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John Mecom: A Texas-sized Legend Part 1

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The Mecom Racing Team logo was designed by fellow Texan Bill Neale. Neale was a well-known automotive artist, providing illustrations for Car and Driver and Road & Track. He also was good friends with Texans Jim Hall and Carroll Shelby, penning the Terlingua Racing Team logo.

By Harry Hurst
Photos courtesy John Mecom Collection

John Mecom is one of the few people who can say that Roger Penske worked for him. Penske drove for Mecom Racing in 1962-63, arguably, the preeminent racing team in the United States at the time. Operating out of Houston, the team ran multiple cars in events in North America and Europe, with the world’s top drivers and mechanics. But racing was secondary to the main business of the John W. Mecom Company: oil wells, hotels, plastics, natural gas pipelines, chemicals, and more. Although he was only in his twenties, John Jr. played a major role in the company his father founded while he ran the racing team. After winning the Indy 500 in 1966 with Graham Hill, Mecom’s attention turned to another interest, professional football. He brought the Saints to New Orleans and was the majority shareholder in the team until 1984. Harry Hurst recently connected with Mecom to ask him about his racing years.

Before you started Mecom Racing there were other wealthy people involved in racing, like Briggs Cunningham and Lance Reventlow. With your background, did you treat racing more like a business?

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Alpine Factory Tour, circa 1972 Part 1

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A remarkable experience that lasts to this day.

Story and photos by Mark Duder

In 1972 my new wife Margaret and I decided to have a year in Europe for our honeymoon. In those days a line voyage (A line voyage was a simple liner going from Australia to the UK as quick as it could, (21 days), as against a cruise.) from Perth in Western Australia around the bottom of Africa was the way to go.

As was normal in those days for Australians we bought a second hand van in London that had obviously been around Europe a few times and set off.

As a member of the Renault car club of West Australia, I had participated in the West Australian Rally Championships in the 60s and early 70s in a modified Renault R8. Hence, due to my interest in all things Renault and Alpine, I managed to get an invite to the Renault factory in Paris and the Alpine factory in Dieppe. However, upon arrival in Paris, we went to the Renault factory in Billancourt for a tour but when we got there, there were workers protesting at the gate, and we were told by police not to go further. [Read more…] about Alpine Factory Tour, circa 1972 Part 1

Humor at Hershey, 2023

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P-Hershey Squirts? B-We call this the “Hershey Highway.” Where else would you find something like this?

Wise-ass comments on this year’s Hershey from our favorite car guys, Quick and Quack (with apologies to the Magliozzi brothers). P comments first, then B. You guess who they are, we are too embarrassed to say. Be nice or we’ll call in Kuhn.

All photos by Brandes Elitch

P-Moveable Quonset hut. B-These cars are very rust prone (ask me how I know) but this one is very clean.

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More on the R&T Figoni Cover Car

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The Delahaye was on cover of the February 1949 edition of Road & Track. The photograph was taken in front of the famous Ciros Nightclub. This is the same car which was photographed later that year by Strother MacMinn.

Strother MacMinn photos from the collection of Robert Ames
Courtesy VintageMotorphoto
Text by Jim Sitz

From the VeloceToday archives
Read Behold the Narwal

Strother MacMinn was one of my closest and dearest friends. I met him in 1951. He was a real gay blade and man about town, the Cary Grant of automotive circles.

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Photos of the MOMA Cisitalia, 1951

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The Cisitalia number 042 at the MOMA exhibition in 1951. It had just come out of the body shop where “…most dents were removed before the body was sprayed a light metallic blue…”. We might submit that they missed a few here and there!

Could this really be the MOMA Cisitalia?

Story by Pete Vack
Photos by Jerry Lehrer

From the VeloceToday archives, July 2017

Over the years there has been a great deal of press concerning the “8 Automobiles” show at the Museum Of Modern Art held from August 29th to November 11, 1951 in New York. It was, after all, the “first exhibit anywhere of dealing with the aesthetics of automobile design.” The star of the show was the Cisitalia 202, and we have heard much about that as well.

But, does anyone remember seeing what the fabled and famous Cisitalia looked like as it appeared at the automotive exhibition of the century? Fortunately, photographer Jerry Lehrer was there, and took these amazing and previously unpublished photos of the Cisitalia as it was being set up in the Museum of Modern Art. [Read more…] about Photos of the MOMA Cisitalia, 1951

Behold, the Narwal

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Delahaye Figoni 800516 at the Blackhawk Museum, August 2018. Hugues Vanhoolandt photo.

By Pete Vack with special thanks to Hugues Vanhoolandt and Richard Adatto

Richard Adatto (with Diana Meredith), in their new book Figoni On Delahaye (read review) allowed us to reflect upon one of the strangest of the already strange French confections of Figoni. Early readers of Road and Track came face to face with a Narwal via the February 1949 cover, and probably never forgot it, even if they couldn’t describe it.

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Packard Epiphany

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1934 Packard Senior Series

Story and photos by Brandes Elitch

I can remember riding my bicycle to the local Packard dealer in South Orange, NJ, to get a 1956 brochure, which I still have. I also own an original, unrestored 1956 Patrician, the last Packard. I consider Packard to be the greatest American marque, and I had a bit of an epiphany at the show, which I will explain below.

For our many readers who may not be familiar with the marque, here is a brief overview. [Read more…] about Packard Epiphany

Gauld Drives a 1958 Fiat 500 Abarth

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One of Carlo Abarth’s first production modified Fiats, the Fiat 500 Sport.

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

The scene was the Albergo Della Rocca, a small hotel in Bazzano near Modena in 1958.

Vittorio Rocchi, whose father owned the hotel, told me that a friend of his had just taken on the Abarth distributorship for the area and was going to bring one of the brand-new production Fiat Abarth 500 Sports to the hotel for me to try out.

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Charley Seavey F1, 1973

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The Marlboro BRM crew working on Jean Pierre Beltoise’s car. He would finish 9th.

Story and photos by Charley Seavey

As with a lot of my European pictures I’m amazed at the ability then to wander around pit and paddock and watch the guys at work. In this day no bits and bobs of cars lying around on the ground, or random guys with cameras snapping away. I’m glad I was around for those days. Here are some shots from Silverstone, 1973. [Read more…] about Charley Seavey F1, 1973

Graham Gauld talks to Bernard Asset

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Change indeed. Bernard Asset’s art. McLaren at Eau Rouge on the Spa circuit. F1 photography would never be the same again. Copyright Bernard Asset. All rights reserved.

By Graham Gauld
From the VeloceToday archives June 2013

At a recent race meeting I met up with an old friend of over 25 years, the famed French Formula 1 photographer Bernard Asset. You may not have heard of him, but he completely changed the style of motor racing photography back in the 1970s.

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Jackie Cooper, Race Driver

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Jackie Cooper at the SCCA Nationals at Westover NY on June 13, 1954. Photo copyright Robert F. Pauley and used with permission.

By Pete Vack

In 1951, a 30 year old Hollywood actor named John Cooper, Jr, aka Jackie, was driving from Los Angeles to New York City in his Jaguar XK120. Thoughts of his long lost father often crossed his mind as he drove the lonely miles across America. When John Jr. was still a toddler, John Cooper Sr. walked out on the family and simply disappeared. The strange loss of his father had a major negative impact on the actor. But life moves on and he kept on driving.

Somewhere outside of Kansas City, MO, it began to rain and the wind tore the top off the Jag. Soaking wet, Cooper drove through town and happened to find an upholstery shop that also repaired convertible tops.

Thankfully, a man came out to help and offered to make a new top for the Jag, and went right to work on the task. After an hour or so, the craftsman took a break and looked at Cooper. “Say, you’re Jackie Cooper, aren’t you?” Cooper admitted to being the Hollywood star.

The man thought for a minute and then told Cooper to look outside, pointed to an apartment window with a light and curtain. “Your father lives right up there.” [Read more…] about Jackie Cooper, Race Driver

Jim Clark’s First Race

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“Drivers jockey for position at the start of the Sports Car Race up to 1500ccs at Crimond. On the right is well known J.B.G. Campbell in his MGA.”

By David Ross

ODD looking and totally out of place in an event for sports racing cars, the DKW Sonderklasse might have been but could anyone ever have imagined that the driver in the wacky little German two-stroke saloon car would go on to win countless Grand Prix races, two drivers’ world championships and become recognized across the world as one of the finest single seater drivers of all time.

When he arrived at Crimond, the old wartime airfield situated between Peterhead and Fraserburgh where the Aberdeen & District Motor Club ran races for both cars and motorcycles on the same day, Jim Clark didn’t have the slightest inkling that he was about to experience his first race.

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