Author: Thor Thorson

Thor Thorson is president of Vintage Racing Motors, a Seattle-area collector-car dealer and vintage-racing support operation. He has been actively involved with racing for over 40 years, dealing with racers from Ferraris to Sprites, but is mostly seen driving Elva sports racers. He has been writing the race-car profiles for SCM since 2003.

1959 Elva Mk IV

This sporting little Elva Mk IV sports racer is a well-known competitor in both period and contemporary vintage racing. Chassis no. 4L10061, offered here, had its first outing at the 1959 Sebring 12 Hours race, where it was entered by Elva Engineering as a factory racer. It fared remarkable well, […]

1982 Renault 5 Turbo Group 4

For 1982, Renault introduced its Renault Turbo 5 Group 4 rally car, and it turned out to be an absolute firecracker. It wasn’t a “homologation special” based on a warmed-through production car, but a totally focused little racer featuring a 270-bhp, 1,397-cc, turbocharged inline 4-cylinder engine with Bosch K-Jetronic fuel […]

1964 Ginetta G4R

Among the most famous and documented racing Ginettas The Chris Meek/Gil Baird “Works” development and competition car Numerous wins at Silverstone, Snetterton, Mallory Park and other venues One of only two Lotus Twin Cam-powered G4Rs to race internationally Featured in all the books written on the Ginetta marque Restored for […]

1959 Cooper-Climax Monaco T49 Mk I

Successor to Cooper’s center-seat “Bobtail,” the Cooper Monaco T49 was named for the win at the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix by famed British privateer Rob Walker’s Cooper-Climax Formula 1 car. The Monaco was Cooper’s first production rear-mid-engined sports-racing model, designed expressly to meet FIA requirements of two seats, two doors […]

1959 Tojeiro California Spyder

A unique post-war racing car conceived by famed race engineer John Tojeiro Completed to a very high standard in accordance with Tojeiro’s original vision Hand-formed body to original designs by Coachsmithing of Blair, WI 300-plus-hp, 302-cubic-inch GMC inline 6-cylinder engine; Muncie “Rock Crusher” 4-speed manual transmission Accompanied by history files, […]

1953 Kurtis 500 B

Offered from the Bill Akin Collection A significant example of a dominant design Four-time Indianapolis 500 competitor 1955 Indianapolis 500 3rd-place finisher Immaculately restored to historic No. 15 Bardahl livery Class winner at Pebble Beach and Amelia Island in 2010 and 2011, respectively Includes trophies and awards won by the […]

2001 Ferrari 550 GT1 Prodrive

The second of 12 550 GT1 chassis commissioned in 2001 to Prodrive by Care Racing Development for their race program Winner of the 2004 FIA GT Championship, driven by Luca Cappellari and Fabrizio Gollin Second in the 2003 FIA GT and 3rd in the 2005 Italian GT Championships Overall winner […]