Bruce McLaren’s first sports prototype was the M1A. The team’s first self-designed car, the M1A was another simple space-frame design featuring the Oldsmobile V8 engine via a Hewland transaxle.

Frank Nichols’ Elva Cars was already building its own highly successful sports racers, and he expressed an interest in the new McLaren prototype. The result was an agreement for Trojan (Elva’s parent company) to build a production version: the McLaren-Elva, 24 of which were completed.

For 1965, the design was refined Read More

This is the Formula One Brabham in which — on September 20, 1969 — star Belgian racing driver Jacky Ickx won the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport Park, Ontario.

It is also the actual car in which Ickx finished 2nd in that same year’s Mexican Grand Prix, 3rd in the French, 5th in the Dutch and 6th in the Spanish round of the 1969 Drivers’ World Championship series.

In 1987, Ferrari celebrated their 40th anniversary, and to mark the occasion launched their most uncompromising road car ever — the twin-turbocharged, 471-bhp, 201-mph F40.

Developed by Michelotto, the F40 LM benefited from enlarged twin IHI turbocharger/intercooler units and advanced Weber-Marelli fuel injection, which increased power to over 700 bhp. A corresponding reduction in weight to just 1,050 kg resulted in predictably awesome performance, whilst the car also featured extensive chassis stiffening, race-specification transmission, uprated brakes and extensively modified bodywork.

Making its Indianapolis debut in 1948, this car failed to qualify.

George Connor was able to qualify the car in 6th position for the Indy 500 in 1949, finishing the race with an impressive 3rd overall. Bill Holland drove it at two subsequent AAA races that year at Trenton and Milwaukee. Connor drove the car in two more 500s, finishing 8th in 1950 and 30th in 1951. In 1952 and 1953, Charlie Marant entered the car at Indianapolis, but he Read More

Within the hierarchy of Enzo-era Ferraris, the sports racing barchettas of the mid-1950s are amongst the most significant cars to wear the Cavallino Rampante. The Works-campaigned examples are especially significant, as they often finished at the front of the pack at the most grueling races, piloted by the most talented drivers.

Chassis 0628 is no exception to the rule. It boasts an enviable racing history on three continents with many of the greatest drivers of its decade.

Despite the enormous success of its production-based race cars throughout its history, Porsche rarely developed such models as official factory entries, preferring instead to support them in the hands of privateer customers. One of the notable exceptions occurred in the mid-1980s with the advent of one of Stuttgart’s most celebrated and advanced models, the 959.

Longtime Porsche driver Jacky Ickx clarified his interest in developing a 959-based entrant in the Paris-Dakar Rally. Ickx was already driving Porsche 956 examples to Read More

Elva sports racers — designed by Frank Nichols — enjoyed considerable success during the 1950s and 1960s on both sides of the Atlantic. A Kentish garage owner, Nichols had commissioned a Ford-engined special with which to go racing, and the result, the CSM, was first seen in 1954.

Nichols put his next creation into production under the name Elva. The Elva featured a simple, light and rigid tubular chassis. Major departures from the CSM were the Standard Ten-based front suspension Read More

Three of the Alan Mann Racing Ford P68 or “F3L” coupes were constructed, of which we are delighted to offer this well-presented example.

In the late Alan Mann’s wonderful book Alan Mann: A Life of Change, the British Ford-specialist private entrant recalled how, “at the end of 1966, Len Bailey started a new design for us called the P68. Having won Le Mans comprehensively with an immense show of force, Ford of America suddenly pulled out of prototype sports car Read More

Holman-Moody was initially allocated three GT40s for the 1966 season: chassis P1016 (the car offered here), P1031 and P1032. Although the chassis numbers were among the sequence used for production GT40 road and racing cars, they were each built to new Mk II specifications. The GT40 Mk II was the product of Kar Kraft, Ford’s stateside sports car facility, which took the initially British-built GT40 and problem-solved its weaker aspects. The chassis was made stiffer from thicker-gauge steel, and it Read More

Bonhams is delighted to offer this ultimate, individual Aston Martin Zagato to the car-collecting world. This competition coupe — always known by its distinctive U.K. road-registration number “2 VEV” — is simply the best known and most charismatic of all Aston Martin DB4GT Zagatos.

This ultimate Zagato variant, the 1962 “Manage Project 209,” was essentially a development prototype — sharing a near-identical new chassis structure to the DP214 Works-run “Project car” design then forthcoming for the Aston Martin factory team’s Read More