Bøger af Ian Wagstaff

The iconic factory blue and yellow Subaru Imprezas that challenged for honours in the World Rally Championship from 1993 to 2005 have transcended rallying. The Prodrive-developed and run cars took three consecutive manufacturers' titles and were the mounts of Britain's only two World Rally Champions, Colin McRae and Richard Burns, as well as Norwegian Champion, Petter Solberg. There were many notable victories for the Imprezas, but perhaps the one that stands out is McRae's win in the 1997 Safari Rally. It was a victory achieved against the odds, as it was thought that the all-out temperament of the Scotsman was ill-suited to the demands of the event, which traditionally demanded guile and patience. Yet win McRae did and in emphatic style, navigated by Nicky Grist. The Impreza that McRae drove in Kenya was registered P8 WRC. It was the car's debut event, and it would only ever be used twice more by the factory, in Argentina, where Colin would finish second and in Indonesia, where he dominated before crashing out. P8 WRC would pass into private hands after the 1997 season and continued to compete in national and local rallies for many years, albeit with extensive changes to its original Safari configuration. This book tells the story of P8 WRC, from the dust and heat of Kenya to an extensive restoration by Prodrive to its original Safari specification, which was completed in 2023.

The Audi R8 was the first in a line of world-beating sports-prototype cars from the Ingolstadt marque which would dominate Le Mans, and would see Audi remain at the forefront of international sports-car racing for over 15 years. If such an award could go to a machine, Audi 'R8-405' - the car featuring in this book - was surely the 'Man of the Match' for the 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours. In the end it would finish second, behind one of its team mates which had a far less-troubled run, but it was not for want of trying by Allan McNish, his co-drivers Stéphane Ortelli and Laurent Aïello and their mechanics. The Audi R8s would go on to dominate endurance racing for a further five years. The cars had already shown what they were capable of by finishing first and second on their debut, in the 12 Hours of Sebring in March 2000. At Le Mans, apart from a brief aberration when a Panoz led under a full course yellow, 'R8-405' led the race for six hours. Trouble then intervened, but the car's drivers never gave up, McNish setting fastest lap of the race in the morning still chasing his team mates Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen and Emanuele Pirro in the eventual winning sister car. That car would soon be on its way to Audi's museum, but 'R8-405' would race on in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), driven later that year by Biela and Pirro and winning at Texas Motor Speedway and Las Vegas. By the end of the season, '405' and the other 4-series 2000-season R8s would be rendered almost obsolete by Audi's introduction of a direct-injection engine for its new 5-series R8. That did not stop '405' from competing for a further year in the ALMS, albeit in private - Champion Racing - hands, with regular drivers including Andy Wallace and Johnny Herbert. Despite its tender years, it would later go on to qualify as an historic car, and a host of new opportunities opened up as it became one of the most raced of all the R8s. In 2020 the car was acquired by enthusiast Martin Halusa with every intention of taking it back to Le Mans in the future for the biannual Classic races. The enthralling story of 'R8-405' is told in fascinating detail in this book, supported by a stunning array of photographs showing the car in action in its two years of 'period' competition, together with a gallery of fine studio images showing this 'Great Car' as it is today.

This is the previously untold story of a very special British racing team. The British Racing Partnership (BRP), which operated from 1958 to 1964, is best known for its association with Stirling Moss, who was driving a BRP-entered car at Goodwood on that fateful day in 1962 when a serious crash ended his career.

The Alfa Romeo T33/TT/3 was produced by Alfa’s Autodelta racing department, under the guidance of Carlo Chiti, to compete in the 1972 World Championship for Makes.

A new addition to the Exceptional Car series, Ferrari 857S explores the history of this classic road racing car.