Monday, May 31, 1965 was a beautiful day. The temperature was in the high 70s, the sky was almost clear and there was just a faint breeze. Indianapolis owner, Tony Hulman issued his familiar command, ‘Gentlemen, start your engines’. Thirty-one...
By Richard Heseltine What’s in a name? Rather a lot as it happens. Automobile manufacturers blow millions on think tanks brimmed with chin-stroking thesaurus-wielders but to what end? All they do is raid the cliché cupboard or invent some spellcheck-bothering,...
Read Maverick The Car Thief - Part 1 Mark Cole continues his fascinating story of actor James Garner and the making of the iconic motor racing movie - Grand Prix Frankenheimer’s filming at Monaco concluded with a spectacular set-piece crash between...
The two cars had already arrived in the US less the engines. On arrival at Indianapolis airport, they were towed by rope to the team’s garage at the track. Masten Gregory’s team found digs for George Woodward and Jim Chapman...
Monocoques and wings Defeated in 1952 by a lack of reliability, rather than Mercedes speed, Jaguar returned with a vengeance in 1953 and with the next big thing in auto racing: the three British Green C-types were now equipped with...
Mark Cole on actor/racer James Garner and the making of the the iconic motor racing movie - Grand Prix Hollywood actor James Garner had always been one of my boyhood heroes through his Maverick TV series, then later as Pete...
PP: “Driving fast obviously consists of many factors, including reading the road, braking, setting-up the car, steering, balancing on the throttle, getting the power down, different lines, experimenting.” SM: “A lot of that is gained purely by experience. When I...
by Michael Kliebenstein, Author and Automobilist Those of you who have the good fortune of spending hours, days or even weeks behind the wheel of a well-sorted classic car will surely agree: it is a special and rewarding experience, only...
When Philip Porter and I first sat down to chat about the possibility of producing a book to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Italian Job – neither of us could have imagined the incredible journey that lay ahead. Throughout...
BRP’s Indianapolis Swan Song by Ian Wagstaff ‘I like to be in America’ – Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story The British Racing Partnership can be recalled as an equipe of historical significance. Its tenure, which lasted from 1958 to 1965,...
He was a bear of a man – half grizzly, half teddy. “What seems to be the trouble?” he asked, we’re guessing rhetorically. “You picked a great place to stop,” he blithely continued, as though we’d had a choice in...
Porter Press author Ian Wagstaff has revealed there are depths to his character of which even his colleagues know nothing. Here we plumb the punning depths to reveal all. We begin this in-depth investigative report with some lively correspondence between...
