If you’re racing a 911 and it’s feeling twitchy in a high-speed turn, just hang in there, it will be okay. Above all, do NOT lift {vsig}2009-6_2335{/vsig} While the Porsche 911 has amassed an unmatched record of racing successes, its entry into road racing was not initially championed by Zuffenhausen. […]

It was a glorious combination of beauty, speed, sound, and comfort, a proper object of Gallic pride, and almost (but not quite) the equal of Porsche’s 908 {vsig}2009-5_2325{/vsig} Only three Matra 650s were built. After a successful racing career, one is kept in the Matra museum at Romorantin, while the […]

It’s shiny and extreme, weird, overdone, and in-your-face in a manner that puts a grin on you just walking around it {vsig}2009-4_2315{/vsig} Sydney Allard’s famous one-off hillclimb car, the 1947 Steyr-Allard, is the best known of all his vehicles. Allard competed in the British Hillclimb Championship with this car for […]

Though beautiful, the 6-cylinder, 121 LMs were overpowered, under-braked, evil-handling, notoriously unreliable, and historically unsuccessful {vsig}2009-3_2302{/vsig} This magnificent sports prototype Ferrari was the fifth and last of the select batch of 6-cylinder big-engined projectiles that provided the absolute spearhead of the factory Ferrari’s endurance racing campaign for 1955. These gorgeously […]

Cars that were once wild girlfriends have become trophy wives, with all the cattiness that accompanies competitive collecting {vsig}2009-2_2283{/vsig} By 1962, it was becoming clear that the 250 GTO was no longer competitive, and something completely new was required. So starting in 1961, Ferrari began experimenting with a rear-engine design. […]

Going, turning, sticking, and stopping were evident and well in hand, but keeping the Jaguar in one piece proved to be more difficult than anticipated   R alph Broad’s racing team had excelled in touring car competition since the early 1960s, running Ford Anglias, Mini Coopers, and Triumph Dolomites. Leyland […]

If you want to do any serious competition, you’ll need a 2-liter, 4-cam four, and that’s a $100,000 project {vsig}2008-12_2265{/vsig} Having axed its expensive Formula One program at the end of 1962, Porsche turned once more to sports car racing as a means of improving and marketing its road cars. […]

It was left in a corner to be junked, but Guy Griffiths, the father of vintage racing everywhere, talked the factory into selling it to him   {vsig}2008-11_2254{/vsig} By 1960, Jaguar had won the world’s most prestigious race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, five times-twice with its original competition-tailored […]

The Elva-built McLarens, called M1A to distinguish them from the original McLaren prototype, were campaigned by some of the most famous and successful drivers and teams with a variety of powerplants. Their characteristics reflect the McLaren team’s emphasis on simple, straightforward design and rugged construction, traits which had been inculcated […]