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Graham Gauld

Happy Birthday Graham Gauld!

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Innes Ireland* giving Gauld a lift back to the paddock in the factory Lotus 19 after winning the sports car race at the 1961 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

Last week while Graham Gauld was giving Toly Arutunoff a nice birthday greeting on September 22, we missed Graham’s 92nd birthday, which was on September 24. We can’t let that pass without notice! Below, we offer up a few memories from his new autobiography as well as a few thoughts from our own Graham Gauld archives.

Born in Edinburgh in 1934, Graham still can recall WWII. “My most vivid memory was about a week into the war, standing on the roof of our house in Edinburgh with my father hanging on to the chimney pots watching the Junkers Ju88s trying to bomb the Forth rail bridge** and the Spitfires trying to shoot them down.” Fortunately for us, young Graham’s attention soon turned to cars.

Even that wasn’t easy. “I was brought up in a family where ownership of a motor car was never considered for the simple reason that few of our family could ever afford to own a car far less tax, insure and run one,” recalls Gauld in his forthcoming autobiography. [Read more…] about Happy Birthday Graham Gauld!

Happy Birthday Toly, Sincerely Graham Gauld

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Toly in his familiar white sunhat with his double bubble Lancia Flaminia Zagato at the Pau circuit in the south of France. (Photo Grand Prix Library/Gauld)

Story by Graham Gauld

Anatoly Arutunoff celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday, September 21, and I wish I had been there in Tulsa where I am sure he had a great party.

Years ago, and long before I met him for the first time, I had heard about this mad Russian who lived in Oklahoma and amongst other things owned his own auto racing circuit ( Hallett Circuit near Tulsa). [Read more…] about Happy Birthday Toly, Sincerely Graham Gauld

Gauld looks at the DKW

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The Frazer-Nash DKW sports car prototype driven by Ken Rudd at the 1955 RAC Tourist Trophy Race. ( Photo Grand Prix Library/Gauld)

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

One of the first cars to impress me as being something of a “sleeper” was the DKW Sonderklasse. The car and the marque are probably totally unknown today as at least two generations have passed since first I saw one in action. It was pale blue and was driven by a young Scottish farmer called Ian Scott Watson.

Ian was the archetypal enthusiast who sold his MG for a typical British kit-car of the 1950s; a Buckler that he built up with the ubiquitous Ford 1250cc engine. It was not a success but he was fascinated by a rather odd looking car sold by AFN Ltd, a company with Frazer-Nash origins, that was to become the main importers of Porsches.

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The Swift Life of Archie Scott-Brown

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By Pete Vack
Photos by Graham Gauld

The story of Archie Scott Brown is incredible, unbelievable, astonishing, inspiring, heart rendering and finally, tragic; and in today’s world, such accomplishments would be totally impossible.

He was born on Friday the 13th of May, 1927 in Glasgow, Scotland, with no proper right forearm, “merely and elementary thumb and palm, which started below the elbow.” His tiny legs lacked a shinbone, and the legs were “radically twisted and bowed, and the club-feet were tiny, with no discernible toes.” The right foot was twisted outwards about 90 degrees, the left foot almost 180 degrees. Of the limbs, only the left arm and hand were normal. His mother had the German measles (rubella) during her pregnancy.* [Read more…] about The Swift Life of Archie Scott-Brown

Classics at Royal Highland Showground

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Story and photos by Graham Gauld

Every year there is a large classic car show held at the Royal Highland Showgrounds here in Wadebridge and I dutifully attend to bring home to Veloce readers any interesting finds. Despite many hundreds of cars arriving, I must say most of them are standard issue British classics, Austin Healeys and Triumphs of every shape and colour, and by far the more interesting are the odd pre-war cars that were classics of their day.

Take, for example, this Riley 9 of around 1932 vintage in concours condition but a very rare model, the “Plus Ultra Monaco”.

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The Bora Gets a New Lease on Life

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One of just two racing Maserati Bora racing models built. ( Photo Grand Prix Library/Gauld)

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

For Jean Guikas, the French race car collector and dealer, two victories in the European Shell Ferrari-Maserati Historic Challenge finals at Vallelunga in November 1999 brought a happy conclusion to his quest to prove that the 1973 Group 4 Maserati Bora was a winner.

Fifty three years ago the excitement and enthusiasm of producing two special competition Maserati Bora’s was dampened by new rules and regulations which meant they could not be homologated for international racing. That appeared to be the end of the story but it was only the beginning.

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Building the Birdcage

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Giulio Alfieri at his desk in Modena. (Photo Grand Prix Library/Gauld)

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

The great Maserati engineer Giulio Alfieri was a studious and interesting man born in Parma, trained in Milan, and his first job was with Innocenti working on the original Lambretta scooters. As was often the case he was able to work on a variety of projects but one of them is rarely talked about these days, the Maserati Birdcage.

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And How! Silverstone Grandstand named for Jim Clark

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The renamed Jim Clark Grandstand beside the BRDC clubhouse and the Lotus 32B raced by Clark. (Photo Gauld)

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

At Silverstone on Saturday April 25, the British Racing Drivers Club invited Sir Jackie Stewart to announce the renaming the club’s private grandstand in the name of Jim Clark.

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The Cygnet and its Swansong

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The luxury Microcar, the Aston Martin Cygnet. ( Photo Gauld)

Story by Graham Gauld

It was fifteen years ago, 2011, when for some strange reason, the Aston Martin board decided it would be a good idea for Aston Martin to change the habit of a lifetime by building a super-mini road car: the Aston Martin Cygnet.

One interpretation for this decision was that as Aston Martin were producing the Supercars of that period. As some of their customers might have large yachts on which they could perch a small car built to the luxury standards of the full-size Aston Martins, the marketing concept had a feasible interpretation.

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Gauld Checks Out the Ferrari Estate Car

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The Series II Ferrari 330GT. American design, Italian coachwork. Hugues Vanhoolandt photo.

Story by Graham Gauld

At the risk of a rebuttal, I would say that the terminology “Estate Car” or “Shooting-brake” came from the good old United Kingdom. One can trace this class-conscious terminology applied to a motor car to the early days of horse-drawn travel in the 1880’s when rich landowners needed a bulkier carriage to carry the guns and shooting impedimenta for blasting partridge and grouse out of the sky.

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