Denise McCluggage was the only female racing driver in the Automotive Hall of Fame. Founder editor of Competition Press, later Autoweek, lucid and funny, the last time I saw her was at Monterey in August 1996 when she gave me a copy of her last book, inscribing it, “… best of luck with the Clark book.”
Read MorePORSCHE 928S Sunday Times Motoring by Eric Dymock 4 Jan 1987 Classic Archive 015
Like all the best sporting kit, the Porsche 928S had supreme balance. It was as well that it did not handle like the rear-engined 911. Instead, it had the traction of a racing car. The practical limit of its immense cornering power lay well beyond anything required of a road car.
Read MoreBRM Wins. Classic Archive 014
British Racing Motors never got over the Sunday Pictorial: “FOUR YEARS —18 MEN, £160,000, MUCH OF IT IN HALF-CROWNS, WENT TO BUILD A CAR THAT WOULD NOT START. Jackie Stewart demonstrated the thrilling supercharged sixteen-cylinder masterpiece that jerked only yards off a 1950s Silverstone starting grid. It was ignominy then. Yet three years later, at my first-ever motor race, I saw one win.
Read MoreJohnny Bute (1958-2021)
John Colum Crichton-Stuart (1958-2021). Dilemma of the regal or the celebrated. Anonymity was impossible. Second fiddle to Ayrton Senna at Lotus 1986; winner at Le Mans with Jaguar in 1988. No 774 on The Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated £158 million.
Read MoreMG EX-E Classic archive
My copy sent to The Sunday Times for my motoring column of 14 May 1989 (below) was a lament for the MG EX-E shown as a prototype but never made. MG Rover was in decline but the MG’s example was followed by Nissan with the 200SX.. EX-E is included in a full account of MG, model by model, MG Classics, Books 1, 2,and 3.
Read MoreJim Clark meets Yuri Gagarin
Jim Clark and Yuri Gagarin met at Clermont Ferrand in 1965. Three years later, within days of one another, both suffered fatal accidents. The world’s first astronaut made his earth orbit in April 1961 and died 53 years ago on March 27. His MiG-15 jet trainer crashed near Moscow just over a week before Clark’s accident at Hockenheim. Clark and Dan Gurney at Indy (above).
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