Fred Luther was a pioneering motorcycle rider who had been competing since 1915. By 1934 his life must have become somewhat mundane as he came up with the idea of building a motorcycle to break the Land Speed Record.
The Donington Grand Prix in 1937. The first chance the British public had to see the Mercedes and Auto Union cars racing and, what a spectacle it proved to be! Though the reputation of the machines preceded them, no-one was prepared for that first lap.
Now then! The history of motoring has seen any number of twin-engined adventures, usually to nobody’s worthwhile benefit. But this wonderful little, Brazilian, home-build race car from 1971, was a bit special. Even for that sphere of novelty.
Built in 1954, under official approval from the Supreme Presidium of the Soviet Socialist Republic, it’s claimed to have been the world’s first car ever jet-driven land vehicle, loaded, as it was, with the motivational extracts of a MIG-17.
• Milestone grid of front-engined GP racers featuring legendary ERAs, Ferraris and Maseratis
• Entries include cars from the circuit’s first Grand Prix in 1948 track
• Incredible Formula One track action adds to Bank Holiday celebrations
• Full range of family festival tickets now on sale
Bertie clearly knew his way around a chip and almost certainly enjoyed sustained council with the occasional pie but still managed some respectable results in 500cc Formula 3 in spite of his 18 stone weight.
Known affectionately as the Michigan Madman, farmer’s son Elon Jack Potter was possibly the first person ever to look at a Harley-Davidson and think to himself; “you know, what that really needs to make it go, is a nice, big Chevrolet V8”. And then actually go and make the necessary arrangements!
Here we find part time inventor, Mr W.T. Warren in 1912, demonstrating his 'Warren Safety Helmet' at William Ewen's flying school in Hendon near London.
The car was based on the 2.5 litre Grand Prix BRM chassis, cut in half down the middle and widened to make a two seater. At Le Mans that April, the car ran well though they discovered that body let water in just about everywhere and that the rear end had a tendency to lift at high speed!
The race took place in appalling conditions which today would have seen the assembled participants sitting comfortably in their motorhomes until is was safe to venture out.
Having looked at six wheel cars in the past, I thought that we would bring you a very early vision into the benefits of multi wheel motoring.
It really is Neubauer, though you'll have to take our word for that!The Austro-Daimler Sascha was the brain child of Count Alexander Kolowrat-Kratowsky.
It is September 7th, 1968, Chuck Booth (Driver) and Wally Meskowski (Mechanic) at the Hoosier Hundred, USAC Champ Car race, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Photograph courtesy Raymond Golub Memorial Collection
This strange vehicle is a Bédélia and as strange as this vehicle looks, the design and engineering process is perhaps even stranger.
Here he takes the wide line in 1948 at the first British Grand Prix to be held at Silverstone. Due credit should be given for the effort, but apparently he emerged from the devastated straw-bales with nothing worse than a few scratches.
Don Cameron receives his just desserts from local beauty Jo Raquel Tajada after winning a West Coast Midget race at Pamona in 1959.
Little did I know when I posted this just two days ago that she would pass away today (15th February 2023). RIP Raquel Welch.
Major Theodor Weissenbergerr wasn’t really all that popular amongst the allied aeronauts of WW2.
Here we see Derbyshire pig-farmer Reg Parnell at Lake Silverstone in Tony Vandervell’s privately entered Ferrari. Parnell would use his knowledge of the local tides and currents to beat the finest Grand Prix drivers that the World could then muster.
The track has been flooded by un-seasonal rain. Practice is cancelled, leaving you under-employed. You have a flying-helmet, some goggles, and another chap has found a canoe behind the garages.There’s a certain inevitability about what happens next.
As originally conceived, The Sumar Special was designed to carry an elegant, all-enveloping bodywork. Which led many motoring writers to describe it as one of the most beautiful cars ever to run in the Indianapolis 500. Except that of course… it wasn't.
Jochen Rindt delivering a master class of wet weather power sliding in 1969 on his way to winning the last ‘F1’ Tasman Cup race at Warwick Farm.
First run in 1906, the Targa Florio was one of the longest running motorsport events in the world.
The clue here is in the rubber straps that cling snugly and taughtly around his exposed back-end. This is the 1967 Daf Formula 3 car. And I know what you’re thinking, but actually, it wasn’t that bad at all.
Here we see Graham Hill assuming the correct position for proper chaps at Zandvoort in 1964 with the BRM P261.
This stern looking lad is Andre Moynet. A proper chap, if ever there was one.
Back in 1958, Arthur Mallock first came up with the idea of building a low-cost, but properly engineered racing car that could give a driver on a limited budget the opportunity of taking part, without embarrassment, in the popular new Formula Junior category. He called his creation the U2, as in “You too” can go motor-racing.
This is Alma Cacciandra, properly equipped for some serious track action, and getting ready to climb aboard her Scuderia St.Ambroeus, Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ during the 1965 Monza 1000kms.
Robert Peugeot decided that he wanted to do his own thing, rather than join the family firm, and created Lion-Peugeot, which despite the name was a completely separate entity from the older concern. Specialising in small engined machines, Robert saw Voiturette racing (Edwardian Formula 2) as an obvious outlet for his company’s creativity and success came swiftly.
José Estrada was one of Mexico's top drivers. Nicknamed 'Ché' he had started racing in the 1930s. Married with two children he was taking part in the second running of the Carrera Panamericana at the age of 51.
Nicknamed “The Beast of Turin”, this was definitely a vehicle of LARGE proportions. The radiator cap was five foot from the ground! But it’s largest and most beastly feature was it’s 28.3 Litre, 4-cylinder engine. It is thought that the individual cylinder capacity of just over 7-Litres was the largest ever built to use spark-ignition. Best of all though, it seems to have been a completely pointless exercise, resulting in a completely useless progeny.
Why they ever bothered is far from clear!
Bob Osiecki was a NASCAR team owner during the mid to late Fifties, entering two 1957 Plymouths in the 1957 Daytona 500 on the beach course. That year he also started the Chester Drag strip and the Charlotte Custom Car Show.
However he makes these pages due to his attempts to set a new closed course record of over 180 mph.
Of all the mad races that ever were, the Carrera Panamericana ranked amongst the maddest. A nine-stage, five day road race, inaugurated in 1950 to commemorate the opening of the Mexican section of the Pan-American Highway. It ran almost the entire length of Mexico, combining sections of mountain switchback with enormously fast lengths of flat straight road. All with the added colour of precipitous ravines and goat-infested villages.
The winner that year, Alberto Ascari, completed the thousand mile journey from Brescia through Pescara, Rome, Pisa, Florence, Bologna, Modena, Palma and back to Brescia in about 11.5 hours, having started at 6:02 in the morning. 602 would therefore have been the race number of his car. Cipella’s number is 2100, which indicates that he started at 9pm...the evening before!
Ward had been running the 500 every year since 1951 with only a solitary 8th place to show for it. But his luck would change when his 1959 win initiated an unprecedented 6 year run of results, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 4th, 2nd. Finally notching up a total of 26 USAC victories, which was enough that today he is considered to be one of the greatest drivers of his era.
Now here's a proper bunch of chaps: These worthy gentlemen are about to embark on the The New York-Paris race of 1908. After the indifferent success of the 1907 Peking to Paris event, it was inevitable that people would want to go through it all again, but this time on an even bigger scale.
Tommy became one of the most successful drivers of his era despite the complete lack of sight in his right eye and only limited vision in his left! (He managed to pass his medicals by simply memorising the standard eyesight test cards of the day.)
Which sort of implies that it was probably the World’s only ever, all-Volkswagen Kombi race! The winner was local sportscar ace Sergio Cardoso. More usually seen at the wheel of a Ford GT40, and shown here displaying his customary, lucky number thirteen.
34 year old Walter C.Baker was a successful and prodigious producer of electrically driven vehicles between 1899 and 1916 and could count Thomas Edison himself, as one of his customers
On Friday December 18, Katayama was reported missing whilst climbing Mount Fuji with two friends. Temperatures on the 3,776-metre mountain had dropped below minus 25 degrees Celsius before dawn on Friday. They had pitched their tents at around 2,750 metres but when they blew away, they were at the mercy of the elements.
Well the answer is, as if you care; July 22nd 1894 and the Paris-Rouen Trial. The World's first organised, competitive, motoring event.
As far as is known, Major Baracca never even sat in a racing car. “So what’s he doing here then?” You rightly moan. Well, take a squint at the badge on the side of his plane, look familiar at all?
This week back in 2008 Chris served up a mix of remarkable images from the past including the iconic image of Major Peter Braid's Cooper on the roof of a hut at Blandford Army Camp
This episode of Chaps features some interesting design ideas that, how can we put it politely, were never going to work, as well as Jose-Froilan Gonzalez looking a little like the late John Belushi, apparently indulging in a Fuck-Off contest with BRM founder Raymond Mays.
For this week's Chaps we look at some of the more colourful exploits of our heroes starting with Hans Herrmann posting his retirement from the 1959 German GP at Avus.....read on.
Swiss roller Edgar Berney was generally seen as an accomplished and steady hand, with at least eight “I Drove The Le Mans 24-Hours” T-shirts hanging on his line. And, while we seriously doubt whether he ever cherished the 1966 version as a particular favourite, it was at least his best remembered!
Australo-Kiwi based Tasman racing was begun back in 1964. And, since it allowed Formula 1 machinery with only light modification, the Grand Prix set, bored with the northern hemispherical winters, took the opportunity to go racing there throughout January and February, before their own school terms started in earnest.
Now then, you lot! Imagine it’s the 10th September 1971 and the very occasion of the Iberia Airlines Trophy gala for Formula 3 cars at Crystal Palace. Colin Vandervell (son of Vanwall creator Tony Vandervell) is leading his Brabham into the North Tower section on the first lap, but’s left room under breaking for future World Champion Jody Scheckter to slip his works-entered Merlyn down his right side on a very tight line. Australian Dave Walker meanwhile, the 1971 British F3 champion-elect, has made a late shout to fill the gap between them for the glory of Gold Leaf Team Lotus. Let’s play the Intro, then…
Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Marquese de Portago (and if you don’t know what Cabeza de Vaca means, it’s well worth looking it up).
Our top chap this week is Count Louis Zborowski in Chitty-Bang-Bang (oh yes!) at Brooklands in 1921. It’s fashionable now for sons of racers to take up the old-man’s trade. But Louis Zborowski may well have been the first.
The scaffolding afflicted Porsche 917 you see here was used in the filming of Le Mans in 1970. Similar contraptions were also strapped to the front, often with an intrepid cameraman as an integral part of the assembly.
When George Eyston wound down his circuit racing activities in the early 1930s, to concentrate more fully on automotive record breaking, he was to become, very likely, the most prodigious breaker of said records that the world of individually contained, mechanised conveyances, has ever seen.
Chaps tracks! Avus, Langhorne the Widow maker, Longford and the Gavea Circuit nicknamed The Devil's Trampoline
This weeks collection of short stories brings together the unlikely trio of the Vittorio Brambilla aka the Monza Gorilla, Giles Villeneuve aka the Little Prince and Chico Landi, Brazil’s first ever World Championship contender
We’re willing to bet that these chaps have not filled in a risk-assessment report in accordance with, and as recommended by, accepted EU guidelines. Their identities appear shrouded in secrecy, although we believe that at least one of them may later have become a well known Formula 1 driver, and we also understand that the pair of them may be French. Which, frankly, should be all the explanation that you need.
After winning the World Championship with Jody Scheckter and their T4 model in 1979, Ferrari found themselves badly wrong-footed by the advances in ground-effect technology, when they introduced the T5 version for 1980. It would be Ferrari’s worst World Championship season ever. Even their 2020 efforts were not as bad!