39 replies to this topic

[Reyna]

I'd like to know the motor racing magazines from 60s and 70s you love.

I'm Spaniard and i only know just a few vintage mags, but i allways love to find new magazines from 60s and 70s

Here the mags i know, and my own valuation:

Italy:
Autosprint
60s ***
70s *****

Auto italiana:
60s ****


France:
Sport-Auto
60s ****
70s ****

L'automobile:
60s *****
70s ***

Moteurs:
60s ****
70s ***

Champion / Virage / Echappement:
60s **
70s **


Germany:

Rallye Racing:
60s ****
70s **

Powerslide:
60s ***
70s **

Great Britain:

Motor Sport:
60s ****
70s ***

Autosport:
60s ***
70s ***

USA:

Road&Track:
60s ***


Spain:

Fórmula:
60s ****
70s ****

Autopista:
60s *
70s ***

Velocidad / RAC :
60s *
70s *

Cuatro Tiempos:
70s ****


Wich were your prefered mags ??
Wich were the best motor racing mags in your country ???

[Pedro 917]

In Belgium we had Sport Moteurs / Motoren Sport which was a newspaper at first but from 1968 became a very good magazine. It disappeared around 1977. I believe Virage was a Belgian magazine too.

Great Britain : I loved "Speed World" and there was also Car, Motor and Motoring News.

France : Auto Poche, l'Auto Journal.

Germany : German Sport-Auto

USA : Car & Driver

Holland : Autovisie

[Reyna]

Pedro 917... and your opinion about the most famous ???

And your prefered 60s and 70s ???
Peut-être Sport-Auto ???

[D-Type]

Great Britain: Autocar, Motor Racing (which had a tie-in to the BARC, I think)

[Ted Walker]

MOTOR RACING was in fact the official magazine of the BRSCC. One its main contributors was a chap called Doug Nye and its main club photographer was the late Evan Selwyn -Smith,whos archive Iam proud to own.

[Pedro 917]

Peut-être Sport-Auto ???

I'm living in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium and I can honestly say I've learned my English and French through reading motor racing magazines (and lyrics from Beatles, Stones etc..).
The best magazine? The one that had most Rodriguez pictures......

French magazines : Yes, I guess Sport-Auto was the best. Belgian Sport Moteurs was very good too and always had a great centerfold. Still I remember being very angry when they've put a centerfold of Siffert in the 917 after the 1000kms race of Spa in 1971, a race Pedro won!

English : Autosport was good for the details but it had these "newspaper" quality pages and that often ruined the pictures. I really loved Speed World. It had everything but colour pictures : great interviews, complete lapcharts and historic reviews. I was very upset when it disappeared from the racks. Motor Sport was hard to find here in the late sixties/early seventies.

France : you can add "Champion" to the list. It covered both motorcycle and autoraces.

[jarama]

I rate very high the spanish magazines "FORMULA" (late '60ies/early '70ies) and "4tiempos" (late '70ies) alongside the french ones "sport-auto" (late '60ies up to 1980 or so) and "AUTOhebdo" (from mid '70ies to the early '80ies).

Carles.

[Twin Window]

If I were to be stranded on the proverbial 'desert island' with just one magazine available to me, it would have to be Competition Car

However, if I'd suddenly become literate in Italian, it would have to be Autosprint. And, of course, the pics have always been in English

These are the only magazines I continually re-read/look at, and have therefore - in my book - endured the tests of time.

Twinny

A bit of a bugger that none of the mags I've actually worked on get on my first-choice list, innit...

[Reyna]

Originally posted by jarama
I rate very high the spanish magazines "FORMULA" (late '60ies/early '70ies) and "4tiempos" (late '70ies) alongside the french ones "sport-auto" (late '60ies up to 1980 or so) and "AUTOhebdo" (from mid '70ies to the early '80ies).

Carles.

Sorry !!! I forgot one of the best french weekly:
Autohebdo:
70s *****

In fact i only buy now (2.004) two mags: Autosprint and Autohebdo.


BTW: I don't know Competition car, but seems it was excellent...

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by Reyna




BTW: I don't know Competition car, but seems it was excellent...

Seriously, Reyna, start to accumulate them! You won't regret it ...

Twinny

[Reyna]

I remember that Franco Varani had the complete collection of Competition car , and scanned and posted all the pics at MRR.

Is it possible ???

[Nanni Dietrich]

I don't know Competition Car. Now I will search it!

I like Auto-Hebdo, Autosport, Road and Track and Sport-Auto (German).

In Italy there were Auto Italiana (very good magazine, only 4 colour pages for issue, that stopped the editions in 1969) and Autosprint (at the beginning in the 60s every 15 days issue, then weekly).
In 1981 famous Autosprint director Marcello Sabbatini founded magazine Rombo, with all the best writer from Autosprint. But after about 5 or 6 years, in which Rombo was the best competitor of Autosprint, he had to give up. Rombo passed to an other publishing company and ended in the 90s.

Autosprint is still a good magazine, but... when I have a call with one of my friends in the editorial office I always say "how can you consume ALL the red-cartridge in your printer???" (a lot of all-red Ferrari/Schumacher/Todt/Barrichello photos in all the pages...)

[Macca]

I don't think I saw 'Competition Car' in the 1960s, and certainly not any of the Italian or French magazines; but they sound excellent. I've got 'R & T', 'Motor Sport' & 'Motor Racing' for the '60s, plus a lot of odd copies of 'Autosport', 'Autocar', and 'Motor'.

Could someone who has 'Autosprint' or 'Sport-Auto' for 1966 look if there was a picture of the engine/gearbox of a Ferrari 330/P3 at Sebring, Monza, Spa, Nurburgring or Le Mans in any issue. If so, was it the same gearbox as this:

http://ferrarichat.c...tid=43583&stc=1



Paul M

[Martyj]

In the U.S., the best written reports were in "Road and Track," but for graphic splendor, the best bets were "Sports Car Graphic," (which was sold to and swallowed up by "Motor Trend" in 1971) and "Auto Racing." That latter was printed on cheap paper and only lasted from 1966 to 1972, but it was my favorite. Heavier on pictures than any of the others available at the time.

[Reyna]

I have some Auto Racing ('69/'70/'71), and they are really excellents !!!



The first issues:

France:

Sport-Auto: 1.962 ?
L'automobile: 1.948 ?
Virage: 1.967 ?
Moteurs: 1.96..?
Autohebdo: 1.976
Champion: 1.968 ?
Echappement: 1.970 ??
L'autoJournal: ??
Sport Moteur: ??


Italy:

Autosprint: 1.962 ??
Rombo: 1.981
Auto italiana: 1.95.. ??


Great Britain:

Competition Car: 1.972 ??
Motor Sport: Perhaps a century now ???
Autosport: 1.96..??
Motor: ?
Autocar: ?
Grand Prix international: 1.978 ?


USA:

Road&Track: ??
Auto Racing: 1.966?
Sports Car Graphic: ??


Germany:

Rallye Racing: 1.968 ??
Powreslide: 1.964 ??
Christophorus: German mag ??


Spain:

Fórmula: 1.967
Autopista: 1.96..??
Velocidad: 1.96..?
Cuatro Tiempos: 1.979
Automóvil Racing: 1.970
Volante: ??

[Paul Taylor]

Motor Sport magazine has always been my first and only love

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by Macca
I don't think I saw 'Competition Car' in the 1960s...

Hi Macca

Competition Car was launched in early 1972 (I think the first issue had Reutemann in the BT34 he put on pole in Argentina on the cover), and eventually bit the dust in late-1974/early-1975 (IMMSMC).

Originally posted by Paul Taylor
Motor Sport magazine has always been my first and only love

Hi Paul

I am proud to say that I was briefly the Picture Editor of Motor Sport between '98 and '99. During that time, there was a four-part (?) feature concentrating on the 'Best ever 100 drivers' or similar. I took enormous pleasure in ensuring that - wherever possible - any driver included on that list who'd EVER driven a BRM, was depicted as such! Even - nay, especially - if it was a one-off. And if that wasn't the case, or indeed impossible, I would make sure that the driver in question was pictured in the most obscure car in his F1 career. Hence, for example, images such as Wattie at the 'Ring in 1975 driving the Lotus 72 were included...

I must admit that was great fun, and I seem to recall that it went down quite well within the modelling fraternity too!

Twinny

[ian senior]

Cars Illustrated/Sports cars Illustrated, or whatever guise it appeared in, was around in GB in the early 60s. I've got a few old copies. Seems that a bloke called Stirling Moss was involved with it at one stage.

[David Shaw]

I am presently trying to accumulate a collection of Australia's Racing Car News for the years 1967 to 1969.
I am currently bidding on 4 issues at Ebay, and if I were to succeed with all 4, I would only have 2 remaining to complete the set.

[Catalina Park]

Originally posted by David Shaw
I am presently trying to accumulate a collection of Australia's Racing Car News for the years 1967 to 1969.
I am currently bidding on 4 issues at Ebay, and if I were to succeed with all 4, I would only have 2 remaining to complete the set.

Which issues do you need? My wife would be glad to get rid of some of mine!
I only have a couple of RCN in the late 60s so if mine are the ones you need then I would be willing to part with them.

[David Shaw]

Feb 67 and Nov 69 I believe. Thanks for the offer!

[Catalina Park]

I will have a look on the weekend.

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by Nanni Dietrich
I don't know Competition Car. Now I will search it!

This is what you're looking for, Nanni...









Twinny

[Don Capps]

I am a bit amazed that not much has been said about the US magazines of this period -- as well as those from the period immediately preceding it, the 1950s.

Competition Press began in the Summer of 1958, added Autoweek to the banner in the 1960's, and then became just Autoweek.

Speed Age ran from 1947 to about 1959 or so. The years after 1955 were generally pretty poor, only hints of the great magazine it had once been.

Auto Speed and Sport began in late 1951 (cover dates were 1952) until it died about 1956.

MotorRacing ran from 1955 until early 1964 when it merged and died.

Sports Car Graphic Quarterly, which started in about 1958, morphed into Sports Car Graphic in 1961 and died in 1971 when it got swallowed by Motor Trend in one of the worst decisions that Petersen made.

Others of Note:

On the Grid, 1960 to ?

Auto sports AKA US Auto Sports, 1962 to 1966? -- This one was not at all bad and then disappeared

Today's Motor Sports, 1960 to 1963 or 1964? -- weird printing process which led to some putrid copies hitting the newsstand....

In addition, there were....

Stock Car Racing, which began in 1965 with a 1966 cover date

Circle Track & Highway, 1971 or so

National Speed Sport News, Economacki in his prime

Southern Motor Racing Journal

Southern Motor Racing

and no end of others that if I were to prowl the IMRRC I am sure we could find more examples....

[WINO]

Don,

"On the Grid" was actually the same magazine as "Today's Motor Sports". It started in June 1960 and went through a name change in February 1961. "Auto Sports" was started in October 1962 by the former editor of Today' Motor Sport: more focus on USAC and NASCAR racing, rather than just sporty cars.

I agree, all these magazines are worth having. My last issue of Today's M.S. is November 1963, then the paper quality got real bad. Don't think they survived much longer. My last issue of Auto Sports, which changed its name to US Auto Sports, is the February 1965 issue.

And how about adding the SCCA magazine Sports Car, in spite of its limited focus?


WINO

[SEdward]

Nice one Twinny. Brings 'em flooding back!

Currently, the best magazine for motorsports available in France is "Auto Hebdo". But I am not sure whether it was available in the 60s or 70s. When we spent our holidays "on the continent" or "in Europe", as the Brits love to say, in the 70s, I always snapped up a copy of Sport-Auto, featuring Jabby Crombac, which was excellent at the time, especially the photos.

I think I have the issue with the report of the 1972 French GP, which has a "slight" pro-Amon/Matra bias!

Edward

[Don Capps]

WINO,

I wasn't sure since relatively few of these magazines have survived my many moves and I was uncertain if that was that case or not. I have a few copies of TMS and maybe one of OtG. I remember inheriting a number of these from one of our neighbor's sons when he went to college (USNA), in the Fall of 1964, which filled in most of the gaps in my collection. Late 1963 seems about right, the production "values" being terrible in the later issues.

The last copy of US Auto Sports that I have is from about the same period, some time in 1965. I think I have copies from later in the year, I will have to check.

There is another one I am trying to think of that came out in late 1963 and probably overlooked last night. Hans Tanner had a number of articles in its first several editions. Slick paper, lots of photos, mediocre text, few results.... It was something with motorsports in the title, I think..... It got better and then disappeared.

There were some articles which popped up in the magazines that catered to the hot rodding crowd which were often pretty good, especially on the technical side. When Shelby American was in its prime in the 1963 to 1966 timeframe, there were a number of these articles. I wish I had been able to keep more the one of two that are left.

While some may turn their noses up, I was always happy to settle down with the latest issue of Hot Rod since it was always well turned out and darned interesting. One could cobble together a very fascinating look at the development and history of the fuel & gas rails from the 1950s and into the early 1970s just from the pages of Hot Rod. But, I digress.....

The next time I get up to the IMRRC, I will have to take the time to rummage through the stacks and take a look at what they have in the way of these sorts of magazines from this very interesting period of American publications.

I failed to mention Formula which got started in 1974, which became Racecar in July 1979, and died a year later, only to come back as On Track in early 1981. I was subscriber No. 227 to On Track. I think I have Formula/Racecar/On Track complete from around April or May of 1975 until On Track died in December 2000. I don't think that even Bill Green has all of the issues of Formula, but I think he has almost every issue if he doesn't.

Sports Car, the official SCCA magazine, was all over the place from its emergence as a newsletter in the 1940s to a real magazine in about the latter part of 1949 or early 1950. In the 1970s, it became a joke and was pretty pathetic, whereas earlier it has at least been a decent source for information and results.

[Pavel Lifintsev]

Originally posted by Reyna
I remember that Franco Varani had the complete collection of Competition car , and scanned and posted all the pics at MRR.

Is it possible ???

Highly possible. I remember seeing interview with Bernie Ecclestone "What's Going On at Brabhams" (see Twinny's picture) on MRR and I have it on my PC!

[ensign14]

I have 34 issues of Speedworld International in a big thick binding. From 4 May 1968 to Christmas 1968. Is this a complete run?

Just to give you an idea of the magazine, picking an issue at random...21 Sep 1968. Slightly larger than A4, entirely black & white. Masthead is black with Speed World in white on red, but most of the cover is a pic of Dieter Querster in a BMW sportscar at the Gaisberg hillclimb.

40 pages all told, consisting of:

1 page paddock chat (Bill France suggesting F1 should go to 5 litre pushrod engines, pic of John Woolfe in a hotrod at Brighton)

1 page article on a meeting at Phoenix Park

2 pages 'Speed News' (noting that Louis Stanley's weekly column was delayed by floods...)

1 page on Ian Geoghegan winning the Oz TC title

1.5 pages wrapping up the Italian GP and previewing the Canadian GP

1 page of letters - including one Christopher Bailey demanding "Stop These Wings Now!", commenting on the dangers of collapsing wings

1 page photo competition (and the winning photo was an belter, professional standard, someone called J Clare capturing Keith Jupp and Richard Burton in the Guards Trophy F3 race)

2 pages on the Brighton Speed Trials

3 pages on the Preis der Nationen sportscar race, Hans Herrmann winning over David Piper, Paul Hawkins, Teddy Pilette and Jo Siffert in an uncharacteristic 5th

3 pages on the Bridgehampton Can-Am, Donohue over Jim Hall and Motschenbacher - Swede Savage in 4th

2 pages on Gerhard Mitter winning Gaisberg and a bit on his car - over a page of the article comprises of pics

4 pages of a Formula 2 race at Reims - written by Mike Kettlewell of Mill House Books (and Autocourse in the mid-70s) - Stewart wins over Pesca, Courge, Graham Hill, Brian Hart and Jackie Oliver et al

3 pages on Roy Pike winning at Zolder in F3 - amongst the lower orders Gijs van Lennep was 11th, Ian Ashley 15th and Roland Binder, who went on at least into the 80s, down in 18th; the chap in 20th was a Belgian under the pseudonym "Walli"...

2 pages on a vintage meeting at Thruxton by that most wonderful writer William Court

3 pages by Eric Dymock on the NSU Ro80 - "A Great Car, A Great Engine"

2 pages by Eoin Young on "The Men Behind Motor Racing" - Part 5, Walter Hayes

2 more pages by William Court in a series called Pioneer Profiles; this week's was Cecil Bianchi (who was still alive and living outside Wolverhampton at the time, a sprightly 82, and who had retired from motor racing at the ripe old age of 19…)

The mag itself is picture-heavy (apart from the Young and Court articles the pictures dominate half the pages at least) but seems nevertheless to have been very good for someone looking for writing, as opposed merely to news.

[Indy500]

I have recently bought a massive pile of sportmoteur & autohebdo books from some guy who wanted to toss them all away...

The collection isn't complete, but then again, saved them from the rubbish

Sportmoteur (Belgian in French)
1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976
They had some excellent writers : Paul Frere, Phillipe Toussaint etc.
almost complete

AutoHebdo (French)
1976 untill 1997 (but very incomplete)

Auto & Sport (Belgian in Dutch)
1982-1990 very incomplete

Classic & Sportscar (English)
1984-2004 very incomplete

Grand Prix International (Some in Dutch, French & Englisch)
1980-1984 very incomplete

Motorensport (Belgian in Dutch)
1969-1974 very incomplete

Motorsport (English)
1997-2004 almost complete

Speed (Belgian in French)
1948-1957 incomplete

I picked up almost 1300 magazines for 50€, not to bad when I saw at Ciney that the price for one of those magazines is about 1 to 2€ per magazine.


I also have found quite some doubles in his archives :
Mostly Autohebdo & Motorsport (if there are some of you that still search some of them)

[wibblywobbly]

I've been buying up old Mospo Mags, on eBay. One of which is the 1959 issue of Motorspeed, featuring Sebring and Indy.

[Reyna]

Originally posted by Indy500
I also have found quite some doubles in his archives :
Mostly Autohebdo & Motorsport (if there are some of you that still search some of them)

I'm searching Autohebdos from 1.976 to 1.985... Do you have any double copies from those years ??



Thanks,
Rafa

[Catalina Park]

Originally posted by David Shaw
Feb 67 and Nov 69 I believe. Thanks for the offer!

Sorry David, I don't have those two.
Sorry I took so long to reply but they were buried in the back of the shed along with a mini, a Morris 1100, a formula vee, lots of Holden parts, etc. But I did find my slot cars!

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by Catalina Park
Sorry David, I don't have those two.
Sorry I took so long to reply but they were buried in the back of the shed along with a mini, a Morris 1100, a formula vee, lots of Holden parts, etc. But I did find my slot cars!

How much for the slot cars Morrie!!!

[David Shaw]

Originally posted by Catalina Park
Sorry David, I don't have those two.
Sorry I took so long to reply but they were buried in the back of the shed along with a mini, a Morris 1100, a formula vee, lots of Holden parts, etc. But I did find my slot cars!

Thanks again anyway.

[Jim Thurman]

In addition to Don's great list, let me make a couple of additional comments...

Stock Car Racing (I can see Michael right now) - SCR in the 60's and 70's covered not only Stock Cars, but open wheelers as well. Indy Cars, Sprints, Super Modifieds were all featured. SCR had several reports from USAC Championship races.

The 60's incarnation of Speed Age had some race reports as well, though it wasn't on a par with the first version of Speed Age - which, as Don noted, was outstanding at least into the mid-50's. After 1956, there was a big drop-off, with a bit of revival in 1958.

Racing Pictorial - while mainly being a slick finish publication featuring color photos (and black and white) of racing, Racing Pictorial later featured some very good race reports on various series, some that didn't receive much national coverage (IMCA, ARCA Stocks, USAC Midgets).

And I realize the thread is on magazines instead of newspapers, but there are a myriad of regional racing papers around the U.S. covering respective regional short track news. There have been many, and several have come and gone. In the late 70's alone, the number was in the low 40's.

[fines]

;)

[Reyna]

Originally posted by fines

;)

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by fines

See?...I just knew it

Seriously, I think you would have approved of the magazine content when they included the Champ Cars and other open wheel racing, but not thought much of the title.

[Mac Lark]

I'm waiting to see Milans contribution to this thread.

I thought I had a fair collection until I saw his...AMAZING!