Tecnomodel will produce 1/18 scale Limited Edition resin models of the Lotus 77, Lotus 91 and Brabham BT33.
Four versions of each type have been announced. Drivers include Mario Andretti, Sir Jack Brabham, Nigel Mansell, Ronnie Peterson, Elio de Angelis and Gunnar Nilsson.
Between 1997 and 2014, Tom Kristensen won the world’s toughest motor race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, a record nine times and finished on the podium on five more occasions. Every time his car made it to the finish, in fact, he was in the top three. It is no wonder that this great sports car driver is known as ‘Mr Le Mans’ to motorsport fans around the world. Now retired from racing, Kristensen shares in this book his deepest personal reflections and insights from inside and outside the cockpit. He looks back on more than 30 years spent striving for perfection in racing and tells of the battles and setbacks that sometimes seemed impossible to overcome, including a terrible accident in 2007. Voted ‘Sports Book of the Year’ when originally published in Kristensen’s native Denmark, this thoughtful memoir is now available in English.
– Climbing the racing ladder, from karting into Formula 3 single-seaters, including championship titles in Germany (1991) and Japan (1993), then Formula 3000 and a Formula 1 testing role with Tyrrell.
– Winning as an underdog on his first visit to Le Mans, in 1997 driving an elderly Joest-run privateer Porsche in which he impressed all onlookers with a night-time charge to vanquish Porsche’s factory-entered favourite.
– His second Le Mans victory came in 2000 on his maiden drive for Audi in the R8, a car that was to become all-conquering.
– Kristensen won the next five editions of Le Mans, four times with Audi and once with Bentley (in 2003), his last victory in this sequence taking him past Jacky Ickx’s previous record at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
– His eighth win came in one of the all-time classic contests at Le Mans, in 2008, a rollercoaster of a race in which his ageing diesel-powered Audi was never expected to beat the fancied works Peugeots.
– One more victory with Audi in 2013 sealed his reputation as a true legend of Le Mans.
– His story includes exploits at other racetracks all over the world, none more prolific than Sebring, home of America’s long-established classic endurance race that Kristensen won six times.
– Personal reflections together with contributions from notable observers — including English journalists Gary Watkins and Charles Bradley — complete a truly rounded portrait of the man and his achievements.
I’d like to thank all of you who participated in our latest Marshall Pruett Charity Fundraiser benefitting Canteen, an Australian charity that supports young people and their families living with cancer. The sale of signed Scott Dixon ‘Start to Finish’ Championship prints raised nearly $11,000 USD for that worthy cause.
The print auction has ended but the RaiseIt.org.au page set up to accept the donations of winning bidders to Canteen in Australian Dollars is still active. Multiply the US Dollar amount you wish to donate by 1.3 for the Australian equivalent, then donate that amount HERE.
Additional fundraisers are in the planning stage. Stay tuned!
Marshall Pruett’s latest fundraiser honors the amazing run of Scott Dixon to his 6th IndyCar Championship title aboard the #9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12 Honda in 2020.
Dixon led the 2020 NTT Indycar Series Championship from ‘Start to Finish’, winning the season opener at Texas Motor Speedway and sitting atop the point standings for the entire 14-race season, scoring 4 victories and 9 top five finishes along the way.
Graphic artist Andy Blackmore , well known for his Spotter Guides and livery design work, was commissioned to create this tribute to Dixon’s 2020 Championship. Beneath the profile view of Scott’s PNC Bank Honda are the point standings after each of last year’s NTT Indycar races showing Dixon’s name at the top from ‘Start to Finish’.
We are offering 25 copies of ‘Start to Finish’ at auction.
All proceeds to benefit Canteen, an Australian charity chosen by Scott and Emma Dixon that supports young people and their families living with cancer.
Each copy at auction has been signed by 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner and 6-time IndyCar Champion Scott Dixon, 4-time IndyCar and 3-time Indianapolis 500 Champion Dario Franchitti, 7-time NASCAR Champion and IndyCar rookie Jimmie Johnson, Ganassi Racing Managing Director Mike Hull, Performance Director Chris Simmons and Race Engineer Michael Cannon.
Tecnomodel has announced they will produce four versions of the Ferrari 712 including the car driven by Mario Andretti to a 4th place finish in the 1971 Watkins Glen Can Am.
Advance reservations strongly recommended. Click HERE for details.
We will be closed Thanksgiving Day but will be open today and Friday 10am to 5pm (Central).
We will also be open every Saturday until Christmas from 10am to 3pm.
We have a great selection of new and estate books, models and artwork in stock with additional items arriving nearly every day. Stop by and browse or visit MotorsportCollector.com for the latest additions.
PLEASE RESERVE BY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30 TO INSURE AVAILABILITY!
The 1970s marked the decade in motorsports history when engineers discovered the impact of wings on top speeds. The best example of this came from Porsche in 1978, when the Stuttgart team experimented with the Porsche 935/78, nicknamed the “Moby Dick”. It started off with Norbert Singer, Porsche’s front man of their motorsport engineering department, when he was given a Porsche 911 and tasked to build a Group 5 machine. He returned with the Porsche 935, which most famously won the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans outright.
Out of all the countless Porsche 935, the 1978 variant was the best rated because it utilized every loophole of the Group 5 regulations. The dominance of the car was clear; fastest at the Silverstone Testing, and only 4 seconds slower than a Formula One car. In Le Mans, the long-stretched silhouette and ground-effect body work resulted in enhanced aerodynamics specially made for Circuit de la Sarthe. The engine was enlarged to 3.2L and output between 750 to 850hp, which resulted in a top speed of 366km/h on the infamous Mulsanne Straight. This led to qualifying in 3rd position on Saturday, only behind the prototype Porsche 936 and the Renault that would eventually win. Unfortunately, several issues on race day led to the Moby Dick finishing in 8th place. With Porsche not entering Le Mans the following year, the Moby Dick’s attempt at a Le Mans victory came to an end.
The Porsche 935/78 “Moby Dick” is the pinnacle of 1970s motorsports engineering. Stunning in 1978, and still an icon even for today – it has been countlessly celebrated throughout the 70th year of Porsche, Le Mans history, Group 5, and even automotive development in general. By developing this model in 1:12 scale, we will be able to highlight even more fine details that show off the high level of craftsmanship on this piece of motorsports history. With precise historical research and a high degree of technical skill shown on this model, collectors will be able to fully experience this amazing design in their own collection.
Acme Trading Company has released a highly detailed 1/12 scale replica of the car made famous by last year’s Best Picture nominee ‘Ford v Ferrari’.
Driven by Ken Miles and Denis Hulme, the #1 Ford GT Mk.II dominated the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans but ended up finishing second on a technicality when Ford Motor Company’s desire for a ‘dead heat finish’ had race officials dig into the rule book for tie breakers. Since the #2 Ford GT Mk.II started the race a few feet behind the Miles/Hulme machine, Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon were declared the winners, having covering more distance over the 24 hours.
This latest Masterpiece Collection 1/12 scale Ford GT incorporates the quality and attention to detail as previously released Acme Trading and GMP replicas.
LONDON (Oct. 29, 2020) – Pete Lyons’s“Shadow: The Magnificent Machines of a Man of Mystery”, ($99.00) published by Evro Publishing, has won the Royal Automobile Club’s Specialist Motoring Book of the Year award for 2020.
This hefty book, stretching to 464 pages and containing 600 illustrations, tells for the first time the story of the Shadow racing team, which was active for 11 seasons starting in 1970. One of the judges, Mick Walsh of Classic & Sports Car, commented: “The doyen of motorsport journalism delivers another superb team history.” Another judge, Gordon Cruickshank of Motor Sport, added: “Entertaining and well researched, it pulls aside the cloak of mystery that Don Nichols maintained around himself and his team.”
Enigmatic Nichols — D-Day paratrooper, Army counter-intelligence officer and controversial entrepreneur — created a racing marque that seems as cloaked as the man himself. Shadow was the only US-based team to win a Can-Am championship. and one of only three to score a victory in Formula
Pete Lyons lifts the veil from this secretive man and the innovative racing cars and world-class team he created. The author draws on considerable first-hand experience: he was present for Shadow’s two big débuts, in Can-Am at St Jovite in Canada (1970) and in Formula 1 at Kyalami in South Africa (1973), and his numerous interviews for the book included six days with Nichols himself not long before the ‘Shadowman’ died in 2017.
Pete Lyons said: “Ever since October 1971, I’ve believed that motorsport could bring me no more exciting occasion than the rocket ride around Riverside that Can-Am champion Peter Revson gave me in his stupefyingly fast McLaren M8F. As of October 2020, Revvie has a rival.
“This honor so generously bestowed on Evro Publishing and me has sent my personal tach needle perilously near the red. My deepest gratitude to the Royal Automobile Club, as well as to all who helped to tell the story of Don Nichols and his compellingly Quixotic racing team. Putting it together has been a joy.”
This is the fifth time an Evro book has won a Royal Automobile Club Motoring Book of the Year award. In the inaugural year of these awards, 2014, the honor went to Evro’s very first book, John Surtees: My Incredible Life on Two and Four Wheels. The 2016 winner was Brian Redman’s memoirDaring Drivers, Deadly Tracks. The Specialist award was given to Karl Ludvigsen’s Reid Railton: Man of Speed in 2018 and to Simon Taylor’s John, George and the HWMs in 2019.
Eric Verdon-Roe, Chairman of Evro Publishing, said: “The Royal Automobile Club’s awards are the most prestigious in our field of publishing and it is a very great honor to receive one. The real credit, of course, belongs to the esteemed Pete Lyons. I heartily congratulate him and thank him for teaming up with us.”
Richie Ginther: Motor Racing’s Free Thinker by Richard Jenkins
2020 Royal Automobile Club Book of the Year
For many years, it was thought that Richie Ginther, one of Formula One’s best known drivers of the 1960s, later became an angry, reclusive and drunken bum. The classic, archetypal hero-to-zero tale. In addition to this, as a racer he was thought incapable of ever winning and lacking the inherent talent to be a success.
But as the first ever authorised biography of Richie reveals, this diminutive Californian enjoyed astonishing triumphs in racing as a driver, a mechanic and as a team manager. His 59 years on the planet also saw him overcome bullying and terrible personal and professional tragedy to live an enriched and absorbing life.
Still just one of five Americans to have won a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, Ginther helped two of motor racing’s most iconic teams, BRM and Ferrari, to World Championship glory as well as being instrumental in Honda’s motor racing success, all of which is explored comprehensively.
With memories from his family, friends and fellow racers, this biography is also packed, after meticulous research, with an abundance of quotes from Richie himself to create as thorough and as deeply personal Richie’s life story as possible.
It’s not just the words that bring Richie alive. There are a plethora of photographs, with the vast majority of them neither seen nor published before. Insightful and moving, this refreshingly balanced and thoroughly detailed book by debut author Richard Jenkins is the definitive guide to one of motor racing’s underappreciated heroes.