The Limit

Book Trailer for The Limit

2011-10-28T09:52:00.001-07:00

The Limit Now on Facebook

2011-10-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Do you have photos or remembrances of Phil Hill, Wolfgang von Trips or the Ferrari teams of their era? Please share them at The Limit Facebook page.

Classified Ad For Phil Hill's First Ferrari

2011-10-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Phil Hill used his inheritance to buy this Ferrari 212 from Luigi Chinetti in 1952 for $600. Judging from this classified ad, he sold it for a profit a few years later.
[via the chicane]

Anthony Swofford on The Limit

2011-10-03T12:25:00.001-07:00

Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead, had this to say about The Limit:

"Before I wanted to become a writer I longed to become a Ferrari race car driver. The Limit dropped me into the driver's seats of the fastest cars in the world during the Grand Prix explosion of the 50's and 60's. The story here is compelling and FAST...the characters are massive men breathing speed and chewing adrenalin. This is a V12 blast of a book."

Pebble Beach Photos

2011-09-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

Automobiliac has 175 beautiful photos of the Concours d'Elegance, the annual collection of vintage cars. Click here to see the gallery.

Publishers Weekly Reviews The Limit

2011-09-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

Here is Publishers Weekly review of The Limit:

Publisher's Weekly Review of The Limit

Forget those NASCAR wimps; the European and Latin American sports scar and Formula One circuit of the 1950s is where real men raced—and died—according to this high-octane racing saga. Cannell (I. M. Pei: Mandarin of Modernism) follows two drivers for the Ferrari team: the steady American master-technician Phil Hill and a charismatic German bat-out-of-hell with the sublime name of Count Wolfgang von Trips. Driving day and night at insane speeds through cramped streets and blind curves without seat-belts or roll-bars, the two fight a war of attrition as dozens of competitors and teammates are mangled, cut in half, and burned alive in crashes. (Just watching the races was so lethal—“the hood spun loose and sliced through the crowd like a giant scythe, decapitating a row of spectators”—that the Vatican denounced them.) The author revs the narrative with greasy atmospherics and colorful figures like the Bond villainish motor mogul Enzo Ferrari—“What a pity. What about the car?” was his eulogy for a dead driver. There are also tales of womanizing, great stoicism, and a few pit stops for Nietzschean bombast: “It is danger and the insistent proximity to death that most ennobles the soul.” Cannell’s full-throttle epic leaves you breathless. Photos. (Nov. 7)

Le Mans 1958

2011-09-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

The poster for the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1958, the year Phil Hill won in a drenching downpour.

A 1960s Shell Commercial Featuring Riche Ginther

2011-09-19T11:22:00.001-07:00

[via the chicane]

Should Vintage Cars Be Landmarked?

2011-09-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

A post by Paul Stenguist on The New York Times Wheels blog raises an interesting question: should vintage cars be listed on the National Register of Historic Places? The Historic Vehicle Association is lobbying for federal legislation that would protect cars from alteration, such as changes in upholstery or paint color. Would collectors welcome the change? Discuss.

The Wall Street Journal on the 50th Anniversary of Hill's Championship

2011-09-08T14:23:00.000-07:00

Writing in the Wall Street Journal today, A. J. Baime, author of "Go Like Hell," called the half-century anniversary of the 1961 Italian Grand Prix "one of the most storied and macabre sporting events of the 20th century." Read the full story here.

U.K. Edition of The Limit

2011-09-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the cover and back jacket of The Limit as it will appear in the U.K. edition, to be published in November.

Duncan Hamilton on The Limit

2011-08-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Duncan Hamilton, the British sportswriter, sent the following appraisal of The Limit:

"This book masterfully recreates a distant era that seems unbelievable to us now. It is a compelling story -- shocking, sad, tragic and very human -- about men who willingly drove with the Grim Reaper and what motivated them to do so. You don't have to be a F1 fan to admire or understand it."

For Sale: Vintage Ferrari Steering Wheels

2011-08-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

I was walking down 72nd Street in Manhattan yesterday when I spotted these beautiful Ferrari steering wheels in the window of the Nicholas Brawer gallery ($6,500 each). In was greeted inside by Nicholas himself who kindly allowed me to handle one. Here's his description: "A pair of original, goblet-shaped steering wheels of the type installed on Ferrari GT cars from 1959 to 1965. The first original wheel is characterized by a mahogany multilayer handle and a polished aluminum body. The three spokes have been finished in a guilloche style, while the inside rings are lathe-turned and polished. The horn is personalized by the Prancing Horse logo in metal coated with enamel. The second wheel is almost identical but with a black bakelite rim with aluminum rivets."

Click here for more information.

The Limit Facebook Page

2011-08-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

The Limit now has a facebook page. Check it out here.

Phil Hill Billboard: Fifty Years Later

2011-08-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

September 10th marks the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, where American driver Phil Hill clinched the world championship. To commemorate the anniversary, Road & Track has posted this billboard the last corner at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca during the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
[via road & track]

Scenes from the Goodwood Festival of Speed

2011-08-05T12:52:00.001-07:00

Moss at 80

2011-08-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

Our friends at Automobiliac posted this video of Stirling Moss driving a Lotus Cortina at Goodwood.

A Short Video About Jack Brabham

2011-07-27T07:03:00.000-07:00

Team Orders

2011-07-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

Wolfgang von Trips (above) was leading Phil Hill in the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix when the phone rang in the Ferrari pits. It was Enzo Ferrari calling from Modena. On his orders team manager Romolo Tavoni held out a message board dictating the order of finish: "Trips-Hill." With the first Ferrari win of the season within reach, the team did not want to risk any entanglements. Hill bristled at the notion of team orders, and later stated publicly that he would not obey them. Discuss.

At Home in the Rhineland: Burg Hemmersbach

2011-07-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

Wolfgang von Trips grew up at Burg Hemmersbach, a moated compound eleven miles west of Cologne that his family had owned for nearly 200 years. At its center stood a 45-room Georgian manor house built incongruously on the remains of a Gothic stronghold burned by Austrian soldiers in 1793. Beyond the compound lay hundreds of acres of farmland -- a vestige of feudal Germany. It was an imposing layout, but charmingly attuned to its wooded setting with stonewalls, rustic studded doors and the sound of gurgling water.

1961 British GP

2011-07-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

Above is Bernard Cahier's photograph of Wolfgang von Trips after winning the 1961 British Grand Prix. After a summer-long duel with Phil Hill, von Trips now looked like the presumptive winner of the 1961 season.

Phil Hill in Mexico

2011-07-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

Phil Hill raced three times in the Carrera Panamericana, the so-called "Race of Death" that wound its way nearly 2,000 miles along the spine of Mexico. The fastest cars in the world tore through the backcountry, where some locals had never seen a car before. The photo above, showing Hill in a well-worn Ferrari coupe, was published in a 1959 edition of Fuller Brush Magazine.

The Limit Now Available for Pre-order

2011-06-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

The Limit: Life and death on the 1961 Grand Prix circuit will but published in November, but you can order it now at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Movie Poster: Carrera Panamericana

2011-06-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Stephen Mitchell's new documentary about the Carrera Panamericana is accompanied by a wonderful graphic. The Carrera was an open road race that jounced for nearly 2,000 miles up the spine of Mexico in the early 1950s. It was Phil Hill's introduction to international racing.

John Fitch on the Carrera Panamericana

2011-04-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

Stephen Mitchell interviews John Fitch, who drove a Mercedes
Gullwing in the Carrera Panamericana, a nine-day race up the
spine of Mexico in the mid-1950s. Memorable quote: "A driver
is always an optimist and a passenger is always a pessimist."

A Brief Encounter With Enzo Ferrari

2011-04-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

Ed Niles, former president of the Ferrari Owners Club, describes his impromptu visit with Enzo Ferrari [via Stephen Mitchell]

BBC Documentary: Grand Prix - The Killer Years

2011-04-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

Who Drove Into the Monte Carlo Railway Station?

2011-04-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

By 1961 Monaco was the last of the Grands Prix run on city streets. Cars could not build up much speed on the principality's twists and turns, but the smallest slip could send cars flying into street lamps or storefronts. A driver reportedly once missed a sharp left turn and rammed his car into the railway station (shown above). But who was it? Does anybody know? Discuss.

Phil Hill's First Car Crush: A 1931 Pierce Arrow

2011-04-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

As a youngster growing up in Santa Monica, Phil Hill was in thrall to the 1931 Pierce-Arrow LeBaron Convertible owned by his Aunt Helen. She let him sit on her lap and handle the oversized wooden steering wheel as they cruised empty canyon roads. It was a car of stately luxury with an outdoor seat for chauffeurs and a wood-lined passenger cabin furnished with a lamb's wool rug and a beaver skin lap robe. In 1954, during a hiatus from racing, Hill meticulously restored the car in his aunt's garage. He still owned it when he died in 2008. Note: the above photograph was published Fuller Brush Magazine in 1954.

Joy Ride: 250 Testarossa

2011-04-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

For Sale: Painting of Wolfgang Von Trips

2011-03-31T13:55:00.000-07:00

This would be 1961 because he's driving a Sharknose. If you're interested in purchasing, please contact Elaine Montaner (elainemontaner@msn.com)>

The Death of de Portago

2011-02-25T07:46:00.001-08:00

Were the British GP Tracks Too Boring?

2011-02-23T15:27:00.000-08:00

Shown above is the start of the 1961 British Grand Prix at Aintree. It was a flat, featureless track that ran parallel to a steeplechase course. I've heard that British law forbade the use of public roads and British GP was therefore confined to closed circuits like Aintree and Silverstone. True?

Life Magazine Visits Wolfgang von Trips

2011-02-17T07:12:00.000-08:00

A reporter and photographer from Life magazine visited Wolfgang von Trips at his family castle outside Cologne on August 1, 1961. They came to prepare a profile of the young count in expectation that he would win the Grand Prix championship a month later at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Von Trips crashed and died on the second lap of that race, and the profile never ran. But you can see a few of Life's photographs in their archive.

A Preview of Carrera Panamericana Documentary

2011-02-15T08:17:00.000-08:00

Stephen Mitchell is creating a documentary about the Carrera Panamericana. Here's a peek:

On the Block: Ferraris Raced in the Carrera Panamericana

2011-02-02T07:28:00.000-08:00

Two early 1950s Ferraris raced in the Carrera Panamericana will be auctioned next month at the Amelia Island Concours D'Elegance. Estimages range from $375,000 to $3.5 million.
[via wheels]

Can You Identify These Drivers?

2011-01-25T12:56:00.000-08:00

In his excellent book, The New Matadors, Ken Purdy describes a series of drivers. Can you help me identify them?

A. A loud mouthed braggart who cannot sleep without a photograph of his death brother on the night table.

B. A driver who deprived himself to support five distant relatives.

C. A driver who drove 350 miles in the night to bring a birthday present to his child.

D. Another who begged a friend to tie his hands to keep him from suicide.

Enzo Ferrari's Penmanship

2011-01-25T08:11:00.000-08:00

Enzo Ferrari conducted all of his correspondence in violet ink. But why? Was it so that readers would know it was from him, and not a fake?

John Lennons First Car Up For Auction

2011-01-19T08:54:00.000-08:00

What is John Lennon's Ferrari worth? His first car, a 1965 Ferrari 330 GT, is to be sold at auction on Feb. 5. Bonhams estimages it will sell for $155,000 to 220,000.
[via ny times]

Ralph Lauren's Garage

2011-01-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

This month Vanity Fair visits Ralph Lauren's Westchester garage containing 60 or so of the most
valuable vintage cars in the world.

El Caballo

2010-12-15T12:28:00.000-08:00

The Carrera Panamericana was a clash of car cultures. Marquee drivers like Juan Manuel Fangio lined up alongside oddball entrants like Akton Miller, a Californian who had assembled a little roadster, nicknamed El Caballo, from a hodgepodge of parts. El Caballo had earned a folksy following in Mexico. The locals enjoyed seeing a homegrown car go up against the big factory teams. Miller's opposite was Porfiro Rubirosa, a well-tanned dandy who wore a scarf, polo sweater and kid gloves behind the wheel of his privately owned Ferrari. When the Mexican press mischievously invited him to pose for a photo in El Caballo, Rubirosa sniffed and waved them off. Ten miles into the first leg Miller saw Rubirosa's Ferrari pulled to the shoulder with a steaming radiator. As he shot post, Miller repaid Rubirosa's hauteur by flipping him the finger.

Around the World in a Ferrari

2010-12-09T11:27:00.000-08:00

- FERRARI EVOLUTION -
Uploaded by Dragonzaur. - Watch auto videos

The First Formula 1: Silverstone 1950

2010-12-09T10:54:00.000-08:00

In May of 1950 Phil Hill broke from his training sessions in mechanics at Jaguar to attend the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the first ever Formula One race. The scene was made more spendid by the royalty seated in a special box. Queen Elizabeth and George VI came to see Nino Farina take the first of three Grands Prix on his way to winning the 1950 championship for Alfa Romeo. It has been reported that this was the first and only time a monarch has attended a British motor race. Could that be true?

The Pits

2010-12-08T10:42:00.000-08:00

The pits were a command center largely hidden from spectators' view. They had their own pressures and personalities. Share your thoughts and memories of pit culture.

Wolfgang von Trips at Monaco

2010-11-24T11:06:00.000-08:00

Wolfgang von Trips (above) never joined the lead pack at the Monaco Grand Prix of 1961. A faltering battery reduced his revs, causing him to miss a gearshift and smack into a guardrail at Mirabeau, a hairpin leading down to the tunnel. He was awarded fourth place, even though he didn't finish the race. Why? What was the provision that allowed him to be ranked fourth?

Betting on Formula 1?

2010-11-15T12:01:00.000-08:00

Today virtually every sports event has a betting line. But was that true in the 1950s? More specifically was there betting on Formula 1? It's hard to believe the casino at Monte Carlo, shown above, didn't have some kind of line on the Grand Prix run at its doorstep. Discuss.

Italian Grand Prix of 1961: First GP Televised?

2010-11-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

A.J. Baime, in his excellent book "Go Like Hell" says the 1961 Italian Grand Prix at Monza was among the first televised races. Could this be true? Many of us have seen YouTube footage of earlier races that were produced for television. Did he mean to say that it was among the first to be televised live?

The Making of Grand Prix Part 2

2010-11-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

As an addendum to my earlier post on "Grand Prix," the movie made by John Frankenheimer in 1966, here is a link to Life magazine's article about the movie.

The Making of Grand Prix

2010-10-27T13:04:00.001-07:00

1960: The Year Ferrari Seemed Out of Date

2010-10-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Throughout the 1950s Ferrari dominated with a succession of bullying, bellowing engines. The British marques had seemed anemic and alarmingly fragile by comparison. By 1959 the tables had turned. The British answered the Italian hysteria for speed with a cool and calculated efficiency. The engineers at Cooper and BRM had produced a new species of Grand Prix cars with the engine moved from front to rear. In the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix, Hill chased Jack Brabham's rounded little Cooper (above) for lap after lap. The pace was too much for Hill's Ferrari. On lap 29 the engine ignited. Hill jumped out and patted down his burning coveralls and doused the engine fire with a tiny extinguisher. He took off again, but there was no catching Brabham. A Ferrari in flames fed the impression that Ferraris were straining to keep up, and they were.

2010-10-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

In 1952 Phil Hill entered the Carrera Panamericana, a 1,933-mile Mexican Road race, in a well-worn Ferrari owned by Allan Guiberson. The Ferrari's main rival would be a small fleet of Mercedes 300 SL, a low-slung sports car nicknamed the Gullwing because its doors hinged upward like wings. The Mercedes factories had been severely bombed during the war, but that did not stop German engineers. Using existing parts, they created a car with exceptional acceleration and low aerodynamic drag. It is one of the most iconic sports cars in history. Quiz question: Which movie star drove the Gullwing in "To Catch a Thief"?

The Car That Brought Phil Hill Out of Retirement

2010-10-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Phil Hill was on the verge of competing on the world stage when a family doctor found an ulcer and urged him to quite racing or risk a hemorrhage. He returned to Santa Monica and worked as a part-time mechanic while restoring his aunt's Pierce-Arrow LeBaron Convertible Town Cabriolet. He was beginning to feel what he called "the strain of inactivity" in the fall of 1954 when he received in the mail a photo of this Ferrari with a note attached: Guaranteed not to cause ulcers.

Collectible: Race Posters

2010-09-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm not a collector by nature, but I'm tempted by the vintage Ferrari items offered in abundance on the Internet and auctions. Pictured above, for example, is a poster for the 1958 running of Le Mans, which Phil Hill won in a driving rain. It's available for $1,999 from Ferrari Stuff.

Switch to Rear-Engines

2010-09-23T11:44:00.000-07:00


1959 Cooper T51

By 1959 the British had answered the Italian hysteria for speed with a cool and calculated efficiency. The engineers at BRM had produced a new species of Grand Prix cars with the engine moved form front to rear. Cooper and Lotus followed. With the weight now centered just behind the driver, the cars were more balanced and agile as they slipped around the corners. The change also lent an aerodynamic advantage: Without the engine up front the hood was slimmer and posed less wind resistance.

What I'm unsure about is this: What cultural disposition led the Brits to make this change? Was it that they lacked the kind of robust manufacturing base that supported Ferrari and Maserati, and therefore had to rely on ingenuity?

Do Cars Have Gender?

2010-09-13T06:25:00.000-07:00

It is customary to treats boats as females. "She lies at her mooring," for example. But what about cars? The Ferrari GTs, with their bodacious curves, seem to call for female pronouns. But are some cars a he?

Stirling Moss: A Racing Life

2010-09-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here is an excerpt of a new documentary on Stirling Moss's career.

Coal-Powered Car: The Opel

2010-09-03T07:34:00.001-07:00

The first car Wolfgang von trips drove was the family Opel, a German-made sedan which ran on firewood and coal. I'm not sure if the car pictured above is an Opel, but it appears to have the same ungainly configuration. The virtue of the Opel was that it could still operate while other cars were grounded for lack of gas in the war years.

Phil Hill: Last Lap At Laguna Seca

2010-08-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

In 2008, former GP champion Phil Hill, by then confined to a wheelchair, took a final lap at Laguna Seca, the site of some of his earliest races half a century earlier. His son Derek is at the wheel.

Eugenio Castellotti, Italy's Great Hope

2010-08-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

On March 13th, 1957 Eugenio Castellotti was in Florence where his girlfriend, Delia Scala, was performing in a play. The phone rang that evening. It was Enzo Ferrari angrily summoning him back to Modena to defend the track record at the local autodrome from Maserati, which was threatening to steal it. Castellotti roused himself at 5 a.m. the next morning and drove to Modena where he was met by a handful of mechanics and an untested Formula 1 Ferrari. He climbed in and blasted down a damp track at more than 100 mph. On the third lap the crew signaled him to accelerate. He bungled a crucial downshift coming out of a curve. After a few desperate swerves his car flipped and rolled into a concrete wall beneath a small grandstand. Castellotti was thrown out and landed on the tarmac. He died instantly of a skull fracture. Don Sergio Mantovani, a local parish priest who was a fixture in the pits, ran through the smoke and debris and knelt beside Castellotti. His left eye was open, but he was fading fast. Mantovani raised his hand and blessed him. Castellotti and Scala were to have been married 25 days later.

Le Mans 1955: The Moment of Impact

2010-08-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken moments after Pierre Levegh's Mercedes flew into the grandstand on June 11, 1955. The hood flew off, decapitating the first row of spectators. The engine parts followed like a spray of shrapnel. Most accounts give the death toll at eighty, though I don't think that was ever confirmed. Another unresolved question: Was Wolfgang von Trips originally scheduled to drive? Did the Mercedes race director Alfred Neubauer switch von Trips for Levegh? If so, why?

Grand Prix on Film: The Racers

2010-08-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

In 1955, while he was on a hiatus from racing, Hill worked on a Kirk Douglas film called The Racers. His job was to maintain three Maseratis and two Ferraris imported for the shoots, and to show Douglas and other actors how to drive them in and out of the mock pits without stalling or stripping the gears.

The Road to Le Mans, 1955

2010-08-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

In the spring of 1955 Phil Hill arrived in Modena, capital city of Italian racing, after an all-night train ride from Barcelona. He waited bleary eyed in a dingy cubicle. The door opened. Standing over Hill the formidable bulk of Enzo Ferrari, his silver hair swept back and his drooping eyelids cloaked behind thick sunglasses. Ferrari led Hill to the factory floor where mechanics were readying a Ferrari 121 LM for Le Mans. It was a long, swoopy car with a muscled up engine built to compete with the new Mercedes. Ferrari asked Hill what he thought of it. Beautiful, Hill said.
"Then how would you like to drive it at Le Mans," Ferrari said, "with your great protagonist from Mexico, Umberto Maglioli?"

Phil Hill and Automotive Forensics

2010-08-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

In 1954, just as his racing career was getting underway, Phil Hill was diagnosed with an ulcer. If he didn't quite, his doctor warned. He could hemorrhage. His temperament was ill-suited to idlness, and he gravitated to the family garage where a demanding project awaited. He restored his aunt's 1931 Le Baron Pierce-Arrow, the lustrous object of his childhood admiration.

Wolfgang von Trips: Flight From the Castle

2010-07-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

In the final desperate months of World War II the Hitler Youth deployed Wolfgang von Trips to Belgium for combat training. After learning to handle machine guns and shoulder-mounted anti-tank rockets he suffered what was described as a nervous breakdown. He was dismissed, only to be enlisted with his father to dig foxholes as Cologne prepared for a last-ditch defense against American GI's advancing eastward toward the Rhine River.

Wolfgang and his father skipped out. Instead of digging, they packed Wolfgang's mother and grandmother into the family Opel and went into hiding. As the U.S. troops closed in, they cross they crossed the old bridge spanning the Rhine minutes before the retreating Germans detonated it.

Guiseppe Campari: Driver and Opera Singer

2010-07-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

Guiseppe Campari was an Alpha Romeo driver of the Twenties and Thirties. He was also an aspiring opera singer. He once performed the part of Alfredo in a "La Traviata" at a theater in Bergamo. Enzo Ferrari, who was in attendance, reported that Campari's "top notes were sustained and formidable" but the lower notes were hardly audible. A member of the audience shouted that he should go back to car racing. Campari broke off in the middle of his performance and shouted back: "When I race, they tell me to go and sing. When I sign they tell me to go back to racing. What am I to do?"

Detailed Sharknose Replica

2010-07-08T12:18:00.001-07:00

René Dreyfus: From Grand Prix to Restaurateur

2010-06-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

The French driver René Dreyfus won 36 races across Europe in the 1920s and 1930s in Ferraris, Maseratis and Bugattis. In 1940, he came to the U.S. to race a Maserati in the Indianapolis 500. As a Jew who had consistently humiliated Mercedes, he decided not to return to France. Instead, he became a U.S. citizen and opened Le Chanteclair, a New York restaurant that became a meeting spot for racers passing through New York.

The Death of Peter Collins

2010-06-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

The British drivers Peter Collins (above), Mike Hawthorne and Tony Brooks formed a caravan in the lead of the German Grand Prix in 1958. "I knew that I had to get sufficiently far ahead of Peter and Mike on that eleventh lap to prevent them from catching me on the straight, where the Ferraris were considerably faster than the Vanwall," Brooks said. The red cars fought to keep up with Brooks as they ground into a tricky serpentine stretch known as the Pflantzgarten. All three crested a hill in third gear. They touched the brakes and shifted to second as the cars caught air on the downslope. After a dip they accelerated up a short, steep rise leading to a right hand turn. From his rear position Hawthorne could see that Collins was entering the bend too fast and too wide. Collins tried to swing his car back into line but it was too late. The rear wheel hit a low embankment on the left side of the road. Hawthorne braced himself for collision: he expected Collins to bounce off the embankment and spin across the road. But he didn't. Instead the car flipped in the air and landed upside down in a cloud of dust.

Piero Taruffi: The Silver Fox

2010-06-11T11:36:00.001-07:00

Piero Taruffi had entered the Mille Miglia, his country's most prestigious race, twelve times without winning. In 1957 he told his wife that he would retire if he won. The final stretch through the Po Valley was a wheel-to-wheel battle between Taruffi and Wolfgang von Trips. In the last few yards von Trips pulled back to let Taruffi win. He stood on the podium in Brescia smiling and waving half a dollar bill. Before the race Bernard Cahier, the journalist, had ripped the bill in two, saying they would reunite the halves in Bresia to buy a celebratory bottle of champagne.

Stirling Moss: Gallows Humor

2010-06-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

The drivers rarely talked about danger, except with darkest humor. When a friend said, "See you next week" to Stirling Moss, his standard response was, "Well, I hope so."

Wolfgang von Trips: First Laps in Formula 1

2010-06-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

In January of 1957 Wolfgang von Trips, newly hired by Ferrari, began practicing in a Formula 1 car. Peter Collins coached him as he adjusted to the car in the Buenos Aires autodromo. "Every time I tried it I either wound up in the lawn or spinning around like a carousel," he wrote in his diary. "There was a sharp corner driving me to despair, and I began to wonder about the infinite patience of Peter Collins, who came around each time to tell me what I was doing wrong."

Who Was Michele Albert?

2010-06-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

Phil Hill finished third in the German Grand Prix of 1961, a disappointing result for a driver who aspired to win the championship. Did this woman bring him bad luck? After the race, Laura Ferrari said, "Whenever the black maiden from Marseille is present, Phil Hill has bad luck! She was there, the dark, beautiful brunette teacher Michele Albert." Who was Michele Albert? Hill's girlfriend? And why did has have the reputation for bringing bad luck?

The Big Man: Alfred Neubauer

2010-06-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

Alfred Neubauer, manager of the Mercedes team, was one of racing's most colorful figures. By day he was a Prussian taskmaster, threatening encroaching reporters with a stick and drilling drivers in daily blackboard sessions. In the evenings he became an ebullient dinner host performing uncanny impersonations of Hitler and Marilyn Monroe. He could joke in four languages. "He was an amazing character who could have anybody snapping to attention if necessary, but also show great thought and understanding," said Stirling Moss, who is shown above to Neubauer's left. "In relaxed moments he could have us all rolling about with laughter."

Danger: High Banking

2010-05-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

The high banking found at Monza and other tracks catapulted errant cars like cannonballs. The banked turns tended to be bumpy, and they exerted a centrifugal pull the light cars were not designed to handle. Above Richard von Frankenberg leaves the track at AVUS.

Eugenio Castellotti, Il Bello.

2010-05-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

Enzo Ferrari favored drivers like Eugenio Castellotti (shown above with Mike Hawthorne, Juan Fangio, Alfonso de Portago and Peter Collins) who drove like madmen without calculating the peril. Castellotti was a wealthy young Lodi gentleman who lounged in the pits with a white helmet pushed back over midnight black hair and a blue jacket pulled tight around muscular shoulders. A cigarette dangled from his shapely lips. The Italian women called Il Bello, the beautiful one.

Enzo Ferrari: Pope of the North

2010-05-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

Enzo Ferrari came to be known as the "the Pope of the North." The more he won, the more movie stars, business leaders and politicians gravitated to Maranello, as if by pilgrimage. His clients--he always called them clients, not customers--included Nelson Rockefeller, Jimmy Stewart, William Holden and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

Appointments with Ferrari were as coveted as a papal audience. The clienti entered an archway in a low ochre block and sat waiting--and waiting--in a bare cubicle outside Ferrari's office. They delay was his passive aggressive means of expressing his disdain; in his view, the clienti rare deserved such exquisite cars.

Pseudonym: Pierre Levegh

2010-05-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

Pierre Boullin was a short, solemn man known to his friends as "the Bishop." He was the key player in one of racing's most horrific disasters. In the third hour of racing at the 1955 Le Mans, Boullin swerved to avoid Mike Hawthorne and clipped the back of an Austin-Healey. His car somersaulted the air and landed on an embankment, spraying its parts into the grandstand. Some 83 people died and 76 were badly wounded.

Oddly enough the racing world does not know him as Pierre Boullin. His raced under the name Pierre Levegh, which was anagram constructed from his uncle's name. Why did drivers race under pseudonyms, and was it just the French?

Enzo Ferrari's Darkest Hour

2010-05-12T11:25:00.001-07:00

In 1949 Enzo Ferrari was red-eyed and haggard. The war had aged him and laid waste to his operations. The shop that once hummed with bustling craftsmen now lay empty and silent. He had built a small factory in the nearby town of Maranello where he fabricated machine tools and other munitions for the German and Italian armies until an American bombing raid put an end to production. Even in these discouraged hours Ferrari was scheming: he was in the early stages of building sports cars under his own name, though he could not yet imagine much demand for them.

On The Lakebeds

2010-05-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

Stripped for speed and pepped for power, the hotrods onto the dry lake beds of California like a sinister fleet. They were uncomfortable but fast, skimming across the hard-packed sand at 180 mph and kicking up 30-foot rooster tails of chalky dust.

Pebble Beach 1950

2010-05-05T07:17:00.001-07:00

In November of 1950 Phil Hill won the Pebble Beach road race, one of the first European-style open road races in America. Whatever qualms Hill may have felt that day, he could take comfort in his car, a curvy, long-hooded Jaguar XK-120 that had accompanied him from England six months earlier on the Queen Mary. It was the first sports car that Jaguar had made after the war and the fastest vehicle on the road--a gleaming trophy for a post-war world besotted with speed.

Phil Hill: After the Championship

2010-04-29T13:16:00.001-07:00

Before the start of the 1962 season eight key members of the Ferrari management walked out. Unfortunately for Phil Hill, the world champion, the turmoil caused Ferrari to be uncompetitive. With only superficial improvements, the Sharknose had lost its edge against the new engineering Lotus, BRM and Cooper. When Ferrari introduced a lighter, slimmer Formula 1 car at the German Grand Prix Hill refused to drive it. "It will be a better car some day," he said. "But it isn't yet. It has not been tested enough."

Last Lap: Stirling Moss at Goodwood, 1962

2010-04-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

On April 24th, 1962, Stirling Moss entered a minor Formula 1 race known as the Glover Trophy at the Goodwood track in West Sussex. He danced at a country dancehall until 2 a.m. the night before, then rose, apparently unaffected, and prepares his pale green Lotus. On the eighth lap he pulled into the pits with a jammed gearbox. By the time mechanics fixed it he had dropped to 17th place. "What are you goign to do?" a friend asked. "Have a bloody go," Moss answered. In his determination to make up time he flew down straights at 180 m.p.h. and hurtled into corners at 75 m.p.h.--dangerously close to the limit." He's pushing it," a mechanic said. On the 35th lap Moss neared a twisty right-then-left turn called St. Mary's Corner at 110 m.p.h. when his car unaccountably veered off the road, streaked across 150 yards of lawn and smacked into an eight food embankment. It took mechanics half an hour to saw through the crumpled aluminum and remove his limp and unconscious body. A nurse held his hand much of the time. Blood smeared his face and dripped onto his white coveralls. His right cheek was torn open and and his left eye socket was shattered. The crumpled steering wheel had broken two ribs. X-rays revealed severe bruising on the right side of his brain. He lay in a coma for a month, his left side partially paralyzed.

Question: British Racing Blue or Green?

2010-04-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

By tradition the Italian cars were red. The German cars were silver. But what about the British cars? Britain's official livery was green, as shown in the Lotus above. But why were the Rob Walker cars dark blue? Can anyone explain?

Wolfgang von Trips: Never Nervous

2010-04-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

Phil Hill was a nervous wreck before races. He chain smoked and compulsively wiped his goggles. Wolfgang von Trips, on the other hand, always appeared serene confident. In fact a French magazine published this photos of him snoozing in the pits hours before his death in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix

Phil Hill, The Unlikely Champion

2010-04-22T10:16:00.001-07:00

In September of 1961 Hill went home to Santa Monica where the Grand Prix championship barely registered. He had the misfortune of devoting his life to a sport that Americans considered barely more than a rumor. Like the Tour de France, it was a European preoccupation that warranted only cursory notice in U.S. newspapers. If Americans cared about car racing at all it was the Indianapolis 500.

The Hill-von Trips rivalry was far eclipsed in America by a gripping contest closer to home: the summer long home run derby between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Hill had the misfortune of winning the Grand Prix title two weeks before Maris broke Babe Ruth’s single-season record of 60 home runs. It was clear who America’s hero was.

The part of the problem was that Hill did not look like a champion. He was slight of build and grim-faced, with none of the winner’s swagger. Plus, there was something fragile about him in those months after Monza. “Perhaps I am oversensitive,” he wrote in October, “but since returning to America this fall I have found that I am being treated with kid gloves.”

Phil Hill, Coverboy

2010-04-21T09:06:00.001-07:00

Phil Hill was never one to court the press. But in 1959 Sports Illustrated named him sports car driver of the year. Read the article here.

Vintage Footage: Monaco GP of 1961

2010-04-16T11:49:00.001-07:00

Eight Tragic Seconds: Wolfgang von Trips at Monza

2010-04-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Ferrari Sharknose: Most Beautiful Car Ever?

2010-04-14T06:05:00.000-07:00

IN February of 1961 the automotive press came to Maranello, Italy to see the results of Carlo Chiti’s secret project: The Ferrari 156 was a stripped-down thin-skinned stunner with tapered torpedo lines. Beneath its gleaming red skin a 400-horsepower V6 engine nestled behind the driver. Chiti had sunk it near the middle of the chassis so that the entire car would have a lower center of gravity and handle more deftly than its predecessors. The result was a harmonic convergence of power and weight.

Chiti shaped the car with the help of a wind tunnel. It consequently had a swept-back jet age posture. The driver now leaned way back in a half-recline behind a low wrap of windscreen. It looked dazzlingly fast, and it was. In test runs von Trips touched 180 mph. It would take its nickname from the twin intake nostrils fitted on either side of its sinister snout: the Sharknose.

Much of the road testing was done by Phil Hill’s lifelong friend, Richie Ginther. Enzo Ferrari called him “an odd little man, his narrow face covered in freckles, his eyes lost in some melancholy daydream or suddenly sparking into life, his legs so skinny they seemed hardly to fill his trousers."

It looked as if the Sharknose would put Ferrari back on top. The race for horsepower had been won before the first starting flag dropped. The only question was which Ferrari driver would prevail.

Monaco GP of 1961: Most Exciting Racer Ever?

2010-04-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

Did Ferrari Tell Hill To Stand Aside at the 1961 German GP?

2010-04-12T09:32:00.001-07:00

With the practice runs underway at the German Grand Prix in 1961, word spread through the paddock that Enzo Ferrari had once again sent word from Modena that Hill should hold back, permitting von Trips to win the race and collect nine more points. According to a source interviewed by Robert Daley, the New York Times correspondent, the decision was based purely on business:

“Von Trips is to win here and the world championship, too, in recognition of his splendid victory in the rain at the British Grand Prix in July and because this will sell many Ferrari touring cars in Germany. Ferrari’s American market already is booming. He figures that a victory by Hill would not add anything in America.”

At the French Grand Prix in Rheims Hill had reluctantly complied with the order to step aside for von Trips, though it must have struck him as an unsavory European arrangement. But this time, with Hill trailing in the points tally with three races to go, the suggestion that he take a dive stirred him to defiance. On the eve of the race he told Daley that he had not received any instruction to let von Trips win, and that he would not obey any such orders.

“Ferrari can make all the decisions he wants to,” he said. “But the decisions wouldn’t mean anything unless I go along with them. I don’t intend to go along with them.”

As if to prove it, Hill went out and drove a practice lap in 8.52 minutes with an average speed of 95.2 miles. It was the fastest lap ever recorded on the Nurburgring and the first to break the nine minute barrier, which many considered an inviolable barrier.

The 1961 French GP: Phil Hill Spins at Thillois

2010-04-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

Spectators saw a broad smile of vindication under the black visor of Phil Hill’s helmet as he took the lead late in the 1961 French Grand Prix. The race was now his to lose. With a sixteen second lead he could afford to slow down and avoid risk. It looked as if he could coast home without incident. Ginther, in second, wouldn’t challenge him. Moss was laps behind, having returned to the pits for brake repairs and to have a lump of tarmac and gravel removed from his rear right wheel.
He was now all but assured of extending his lead in the Grand Prix tally and removing much of the pressure that had come with the ongoing duel.
The race appeared locked up until Hill came out of a long straight descent at 160 mph and swung into the Thillois hairpin expecting to drift his car around. Maybe he was too relaxed. Or perhaps his instincts had wilted in the heat. Whatever the cause, Hill committed a rare miscue and skidded clockwise 180 degrees directly under the gaze of a grandstand. He might have recovered if Moss, still struggling with his brakes, had not plowed into his hood, spinning him another half turn. Hill then stood mid track, cars whizzing on either side, push starting his car. He shoved the car into motion with one hand and threw it into gear with other. In the process he ran over his foot. By the time the engine shook to life and he jumped into the cockpit he had dropped to ninth place, which is how he finished.

Mike Hawthorne Retires Only to Die Three Months Later in a Road Accident

2010-03-01T13:54:00.000-08:00

The first months of retirement followed Mike Hawthorne’s plans: He and Jean Howarth were engaged and planned to marry the following year. For Christmas he gave her a boxer dog named Ferrari.

On January 22nd, 1959, he was to drive up to London to attend to some garage business and meet Louise Collins, who had had just completed a run in a traveling production of “Romanoff and Juliet,” a Cold War version of the Shakespeare play written by Peter Ustinov. A few days later he was supposed to go to Paris to meet with lawyers to provide for an illegitimate son he had fathered in France. It was a difficulty that he had resolve before finalizing his marriage plans.

He left Farnham in his Jaguar on a wet winter morning with squalling winds, heading northeast through the rolling Surrey countryside. As he drove along a ridge known as Hog’s Back he caught up to a Mercedes driven by Rob Walker, a Johnnie Walker heir who had manufactured some of England’s feistiest Formula 1 cars.

Hawthorne pulled alongside and waved. For all his thoughts of retirement and marriage, Hawthorne could not resist a tussle—especially with a Mercedes.

The two cars plunged neck-and-neck down a long hill slick with rain. They went flat out, each driver working his way up the gears to a speed of about 100 mph. Easing into a right-hand turn at the bottom Hawthorne slid and smacked the curb. The impact spun his Jaguar 180 degrees; now he was going backwards at 100 mph. The drivers were still traveling side-by-side, but facing opposite directions. Their eyes met for an instant before Hawthorn nipped the median and bounced into the rear of an oncoming truck. The collision bounced him onto the shoulder where the Jaguar wrapped itself around a tree. Walker reached him in time to see his eyes glaze over and go still. Hawthorne had escaped death on the Ferrari circuit only to find it on Hog’s Back three months into retirement.

Peter Collins at Nurburgring: Driver Error or Brake Failure?

2010-02-17T08:38:00.001-08:00

Three Brits took a commanding lead at the German Grand Prix of 1958: Peter Collins, Tony Brooks and Mike Hawthorne. They flew in that order through a series switchbacks leading to a straightaway where Hawthorne used his Ferrari’s strength to pass Brooks, only to be repassed when they came to the same turn. On the next lap Brooks used the turn again to pass Collins and take the lead. “I knew that I had to get sufficiently far ahead of Peter and Mike on that eleventh lap to prevent them from catching me on the straight, where the Ferraris were considerably faster than the Vanwall,” Brooks said.

The red cars fought to keep up with Brooks as they ground into a tricky serpentine stretch known as the Pflantzgarten. All three drivers crested a rise in third gear. They dabbed the breaks and shifted to second as the cars caught air on their way down the far side. After a dip they accelerated up a short, step hill leading to a right hand turn. From his position at the back Hawthorne could see that Collins was entering the bend too fast and too wide. Collins tried to bring to swing in back in line but too late. The rear wheel hit a low embankment on the left side of the road. Hawthorne braced himself for collision: he expected Collins to bounce off the embankment and spin across the road. But he didn’t. Instead the car flipped in the air and landed upside down in a cloud of dust. As Hawthorne passed by he could see that Collins had been thrown out.

Brooks expected Collins to challenge him on the straightaway after the Pflanzgarten. “I had no idea what had happened and I was expecting Peter to come alongside on the straight,” he said. “When I got there I had a good luck in the mirrors and was rather surprised not to see him. I realized that I had achieved my objective of getting away from the Ferraris, but I didn’t know how.”

Peter Brooks won, but nobody celebrated. Ten or so drivers gathered in a hotel room at the Sporthotel to await word on Collins. There was subdued talk and bursts of anxious laughter. Denise McCLuggage cut Jo Bonnier’s hair.
The discussion naturally turned to the cause of the crash. It was baffling: The Pflanzgarten was not a particularly dangerous spot and Collins was known as a safe driver. Had the pressure to redeem himself caused Collins to ignore the Limit in his pursuit of Brooks, or was it a simple mechanical failure.

The Day Fangio was Kidnapped

2010-01-14T10:46:00.000-08:00

In 1958, revolutionary unrest disrupted the Gran Premio, the race along Havana’s scenic waterfront. On the eve of the race three pro-Castro rebels stepped up to Juan Fangio (above), the heavy favorite, in the lobby of the Lincoln Hotel in downtown Havana and identified themselves as members of the July 26th Movement. One pressed a .45 Colt revolver to Fangio’s back and bundled him into a waiting car. As the car roared off to a house on the outskirts of Havana the rebels assured Fangio he was safe; the abduction was meant to embarrass the Batista government, and they would release him as soon as the race was over.

The next day President Batista sat in a grandstand with his family while police searched frantically for Fangio. Phil Hill, Wolfgang von Trips and other drivers waited more than an hour at the starting area after an announcer reported that Fangio had been released and was on his way. When Fangio did not appear the drivers were ordered to their cars. Fifteen minutes after the start a privately owned yellow-and-black Ferrari driven by Armando Garcia Cifuentes, an inexperienced 27-year-old Cuban, skidded on a patch of oil as he was coming out of a turn and jumped the curb. He sailed into a grandstand, killing seven people. “It seemed only an instant,” Hill said, “and bodies were being mowed down.” A cloud of dust went up and spectators rushed in to to gawk at the bloodshed. Cifuentes had lacerated face and bruises, but was otherwise unhurt. All over the Malecon officials waved red flags. The race was ended, and spectators were told to go home.

According to international rules, the five laps constituted a race. Stirling Moss was declared the winner, and he collected the $3,000 prize. Von Trips came in fourth. Hill, who had hung back with piston problems, placed fifth.

That evening the rebels turned Fangio over to the Argentine ambassador. Once freed, he made a point of saying that he had been well treated by his kidnappers. They had fed him generously and allowed him to watch the race on television.

Hill's Mechanical Skills An Advantage At Ferrari?

2010-01-12T09:22:00.002-08:00

Phil Hill (shown at right) had an acute connection with the car: Like a mother who intuits a child’s sickness, Hill knew if a car was ailing, and what misalignment of spring or sprocket might be to blame. He could recall his tach readings from any point of a practice run. He lapsed into long brooding silences over some subtle issue.

His years as a mechanic in the dirty pits of midget racing and the repair shop at International Motors served him well. As did his musical ear. Just as he could hear if his player piano was faulty or misfiring, he could he could gauge the car’s health by listening to its arpeggios and fortissimos. For him, the car was an extension of his self, just as a violin is an appendage of the musician.

On days leading up to a race he took his car out for ten or so laps at a time, then pulled into the pits to report an uneven shock or faulty toe-in. He was obsessive about these problems, however small they might be, and he could not understand the mechanics quitting for the day without addressing fixing them.

The mechanics were unaccustomed to working with a driver who knew as much as them about the car’s workings, and cared about every detail with obsessive intensity. They welcomed his feedback, but only up to a point. Like Italian tailors, the mechanics were prideful craftsmen. They saw it as trespassing when Hill diagnosed a problem for them and told them how to fix it.

The language barrier complicated Hill’s relationship to the mechanics, sometimes in his favor. The mechanics would speak only Italian. By 1958 Hill was fairly fluent, but he hid his proficiency from so that he could eavesdrop as the mechanics talked about him and the politics of the team.

Why Did Ferrari Wait So Long To Race Phil Hill in Grand Prix?

2009-12-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

Wolfgang von Trips raced in the Argentina Grand Prix immediately after joining Ferrari for the 1957 season. So why was was his teammate Phil Hill relegated to sports cars for so long? It wasn't until after Hill borrowed a Maserati for the French Grand Prix that Ferrari relented. (Hill is shown above testing his seat for that race.) Even then he may have promoted Hill only because Luigi Musso died in that race, leaving a slot open.

Were the Drivers Braver Than The Rest of Us?

2009-12-02T09:57:00.001-08:00

Stirling Moss said he welcomed the danger because bravery differentiated the drivers--it made them special. How brave were the drivers of the 1950s? Phil Hill (above) questioned whether the drivers were actually braver than anybody else. By way of example, he recalled sitting in a restaurant near a plate glass window that was quaking in a strong wind. “The racers were the first ones to flee the window before it shattered,” he said. “They are always the first ones to flee an accident on the track. They don’t want to die, they just want the possibility of death. It is their way of reaffirming life, reaffirming their life, that they are alive. Without racing they don’t really feel they are really alive. Of course this is not rational”

Peter Collins

2009-11-03T08:09:00.001-08:00

In 1957 Peter Collins was a 26-year-old Englishmen with a ready smile and that British brand of athletic good looks. He was something of a big brother to Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips when they broke in with Ferrari. He was also one of the few drivers that Enzo Ferrari took to heart. In February of 1957 he met the American actress Louise King for a blind date in a restaurant beside the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami where she was performing in "The Seven Year Itch." Within a week they were married, a later that year they were living on a motor yacht moored in Monaco harbor. Less than two years later he died at the Nurburgring.

Wolfgang von Trips' Beginnings

2009-09-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

How did Wolfgang von Trips get to Ferrari? In 1951 he was living away from home as a student. His parents worried about his diet. He was, after all, a sickly child with a glucose disorder that might well have been diabetes. To make sure their son got enough to eat, the count and countess made a deal with a local restaurateur: they would pay him a flat fee, and in exchange von Trips could go there once a day, at any time, for a complete meal. What they did not know was that their son cut his own deal. Von Trips would take 90 percent of the payment. The restaurateur could keep 10 percent, and he didn’t have to provide any meals. With his cut von Trips bought a BMW motorcycle. A few years later he fixed up an old Porsche and began racing it.