45 replies to this topic

[Vitesse2]

There are now numerous online press resources available to motor sport researchers. Those of us who have dug through them know that it is possible to find a surprising amount of interesting detail which - even at Grand Prix level - was not reported in the specialist press - which, until recently, was often the only contemporaneous printed source used by authors. For those of us with a particular interest in the earlier years of the sport these non-specialist resources are especially important, since eye-witness information is now simply almost unobtainable. Continental daily papers - especially French, Swiss and Italian ones - are a remarkably useful source, sometimes reporting day-by-day on Grand Prix practice sessions, complete with timings.

 

The purpose of this thread is to provide links to worldwide online newspaper and magazine archive websites which you may find useful. Many of these are free to use, others require some form of payment for downloads and/or a subscription. For some, it depends on your personal circumstances and location. I have personally used most of these: some can be quite difficult to navigate and of course it often doesn't help that the whole website may be in a language you don't read! If you have any difficulties with finding your way around any of them, run into download limits or any other problems please feel free to PM me and I'll attempt to help!

 

I'm going to provide these in 'bite-sized chunks', grouped regionally, starting with the British Isles. If there are any that I've missed which you feel should be included, please either PM me or post details in this thread.

 

A general note regarding the Google News Archive: at present there is no easy way to search the Google News Archive - although it can be done via 'advanced search' but with very hit-and-miss results. At the end of 2013 they quietly removed the remaining pre-1980 search functionality, with a promise to develop an entirely new search architecture. However, it appears this will not be available until some time in 2015! Many of the papers in the archive - most of which are American - were never searchable anyway, but whether the new search will include them is unknown. Most of the available papers on Google News are simply scanned versions of 1970s and 1980s microfilms or microfiches, the quality of some of which is quite poor. Some are just plain unreadable!
 

[Vitesse2]

BRITISH ISLES

 

UK National Newspapers

 

Many local libraries offer in-home access to a database called Newsbank, which includes most current national and some regional dailies - plus a few local weeklies. This is text-only and generally only covers the past fifteen years or so, although their databases for The Independent, Daily/Sunday Mirror and The People go back to 1992, the Daily Record/Sunday Mail to 1994, The Sun to 1996, the Financial Times to 1982 and The Times/Sunday Times to 1985. Check your local library website!

 

The Times

 

The Times runs its own paid-for archive, but this now only seems to be available as part of a subscription to the newspaper itself: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/

 

However, most public libraries within the UK offer free at-home online access to The Times Digital Archive through Gail/Cengage. This archive does not include the Sunday Times - although Gail/Cengage do offer this to libraries as a separate product: I don't actually know of a library which subscribes to it, though. See also Newsbank above. Check your local library website!

 

The Daily Telegraph

 

Recent (October 2000 onwards) issues of both the daily and Sunday papers are on Newsbank, but there is no full archive of the Telegraph available online. However, since the beginning of 2014 they have been making issues from exactly 100 years ago available for free download as PDFs on their website. This is a continuing project with a new issue to be added every day until the end of 2018! (There was no Sunday Telegraph until 1961, so there are only six per week.) You can find the index page here: http://www.telegraph...ws/ww1-archive/

 

The Guardian/The Observer

 

Some public libraries offer free at-home access to The Guardian's archive, but they are very much in the minority. Recent issues (1998 onwards) are on Newsbank. For those without free access, it is possible to buy daily, three-day and monthly passes through Pro-Quest: http://pqasb.pqarchi...ian/offers.html

 

UK Press Online

 

This multi-paper archive is available free in some public libraries and most academic libraries. The main national papers included are the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, but it also includes such quirky titles as the Daily Worker and various Mosleyite papers from the 1930s: surprisingly you can sometimes find motor sporting news - and even race reports - in these! The World War 2 collection also includes the Yorkshire Post 1933-45. UK Press Online also offers day, five-day and 90-day passes with unlimited downloads: I managed several hundred on a day pass! (Handy hint: a day pass here can theoretically last anything up to 48 hours, since it expires at midnight the day after you make the purchase!)
http://www.ukpresson...en/services.jsp

 

Daily Mail

 

Like the Sunday Times, the Daily Mail is available to public libraries via Gale/Cengage. Again, I don't know of a library which offers it - but presumably there must be some somewhere!

 

UK REGIONAL PAPERS

 

British Newspaper Archive

 

The BNA is an ongoing project, using the British Library's collections, with new material added almost daily. It includes regional dailies, evening papers and weeklies, mostly from England and Scotland, but with a few Welsh and Irish titles. Much of it is based on an earlier BL project which was focused on pre-20th century papers and which is sometimes offered free by public libraries through Gale/Cengage as 'Nineteenth Century Newspapers', but it is now being expanded into the mid-20th century.

Anyone researching pre-war Donington Park events will be able to find original reporting from - for example - the Nottingham Evening Post. I'm sure there's much more to find there.

 

Searching is free and the search engine is quite good, but until recently it wasn't cheap to use. However, they have recently introduced an extremely good value monthly pass which offers unlimited PDF downloads for just £9.95.

 

http://www.britishne...rarchive.co.uk/

 

ISLE OF MAN

 

The Manx Museum's collection of newspapers is available online. You will need to create a user account with the Manx government website, but once you have done that it is free to search the database, with various pass options available for downloads. Bike racing  fans may be interested to note that the entire 1930-1961 archive of TT Special - the paper produced only during TT and Manx GP weeks - is available.

 

Click on 'Manx National Heritage': https://www.gov.im/onlineservices/
 

SCOTLAND

 

The Scotsman

 

I believe some Scottish libraries offer free access to The Scotsman archive. The rest of us have to make do with paying for it! The archive only goes to 1950, with access via an annual, monthly, weekly or two-day pass.

 

http://archive.scots...se-this-site#22

 

Glasgow Herald

 

The Glasgow Herald is - as far as I'm aware - one of only two 20th century British newspapers available in Google News Archive. It was never searchable, but you can browse it on the link below. The archive ends in early 1990.

 

http://news.google.c...id=GGgVawPscysC

 

Evening Times

 

The other 20th century British paper in Google News. Not searchable and covering 1951-91 only.

 

http://news.google.c...id=2mus-XyGPC0C

 

WALES

 

Welsh Newspapers Online

 

Provided by the Welsh National Library - and still in beta - WNO includes a large number of daily and weekly Welsh papers - in both Welsh and English. At least at present, the archive ends at 1919, with the majority of the papers being pre-Great War. But it's a start. And it's free!

 

http://welshnewspape....org.uk/en/home

 

IRELAND

 

Irish Times

 

This archive also includes the Irish Times Weekly. Searchable for free, but you need to buy a pass to download articles. The weekly motoring column often covered sporting matters.

 

http://www.irishtimes.com/search

 

Irish News Archive

 

Includes the daily Irish Independent, together with a number of regional papers from all across Ireland. Again free to search, with one- and two-day, weekly, monthly and annual passes available.

 

http://www.irishnewsarchive.com/

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

Motor Sport

 

Just released - the complete archive of Motor Sport back to 1924. See this thread for a few further details.

 

http://archive.motorsportmagazine.com/

 

Karting Magazine

 

The whole archive of Karting Magazine is online - free - on the link below:

 

http://karting.archive.netcopy.co.uk/

 

Commercial Motor

 

While this magazine might not seem immediately obvious as a source, it sometimes comes up trumps on the most unlikely things. It taught me a lot about Pneugrippa machines - among other things - and you can find interesting snippets about drivers and entrants with trade connections. Even the occasional article by WB! There are page viewing limits, but these can be easily circumvented.

 

http://archive.commercialmotor.com/

 

Illustrated London News

 

Another Gail/Cengage offering, which is available through some public libraries. Often covered motoring subjects - occasionally sporting-related.

 

Picture Post

 

Also available through Gail/Cengage - although surprisingly few libraries seem to offer it, given its iconic status throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

 

Flight

 

Again perhaps not an obvious source, but it's often surprising what you can find in Flight!

 

http://www.flightglo...com/pdfarchive/
 

[sramoa]

I have a good news of who you want to search in Google News Archive at this time.

 

"grand prix" site:http://news.google.com/newspapers

 

If you replace the word or words "" candidate can look for the site.I am in the "grand prix" words were used.This paste it into the search bar and you'll release the results, like they used to. 

 

I hope I was understandable.

[fw07c]

 

I have a good news of who you want to search in Google News Archive at this time.

 

"grand prix" site:http://news.google.com/newspapers

 

If you replace the word or words "" candidate can look for the site.I am in the "grand prix" words were used.This paste it into the search bar and you'll release the results, like they used to. 

 

I hope I was understandable.

 

Unfortunately I am confused

[Vitesse2]

Unfortunately I am confused

What he's trying to say is that you can still use the specific site search tool within the Google search box. Adding site:google.com/newspapers before or after your search term means that only the newspaper part of the site will be searched, but that will produce a very random list of results unless your search term is very specific. And as I pointed out, some of the papers on Google News were never indexed anyway so could only be browsed! However, there used to be functionality within advanced search which enabled you to also set publication date parameters: this has gone, making it almost useless.

 

This may or may not help explain:

 

https://support.goog...r/1638638?hl=en

 

I assume that they are going to introduce something along the lines of the search engines they use at newspapers.com or newspaperarchive.com, both of which are pretty good.

[Jim Thurman]

What he's trying to say is that you can still use the specific site search tool within the Google search box. Adding site:google.com/newspapers before or after your search term means that only the newspaper part of the site will be searched, but that will produce a very random list of results unless your search term is very specific. And as I pointed out, some of the papers on Google News were never indexed anyway so could only be browsed! However, there used to be functionality within advanced search which enabled you to also set publication date parameters: this has gone, making it almost useless.

 

This may or may not help explain:

 

https://support.goog...r/1638638?hl=en

 

I assume that they are going to introduce something along the lines of the search engines they use at newspapers.com or newspaperarchive.com, both of which are pretty good.

 

Google ceased support of their news archive. Worries, be they founded or unfounded, are that the archive will eventually disappear.

 

There is a way to seach dates. After searching in the search window at the Google News Archive, click on Search Tools, then click "Any Time" and go to bottom, Custom Range, and type in the date parameters.

[Vitesse2]

Google ceased support of their news archive. Worries, be they founded or unfounded, are that the archive will eventually disappear.

 

There is a way to seach dates. After searching in the search window at the Google News Archive, click on Search Tools, then click "Any Time" and go to bottom, Custom Range, and type in the date parameters.

Indeed, Jim, but that only works for publication dates since January 1st 1970. It will still accept earlier dates in the input fields but won't return any results, even though the information is there. For example, searching for "Richard Seaman" without date parameters will return one report about Dick from 1938 and two from 1939 on the first page, but if you specify a date range of 1938-39 nothing comes up.

 

They said back in December of last year that it would be 'several months' before the search would be restored: 'several' is not exactly a helpful benchmark for when we can expect it!

 

[Vitesse2]

FRANCE

 

Gallica, the French national archive, offers several useful daily newspapers. Some are searchable, some are not - although it has to be said that the search on some is quite poor. The links below will take you to index pages for the titles which I have found most useful. None of these goes past 1944: at the liberation de Gaulle closed down the entire French press on the grounds that any publication still operating had collaborated with the Germans and the French seem to regard these as all being in the public domain. It will be interesting to see what happens in 2015 when copyright on the first post-war titles expires. There are other daily papers on Gallica, but these are the ones I have found to be the most useful.

 

l'Intransigeant

 

This is one of two papers for which the journalist Georges Fraichard wrote. Quite detailed reports and regular motoring features, often including sporting topics.

 

http://gallica.bnf.f...76w/date.langEN

 

Le Petit Parisien

 

Evening paper for which Fraichard also wrote.

 

http://gallica.bnf.f...11x/date.langEN

 

Le Figaro

 

http://gallica.bnf.f...51z/date.langEN

 

Le Matin

 

http://gallica.bnf.f.../date.r=.langEN

 

Le Temps

 

http://gallica.bnf.f...94k/date.langEN

 

Le Petit Journal

 

http://gallica.bnf.f...90j/date.langEN

 

l'Aéro

 

Obviously an aviation title, but does include some motor sport items.

 

http://gallica.bnf.f...b32682874k/date

 

Match

 

Not the Paris Match of today, but a general sports magazine:

 

http://gallica.bnf.f...b32812178x/date

 

Revue de l'Association générale automobile

 

A pre-Great War motoring magazine with some sporting interest.

 

http://gallica.bnf.f...tomobile.langFR

 

There are also several regional or city archives which make newspaper archives available. This is the Rhône-Alpes region:

 

http://www.memoireet...g/fr/presse.php

 

Nice and the Riviera:

 

http://www.basesdocu...ves/indexPA.php

 

Two from Toulouse - Midi Socialiste and l'Express du Midi:

 

http://numerique.bib...15556101_MIDSOC

http://numerique.bib...5556101_EXPRESS

 

The Normannia website offers the excellent  l'Ouest Éclair, a regional daily published in five different editions, with a unified search covering all of them. Useful for researching Le Mans and other goings-on in western France, in addition to more general French events.

 

http://www.normannia...clair/index.php

 

Three of the editions of l'Ouest Éclair are also available on Gallica, but in a less user-friendly form:

 

http://gallica.bnf.f...=&adv=1&lang=EN

[Jim Thurman]

Indeed, Jim, but that only works for publication dates since January 1st 1970. It will still accept earlier dates in the input fields but won't return any results, even though the information is there. For example, searching for "Richard Seaman" without date parameters will return one report about Dick from 1938 and two from 1939 on the first page, but if you specify a date range of 1938-39 nothing comes up.

 

They said back in December of last year that it would be 'several months' before the search would be restored: 'several' is not exactly a helpful benchmark for when we can expect it!

 

That's very odd as I have returned results from pre-1970 many times.  Strange    I don't doubt for a minute that the searches might not be "full", but I generally do get results.

[sramoa]

Here is my "alternative" Google Search Archive:

[tsrwright]

I sent this to the National Library of Australia recently and they were quite pleased as it gave access to more recent papers eg The Age, than their own database!

The search of Google News Archive no longer works in accordance with Google instructions but the following seems to give access to the archive as it must have been when they stopped work on it a year or two ago.

1 Go to www.news.google.com/newspapers ... you get a list of Google archived newspapers -  mainly US but including The Age and the SMH up to 1989

2. Put in a search term and click Search Archive next to the search box. You will get a list of references, presumably from the whole archive

3. Keep the search term or change it and click on Archives at the top of the page. This will give a pull-down menu that allows the date range to be selected.

4. Search again and you will get references within the date range.

I don't yet know if it is possible to search specific newspapers.

Hope this is of interest but maybe do  not tell the whole world in case they shut access down. Please let me know if it works for you and if you can work out how to search specific papers.

They replied:

 

Hi Terry,

 

Thank you very much for this! Definitely very useful – particularly for the Age as we don’t have subscription access to it. I’ll pass this along to our newspapers team.

 

Just for your interest, if you request a National Library card (which is free) you can access some of our newspaper databases from home, including Factiva, which is mostly recent but does have 70s – 80s coverage for some titles. There’s also the Gale NewsVault which covers British papers including the Times from 1785-2007.

 

There’s also PressDisplay which will give you daily newspapers from around the world (60-day archive through to the present day).

 

Thanks again for getting in touch with these helpful instructions!

 

Best regards

Sarah

 

This may or may not add to what is already posted but one thing to note is that the NLA's 'Trove' contains a superb newspaper database which is, of course, full of British news, and may be much easier to use than the crummy British effort. My wife tells me the New Zealand equivalent is even better and again it has heaps of british content (if that is what you want).

 

Edited by tsrwright, 16 May 2014 - 09:00.

[tsrwright]

Another Google oddity is Google Books, as follows:

 

Hi Frank,

Please can you give me a clue how to find Motor Age online -  can't find it anywhere. Your pages had the Google logo but how their archives work is a mystery so far.

Regards

Terry,

Generally, I just go through Google Books http://books.google.com/books to search for articles or chapters in books that may have been digitized.  I am not always able to find anything of use, but it is always worth a shot.  A number of years of Motor Age are fully available http://bit.ly/UIBaUS and can be downloaded through Google Books. 

 

I hope this helps. 

 

Sincerely,

Frank Harris

 

What happens then is that Frank in Los Angeles can get substantial content but in Australia I can only get the 'snippet view' Is it blocked outside US maybe?

Edited by tsrwright, 16 May 2014 - 09:02.

[Vitesse2]

Yes, Terry, as far as I can tell much of Google Books' magazine content is geo-blocked for those of us outside the US. I assume this is because the libraries which provided the scans specified US-only - although only pre-1922 publications are in the public domain there, so that may be another factor. Perhaps access might be possible by spoofing your IP address, but given that Google seem to be able to track you in all sorts of ways I wonder if it's worth the effort of trying? I have played around with that - but without success - in the past.

 

I was going to cover Trove and the New Zealand archive Papers Past later The British efforts aren't really all that crummy - but what they generally aren't is free!

[tsrwright]

Sorry, I was referring only to the British Newspaper Archive (which is all I have used), but I have found it hard to find things and if something is found it is often very difficult to read.

[dax]

Nice topic, thanks Vitesse

 

Some other resource I use quite often:

 

- Germany : Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung - http://anno.onb.ac.a...o?apm=0&aid=aaz

- Italy : La Stampa Sportiva - http://www.digibess....rt/-/collection

- Spain : El Mundo Deportivo - http://www.mundodepo...teca/index.html

- France : Lyon Sport - http://collections.b...on.fr/PER003261

 

Motor Age, The Automobile, Automobile Topics and a lot more are availabe at Hathitrust website : http://www.hathitrust.org/

[pnegyesi]

There are literally dozens (probably hundreds) of Dutch newspapers scanned, but I did not try to check whether they have any motoring content

 

One from Hungary: Automobil-Motorsport, 1926-1931

http://epa.oszk.hu/02100/02192

[Frank de Jong]

Great topic. Additions which have been very useful to me and contain motorsport articles:

 

ABC (from Madrid, the ideal companion for Barcelona-based Mundo Deportivo): http://hemeroteca.abc.es/avanzada.stm

Dutch archive, containing De Telegraaf and others: http://www.delpher.nl

A few other Dutch regional newspapers share this search engine: http://archiefeemlan...it&period=>1957

North-Netherland newspapers: http://www.archiefle....nl/srch/adv.do

Belgium: Le Soir, doesn't go back very long but helped me to get info about Belgian Procar: http://archives.lesoir.be

 

I'll sure check some of the French resources mentioned above.

[Vitesse2]

For anyone who would like to try the British Newspaper Archive, they have a special offer at present: enter OCTDEAL at checkout by Friday to get your first month for just £1. If you find it doesn't meet your requirements, you can cancel at any time and the subscription will still continue until the end of November.

[Vitesse2]

A new title just added to British Newspaper Archive is the Sporting Times. It ceased publication in 1932, but they have scanned all issues up to 1929 so far. A simple search for 'Brooklands' produces 340 hits ...

[terry mcgrath]

it would be great to add some of the photographic archives to this list  ie collier collection and the 2 race result web sites.

There are obviously other photographic searchable archives including one stated to have 5000 photos each year of the early 1950's Geneva Milan Paris motor shows!

Any clues?

 

 

https://revslib.stanford.edu/

Edited by terry mcgrath, 17 December 2016 - 00:57.

[Vitesse2]

I mentioned both the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph above. The Telegraph archive 1855-2000 is - like the Mail - now available on Cengage.

 

Today I discovered that it is possible for UK residents (and foreign residents too!) to register for online access to the Welsh National Library, which subscribes to both those, along with several other Cengage titles and much more, including JSTOR and ProQuest.

 

https://www.llgc.org.../readersticket/

 

Just click on the 'register online' link and follow the instructions! Once you have registered and logged in, go to this page:

 

https://www.llgc.org...ther-resources/

[tsrwright]

This might be useful:

 

https://en.wikipedia...spaper_archives

 

But where can I find an online archive for Jersey?

 

T.

[tsrwright]

Is there anyone in Jersey who  could do a little bit of newspaper research please?

[Vitesse2]

AFAIK, Terry, the only place to consult old Jersey papers is the library in St Helier, who do offer an email research service.

 

https://www.gov.je/L...s.aspx#anchor-0

 

The Jersey Evening Post have transferred their photo collection to the Jersey Archive, but that doesn't seem to hold any press resources at all. The paper may still have a 'morgue', but if they do I can't find a mention of it. Although IIRC Jim Bergerac used to pop in there occasionally.

[terry mcgrath]

google newspapers

https://news.google.com/newspapers

[Allen Brown]

google newspapers

https://news.google.com/newspapers

 

Google newspapers used to be a very active project but appears to have hit legal problems, presumably to do with Google's belief that they are allowed to violate everybody else's copyright.   In May 2011, Google announced that the digitization program was being shut down, but the archive returned in less ambitious form in December 2014, and remains accessible.

 

I use newspapers.com, which is excellent value at only $140 per annum.

 

Allen

[Michael Ferner]

Newspaper.com is my favourite, too.

[Jim Thurman]

I get the free (truncated) library version of Newspapers.com. Far fewer papers, but...

 

So, Michael, how about a list of all the free U.S. newspaper archives you use or have found. I'll add any I'm aware of that you aren't (if there are any  )

[tsrwright]

AFAIK, Terry, the only place to consult old Jersey papers is the library in St Helier, who do offer an email research service.

 

https://www.gov.je/L...s.aspx#anchor-0

 

The Jersey Evening Post have transferred their photo collection to the Jersey Archive, but that doesn't seem to hold any press resources at all. The paper may still have a 'morgue', but if they do I can't find a mention of it. Although IIRC Jim Bergerac used to pop in there occasionally.

 

Thanks, I have used the library and they are very helpful and reasonable, but some of the things I have been looking for are very obscure. I have come across some material

at LAT, but not a lot.

[Michael Ferner]

A good overview is at http://www.xooxleans...paper-archives/

Over time, I have used several dozens of commercial or free sites, too many to list them all here.

[Jim Thurman]

A good overview is at http://www.xooxleans...paper-archives/

Over time, I have used several dozens of commercial or free sites, too many to list them all here.

 

Ah, ok. Thanks. Based on that we're pretty much aware of the same things then. Though that list doesn't appear to have been updated for a bit. For example, where are the Woodbridge (NJ) newspapers?

 

Any other local archives like those that you are aware of?  Feel free to e-mail off list if you'd prefer.

[Charlieman]

I assume that many people are familiar with Grace's Guide to British Industrial History which contains many entries relevant to motor sport. 

See https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/

 

Most of the entries are derived from trade handbooks, exhibition programmes and the like. I'll highlight the entries taken from Who's Who in the Motor Trade (and Who's Who in Engineering, and Who's Who in British Aviation) which include private addresses and phone numbers for all sorts of people. It's a pity that there isn't a reverse lookup directory so that we can identify advertisers a little easier. But the search function works well -- use multiple or fuzzy searches for the number 0/letter O type errors that occur with OCR.

[Vitesse2]

A general note regarding the Google News Archive: at present there is no easy way to search the Google News Archive - although it can be done via 'advanced search' but with very hit-and-miss results. At the end of 2013 they quietly removed the remaining pre-1980 search functionality, with a promise to develop an entirely new search architecture. However, it appears this will not be available until some time in 2015! Many of the papers in the archive - most of which are American - were never searchable anyway, but whether the new search will include them is unknown. Most of the available papers on Google News are simply scanned versions of 1970s and 1980s microfilms or microfiches, the quality of some of which is quite poor. Some are just plain unreadable!
 

Purely by accident while looking for something else (as usual!) I have discovered that - with, AFAIK, absolutely no announcement - Google has apparently transferred the old Google News Archive into Google Books Advanced Search. There is now an option to select 'Newspapers' in the 'Content' line on the search page; leave the first line as 'All Books'.

 

https://books.google...ok_search?hl=en

[Barttore]

I found a Polish Sports magazine "Przegląd Sportowy" in the archives of the Warsaw university

http://buwcd.buw.uw....rtowy/start.htm

1921-1946 as GIF

1947 + 1948 in PDF

1949-1959 in DjVu

 

I did not saw this mentioned before - hope it is of use for someone here too. 

It was for me. Using Google Translate (copying letter by letter; special characters are corrected "automatically") texts became understandable too.

[Barttore]

Belgium: Belgicapress.be: 3.500.000+ newspaper pages up to 1950

In Dutch, French and English

free for study purposes, after registration

[cooper997]

Looks like the huge run of The Autocar/ Autocar will be heading online later this year.

 

https://www.classica...ve-going-online

 

 

Stephen

[Vitesse2]

Looks like the huge run of The Autocar/ Autocar will be heading online later this year.

 

https://www.classica...ve-going-online

 

 

Stephen

Good news. I think there are probably more than the claimed six extant complete sets though. Maybe they mean 'complete and not falling to bits through over-use'? You certainly couldn't say that about Beaulieu's - although as I recall they do have spares of some volumes. The IMechE's library's sets of Autocar and Motor only go up to 1949, but are in near-mint condition.

[cooper997]

A bit more information on The Autocar/Autocar archive going online is mentioned within this piece on Classic & Sports Car's back catalogue also going online.

 

Appears the former will potentially be available in August.

 

https://www.classica...ve-going-online

 

 

Stephen

[cooper997]

Looks like things are getting closer to around 6000 magazines going online. A mutual friend of Tony Johns and myself is currently one of around 50 enthusiasts invited to test out The Autocar/ Autocar online archive. Or as the email I've seen mentions "beta testing phase".

 

Phil was able to show me the first issue and the current search function. I was somewhat taken in by the quality of old photographs appearing somewhat better than one considers they do in hardcopy. The magic of modern technology!

 

With around 1 million pages scanned Archivie Digital can be congratulated on their undertaking. As the email mentions "It hasn't been easy, we believe that it's the biggest project of its type anywhere in the world."

 

Without doubt a huge benefit for motoring enthusiasts, car clubs and probably even car manufacturers seeking their own history. .

 

 

Stephen

[Roger Clark]

The Autocar archive is now available. It is free for the first two weeks. 

[Vitesse2]

https://www.themotoringarchive.com/

[nexfast]

Thanks for the link. Quite a useful tool for research. I took the plunge and subscribed for a year. Still working the several different ways of assessing the information, it seems the search engine needs some retooling.. Hope I will have time to peruse so many pages!. 

[Allen Brown]

I've taken advantage of the 14-day free version.  It is rather slow, and as nexfast says, some major work is still needed on the search.  However, it's early days and what they are doing isn't easy.

 

They tell me that Autosport is also on its way, and will be ready next March.  

[AdamFerrington]

I've taken advantage of the 14-day free version.  It is rather slow, and as nexfast says, some major work is still needed on the search.  However, it's early days and what they are doing isn't easy.

 

They tell me that Autosport is also on its way, and will be ready next March.  
 

Thank you for pointing this out, Allen

 

ii too have taken advantage of the 14 day free trial offer.

There are certainly quite a few issues missing at the moment, but it seems a very worthy enterprise.

Autosport, if/when they do it, will certainly be a very valuable resource.

[Kvadrat]

How to access free trial at https://www.themotoringarchive.com? Can't find it.

[VWV]

Automotive History Preservation Society

 

https://wildaboutcar...d=9990391350594