Automobile Year 2011 - 2012

Automobile year 2011 - 2012 Annual

Autocourse 2011 - 2012

(No. 61) Grand Prix Annual



Autocourse 2011 - 2012 Annual

 

Motocourse 2011 - 2012

(No. 36) Grand Prix and Superbike Annual

Motocourse 2001 - 2012 annual.

 

Bill Thompson Australian Motor Racing Champion - new book

Bill Thompson Australian Motor Racing Champion (signed by the author) - Description

Bill Thompson won the Australian Grand Prix in 1930, 1932 and 1933 but missed victory in the 1934 and 1935 events by the tantalizingly brief period of 41 seconds. In his dazzling 7 1/2 year career he won rallies, hillclimbs, sprints, circuit and speedway - races and his competition success rate far exceeded that of any other Australian motor sport champion. This 416 page book with nearly 300 photographs covers the early history of Australian motor sport along with Bill Thompson's life from birth until his premature death during the closing stages of World War ll.

It also covers his business activities - not always free of controversy - his careers with Shell, the Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force, his marriages and each known competition event and the fate of each of the cars and racing venues with which he was associated.
His racing contemporaries, friends and sponsors also are included in this Australian motor sport and social history book on a legendary figure, described by one observer as one of the two best racing drivers Australia ever had.

book details...

Targa Tasmania 20th Anniversary 2011

Targa Tasmania 2011 DVD

Targa Tasmania 2011 20th Anniversary DVD available here !!!

For 20 years each April an event like no other is staged...

Where Rally Enthusiasts descend on Australia's Island State for the Ultimate Tarmac Rally. Targa Tasmania celebrates its 20th year - it defines itself as the event that allows cars to be driven as they were designed to be. Not on a racing track or street circuit but on country roads over mountains and through valleys - in all manner of weather conditions.

Classic Rallying is reborn alongside Modern Masterpieces in one of the world's greatest

Ghosts in the Bull Pens: A Speedway Racing at the Sydney Showground Royale

by: Tony Loxley, Dennis Newlyn

Ghosts in the Bull Pens: A Speedway Racing at the Sydney Showground Royale - purchase the book from the Automoto Bookshop website (click here).

Forewords by Bryan Cunneen, Jim Airey, Doug Robson and Steve Raymond (OAM)
Over 350images covering the years from the '20s to 1996.
Due for Christmas 2011 ! ! !

Book Description

The Sydney Showground Speedway had a mystique about it that no other race track in Australia was able to reciprocate. From its early beginnings in the '20s to its final race meeting on 27 April, 1996, this hallowed and daunting race venue captured the imagination of competitors and race fans around the world — simply put, there was nothing like it — anywhere.
Today however, the majestic and monolithic Clock Tower still oversees this historic venue, now home to Rupert Murdoch's Fox Studios, yet despite the fact that much of the original venue is now hidden behind industrial and office facades, and the once lethal, narrow racing oval now removed to make way for a footpath, the aura of this amazing venue still echoes with the roar of racing engines, and the smells of burnt methanol, cooking hamburgers, chips in the fryer. Pluto pups, and of course, the murmurs and cheers of the massive crowds who freauented the track throughout each summer racing season for six, wonderful decades.
Gone too is the annual two week extravaganza of the Royal Easter Show, but if the imagination is allowed to run free, the specter of the Bull Pens turn, the race track's most lethal corner, is still present; so too, perhaps, the ghosts of the 29 riders and drivers who were lost racing at this imposing speedway.

About the Authors

Historian Dennis Newlyn, who covered the halcyon days of the '60s and '70s as a journalist for the periodicals and newspapers of the day, and who was a leading magazine publisher at the time, and publisher Tony Loxley, who attended on many occasions as a spectator and later photographer, have put together a treasure trove of images and memories of this much lamented venue that allows the reader to drift back into the past, and relive those glory days of racing at the Sydney Showground Royale that continues to mean so much to so many.

Brabham Ralt Honda The Ron Tauranac Story

purchase a copy signed by Ron Tauranac from our official website

 

 

Until now, the man whose racing cars have won more victories than anyone else's, and whose design skills have brought fame to hundreds of drivers and made champions of a good many of them, has remained in the background.
Ron Tauranac - British-born, but brought up in Australia - always preferred to let his cars sing his praises where it really mattered - on the race tracks of the world. They have never been known as Tauranacs, but the names Brabham and Ralt will be very familiar to anyone who has followed motor racing since the Sixties. And so, of course, is Honda, the company which supplied the engines for some of Tauranac's most successful Brabham and Ralt racing cars and with which he still retains close links as a design consultant, working behind the scenes on several of their motor racing activities.
Author Mike Lawrence was one of a growing number of people who felt that Ron Tauranac's significant contribution to modern motor racing should be shielded from public view no longer, for there was a fascinating story to be told. It is one which weaves the familiar motor racing fabric of brilliant success laced with occasional bitter disappointment, and it has at its centre a man who throughout his life has never walked when he could run, has at times been insufferably demanding and a pain to work for, but whose skills, dedication to hard work, honesty and integrity have been such that those who have suffered the most from his tongue remain amongst his most fervent admirers.
Sir Jack Brabham, in his foreword to this long overdue biography, pays generous tribute to his former business partner into whose hands he entrusted the design and construction of all his own racing cars from 1962 until his retirement from driving in 1970, plus all the production Brabhams which brought so much success to many other top drivers during their formative years.
Sir Jack himself and his team-mate Denny Hulme both became Formula One World Champions in Tauranac-designed cars, many other drivers have won National and International championships in them, and nearly everyone who sits on a Grand Prix starting grid today has previously been a Ralt driver, along with former stars like Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Derek Warwick and Martin Brundle.
Many of Ron Tauranac's former colleagues and customers - amongst them the most powerful people in motor racing today - speak candidly about the man they have known and worked with, someone who has never courted popularity, but whose talents have been such that his contribution to the motor racing scene is possibly beyond measure. Anyone who is either involved in the sport or fascinated by it will be delighted that through this book The Ron Tauranac Story has finally been told.
Ron Tauranac has designed racing cars for over forty years and Mike Lawrence's book documents his work in detail - particularly with regard to Brabham, Honda and his own Ralt firm. It is a superb biography of one of the pivotal figures in motor sport. It provides an educational outing into the world of open-wheel race car productions. Virtually anybody who was somebody in racing has made an appearance here. If you are looking to learn the truths of who, why and when, then this is the book for you.
With 288 pages and 62 photos and illustrations. (First published by Motor Racing Publications in 1999). SB.

Holden Monaro: It's a Legend (book signed by Gavin Farmer)

Introduction

 

this publication is available for purchase on our official website

Holden was the last of the General Motors' divisions to market a pillarless hardtop coupe. All of its US divisions had been producing coupes for many years and during the 60s Opel ventured into the coupe market with its large Admiral coupe that could be had with a Chevrolet 283cid V8 in its top version. Smaller Opel coupes followed. Even arch conservative Vauxhall had coupes long before Holden.
The European and Japanese companies successfully began selling coupes in small but consistent numbers from the mid-to-late 60s; Holden's great rival in Australia, Ford, introduced the Falcon hardtop coupe with its XP range and while initial success was had, buyer interest waned and Ford also lost interest. Adding the Monaro to the HK range knowing the way the Falcon had blossomed and died must have taken guts. We, the motoring enthusiast of Australia, thank the executives who backed the decision and the talented people who made it happen.
That the third generation should have been called Monaro was quite remarkable. Mike Simcoe was against the name but the dealers and the media had christened it Monaro from the get go once they had seen the Concept Coupe and public opinion in a way forced Holden to go with the name.
The excitement that the Concept Coupe generated for Holden was remarkable, buyers only too willing to place large deposits with their dealer which put an enormous amount of pressure on Holden who in some ways seemed reluctant to go with the coupe. The deal with Pontiac was really icing on the cake and assisted in gaining international exposure for the Holden product but more importantly for the talented people who were able to show that they could design and manufacture a new model in a fraction of the time and cost that it would have taken in America.

About the author

Gavin Farmer has had a lifetime involvement with cars one way or another. He was still in high school when he bought his first car magazine—Modern Motor, September 1959—that began a collection that today numbers in the hundreds. Once he had a job he began adding books to his collection and then model cars.
Today he is one of Australia's leading motoring historians and regularly contributes to such prestigious publications as Automobile Quarterly, Collectible Automobiles, The Automobile, Bimmer, Sports Car International and others. in addition he has written several books including Tickford: The Joy of Driving; Imprezive WRX: Subaru's Turbo Legend; Hey Charger: The Sensational Chrysler Valiant Charger, Leyland P76: Anything but Average, Great Ideas in Motion: A History of Chrysler in Australila 1946-1981 and Aerodynamic Tatras.
From the 70s through to the 90s he worked in the automobile industry in various roles from manufacturing, sales—wholesale and retail—and public relations before turning his abilities to writing. His original professional training was for teaching but he was looking for wider challenges in life. To this end he has been a State Manager for a multimedia educational publisher as well as a company that marketed computerised dispensary systems.
All the while he was adding to his knowledge of automobiles, the industry and the many new technologies. A colleague once described him as a barefoot engineer!" A man who is passionate about the automobile and its history, Gavin lives with his wife on a small property in the beautiful Adelaide hills where he enjoys occasional drives in his Subaru ff-1 and has begun restoring his 1949 Jowett Javelin.

see more details about the Holden Monaro book on our official website

ENTRIES CLOSE SOON FOR THE MG CAR CLUB ORGANISED GT AND SPORTS-CAR RACE ON SILVERSTONE'S GP CIRCUIT

Entries for the premier, 50-minute race at MG Live!* on Saturday 25 June for 1950-to-1965 GT and Sports-cars close on Friday 3 June. Cars must comply with the specifications required by FIA Appendix K and race on Dunlop L, M and R Section Historic tyres. The race, using the Grand Prix circuit, is for one or two drivers, with a mandatory pit stop. The competitively-priced entry fee is £450. Supplementary Regulations and an entry from are available on the MG Car Club website at www.mgcc.co.uk or by calling Steve Carr on 01235 555552 or 07779 156801. Practice is in the morning of Saturday 25 June and the 50-minute race is in the afternoon, so it is possible to participate without the cost of overnight accommodation. The maximum grid size is 58 cars and five reserves will be accepted. There are overall and class awards, based on both 'Scratch' (overall classification) and 'Handicap'. The overall winners of each category will receive a Thomas Cook travel voucher to the value of £500. There is an opportunity for anyone with a race licence and a suitable race car to practice throughout Friday 24 June - it is not exclusive to drivers with an entry for the MG Live! meeting. Entries are also available for all the other MG CC races over the weekend. Details can be found on the MG CC website. * MG Live (www.mglive.co.uk), organised by MG Car Club on 25/26 June, is the world's biggest MG event for MG Owners. Future motor racing meetings organised by MG Car Club are: 25/26 June - Silverstone, Northamptonshire 30 July - Thruxton, Hampshire 28 August - Donington Park, Derbyshire 1/2 October - Snetterton, Norfolk Full details of all MGCC race championships and individual race meetings are available on  www.mgcc.co.uk/mg-racing/race-info-topmenu-78/2011racecalendar.html

HRDC TO LAUNCH HISTORIC RACE SERIES FOR EARLY Gp2 HISTORIC TOURING CARS

The Historic Racing Drivers Club is to launch a race series for early Gp2 historic touring cars of the type which formed the nucleus of the European Touring Car Championship in 1963. HRDC Founder and Race Director, Julius Thurgood, comments: "For many years, I have rued the fact we no longer see the eclectic mix of historic touring cars that created the variety and spectacle which hallmarked the ETCC in its formative years. "It is clear that certain models have now become 'the weapon of choice' in pre-'66 historic touring car races, so much so that hardly any true-to-period variety is to be seen in this arena. Nowadays, where can you see a proper Jaguar Mk2 running competitively, or, for that matter, a Lancia Flavia or Flaminia coupe, Alfa Romeo 2600 or early Giulia Ti, Vauxhall VX4/90, Mercedes-Benz 300SE, MG 1100, Mini 850, Ford Zodiac Mk3 or even an early model Ford Cortina GT? I know that many of these cars exist in historic race form, but most have been mothballed by disheartened owners, who have given up any hope of competing on a level playing field against over-developed homologation specials. I truly feel that there is a strong demand for these early, less-developed, cars to make a dynamic return to historic racing within a well managed series." 1963 saw the formation of the FIA-sanctioned ETCC, the brainchild of German Willy Stenger, who enlisted the help of John Aley to coordinate the UK rounds. One particular race inspired Julius Thurgood to launch the new series was the 'The Motor' 6-Hours race at Brands Hatch, held on 6 July 1963. "Here we had the sight of the then mighty Jaguar Mk2s of Mike Salmon and Peter Sutcliffe, Roy Salvadori and Denny Hulme, Peter Linder and Peter Nocker, battling against Jack Sears and Bo Ljungfeldt in the Willment Cortina GT, while the mighty Galaxies had yet to find their potential. "John Aley and Rauno Aaltonen were in a Mini Cooper (not an 'S'), as were Edward Lewis and Julien Vernaeve in a Westover Racing version. Bill Blydenstein fielded a Vauxhall VX4/90, Dick Jacobs was in an MG 1100, Anita Taylor hustled the Willment Ford Anglia 1200, while the HF Squadra Corse team fielded both Lancia Flavia and Flaminia coupes. Add a sprinkling of Sunbeam Rapiers, Volvo Amazons, a brace of Zodiac Mk3s, a Fiat Abarth, Riley 1.5 and a Mercedes-Benz 220SE and you can see the colourful palate that made up this evocative grid - with not a single Lotus-powered homologation special in view!" Therefore, the HRDC will be running a dedicated series for FIA-compliant historic touring cars which ran in 1963 - with the exclusion of 'homologation specials'. This series will run alongside the established HRDC 'Touring Greats' (for pre-1960 touring cars) and 'Grand Touring Greats' (for sub-1500cc, pre-1966 GTs). The new series will be called HRDC 'TC63 Touring Greats'. Owners of eligible 'TC63' cars who are interested in competing with the HRDC in such a series are invited to contact: Julius Thurgood Mobile: 07850 361159 Landline: 01926 885835 Email: direct@juliusthurgood.co.uk Web: www.hrdc.eu

Greg McNeill Art Online Gallery Shop

Greg McNeill Art: Greg McNeill Art Online Gallery Shop:

PRINTS

All prints are open-edition, signed by the artist.

Mounted with mat board, ready to frame.

Size (including mat board): 408mm x 508 mm.

GREETING CARDS

Featuring motorsport heroes past and present.

Designs reproduced from original paintings by Greg McNeill.

Suitable for all occasions, the cards are left blank inside for your own message.

Envelopes included.

Card size approximately 185mm x 120mm.
Send them to fellow enthusiasts or keep them in a collection.

Liverpool City Raceway 1967 - 1989: More of The Place of Pace (Signed)

Liverpool City Raceway 1967 - 1989: More of The Place of Pace (Signed) - more details

This edition is limited to 1000 copies individually numbered and signed by Tony Loxley.

'More of The Place of Pace' Liverpool City Raceway 1967-1989 Book Description
This 194 page, hard-bound follow-on from the hugely successful 'Liverpool City Raceway - The Place of Pace 1967-1989' will be released mid-year and will once again be full of images and memories from those who competed and remember the great times had at this much lamented high-speed oval.

Tony Loxley and former solo rider (and now journalist) Steve Magro have put together this exciting tome which will be every bit as good as the original.

Gavin Skene is once again responsible for the artwork, and Matt Burton has once again put thousands of hours into scanning the thousands of crystal cleari mages captured by the legendary lenseman David Cumming, and the many others whose skill behind the lens has left a lasting legacy for all those who loved this incredible racetrack.

The introductions are by 10-times Australian Sprintcar Champion and Australian Speedcar Grand Prix winner Garry Rush, and Multiple Marlboro Grand National winner, Gene Cook.

To secure your copy place an order now and don't miss out on what will be a stunning edition to Liverpool City Raceway - The Place of Pace 1967-1989.