The engine and transmission Shelby dropped into the car were as exotic as corn dogs at a state fair Carroll Shelby’s concept was simple enough. Take the attractive, lightweight, well-proven Ace roadster built by AC Cars and turn it into a world-beating production racer by the simple expedient of replacing […]
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.
1965 Shelby GT350 R
Race cars have always been weapons for a battle, complex mechanisms that allowed talented humans to compete for pleasure and glory It is impossible to define a Shelby GT350 R any better than the Shelby American Automobile Club’s 1997 Registry does. “The competition model was the car the GT350 started […]
1935 MG R-type
A tiny, wavering soprano has a tough time in a Wagnerian opera, no matter how good she may be Last of the Abingdon marque’s pre-WWII racing cars, the R-type was unveiled on April 25, 1935. Beautifully wrought, its revolutionary chassis boasted such advanced features as selective dampers and finned drum […]
1955 Maserati 300S
In 1955, after taking delivery of his most powerful Maserati to date, the three-liter 300S offered here, chassis number 3057, Benoit Musy contested eleven European Sports Car Championship events, winning five times and scoring a further five podium finishes up to the August 12, 1956, Kristianstad Swedish Grand Prix, which […]
“Goodall Special Sports”
According to information supplied by the vendor, this intriguing two-seater special is believed to have been constructed in 1926 by one Cleland C. Castleman. Built around an inverted ladder frame (hence the ground-hugging stance), it’s equipped with a beam front axle, “live” rear end, leaf springs, and Andre-Hartford-style friction dampers. […]
1965 Ferrari 1512
Ferrari built three of these cars 40 years ago and never used the engine again. If you blew it up, it would be a very long walk home In an attempt to curb the ever-increasing speeds of Formula One, engine regulations were changed in 1961 to a maximum capacity of […]
1967 Lotus Type 51 FF
It was a class where being faster than the other guy meant you were a quicker driver, not that you had spent more money {vsig}2006-2_1915{/vsig} Introduced in 1967, the Lotus Type 51 was the Norfolk concern’s first specific Formula Ford design. Derived in part from the earlier Type 31 Formula […]
1973 Datsun 240Z Race Car
Trailing throttle oversteer resulted in far more of them leaving the track backwards than ever drove off straight {vsig}2006-1_1909{/vsig} When Spike Anderson went trawling for a bottom-feeder race car in England, he started at a fish-and-chip shop.Anderson bought “LAL,” a four-year-old Datsun 240Z from a Greek fish-and-chip shop owner, a […]
1965 Shelby Daytona 427 Coupe
Those who worship at the altar of the Snake will kneel and genuflect, but was it ever a real car? {vsig}2005-12_1903{/vsig} This prototype is the only 427 Cobra Daytona Coupe in existence. Following the successful campaign of the small block Cobra Daytona Coupes in 1964, Shelby’s Director of Special […]
1964 Ford GT40 Prototype
Whoever won the battle to own this car spent an absolutely scandalous amount of money to do so, presumably because the car is so historicallyimportant {vsig}2005-11_1896{/vsig} In April of 1964 the Ford GT40 was unveiled to the automotive press, and the journalists and industry executives alike were awestruck by the […]