and as a replacement for the 860 Monza, the 290MM was mounted with a V12 engine with dual ignition and dry sump derived from the 4.5-litre Grand Prix. Even though this engine could be described as belonging...
My greatest racecar would have to be a choice between my first F5000 car, the 1969 McLaren, or, the 1970 McLaren Can-Am car. The first Formula 5000 car I raced was the McLaren M10A with the big rear wing. Bruce McLaren and I got the car working very well, it...
Third-time charm! That’s what we Can-Am fans were hoping for 40 Septembers ago. On the first of this month in 1968, our beloved Big Bangers would bellow to life for their third season. Maybe this time the grandly unrestricted sports cars, stunningly powerful and torque-rich machines that were faster than...
One of the races I remember well from my career was winning the 24-Hours at Spa in 1968. I drove the Porsche 911 to 1st overall, and it was a beautiful race for me although it had the usual Spa weather with rain for more than 18 hours. I was...
Heavy Traffic in the Webster Turns Where: Sebring / Date: March 25, 1961 During the Sebring 12 Hours on March 25, 1961, heavy traffic in the Webster Turns finds the factory-entered Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite of Ed Leavens and John Colgate leading, followed by the N.A.R.T. Ferrari 250GT California driven by Gus...
1962 French Grand Prix Where: France / Date: July 8, 1962 Dan Gurney scored his initial Grand Prix victory in this 8-cylinder Porsche 804, seen here at Nouveau Monde corner at the bottom of the challenging Rouen-Les Essarts open road course during the French Grand Prix on July 8, 1962. Gurney was...
I was involved in racing in a very interesting time, when a lot of good things happened and a lot of bad things. I was co-driving with Herbert Mueller. After Zeltweg in 1971, we were asked by Rico Steineman, the Porsche racing manager, if we had a car for Pedro...
Ferrari 625 TRC Scaglietti Spider Artwork The Ferrari 625 was specially ordered by Jon Von Neumann – the Ferrari distributor in Southern California – with the 625, 2.5-liter, 4-cylinder Grand Prix engine. Ferrari produced just two 625s. Preeminent Ferrari historian Richard F. Merritt calls the 625 Spider “one of the...
I served my apprenticeship with Jaguar, initially working on the last models of the E-Type, then the XJS, the XJ6 and the Daimler Limousine. I was involved with the chassis design of those vehicles. It was a fabulous time when everything with Jaguar was good. I left Jaguar and joined...
1962 Porsche 804 Dan Gurney was about as versatile as a racecar driver could ever be. He pretty much skipped the junior grades of motor racing and went in at what we could safely call the “deep end.” He drove sports cars in America, then in Europe, moved to Grand...
1964 Cooper T70 For a youthful 26 year old, the lure of winning your own country’s premier motor race in a car of your own design must have been overwhelming. For Bruce McLaren, the introduction of the Tasman Series, incorporating not only the New Zealand GP, but also the Australian...
In 1977, Porsche’s “improvised” Type 936/77 took on the full-court press of four Renaults at Le Mans. Retirements and technical troubles suggested that winning was out of the question. But neither its drivers nor Porsche number 4 believed that. Against strong opposition from Alpine-Renault and Alfa Romeo, Porsche took the...
This is a little-known story, but the real father of Riverside Raceway was Jim Peterson. I thought this would be a good time to tell it, because the new Riverside International Raceway Museum is having a “Legends of Riverside” celebration on March 27-29. It might be appropriate to include at...
1955 Mille Miglia Artwork The year 2015 marked the 60th anniversary of Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson’s victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia, racing their Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR to a record time of 10 hours 7 minutes 48 seconds. Travelling at the speed they needed to achieve that record, they...
The Experimental Porsche 550 Coupe Where: Le Mans, France / Date: June 13–14, 195 The 24 Hours of Le Mans; Le Mans, June 13–14, 1953. The experimental Porsche 550 coupe, which was driven by Hans Hermann and Helm Glœckler, turns through Mulsanne under lovely afternoon skies. They finished 16th overall, just behind...
1970 SCCA Porsche 914-6 For better, and sometimes for worse, corporate culture and business strategy have historically played a significant role in motorsport. Over the years, racecars and racing programs have been created and eliminated for no other reason than to satisfy marketing strategies and brand positioning. While many of...
This drawing of a Porsche 914-6 GT was created by artist Luis Silva using only the unusual medium of ballpoint pens. Silva readily accepts commissions. Each drawing takes over 35 hours to create. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your...
Jaguar’s XK120 Roadster was introduced at the London Motor Show in the fall of 1948. A year later, cars began to appear on American roads and tracks. They came in three configurations: roadster, convertible and coupe. All three were raced, but most entrants preferred the somewhat lighter roadster version. The...
By Stephen Mitchell A friend once asked me what was the fastest I’d ever driven a car. My answer was 7500 rpm in fifth gear. Race cars don’t have speedometers and the car in question was my Ferrari 250 GTO. I was on the way to Las Vegas and my...
1967 Ferrari 412 P Artwork The David Piper driven Ferrari 412 P, in Ecurie Francorchamps’s livery (Belgian national racing team), as raced at the 1968 Preis der Nationen Hockenheim. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your account here....
There have been countless memories created by Porsche at Le Mans, and to celebrate these moments, Porsche Museum will focus on “The Porsche success story in Le Mans” during the coming months. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your account...
Ferrari 312P & 312PB By Ed McDonough and Peter Collins Billed as “the story of a great car and a great time in motorsport history,” this is the first book devoted solely to Ferrari’s 312P and 312PB models, and it features many rare and previously unpublished photos. The 312PB utterly...
When considering my greatest racecar, the question seems far too big for me to give a simple answer. I drove some terrific cars in my motor racing history. I suppose the ones that stand out, particularly in terms of those I had the most success in, are the Porsche 956...
Horribly Beautiful The story of the Mille Miglia begins in 1921 when the Auto Club di Brescia organized the first Italian Grand Prix. Seeing the success of this race the much larger Automobile Club of Milan built the Autodromo Nazionale Monza and had the 1922 Italian Grand Prix held on...
“A great hammer struck my spine, slamming my head back. I forced it down, and stared at the long black roadway between the orange wheel bulges. It was rushing like some demonic torrent frantic to enter the gates of hell… Pete Lyons No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here...
In 2014, Porsche will return to the pinnacle of endurance motor racing, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with a newly designed sports prototype. With 16 overall victories, Porsche is the most successful manufacturer in Le Mans. The most recent win was in 1998 with the Porsche 911 GT1. The...
Jacky Ickx in the Ferrari 312B Where: France / Date: July 5, 1970 Jacky Ickx in the Ferrari 312B leads the field away from the start of the French Grand Prix at the open-road Charade Circuit on July 5, 1970. Ickx would lead the first 15 laps before his engine failed. Jochen...
In September 2022, I travelled to Townsend, Tennessee, in the Great Smokey Mountains for Okteenerfest. The annual gathering of Porsche 914s was a fun, albeit secondary, reason for going. The primary reason was to profile a rare 914 model, a Can-Am in a color combination that causes it to be...
1970 Targa Artwork The artist Uli Ehret met Brian Redman by accident in a pub near Chichester, during the Goodwood Revival week for a short but interesting chat. The artist realized there was no single piece of art in his portfolio, showing the British driver during his long and victorious...
Two factory Porsche 910s await the start of the 1967 Sebring 12 Hours Where: Sebring / Date: 1967 Car #36 will be driven by Scooter Patrick and Gerhard Mitter, while Jo Siffert and Hans Hermann will handle car #37. The two 910s will finish in third and fourth, respectively. No Subscription? You’re...
I have certain fond memories of the first single-seater racing car I drove, which was a Vanwall. Tony Vandervell gave me a wonderful opportunity of driving it at Goodwood. There are a number of single-seater racing cars that I would have liked to have driven, throughout my career. It could...
Milestone Racing Porsche 911 Artwork Arthur Benjamins commemorates Tony Adamowicz’s U2L Trans-Am championship winning 911 from 1968. Using his pioneering style of “photo realism,” Dutch-born artist Arthur Benjamins created this commemorative print of Tony Adamowicz and the Milestone Racing Porsche 911 that he drove to the 1968 SCCA Trans-Am’s under-two-liter championship. The...
Mercedes W 196 Car: Mercedes W196 / Engine: 8-Cylinder In-line / Maker: Mercedes-Benz / Bore X Stroke: 76 mm X 68.8 mm / Year: 1954 / Capacity: 2,496 cc / Class: Formula 1 / Power: 257 bhp at 8,200 rpm / Wheelbase: 2350, 2210 and 2150 (Monaco) mm / Track:...
Part II We concluded last month’s opening segment of John Wright’s interview with Bruce Kessler as he was preparing to start what would come to be recognized as the defining race of his life. Bruce Kessler No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign...
Porsche 904, 906 & 910 in the Americas By Jerry Pantis Ah, obsession…where would we be if we didn’t have obsessive enthusiasts who pour years of single-minded devotion into the research of rare racecars. Some of the best—and biggest!—books of the past few years have been narrowly focused treatises on...
Porsche 917—Zuffenhausen’s Le Mans and Can-Am Champion Introduction by Karl Ludvigsen By now well-known to the readers of this magazine, the development of the Porsche 917, in 1969, marked Porsche’s “coming of age” in the world of international long-distance sports car racing. Over the next two years, the 917 went...
As Rolf Stommelen climbed behind the wheel of the front-running Andial/Meister Porsche 935K3 after co-driver Derek Bell had pitted to refuel and take on four new tires, rising American star Bobby Rahal found himself leading Mid-Ohio’s $50,000-to-win “all-comers” Lumbermens 500 in the Group 6 Red Roof Inns Ralt RT-2 he...
1954 The Tourist Trophy Where: Dundrod Circuit, Northern Ireland / Date: September 11, 1954 The Tourist Trophy; Dundrod Circuit, Northern Ireland, September 11, 1954. Masten Gregory slides out of the Hairpin with Bob Said’s Ferrari 500 Mondial. They finished 6th before the effects of handicapping. Details: Photo courtesy of: THE KLEMANTASKI COLLECTION...
The Grid for the 12 Hours Where: Sebring / Date: March 21, 1981 Sebring, March 21, 1981. The grid for the 12 Hours pulls out for the warmup lap, led by the fastest qualifier, the Porsche 935K3-80 of defending IMSA champion John Fitzpatrick and co-driver Jim Busby, but in the end its gearbox...
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