The 9th issue of Automobilsport, which is all about racing, history and passion, is now available again at newsstands. This time with exciting stories about the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, Jochen Rindt, the Triumph TR7 V8, the Rover 3500, and, and, and,...
Fighter's heart
Alongside Jochen Rindt and Dieter Quester, Jo Gartner was the only Austrian to win a race in the fiercely contested Formula 2 European Championship. But success did not just come to him. With modest means and a great deal of personal commitment, he had to work hard to work his way to the top. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 1980s, he appeared to be the most promising candidate to succeed Niki Lauda. 30 years after his tragic death in an accident at Le Mans, motorsport remembers the charismatic doer, tough racer and undaunted fighter Jo Gartner.
At the end of 1980, several developments influenced the future direction of British Leyland's motorsport activities. Firstly, BL Cars announced the discontinuation of production of the Triumph TR7 V8 - the mainstay of the company's rally activities since 1976. Instead, the new Rover 3500 had established itself well with victories in the British Touring Car Championship.
New Kids on the Block
25 years ago, a refreshing newcomer with attractive green cars managed to shake up Formula 1. The team with Irish roots quickly became the darling of the Grand Prix scene. In the history books, this debut will always be associated with that of an outstanding driver who only briefly sat in the Jordan before later becoming a seven-time world champion. But there is not much else that makes the first year of Jordan Grand Prix so special. Ian Phillips, one of the team's key figures, remembers how it all began.
Six tough days and five short nights pushed the participants of this year's Tour Auto and their cars to the limits of endurance. For the 25th time, the tour for historic vehicles started across France; this time it went from Paris to Cannes.
A start with obstacles
With the introduction of the International GT One-Make World Championship in 1962, Chevrolet also showed ambitions for racing activities. The new Corvette C2 Sting Ray from the General Motors subsidiary appeared to be the perfect model for this. However, the promising "Grand Sport" creation by Zara Arkus-Duntov soon found itself up against an opponent that it was no match for: Carroll Shelby's Cobra.
Bunkie Knudsen and Zora Duntov had only built five of their Frans Sport Corvettes when the company headquarters abruptly stopped the project. These five cars were still to be put on the racetrack. However, they had to compete with single-breed sports prototypes and not with the Shelby Cobras of the GT class, which they had actually been designed to rival. But the Gran Sport performed extremely well.
Back to Black
The Phillip Island Classic is regarded as the annual highlight of the Australian classic car racing calendar. This year, the thundering Australian Formula 5000, a fifty-car strong Formula Ford field and a line-up of Group A and C touring cars typical of Australian motorsport in the 70s and 80s set special accents.
Without restriction to a narrowly defined era, vehicles that did not race on the historic circuit in the southern English Downs during their heyday are also allowed to take part in races or demo drives at the Goodwood Members' Meeting. This time at the 2016 Members' Meeting, the super touring cars were allowed to grace Lord March's tarmac. For good reason, as the first race of the "Super Touring" cars took place 25 years ago. After the era of the beefy Sierra Cosworth RS 500 and nimble BMW M3, the near-series cars with their 2-liter engines initially seemed like an April Fool's joke - but they soon attracted large crowds of fans thanks to fierce duels and large starting fields, first in the British Touring Car Championship and later elsewhere.
