Pete,
Bear with me as I tell you a little story about Ed Leavens, and how I came by the above photo of Moss and Zsa Zsa.
The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
By pete
By pete
The year was 1955 and my father and I had a brilliant idea of how to settle an argument. Being all of eight, I insisted that a Grand Prix car – for instance like the Mercedes W196 Stirling Moss was driving – could get around a 90-degree corner much faster than my wise old father could imagine.
He suggested that we ask the expert, Mr. Moss himself. I don’t recall how he came up with Moss’s address, but we mailed a letter which eventually found its way to the apartment that belonged to Stirling Moss, LTD.in London England. We put the question in general terms, suggesting an average streetcorner at the end of a block without stating the width of the road.
By pete
Story and photos by Graham Gauld
1952. It is remarkably 68 years since I first wrote about and photographed Stirling Moss when I was a trainee journalist with an Edinburgh newspaper. In a remarkable bit of chutzpah, I had talked the Sports Editor into letting me take over the motoring and motor racing correspondents role at the age of 17!
By pete
Story by Clyde Berryman
The following is a QPRS review of Sir Stirling Moss’ F1 Grand Prix career. Allow me to explain.
As a boardgame enthusiast in my teen years, I conceived the first of several math formula systems to try and rate the performances of real racing drivers and their cars in order to re-create actual historical Grand Prix seasons using the game mechanics of a popular Avalon Hill game called ‘Speed Circuit’ By the mid-1990’s this formula had evolved into the final version which I called the Quality Point Rating System (QPRS) because I sought to distinguish the ‘quality’ of driver performances since they all drove different cars of varying levels of competitiveness. So how does Stirling Moss rate via our QPRS system?
By pete
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
“Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?” was an oft-used phrase by British Bobbies when pulling over speeding motorists in the mid-twentieth century. So well-known in fact, that Renault used the line during the 1970s for a Renault 20 television advertisement. If I recall correctly, the scene starts with the Renault stopped on a country road with a Bobby on a bicycle next to the car. The driver’s front window then comes down electrically, and the Bobby looks at the driver in the car whilst saying the immortal line. As the camera pulls away, we see Stirling Moss at the wheel.
By pete
We’ve asked various writers, historians and journalists what might be a good book to read during these times indoors. Books that you can’t put down, are easy to digest, (pardon the pun), and known to be page-turners (no, not the car!). Last week’s “Archie and the Listers” was discussed, and several people mentioned Bill Pollack’s book, “Red Wheels and Whitesidewalls.” The excerpt below is taken from Bill’s autobiography.
Pictures and text copyright Bill Pollack
From the Archives, July 7th, 2004
Excerpts from Red Wheels and White Sidewalls with a note from Jim Sitz
There were so many people that played a part in the 50’s evolution of the sport. There were admirals and generals and actors and kids. All got involved because it was exciting and fun. We were amateurs in the strictest sense of the word, and that was a big part of the charm.
In the fifties when the sport of motor racing was beginning to catch on and it was still amateur, most of the entrants were owner-drivers. A few lucky ones like myself had the rare privilege of driving someone else’s car. Without trying to go down a roster of drivers and workers of the fifties, there were a number that stick in my memory as friends.
By pete
By Pete Vack
Photos by Graham Gauld
The story of Archie Scott Brown is incredible, unbelievable, astonishing, inspiring, heart rendering and finally, tragic; and in today’s world, such accomplishments would be totally impossible.
He was born on Friday the 13th of May, 1927 in Glasgow, Scotland, with no proper right forearm, “merely and elementary thumb and palm, which started below the elbow.” His tiny legs lacked a shinbone, and the legs were “radically twisted and bowed, and the club-feet were tiny, with no discernible toes.” The right foot was twisted outwards about 90 degrees, the left foot almost 180 degrees. Of the limbs, only the left arm and hand were normal. His mother had the German measles (rubella) during her pregnancy.*
By pete
Story and photos by Sean Smith
Where does it start, this love of cars? For Ben Bragg there always seemed to be an attraction, but there was one very strong memory. [Read more…] about Ben Bragg and the Old Grey Mare
By pete
It is with a heavy heart that I inform fellow Alfisti of the passing of my father Raymond S Boniface. He will be sorely missed by all who had the pleasure of his company. His passion for life was felt by all who knew him. Although his health prevented him from enjoying his passion for driving cars, he continued to read, discuss and ruminate about his love of Italian cars right to the end.-James Boniface, March 2020
Below is a article from the archives about the Boniface Picnic, written in 2010 by Carl Goodwin. It provides a good background to the car shows Mr. Boniface organized every year. [Read more…] about Dr. Raymond Boniface and His Car Shows
By pete
By Pete Vack
Sometime last year I determined that we needed to add more books on Bugatti to our library, and went looking for a book called Bugatti Memories by Gene Cesari, a reference I found in the latest ABC Register. It entailed a search on the Internet, and that was how I eventually stumbled onto one Donald E. Toms, in Florida, who handled the Cesari book. An email address was listed as don@bugattibooks.com and soon we were in touch.
Now, don’t figure that since his email is attached to bugattibooks.com, that there really is a bugattibooks.com website. There isn’t. Don does not have a site. And yet Don believes he “…can furnish a greater variety of Bugatti titles than any other bookseller in the world.” Except maybe Amazon.
Take that, Jeff Bezos! [Read more…] about Donald E. Toms, Bugatti Bookseller
By pete
First the name; we have to explain the name for those of us unfamiliar with British jargon. “The name Stinkwheel derives from 1930’s slang amongst motorcyclists for small-capacity, feeble two-stoke powered cyclemotors and autocycles which buzzed noisily but slowly around in a cloud of blue oily smoke- a stinkwheel,” writes Beare. His first two books were histories of such cyclemotors- “The Stinkwheel Sagas.” Thus came the name of the publishing company, which is at the very least, unforgettable. How Stinkwheel went from cyclemotors to Hispano Suiza is another good question. [Read more…] about Fiats, Panhards, and the Stinkwheel Story
By pete
By Wallace Wyss
Photos used with permissions
As a Shelby historian, Wallace Wyss has earned his spurs in the Shelby Fan Club so to speak, with three books on Shelby since 1977. Recently he met congenial PR man Scott Black of Texas, who has as a client the Shelby family, and also met one of the producers, Adam Carolla in Monterey at a Honda party. Thanks to both of them, Wyss was invited to the exclusive premiere showing on Hollywood Boulevard on January 8 of the new Shelby American documentary.