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Donald Healey was a man with many talents – pilot, mechanic and rally driver. Most notable to the majority of British car fans, Donald Healey was the driving force behind the Austin Healey sports cars such as the Austin Healey 3000 and the bugeye (or frogeye) Sprite. Donald Healey, CBE will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame this June.

Peter Egan is one of the people who is near legendary to many car folk, especially those of us even slightly involved in the writing or publishing end of things. As a longtime columnist and writer for Road & Track magazine, he represented the thoughts, aspirations, and tribulations of so many British car enthusiasts that he might as well be given prophet status. He will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame on June 2, 2017. Peter Egan was born in Wisconsin in 1948.  He became a sports car fan early on through magazines and the by attending races at Elkhart Lake. After a short stint in the Army, Egan married and began work at Foreign Car Specialists in Madison, Wisconsin. His love of all things motorized has propelled him from that point onward. Although he never graduated college, […]

A 1960 Bentley S2, owned by legendary rhythm guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for The Kinks, Sir Ray Davies, will go under the hammer at Silverstone Auctions’ May Sale, taking place at Silverstone circuit on 13th May. The car was bought by Sir Ray Davies in 1966 after the Kinks’ single Lola went to Number 1 in the charts around the world. He was persuaded by his family to invest in a big car, unusual for him as he didn’t actually drive at the time, in fact, he didn’t start driving until he was 44 years old.

Norman Dewis, OBE was the chief test driver and development engineer for Jaguar Cars from 1952 to 1985. During his time at Jaguar, he helped develop one of the greatest-ever upgrades in automotive braking, the disc brake, which has probably saved tens of thousands of lives over the years. Dewis, along with 23 other outstanding individuals, will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame in June.

Michael Dale is the retired President of Jaguar North America where he was responsible for the company’s activities in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Prior to being named President, he had been responsible for all U.S. Jaguar sales and marketing activities, including advertising and sales promotion. Michael Dale will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame on June 2, 2017.

Jimmy Cox is a former engine guru and works mechanic at the MG Development Department responsible for many of the company’s racing and record-breaking successes. He was with the successful MG record breaking team at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1959 and was also part of the MG team who went to Le Mans in 1955. Jimmy Cox will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame on June 2, 2017. In 1945, at the young age of just 14, Jimmy Cox started work at MG’s Abingdon factory as a mere messenger boy. That eventually led to work on the MG TC production line, but in 1949 Cox entered the military for his two-year duties. Upon returning to MG in 1951 he again was working on standard production cars but soon had the opportunity to take over responsibility […]

In many ways, Michael Cook is responsible for the vision that most Americans have of the sporting, carefree lifestyle of the British sports car owner. He, along with 22 other remarkable individuals, will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame on June 2, 2017. For more than 30 years, Mike Cook’s job was to publicize and promote British cars in America. From the height of the sports car craze in the late ’50s to the end of the era when Jaguar ownership passed to Ford, Cook helped create the image of the marques, generate media buzz, launch new models, and publicize racing successes.

McLaren Automotive, the creator of luxury sports and super cars from Surrey, England, has appointed Dr. Jens Ludmann as Chief Operating Officer (COO) effective from May 2, 2017. He will report to Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mike Flewitt. Dr. Ludmann joins McLaren in the second year of its Track22 business plan to focus on further developing internal working processes, relationships, and disciplines. His departmental responsibilities will include Product Development, Purchasing, Supplier Quality Assurance and Manufacturing, overseeing the launch of a further 14 new models or derivatives during the next five years. Previous roles include Chief Engineer Product Development at Ford Motor Company, Chief Technical Officer at Qoros Auto, and most recently Executive Vice President of the global engineering service provider FEV GmbH. 

Gerry Coker was a designer for the Donald Healey Motor Company, he was responsible for the design of the Austin-Healey 100 and Sprite, later joining Chrysler and the Ford Motor Company, where he invented the 3-postion tailgate. Gerry will be inducted into the Britsh Sports Car Hall of Fame on June 2, 2017.

Sir John Black was Chairman of Standard-Triumph, helped support Morgan, Swallow and Jaguar production, and responsible for the creation of the TR range. Sir John Black will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame in June. Black was born in Kingston upon Thames in 1895. He studied law at the University of London before joining the military during the First World War. He eventually achieved the rank of Captain the  Royal Tank Regiment. After the war, he left both the military and law when he joined the barely 10 years old Hillman Motor Company as sales manager in 1918. He was appointed a director in 1919.

The new Range Rover Velar made a spectacular US debut with an exclusive live online performance from Ellie Goulding. The chart-topping singer’s New York show precedes a charity auction of the hotly anticipated new mid-size SUV at the East Side House Settlement Annual Gala later this week. Goulding brought a touch of British glamour to the Velar’s US launch party when she arrived in Manhattan – the Metropolitan home of Range Rover – to be the first person to drive the new Velar and to sing for a global online audience. Her performance of ‘Love Me Like You Do’ opened the reveal event and was shown live on her Facebook page.

Tony Adamowicz was born in New York on May 2, 1941. Although he won enduring fame for winning championships in Trans Am and Formula 5000, he also competed at Le Mans and Daytona. What brings him to the British Sports Car Hall of Fame, however, is his start as one of the first racers employed by Group 44. During his career racing, in what many deem to be the golden age of sports car racing, Tony drove with the likes of John Morton, Sam Posey, Chuck Parsons, and of course, Group 44 head and fellow Hall of Fame inductee, Bob Tullius. His illustrious professional career spanned more than two decades, from 1966 through 1989.

McLaren Factory Driver Alvaro Parente continued his strong start to the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge season on the streets of Long Beach California, breaking the lap record to score pole position, before claiming a lights-to-flag victory. Close behind the reigning champion, K-PAX Racing’s Bryan Sellers teammate secured the final podium position in the #6 650S GT3. During qualifying, Parente set a time of 1m 18.883s in the #9 K-PAX Racing 650S GT3, to score pole position by exactly a tenth of a second. This lap broke his own lap record which was set during the same session last year. From the front of the grid, the Portuguese driver could control proceedings during the 50-minute sprint race around the tight and twisty 3.1-km street course, creating healthy margins at each of the three restarts. 

There are lots of great British car shows throughout the season and lots of fine car museums. But, every so often people and events and places come together to create a not-to-be-missed opportunity. This is the case with the upcoming Induction Ceremony to the new British Sports Car Hall of Fame that will be held the evening before Moss Motorfest in Petersburg, Virginia. The event is filling up fast, and the ticket-required ceremony and party are going to sell out soon. Make your plans now, get your tickets, and you won’t regret it. Registration for the Friday activities officially closes on May 19, but will likely end earlier if they reach their maximum capacity. And I believe they will. The new Hall of Fame is being constructed to not only showcase the cars we all know and love, but to highlight and thank the folks […]

Bentley Motors has today announced that Mark Del Rosso will become President and Chief Executive Officer of Bentley Motors, Inc., the regional office for Bentley Motors in the Americas, on 1st June 2017. He succeeds Michael Winkler, who will be returning to Australia later this year. Winkler will remain in position through the two-month transition.

A sad update to the tale we told you last week of our contributor Robert Morey running in the Flying Scotsman Rally with John Scott. We heard from Robert this weekend, and unfortunately, the 1937 MG VA they were driving broke down after “an amazing dice at breakneck speed with a pre-war BMW sports car. He could pull away on the straights a bit but John was on him in the corners!”

Formula One legend Sir Jackie Stewart OBE has asked motor sport enthusiasts across the world to back a £300,000 crowdfunding charity campaign for a new Jim Clark Museum which was launched at Race Retro 2017. The campaign was announced alongside the unveiling of Jim Clark’s historic 1965 Lotus 33 R11. Jim Clark inspired a generation with his courage and skill behind the wheel, and his dignified and humble personality when not racing. Widely regarded as one of the greatest motor racing drivers of all time, he became a national hero and international icon of the 1960’s.

A note of good luck to our friend and occasional contributor Robert Morey as he and John Scott take on the 9th annual Flying Scotsman Rally going from Slaley Hall to Gleneagles. They will be at the wheel of this beautiful 1937 MG VA. Departing from Slaley Hall on Friday 31st of March the 9th running of the iconic Flying Scotsman,  Britain’s Premier competitive Vintage car rally will be another epic adventure set in the glorious and big sky countryside of Northern England and Scotland. The schedule is … Day 1 – Slaley Hall to Edinburgh – Friday, March 31 Day 2 – Edinburgh to Aviemore – Saturday, April 1 Day 3 – Aviemore to Gleneagles – Sunday, April 2 A list of the participants’ vehicles includes some astounding cars, for the record Robert and John are in car #96. The parade of cars […]