Author: Thor Thorson

Thor Thorson is president of Vintage Racing Motors, a Seattle-area collector-car dealer and vintage-racing support operation. He has been actively involved with racing for over 40 years, dealing with racers from Ferraris to Sprites, but is mostly seen driving Elva sports racers. He has been writing the race-car profiles for SCM since 2003.

1966 McLaren M1B Can-Am

In 1961, Bruce McLaren applied his design skills to the M1 sports racer, developed at the same time as the Lola T70. The two mid-engine cars would fiercely contest the new Canadian-American race series. McLaren launched the M1 at the Mosport Grand Prix for sports cars in September 1964, where […]

1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super Competition Saloon

The Giulia TI (Turismo Internationale) was Alfa Romeo’s flagship high-performance saloon in the 1960s. Introduced in 1962 and outwardly almost indistinguishable from the outgoing 1.3-liter Giulietta, the Series 101 Giulia boasted a more powerful and much less fussy 1,570-cc engine. Despite their boxy, unitary construction body, the Giulietta and Giulia […]

1960 Scarab-Offenhauser Formula One Racing Single-Seater

In recent years, front-engine Formula One car competition at historic and vintage level has seen the full flowering of a fabulous and brave American motor racing project that has been recalled with great pride and nostalgic pleasure by generations of road-racing enthusiasts. Where front-running success in such historic races had […]

1963 Lotus Super Seven Series 2 1500 Cosworth

The Lotus Seven is a small, simple, lightweight two-seater open-top sports car produced by Lotus Cars (initially called Lotus Engineering) between 1957 and 1972. It was designed by Lotus founder Colin Chapman, and has been considered the embodiment of the Lotus philosophy of performance through low weight and simplicity. The […]

1982 Porsche 956

The history of 956003, and the Porsche 956 program at large, can be tracked back to 1981. That year, the FIA began to roll out regulations for its new Group C category for sports car racing, designed to replace both Group 5 (closed touring prototypes like the 935) and Group […]

1959 Lister-Chevrolet

Numerous privateer racing drivers got it in their mind to build their own car in the 1950s, with each experiencing varying degrees of luck on the track. Brian Lister had the money and the engineering know-how, so his first racing car, which was built in the mid-1950s with the able […]

1925 Bugatti Type 13 Brescia

The first 16-valve Bugatti cars were built from 1920 to 1923. Among these cars, a few rare racing models stand out. The Bugatti sales ledgers provide us with information on approximately 22 twin-magneto Type 13s, and seven single-magneto cars in 1923. In 1924, only 19 Type 13 twin-magneto models were […]

1962 MGB Sebring Lightweight

As they faced a relative failure at Sebring in 1963, MG was hoping that 1964 would bring a change in fortune for the proud marque. By this time, the MGB had been on sale for over a year, and MG was hoping to add to the car’s image with some […]

1955 Frazer Nash Le Mans Coupe

Introduced in 1953, complementing the company’s successful open sports cars, the Le Mans coupe was the first closed Frazer Nash to enter production. It used the new parallel-tube-chassis frame, around which was wrapped a beautiful, full-width alloy body that, with its curvaceous lines and horizontal front grille, hinted at the […]

1955 Jaguar D-Type

When the Jaguar D-type debuted at the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans, it finished a narrow 2nd to a 4.9-liter Ferrari V12. A year later, a D-type with a long-nosed factory body and a revised motor won the race outright. Although Jaguar retired from racing after the 1956 season, […]