Richard Langworth, CBE – Hall of Fame Inductee

May 11, 2017 Michael Carnell Articles, Hall of Fame, Highlights, People Comments Off on Richard Langworth, CBE – Hall of Fame Inductee

Richard Langworth, CBE, Richard Langworth, CBE - Hall of Fame Inducteeis not just a renowned automotive writer, he is responsible for some of the most definitive marque histories ever published. Beyond this, he is also a recognized authority on Winston S. Churchill. His most recent book on Churchill is Churchill and the Avoidable War: Could World War II have been Prevented? and Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality: What He Actually Did and Said is due out in August. Richard M. Langworth will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame on June 2, 2017.

Though never intending to become a historian, he has written, co-written or published 54 books and 2000 articles on automotive history—American, English and European. He is also a self-described “Chemistry drop-out at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1960), a fail-safe graduate of Wagner College (1963), a 120-day-wonder U.S. Coast Guard officer (1964-67), and a bored bureaucrat at the Pennsylvania Department of Health (1967-70).”

Tiger, Alpine, Rapier by RIchard LangworthLangworth served as editor of The Packard Cormorant from 1975 through 2001, and has been a trustee of the Packard Motorcar Foundation since 2003. He was also betimes editor of The Milestone Car, The Vintage Triumph and Car Classics magazines. His works have won awards from the Antique Automobile Club of America, Society of Automotive Historians, Old Cars Weekly, Packard Club and Graphic Arts Association of New Hampshire.

Langworth currently lives in Moultonborough, New Hampshire and Eleuthera, Bahamas.  In 1998 Her Majesty the Queen awarded him with a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), “for services to Anglo-American understanding and the memory of Sir Winston Churchill.”

From Tri-Car to Acclaim - Triumph Cars - The Complete Story by Graham Robson and Richard Langworth
Some of his works pertinent to the British sports car fan are:

  • Fifty Years of Triumph, Automobile Quarterly, 1973
  • (Co-author with Graham Robson) Triumph Cars, a History, Motor Racing Publishers, 1978, rep. 1998
  • Tiger, Alpine, Rapier: Sporting Cars From the Rootes Group, Osprey (London, England), 1982
  • Complete Book of Collectible Cars, (With Graham Robson) Publications Intl. (Skokie, IL), 1987
  • Complete Book of Collectible Cars: Revised & Extended, Publications Intl. (Lincolnwood, IL), 1994
  • Great Cars of the 20th Century, (With Arch Brown, Publications Intl. (Lincolnwood, IL), 1998

Please make sure to stop by Richard M. Langworth’s own site, from where much of this information was gleaned.

Note: British Sports Car Hall of Fame LogoThis is part of an ongoing series focusing on the 23 individuals who will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame in ceremonies on June 2nd, 2017, at the Hall of Fame in Petersburg, VA.

Michael Carnell
Editor at Just British

Michael Carnell is the editor and founder of the Just British Online Motoring Magazine. As a lifelong British car enthusiast, he has owned or driven British cars of all ages from Austins and MGs to Jaguars and Triumphs. He currently owns a 1966 Vanden Plas Princess 1100 and a 1977 MGB. But there is always room for more - no matter what his wife says.