We often talk about the similarities between the watch industry and the automotive world. The parallels between the two are pretty obvious; precision engineering, technical development, craftsmanship, and in some cases preservation of heritage. There is one development that is quite cool in cars, but I wish never makes the jump to watches; converting classic […]
The inspiration for many great road cars often lies in racing, and at the same time, the greatest racing cars ever can be based upon rather mundane road cars. For decades, rules in racing have sometimes stipulated that a minimum number of road-legal variants had to be built in order to be eligible to compete […]
Years in the making, with little bits of information dropping every now and then, finally the covers are off. Gordon Murray, legendary designer of the McLaren F1 and celebrated engineer in Formula 1 during the seventies and eighties, has revealed his Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 supercar. The philosophy of the GMA T.50 seems quite similar […]
One of the lesser-known types of racing, hill climbs, are still quite popular in Europe, especially amongst amateur racers. It is a distinct discipline within the vast array of different types of racing, often resulting in unique cars. The goal is to get as fast as possible from the bottom of the course to the […]
Here it is, the bonus chapter in this diptych-turned-tryptic Petrolhead Corner episode covering cheaters and frauds in racing. So far we’ve seen cheating with fuel capacity, illegal ballast in water-tanks, turbocharging, bribery and even espionage. For this final chapter, we once again uncover the facts of one the most infamous F1 scandals, and a story […]
As we’ve seen last week, cheating is a part of life, part of racing. Human nature taking over and not resisting the urge to get an unfair advantage over other competitors. When stakes are high, things like greed or pride creep up on us. I’m sure we’ve all had the sensation of doing something that […]
Bending the rules is considered somewhat acceptable, breaking them really isn’t and there’s a fine line between the two. And yes, also in a strongly-regulated sport like motor racing, there are examples of people, constructors and racing teams caught red-handed at cheating. People deliberately crashed, stole technical documents, payed-off officials to turn a blind eye, […]
Pendine Sands in the UK, Daytona Beach and Bonneville Salt Flats in the US, Hakskeen Pan desert in South Africa and Ehra Lessien in Germany. All places where, throughout history, land speed records have been broken. Specifically selected and/or built tracks that provide near-perfect circumstances; very long, very straight, very flat. One of the most […]
Pendine Sands in the UK, Daytona Beach and Bonneville Salt Flats in the US, Hakskeen Pan desert in South Africa and Ehra Lessien in Germany. All places where, throughout history, land speed records have been broken. Specifically selected and/or built tracks that provide near-perfect circumstances; very long, very straight, very flat. One of the most […]
We’ve all been through a similar situation when we might have thought something was a good idea, but which in hindsight probably wasn’t. At times, the things we challenge ourselves to do are usually quite harmless. Some people, however, end up in crazy situations because of, shall we say, exaggerated bravery. This was the case […]