Happy Birthday, Karl Ludvigsen

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I have always said that the first seventy five years are the hardest. Karl has lived long enough, as have I, to see truly miraculous changes in sports and racing cars. I think that he has always had the talent to go to the true point of interest in his writings, which is something I admire because it is so rare. I wish you many more as I still have you beat by more than a few.

Bill Pollack, ex-race driver, author of “Red Wheels and White Sidewalls“.

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Happy Birthday Karl,

I look to you as the standard of excellence for racing research and for reliable and in-depth exposition of the history of our sport. I am proud to own many of your books and treasure them as a cornerstone of my library.

Michael Argetsinger, lawyer, council member of the International Motor Racing Research Center, Watkins Glen, NY.

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Karl Ludvigsen and I have never met, yet he has influenced me in many of my interests, especially those that center on racing cars, the personalities in the sport and industry, automobile history and writing about them.

I became aware of Karl Ludvigsen reading Sports Cars Illustrated and Car and Driver as a teenager trying to find out everything about road racing and the automobiles which raced there. In those days they were called sports cars. I was in awe of someone who knew all the drivers and understood the race cars. His books on US road racing and classic race engines are on my book shelf.

Ludvigsen’s greater interest in all things automobile reached me through his numerous Automobile Quarterly articles. In his writing he brings his engineering background and historical understanding together in easily readable prose. One is also aware that the information presented is factual and accurate.

Happy birthday Mr. Ludvigsen and may you keep adding to the body of knowledge about automobiles, especially racing cars.

Best wishes,
David Seielstad, Ferrari Historian, author

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I was a classmate of Karl’s — he knows me well. So, add this one to your b-day greetings to him —
Karl — how long since we put rod bearings in a TC — all night?!
Here’s to another 50+

ALL BEST WISHES
Chuck & Cynthia Stoddard (Founder, Stoddard Imported Cars)

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Happy birthday Karl!

It was your work in “Sports Cars Illustrated” that set the hook for me. In recent years I have tried to do my part by publishing technical drawings with technical articles (often yours) as you did in SCI. Thanks for those technical and historic details you uncovered and shared so eloquently with the rest of us. I am also grateful to have spent time wandering the lawn at Pebble Beach with you and discussing what we saw. It was a memorable and inspirational moment in my “Car Life.”

Larry Crane (VeloceToday Senior Editor)

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Wow! I have been reading great articles by Karl for so long, I had absolutely NO IDEA that I was more than three years OLDER! Damn, he was PRECOCIOUS!

Dick Irish, Ex-race driver, Ferrari owner

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I remember Karl from 1955. I met him as a friend of Stefan Habsburg. Stefan and I were working for Bob McLean in Research studio (GM Styling) and had just completed the Firebird II. I was returning to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY to complete my senior year in Industrial Design and Stefan told me to lookup his old friend from MIT, Karl Ludvigsen, who was transferring to Pratt to study Industrial Design. I looked Karl up and was amazed at all the irons he had in the fire. While studying full time he was also writing articles for two or three different car magazines, all at the same time, using his own name and other pseudonyms.

The memory that stands strongest is the evening he took me for a ride in the boonies of pre-Idyllwild Idyllwild to test drive a new Alfa-Romeo Giulietta. it was really dark in the “swamps” then, but it’s still a great memory.

Karl later joined GM Styling and he was to be an associate in the same building but out of sight (as almost everyone was). I left Styling in 1963 to work at the GM Defense Research Laboratories in Santa Barbara and, left GM in 1967. I have and continue to work in aerospace since that time. All the while, I would keep an eye out for any new book Karl may have written and I would be able to brag about the great guys I had worked with. I continue to be amazed as I discover accomplishments of his that I had missed.

I send Karl my best wishes.

Norman J. James,
R&D Advanced Design, Goodrich Aerostructures

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There are four things that set Mr. Ludvigsen apart.

The first two are his erudition and his eclecticism. Yes, some other writers have these, but not to the same degree. We have lost some writers who did: Griff Borgeson and Beverly Kimes come to mind.

The other two areas are unique. His inventory of published works must outpace any other serious automotive writer out there. His truly unique creation is his archive: he has painstakingly sought out people who were “present at the creation,” and has been able to acquire their work product: writing, photos, scrapbooks, etc. To my knowledge, no one else has done this to this extent.

Lastly, Mr. Ludvigsen’s real contribution is to set the bar high for writers like William Ooestoek on Maserati, or Miranda Seymour on the history of Helle Nice; these authors are willing to spend years on serious, in-depth research, and that is hard work. Mr. Ludvigsen’s writing is the standard by which other automotive writers can aspire to, and that is his biggest accomplishment.

Sincerely
Brandes Elitch, author, contributor to VeloceToday

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I’ll read anything by Ludvigsen and it’s interesting how on
almost every trip to Europe somebody has a little story about Karl. Wish I could remember some, but anyway tell Karl to keep at it for another quarter-century and everything will be all right!

Toly Arutunoff, Vintage racer, good guy and author of “One Off”

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Read more about Karl Ludvigsen–“His Excellence Was Expected.”

Another excellent source of information about Karl Ludvigsen and his work can be found at www.karlludvigsen.com.