The John Wyer Team took multiple wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – often with cars wearing the iconic light blue and orange livery of their primary sponsor – Gulf Oil. It would be the 1959 running of Le Mans that would give the John Wyer Team their first victory – with drivers Roy…
The Arnolt-Bristol is an unusual car that owes its existence jointly to the Brits, Italians, and Americans. The post-WWII era was a golden age for cross-Atlantic automotive collaborations and the mighty little Arnolt-Bristol is (arguably) one of the prettiest of these collaboration cars. Stanley H. “Wacky” Arnolt and the origins of the Arnolt-Bristol Stanley H. “Wacky” Arnolt was…
The Connaught L2 was developed by former RAF pilots and engineers in the years just after WWII, the company name was chosen because it was a contraction of Continental Autos – the name of their humble little garage in Surrey. Today Connaught is most often remembered for their single largest racing success – a win…
The story of the Shelby Daytona Coupe became an American racing saga unlike almost any other. It was a car designed by a ragtag crew in Southern California to take on the industrial might of Ferrari, it achieved a shock second place in the GT Division III class of the 1964 World Sportscar Championship season,…
The Alta Car and Engineering Company was astonishingly far ahead of its time, the company was building supercharged, double overhead cam engines with hemispherical combustion chambers all the way back in the 1920s. The Alta Car and Engineering Company Alta was founded by 27 year old Geoffrey Taylor, who planned to develop, build, and sell…
The Heavies is a Can Am documentary from 1970 that covers the race at Road Atlanta. This would be a very significant time in the history of Can Am, as Bruce McLaren had been killed while testing the new M8D McLaren Can Am car just days before the season began. Before the accident Bruce McLaren and Denny…
The Tojeiro-Butterworth AJB is a bit of a historical anomaly, it’s the only one that was ever built, and it’s fitted with the unusual air-cooled, flat-four AJB engine. The intials AJB belong to Archibald James Butterworth, a visionary engineer, inventor, and designer, who was a successful and active racer in England until he suffered a…
The idea of taking an aircraft engine capable of over 1000 hp and bolting it into the front of a hydroplane is clearly insane. But in the interwar years in Europe, the battles taking place on the water to set new records and win races had very few restrictions – particularly in the aptly named…
Toby Price is an Australian motorcycle racer best known for his dominant victory in the 2016 Dakar Rally. He won stages 2,5,6,8, and 9, and finished 40 minutes ahead of his nearest rival. A year earlier he took part in his first Dakar as a support rider and shocked his competitors by winning a stage and…
The Matchless Motorcycle Company Matchless was one of the world’s first motorcycle manufacturers – they started out in 1899 when cars were a rare sight and the overwhelming majority of humanity was still getting around on horses or their own two feet. From very early in the company’s history, racing was an integral part of…
Dan Gurney passed away on Sunday the 14th of January 2018. He’ll be forever remembered as the man who started the tradition of spraying champagne on the winners podium, after his popular victory at the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans with co-driver A. J. Foyt. The list of Dan Gurney’s achievements is long, and…
This hour long interview film by Mario Muth offers an insightful and frank look into the life and times of former Formula 1 driver Derek Warwick. Derek is a member of the increasingly rare breed of top tier drivers who earned their position purely through talent, with no financial backing. Interestingly, he’s also driver I’m…
