Grand Prix History

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CONTENTS

NEWS

COLUMNS

ORGANIZATIONS

GALLERY

American Le Mans

Motor Racing Legends

Brooklands Society

Automobile Club de Monaco

Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile

Royal Automobile Club

Vintage Sports-Car Club

Artist Gallery

National Motor Museum at Beaulieu

TEAMS

CIRCUITS

Red Bull Racing
Renault F1

Imola
Spa Francorchamps

Nurburgring
Vintage Racing

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Articles Written

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Formula 1 - Back to the Future (Full Article)

The Formula 1 circus is in the midst of a second successful season after the global economic meltdown of 2008. The world's economies have not recovered but it appears that Formula 1's has weathered the storm. If you are to believe Formula One Management television viewership bounced back in 2010 with 527 million people having watched at least part of a race on television or in person, up from 520 million the previous year. Sponsorship is expected to bring in a total of $4.4 billion according to Formula Money, a research report on the finances of Formula One.

Max Mosely is thankfully gone from the paddock but 80-year-old Bernie Ecclestone still holds court and that according to some is a problem. Ecclestone like any self respecting despot has not designated a heir. Reports circulating have News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, and an investment company owned by the Agnelli family of Italy expressing an interest in taking over Formula One Management, which organizes the races. How the current hacking scandal has effected this scenario has not been muted but then F1 has never shied away from controversy. In fact F1 without a scandal brewing under the surface would seem quite odd.

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FEATURED ARTICLE

He seemed to be well positioned at Fiat, then the leading racing team but his friend Luigi Bazzi who had recently joined Enzo Ferrari at Alfa Romeo knew the ego that blazed inside Vittorio Jano could not be contained at the larger company. After the desultory results of the new Alfa P1, a Fiat copy no less, it was suggested by Bazzi that in order to succeed they needed to go to the source, they needed to kidnap “Jano”. It was a job that the equally ambitious Ferrari, a self-described troublemaker was born to. Yet Jano was not so easily moved, and according to legend he demanded a formal proposal from Alfa Romeo, imperiously dismissing Ferrari by stating that he would “speak to the organ grinder, not the monkey”. To the shock and dismay of his managers at Fiat, Vittorio was soon headed to Alfa Romeo.

To read the rest of the article go here.

The History of the Slot Car

In 1939 Bentram "Fred" Francis 1939 started a tool-making company, which ran twenty-four hours a day throughout the war years. Two years after the armistice he turned to a gentler cliental following a childhood ambition to become a toy-maker, and founded Minimodels Ltd which, among other toys, produced Scalex and Startex clockwork cars. What separated his Scalex cars from the competition was that a hidden fifth wheel discarded with the need for a key. By 1952 demand for Minimodels toys was so great that in order to expand the company relocated to a new, purpose-built factory at Havant in Hampshire but as often happens with toys the public soon was demanding something new. At a London toy fair Francis saw a display featuring battery-powered cars running around a track, but without user control. As a true toy man he new straight away what was missing, real 'play value'. After 6 months of investigation and seeing the giddy reactions of his marketing people as they tried to control the now electric-powered Scalex cars - renamed Scalextric convinced Francis that he was onto a winner.