Autosport covers from the 60s and 70s

There's been some great cover photos featuring saloon car racing from the 60s and 70s,  anyone got a favourite,  if I knew how to add a photo I've got one of Ken Dawes in his Anglia leading the pack into Druids

Same track, same bend ...the April 12th 1968 edition of Autosport had a great picture of Frank Gardner in his wonderful Falcon on the front cover.  The banner below the "Autosport" logo announced that the issue contained a full report on the BOAC 500 and also non specifically mentioned "tragic Hockenheim".

 

I never could understand how the death of the greatest racing driver of all time (yes..I still believe this) failed to make the front cover of the UK's leading motor sport weekly.  On December 4th 1975 they got their priorities right following the loss of Graham Hill and I can still remember the sadness and disbelief with which I read that issue...

 

Sorry this contribution is a bit morbid, not necessarily "favourites" but these are the stand-outs for me.

Edited by moffspeed, 14 August 2019 - 19:12.

Same track, same bend ...the April 12th 1968 edition of Autosport had a great picture of Frank Gardner in his wonderful Falcon on the front cover.  The banner below the "Autosport" logo announced that the issue contained a full report on the BOAC 500 and also non specifically mentioned "tragic Hockenheim".

 

I never could understand how the death of the greatest racing driver of all time (yes..I still believe this) failed to make the front cover of the UK's leading motor sport weekly.  On December 4th 1975 they got their priorities right following the loss of Graham Hill and I can still remember the sadness and disbelief with which I read that issue...

 

Sorry this contribution is a bit morbid, not necessarily "favourites" but these are the stand-outs for me.

It does, in these days, seem strange. However, at the time, the specialist motor sport press were averse to sensationalising racing crashes. This was largely in response to the national press who were seen to only take an interest in the sport if there was some lurid accident to report on, an approach intensely disliked by the motor sport press. As such, the likes of Autosport and Motoring News tended to go the other way and downplay such "incidents" to avoid any accusation of hypocricy. Somewhere I have copy of MN from the week after Jim Clark's fatal crash and if my memory serves me right the top page headline was about the BOAC 500 at Brands - below that was a headline along the lines of "tragedy at Hockenheim. I might be wrong but I recall the lead paragraph informed us of the winner of the race before mentioning Jim's accident. Of course this does now seem a bit dismissive in the context of our modern sensibilities.

 

However, to get back to the topic, my favourite saloon shot is of the Mustangs of Richard Bond and Teddy Savory at Oulton Park in 1966 in a December issue from that year.

Same track, same bend ...the April 12th 1968 edition of Autosport had a great picture of Frank Gardner in his wonderful Falcon on the front cover.  The banner below the "Autosport" logo announced that the issue contained a full report on the BOAC 500 and also non specifically mentioned "tragic Hockenheim".

 

I never could understand how the death of the greatest racing driver of all time (yes..I still believe this) failed to make the front cover of the UK's leading motor sport weekly.  On December 4th 1975 they got their priorities right following the loss of Graham Hill and I can still remember the sadness and disbelief with which I read that issue...

 

Sorry this contribution is a bit morbid, not necessarily "favourites" but these are the stand-outs for me.

 

 

 

 

A couple of notes here, firstly the colour covers for magazines back in the day were set up at the printers a week or so before the magazine went to press , so the cover in question does indeed show a photo of Gardeners Falcon -at Brands Hatch, but not racing the previous weekend, indeed the caption on page three refers to the car racing at Snetterton the following weekend.

Secondly the banner headline reads'' Tragic Hockenheim-full BOAC 500 report-Easter sport '' and that is all that could have been overprinted on the cover in advance of publication-on Wednesday late afternoon for those of us in Central London back then.

I was at Brands that day. I had gone to see Clark in the Alan Mann F3L , got stuck in traffic and missed the Howmet,  but  as the word of the Clark accident worked its way around the circuit by word of mouth later on, I will never forget the way people just packed up and left whilst the race was still going on, they just lost the taste for motor sport that day.

Many years later I asked Alan about that day and why Clark was doing an F2 event rather than Brands and he explained that the contract with Ford gave him Clark unless Chapman had a call and Alan was sure that Clark only went to Hockenheim because Chapman didn't want him racing for Alan.

Edited by Red Socks, 15 August 2019 - 11:14.

I preferred the understatement to the current triend to regard a driver's sprained ankle as a national trauma we somehow have to live through .... 

My favourite is Hans Stuck (junior) with all four wheels well off the ground at the Nurburgring in a BMW Batmobile.   July 1974 cover.

My favourite is Hans Stuck (junior) with all four wheels well off the ground at the Nurburgring in a BMW Batmobile.   July 1974 cover.

 

A good one , certainly, but I think that's Motor Sport. A couple of Autosport saloon covers I half-remember: i) 1970 saloons at Brands, South Bank?, an Escort leading Frank Gardner's Boss Mustang, ii) 1966 Mustangs and Lotus Cortina. Goodwood?

 

Edit:

 

https://www.ebay.co....1YAAOSwktFdHO3k

 

https://www.ebay.co....JcAAOSwLopaq~9b

Edited by john winfield, 16 August 2019 - 12:31.

A personal favourite was the cover in late 1977 or early 1978 featuring the Reynard SF78 Formula Ford 2000 . Up until then Ford 2000s looked like Formula Ford 1600s with wings tacked on but the SF78 looked more like a miniature Grand Prix car .

https://www.ebay.co....34AAOSwMoZccGol