For British fans in the late 1960s, the easiest and best way to witness the golden era of the World Sportscar Championship was with a pilgrimage to Brands Hatch at varying times of the year. For when the new BOAC International '500' concluded the season bizarrely early in the summer of 1967, it returned top-line endurance racing to Britain for the first time in years.
'I am certain,' wrote British Overseas Airways Corporation chairman Sir Giles Guthrie in his programme notes, 'that the BOAC "500" will immediately take its place in popularity with Le Mans, the Targa Florio, the Nürburgring and the other classics which make up this championship series.'
Former air racer Guthrie had spent the five paragraphs leading up to that rather hopeful conclusion by trying to explain the connection between the BOAC and motorsport, only to effectively land on the illuminating idea that racing drivers travel a lot. There was form, though, because Ford had made sure the world knew it flew the GT40 to the United States with BOAC for a New York Auto Show preview night on its launch in 1964.
The fixture certainly made a name for itself in the years that followed, if not one that endured - in more ways than one - quite like those Guthrie had mentioned. It also returned '500' to the name of a British race for the first time since WW2 - the Tourist Trophy had been around 500 miles long, but more by luck than design. In fact, motorsport has had a mild affliction with the number 500 for more than a century. In 1911, drivers of cars with capacities just shy of 10 litres cheated death for 200 laps around a 2.5-mile brick-paved bowl in Indianapolis - which, rather neatly, resulted in 500 miles. Some 112 years and 107 runnings later it remains arguably the biggest race in America, alongside Daytona's own 500-mile event for stock cars. That relative newcomer didn't kick in until as recently as 1959.
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A Breath of Fresh Air- Alfa Romeo's exotic, V8-powered Montreal was like nothing the marque had made before, but can it compare with a Porsche masterpiece, the 911S 2.4?
The stereotype of the ItaloGermanic automotive rivalry is that the Latin car will be brilliant to drive, but poorly built and ergonomically flawed, while the Teutonic will be the opposite. Yet these 2+2 sports coupés both ran against orthodoxy. In the Montreal, Alfa Romeo created an outlandish-looking two-door more comfortable, more powerful and more refined than anything it had produced for decades. Meanwhile, Porsche continued to refine its back-to-front, austere and increasingly aged 911. Neither took a traditional development path, but both created thrilling and individual cars that have echoed through the decades.
Daring to be diminutive
AMC's Gremlin and Pacer, and Ford's much-derided Pinto, led America's response to the threat of imported European compacts
THE LONG WAY ROUND
There is a great tradition of overland trips by Land-Rover, but the tale of this 70s Aussie epic and the car itself was discovered by chance
Handsome cab
The Phantom V limousine marked the beginning of the end for coachbuilder James Young, but this Rolls-Royce represents the craft at its very best
DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
Racing for their own F1 teams brought some drivers success and an enduring legacy. For others, it turned into a nightmare
20 30 LITRES CYLINDERS, 400BHP......AND MORE THAN A CENTURY OLD
Thunderous torque, flame-spitting stub-exhausts, white-knuckle thrills - and hopefully no spills - aboard a trio of Edwardian racing titans
ICON.
The three top-selling vehicles in the USA in 2023 were pick-ups, topped by the Ford F-Series. This is the truck that started it all
Blurred Lines
lan 'Del' Lines blended the V8 burble of Triumph's open GT with real practicality in his Stag V8 saloons and estates
Home of the brave
The innovative Silverstone proved a hit with keen amateur drivers. To mark its 75th, Healey's club racer returns to the circuit for which it is named
PLAYING ALL THE ANGLES
Alfa Romeo's wild RZ eschewed the jellymould styling of the period to offer a striking, wedge-shaped take on open-topped performance motoring
