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.
Reviews of books, model cars and automobilia, plus stories and information about other automotive collectibles.
Fascination with miniature versions of something grand, like an automobile, may seem frivolous, silly even. Items like this, arguably little more than trinkets, serve very little if any practical purpose. While they may be faithful recreations of something larger, they are just that, recreations. By the same token, though, our ceaseless and at times almost obsessive fascination with the larger … [Read more...]
Review by Rick Carey, Auction Editor Everyone involved in the collector car hobby – mechanics, restorers, parts suppliers, archivists, judges, historians, concours organizers, transporters and most especially owners, even (and maybe most importantly) owners of mass-produced Model As and Chevy 3100 pickups – should acquire, read and contemplate this book. “Stewardship” is, like the … [Read more...]
As the father of two young boys and the publisher of what I consider my other baby (but obviously not as important as my real children), Sports Car Digest, I hope that by sharing my affinity for classic cars with my kids and their future children, they will in turn become part of the larger classic car community. Thus, I am constantly searching for new ways to help kindle that interest. Queue … [Read more...]
Review by Wallace Wyss Now that even the 1966 Shelby GT350 is worth over $150,000 it is more important than ever that there be a single source to carry around to "authenticate" Shelby Mustangs that come up for sale through private sales or public auctions. Greg Kolasa’s new book The Definitive Shelby Mustang Guide: 1965-1970 by CarTech goes a long way toward being that one book you can carry … [Read more...]
Review by Rick Carey, Auction Editor In the fast-changing world of collector car values it’s good to reflect from time-to-time on where the market has been, where it is and where it is going. The annual Classic Car Auction Yearbook rings that bell with a yearly recap of the top sales in the collector car market. Published in mid-fall, the Classic Car Auction Yearbook recaps the … [Read more...]
A motorsport photographer has raised £7,000 for charity in the last 18 months, by donating the profits from the sale of his books, which feature much of the action from two historic motor racing series run by Motor Racing Legends. Photographer John Retter is a stalwart supporter of Teenage Cancer Trust and, over the last two years, he has created a limited-edition series of books of his … [Read more...]
The Automobilia Monterey 2012 was held Tuesday, August 14th and Wednesday, August 15th at the Embassy Suites in Seaside, California. Long a mainstay of Monterey Classic Car Week, the 10th annual Automobilia Monterey again demonstrated why it's considered by many to be the preeminent show in North America for collectors of original, vintage automotive collectibles. Tony Singer, the driving force … [Read more...]
Review by Wallace Wyss It was a long time coming; a near complete authorized biography of a giant in American sports car circles, Carroll Hall Shelby. The author is a surprising choice, British author Rinsey Mills, surprising only because in a couple of his earlier books on Shelby he seemed of the opinion that the British side of the AC Cobra story wasn't being given due credit, a … [Read more...]
An exhibition examining Andy Warhol's fascination with automotive vehicles as products of American consumer society is on display until May 13, 2012 at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Warhol and Cars: American Icons exhibit features more than forty drawings, paintings, photographs and related archival material spanning from 1946 to 1986. The exhibition traces the … [Read more...]
Several prominent cars from the famed Ralph Lauren Collection are currently offered for sale, and at prices that will make you jump for your wallet. For a mere $9,500, you can have your choice between the Ferrari 250 GTO, Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic, McLaren F1 GTR or Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa. The only catch is that they are offered in 1:8 scale... The headline cars in Mr. Lauren's private … [Read more...]
By Will Silk Spark Models has been around for a little over a decade now, and recently the company released a 1:43 scale replica of Porsche’s all new GT3R Hybrid racing car. Selecting the GT3R Hybrid to model in 1:43 scale offers Porsche enthusiasts the opportunity to snatch what is probably the most technologically innovative car to ever emerge from the Stuttgart firm. The 997 GT3R … [Read more...]
By Edward Lenahan Among the many reasons to read Michael Cannell’s newest novel “The Limit,” which accurately reanimates the 1961 Formula One world championship with sharp writing and fastidious research, none is so important or rare as the book’s honest portrayal of frailty in those too often romanticized as superhuman. It’s no secret that books and movies about auto racing have … [Read more...]
Review by Wallace Wyss With John Bentley doing the ghostwriting, Carroll Shelby wrote his book The Cobra Story in 1965, at a point when the Cobra story wasn’t done yet — not by a long shot. So you could say he began building the legend of Shelby American even before he was done with the first phase of the Cobra and, remarkably, he is still building them 50 years later! There have been … [Read more...]
Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend By Al Axelrod OK...finally a book on a wild and crazy guy, whose accomplishments are little noted or recognized. Why, you may ask , was it written? The tragic life-ending event for the Thompsons--murder--has somehow made all sort of folks want to quickly forget the man, his mechanical skills and his leadership … [Read more...]
By Will Silk James Fontana’s new book The 1000 Mile Dream is a fictional piece that parallels the actual running of a Mille Miglia event during those glorious days of the early 1950s. While purists and historians will have to take a moment to perhaps adjust from time to time in reference to how close the author gets to the actual event, the story is nonetheless very entertaining and filled … [Read more...]
