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.
Hot on the heels of its creation of the World Drivers’ Championship in 1950, the FIA turned its attention to sports-car racing. Endurance races like Le Mans and the Mille Miglia were acknowledged as great classics but no championship linked them in a manner that might excite both racing fans...
By Stephen Mitchell Reading through my friend Marc Sonnery’s book “Rebel Rebel” which deals with the life and times of the Ferrari 250 GT Breadvan, I was taken back to a period of my life when I saw the car several times a week and, sometimes, drove it. During the...
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...
The original idea for this “special” feature had been to do a test on Porsche’s famed Moby Dick…the 935/78 long-tail beast from 1978, the company’s first racecar with water-cooled cylinder heads. However, that particular machine was on tour in China and not due back at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart...
Bruce Leslie McLaren won the first-ever Grand Prix of the United States in 1959, but really established his life’s legacy eight years later. It was September 3, 1967, at Road America, when his Can-Am team began a five-year run of dominance in the fastest kind of road racing the world...
Mercedes W125 Car: Mercedes W125 / Engine: 8-Cylinder In-line Supercharged / Maker: Daimler-Benz / Bore X Stroke: 94 mm X 102 mm / Year: 1937 / Capacity: 5,660 cc / Class: Grand Prix / Power: 646 bhp at 5,800 rpm / Wheelbase: 110.2 inches / Track: 58.0 inches front, 55.6...
On 19 June 1927, Rudolf Caracciola won the inaugural race for sports cars at the Nürburgring in a Mercedes-Benz Model S, marking the beginning of the Stuttgart car maker’s success in motorsport. For in the years that followed, the supercharged sports cars from Mercedes-Benz achieved many things in the racing...
Porsche 917 Artwork Tom Havlasek presents his take on Porsche’s iconic Psychedelic 917 from his series of 917 livery paintings. Tom Havlasek wanted to paint a “psychedelic” 917 because he’d already done the Gulf, Martini and Salzburg liveries, some more than once. His goal is to have a collection of...
Nürburgring In 1954 Where: Nürburgring / Date: August 1, 1954 The German Grand Prix; Nürburgring, August 1, 1954. A field of Porsche 356s approach the South Curve complex after the start of their support race. Details: Photo courtesy of: THE KLEMANTASKI COLLECTION Address: PO Box 8204, Stamford, CT 06905 USA Tel:...
George Lister & Son was a very old engineering company in my hometown of Cambridge, starting in 1895. I joined them in 1947, having done two years training at the Technical College, as their only apprentice. At that time, Brian Lister, grandson of George and son of Horace, had just...
Being a driver for Scuderia Ferrari, I must say, is the most amazing job any driver can have. The opportunity to pull on the famous red overalls of Ferrari and climb into one of the team’s beautiful red cars is something I will never get bored of. It is an...
Stirling Moss & The Birdcage Maserati Sir Stirling Moss The historic racing scene has brought many excellent cars back to the circuits over recent years, although quite a lot of them are not very original, and many have been substantially improved. While there are some safety arguments for this, it...
Bob Wollek and Darren Brassfield drive the rebuilt chassis 108 to 14th overall at West Pam Beachin 1987. Mauro Baldi in the B.F. Goodrich 962 during the Daytona 24 Hour race of 1988.Photo: Lee Self The Porsche 962, which first saw the track in 1984, is one of the all-time...
Ferrari 250TR Where: Nürburgring / Date:June 1, 1958 The Nürburgring 1000-km Race; Nürburgring, June 1, 1958. Phil Hill in the Ferrari 250TR which he drove with Luigi Musso to 5th place. Details: Photo courtesy of: THE KLEMANTASKI COLLECTION Address: PO Box 8204, Stamford, CT 06905 USA Tel: (203) 461-9804 Fax: (203) 968-2970...
Pete Lyons The year was 1970. The year the ground turned over under America’s greatest sports racing car series. It began in tragedy, and improved little. Bruce McLaren, the sunny New Zealander who had stamped the Canadian-American Challenge Cup Series as his own, and who would have reigned as series...
1970 24-Hours of Daytona Artwork Artist Thom Montanari paints a picture of Pedro Rodriguez at the height of his powers – the 1970 24-Hours of Daytona. Nothing is quite as dramatic as the sight of an endurance racecar prancing on during the night portion of an endurance race. Pedro Rodriguez...
The Peco Trophy Race Where: Brands Hatch / Date: August 5, 1962 Practice—the Peco Trophy Race; Brands Hatch, August 5, 1962. John Surtees practicing at Brands Hatch in the Bowmaker Ferrari 250GTO for the Peco Trophy Race where he was to finish 4th. Details: Photo courtesy of: THE KLEMANTASKI COLLECTION Address: PO Box...
1964 Canadian Grand Prix Where: Mosport, Canada / Date: September 26, 1964 Victory in the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport on September 26, 1964, fell to Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team, with Pedro Rodriguez and Lodovico Scarfiotti taking the top two places in Ferrari 330Ps, while Walt Hansgen, seen here in...
The Ferrari 330 P4 may be regarded as the greatest endurance race car of all time by many Ferrari aficionados. It was developed as a weapon to counterattack the rising success of the Ford GT40 programme. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign...
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...
After WWII, sports cars became more and more popular. As a consequence, road racing took hold in the U.S. For the most part, it was an amateur sport governed by the Sports Car Club of America, but after noticing the large crowds at some SCCA events, the United States Auto...
The 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed celebrated the most successful racing sports car of the 1955 motor sport season, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. Sixty years after the Mille Miglia victory by Stirling Moss driving a 300 SLR, the world’s largest automotive garden party celebrated the British racing icon Moss and...
The Porsche 917K number 20, featured in the 1971 movie “Le Mans” with Steve McQueen at the wheel. The 917 gave Porsche its first overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and 1971 with its Type 912 flat-12 engine. 55×40” Mixed Media original stretched on canvas and white American frame. Nicolas does private commissions...
By Tim Scott My infatuation with the Ferrari marque goes back to the 1970s, and my ‘formative’ years. As a poorly eleven year-old, stricken by appendicitis and hospital-bound, my dear Mother’s approach to a quick and happy recovery was to arrange for me to sit in a 308 GT4 on...
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...
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 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...
In the world of exotic cars, there are few names that can compare with Ferrari. The very mention of the word brings to mind blood red cars with shapes and sounds that reach beyond reason and into the soul. It was through the sweet sound of its motor that I...
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...
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....
A Rogue, an XK120 and the World Record that Took 5 Years and Stirling Moss to Break. It was a car the likes of which had not been seen before. Fitted with a truly inspired DOHC six-cylinder engine and clothed by a streamlined flowing coachwork, evocative of that hopeful post-WWII...
During my mid-teens a particular photograph in Motor Sport caught my eye. It was of an old Aston Martin racing at Silverstone, and there was something about it that somehow encapsulated the excitement of motor racing and what it could be about. Peter SutcliffePhoto: Mike Jiggle No Subscription? You’re missing...
The 1961 Sebring 4 Hours Where: Sebring / Date: March 24, 1961 The Sebring 4 Hours, March 24, 1961. This is the works Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite, which was driven by Bruce McLaren, being refueled and went on to fourth place in this warm-up for the 12 Hour race for cars one liter...
I have had the good fortune to have raced many good cars in my career, from early days in Formula Three, to the excellent Bastos Ford Sierra Cosworth (a car I’ll never forget), my DTM Mercedes cars and now driving and demonstrating the Mercedes racing cars from a past era—...
Can-Am McLaren M8B – The Perfect Race Car Story and Photos by Pete Lyons Arguably McLaren\’s best-ever car, certainly its most successful Can-Am car, the M8B carried Bruce to 6 victories in 1969, including here at Road America. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a...
Porsche Spyder Artwork Artist Steve Vartanian takes an unusual look at the venerable Porsche Spyder. In 1956, Porsche introduced a slightly modified Spyder, the 550A. Exterior changes were mainly from the doors back with a much lower and sleeker engine bonnet. The “famed” rear grilles were placed much lower on...
Mercedes W125 Car: Mercedes W125 / Engine: 8-Cylinder In-line Supercharged / Maker: Daimler-Benz / Bore X Stroke: 94 mm X 102 mm / Year: 1937 / Capacity: 5,660 cc / Class: Grand Prix / Power: 646 bhp at 5,800 rpm / Wheelbase: 110.2 inches / Track: 58.0 inches front, 55.6...
Ferrari 500 TRC/0662 Artwork Wally Thomason honors one of Ferrari’s finest “compact cars.” Ferrari had a way with the small-bore cars. The 166 Barchetta, the TRC, the 196 S Dino, the 206 SP – they were endearingly delicate and lovely, pretty; where the contemporary larger cars were somehow more aggressive, more...
Story and photos by Stephen Mitchell Once upon a time, I received a call from an acquaintance Mario Tosi. He and I both owned Ferrari GTOs and used them as daily transportation. His had been for sale and I came close to buying it before finally purchasing 3987. Mario was...
In terms of greatest racecars of all time, clearly, Mercedes had some extremely innovative cars like the one Moss drove in the Mille Miglia [300SLR–Ed]. Then Jim Hall came along with some of the first winged cars and, of course, Colin Chapman first developed the underbody down force cars—that was...
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