Sports Car Digest - The Sports, Racing and Vintage Car Journal
Sports Car Digest focuses on Classic Car Auctions, Concours d’Elegance, Vintage Car Racing, Road Rallies and other historic automotive events.
With over 50 years in motorsports – as a driver and team owner – American A. J. Foyt’s remarkable career has seen him make his mark nationally and abroad in at least four countries: Canada, Great Britain, France and New Zealand. His race record includes: winning the Indianapolis 500 four times in 35 consecutive tries; the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1967); and the Rolex 24 At Daytona (1983, … [Read more...]
The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona 2012 was held January 28-29 on the 12-turn, 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway, a combined track made up of portions of the NASCAR tri-oval and an infield road course.With the minutes ticking down on the Rolex clock in Pit Row, there was an epic battle for the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona title taking place on Daytona International Speedway’s road course. … [Read more...]
By Csaba KissIf one has the occasion to visit Yvan Mahe's Equipe Europe workshop in Ozouer Le Voulgis, France, the feeling one can get is that of dropping in on a living classic car museum.Situated in the picturesque French countryside, about 30 miles from Paris, the Equipe Europe garage is specialized in the restoration, preparation, service and development of historic racing cars. … [Read more...]
Report and photos (unless noted) by Peter HelbachThe Louwman Museum was opened by HRH Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on July 2, 2010. This opening marked the culmination of eight years of very hard work by Mr. Evert Louwman and his management team, led by Museum director Ronald Kooyman. Regulations being what they are, this was the time it took, from the first application to build a museum … [Read more...]
1967 24 Hours of Daytona - The Revenge of “Il Commendatore”By Louis Galanos | Photos as creditedThe year 1966 was not a good year for Enzo Ferrari. Ford beat Ferrari with a humiliating 1-2-3 finish at both Daytona and Sebring and for the first time in six years they lost, again to Ford, at the Holy Grail of endurance racing the 24 Hours of Le Mans.With the 1966 World Sportscar … [Read more...]
By Kevin Triplett | Photos by Dennis GrayOne of the oldest open-wheel racing cars competing at the 2011 CSRG Charity Challenge was the unique 1958 Bourgeault Formula Junior owned by Simon Favre of Milpitas, California.Formula Junior got its start in 1958, when the FIA adopted a rules package suggested by racing driver and journalist Giovanni “Johnny” Lurani, to provide an entry-level … [Read more...]
By Bob HarmeyerDaytona International Speedway in 2012 is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the track's first road race, a three hour event won by Dan Gurney when he coasted across the finish line with a blown engine.The first two road races were three hour events, the third and fourth were expanded to 2000 kilometer contests, and the now-traditional 24-hour race distance was first run in … [Read more...]
By Louis Galanos | Photos as creditedJanuary 2012 marks the Golden Anniversary (50th) of sports car endurance racing at the Daytona International Speedway (DIS) in Daytona Beach, Florida.DIS was opened in 1959 by NASCAR founder, Bill France, Sr., after years of driving in and promoting stock car racing on the beaches of the Daytona area. From the beginning the new speedway was associated … [Read more...]
On 8 March 1911, just three years after Ford's 'Universal Car', the Model T, was unveiled in Britain, Ford Motor Company (England) Limited was incorporated to look after the most important market outside North America.Ford's start in Britain had humble beginnings. In 1903 two Ford Model A cars were shipped to England and a modest trade began. The Ford Model B took to London's roads in 1905, … [Read more...]
Interview and photos by Greg WingBob Ensign of Ensign Restoration Services of Latham, New York, has been in business for 16 years. His philosophy is, “Do what you love. Love what you do. It is going to work.” His short cropped hair, animated gestures, steel blue eyes and great stories draw you in. Bob demands the highest quality. Here he discusses his work with restoration of a 1949 … [Read more...]
The foundation of a corporate archive in 1936 was a necessary step for the then Daimler-Benz AG. The timing was chosen for its symbolic significance – exactly 50 years after the invention of the automobile. The aim was to preserve this half-century using the documentary records and lay the groundwork for collecting these kinds of documents in future.It was an eventful era that ushered in … [Read more...]
By Leigh DorringtonThe Mercedes-Benz Museum at the company’s headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany is a depository of the history of the automobile, motorsport, commercial transportation and the Twentieth Century altogether, presented in one of the most modern museums in the world.Two names, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, stand above all others in the company’s history. But there were … [Read more...]
By Edward LenahanThis 1961 Chevrolet Corvette factory race car, soon to be auctioned at Mecum’s January 24-29, 2012 Kissimmee Florida event, possesses a host of rare options and a provenance worthy of the velvet rope treatment at any of the world’s finest auto museums or vintage races. Gulf Oil sponsored and driven to an SCCA B-Production national championship by the likes of Dr. Dick … [Read more...]
Jim Rathmann, winner of both the 1960 Indianapolis 500 and the international 500-mile "Race of Two Worlds" in 1958 at Monza, Italy, died Wednesday, November 23, 2011. Rathmann passed away in a hospice in Melbourne, Florida, nine days after suffering a seizure at his home. He was 83.Rathmann, who was inducted into the Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007, … [Read more...]
The Vanderbilt Cup, America’s First International SeriesBy Art EvansThe first Vanderbilt Cup Race, held in 1904, amounted to pandemonium according to press reports. Newspaper and poster promotion drew a huge crowd. Estimated to be as numerous as 50,000 spectators were lined dangerously close to the entire course, some actually straying onto it. There were so many people that they became … [Read more...]
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