motor racing

120 Years of Caracciola: 1926 Grosser Preis von Deutschland (Part I)

One hundred & twenty years ago, on the 17th February 1901, a Mercédès car first entered a motor race – at Pau, France. 18 days prior – in Remagen, Germany – was born the man most synonymous with the racing Mercedes-Benz. One of the truly great drivers of the 20th century. Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola. […]

Grands Prix

F1 @ 40

2021 sees the 40th anniversary of the ‘FIA Formula One World Championship’. To explain, here’s something I put together for the 2020 “70th Anniversary Grand Prix”. So it’s time for the “70th Anniversary Grand Prix”… but 70 years of what? Not Formula One, not the F1 World Championship… It’s 70 years since the thing that […]

Rallying

La Vie En – Route Vers Lac – Rose

Motorsport barely has an ‘off season’ these days. The FIA Prizegiving seems to run straight into the Monte, Formula e and Grand Prix car launches. In years – decades – past the off season was punctuated, post-Christmas by the most magical of races – the Dakar Rally. I will really miss it this year. “But […]

Rallying

Notte Blu, Montagne Blu del Passato

A car horn blast in the early morning. A tight shot of a ‘Blu Notte’ Giulietta Sprint Veloce as it pulls out to pass our camera car. Cut to the Alfa’s interior. The navigator checks his map – a snatch of conversation in Italian – the car screeches to a halt. Driver & navigator dash […]

Grands Prix Myths & Curios Sports Car Racing

Deal with Austrian Businessman Secures Daimler’s Racing Future

December 22nd 2020 will be the 120th anniversary of the first car, as we know it. Commissioned by the gentleman in the photo – Austrian businessman & diplomat, Emil Jellinek – the 35HP model was designed by Wilhelm Maybach and Paul Daimler. A purpose-made long & wide steel chassis. A powerful 5.9 litre 4-cylinder engine, […]

Grands Prix

Simon Says… Change Drivers!

Sehr geehrter Herr Kollege! There has been some last-minute drama. ‘Mercedes-Benz-Team’ cannot field their driver. A substitute has been chosen, and he is already revelling in the ‘Mercedes-Benz-Formel-rennwagen’. The drive has gone to… André Simon. Who?! What?! Monaco and Mercedes have history. The race began in 1929 – as Caracciola and the SSK were creating […]

Featured Grands Prix Myths & Curios

Spats in The Sand Pit – The Lost Tripoli Streamliner

The 2020 Formula One titles have been decided and the teams are preparing to leave for Bahrain. This season – this mad year – we will see two races at the Bahrain International Circuit, the second of these being held on the high-speed outer circuit. Described variously as an oval(!), or like Thruxton – according […]

Featured Sports Car Racing

A Last Day in the Sun? – ’55 Targa Florio

Sicily – 16th of October, 1955. Snap! The tail of the silver machine snaps-out from under him… just like at Padova. No time to catch it at 100mph. Spin! Crunch! Falling… “Christ!” The Mercedes hits the rock-strewn ground, fully ten feet below the road. A sickening belly-flop. Landing with the full force of its 900 kilogrammes… and the […]

Northern Ireland Rallying

Michèle Mouton, Dragon Slayer – Belfast 1985

Here’s Michèle Mouton with her fire-breathing Audi quattro in Belfast, 1985. That’s it… that’s the blog. More?.. Oh, OK… The 1985 British Midland Ulster Rally – round 4 of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship and round 5 of the Shell Oils British Open Rally Championship – was a two day blast around Northern Ireland. As […]

Featured Grands Prix Myths & Curios

Neubauer, The Kilo & The Strippers – ’34 Eifelrennen

I love a ‘Ripping Yarn’ – a ‘Tall Tale’ – a ‘Shaggy Dog Story’… and a myth or legend is a nice angle for marketing. Just ask the folks at Loch Ness. So let’s talk about ‘Grand Prix Nessie’ – the myth (?) that Alfred Neubauer of Mercedes-Benz ordered all the paint be stripped off […]