Sports Car Racing
Race to Disaster – The Ards TT
The phone vibrated on my office desk. A glance to see the notification… email… subject line, “TT Film”. Curious, I locked the work laptop and read the message… it was about the Ards TT. Dear Colin, I came across your website in the course of doing some research for a film I am making for the BBC […]
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Elliott Zborowski – Death on the Corniche
1 April 1903, the motoring greats were set for the literal high-point of Nice Week – the hillclimb from Nice to La Turbie. 1903 was planned and expected to be a huge year for the sport, and Mercédès in particular. There were 12 of their 60hp machines in Nice, including a brand-new one for Count […]
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Sascha and The Ace of Clubs
Small cars hold an attraction – I would imagine since les Frères Renault first took-on the Edwardian giants – and the idea of a smaller car as a generally more efficient machine has held sway. An efficient use of resources, or merely a more stressed & stressful way of covering the same distance? I suppose […]
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Caracciola’s Over-Blown 1930
H.M.S. Catherwood’s central works, Donegall Road, Belfast. Friday, 22 August 1930 The driver retrieved a half Woodbine from his top pocket. “You still here, cub?” “Aye… til the death. Told me to stand here til I got somethin’.” “Wha? Like pleurisy?.. don’t think that would make the morning paper.” The Bo Peep flared on first […]
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Jesse Alexander, 1929-2021
“…at the Pau Grand Prix in 1955, when an American photographer murmured to me, ‘Is that your Porsche? I’ve got one.’ This was Jesse Alexander, a quiet, gentle, man who was photographing and reporting on European races for various American magazines and living in Switzerland with his wife and four daughters. He had travelled to […]
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Video: ‘The Silver Lady’ – Royce & Bentley
The video below – courtesy of the Race Day Replay’s YouTube channel – is a look at the 1962 Rolls-Royce & Bentley rally at Blenheim Palace. Fashion may have changed, and the presentation style certainly has, but it is familiar enough scene. It could be the Salon Privé Concours d’Elégance held today… I suspect many […]
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“Read All About it!” – The Morning ‘Paper That Saved British Road-Racing
It’s easy to think that ‘disruptors’ are a modern phenomenon. People who refuse to accept that their idea can’t & won’t revolutionise their field of expertise… or their part of the world. But what are Wallace McLeod & Harry Ferguson if not ‘disruptors’? Men of vision and, more importantly, action! You will likely have heard […]
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The Second is The First, and Fourth Shall be The Greatest
22nd May 1921 – one hundred years ago. A 28 year-old man is about to take the start for his first real motor race. Last year he retired his 600cc Della Ferrera motorcycle from the Circuito Internazionale di Cremona. In March he won the Coppa Verona regularity trial, bimbling along at average of 39.709 kph […]
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C’était un Déluge
We’re lucky to have a lot of motorsport heritage in Northern Ireland. We don’t make enough of a fuss about it. To that end – to make a start – here’s a look at Dundrod. Epic, terrifying, bloody quick Dundrod. Scene of many motorcycle battles, but also the Ulster Trophy for Formula One & Formula […]
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The Priest’s Bed
This is a note I made, on the train And the boy said, “Speak to me of Achille.”. The old man shifted in the bed. Something had nipped him. “What does it matter? It’s over.”. The exclamation stealing his breath, he continued at a whisper. “It is finished. Soon we’ll be dust. Like Campari, like […]
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