Sportscar Heaven · Aston Martin DBR1 vs Ferrari Testa Rossa — World Championship 1957-1959

by Chris Nixon

Aston Martin DBR1 and Ferrari Testa Rossa - two of the most evocative names from sportscar racing in the 1950s. Those fortunate enough to have seen any of the races between these two magnificent machines will remember the sound and the fury of their straight-six and V12 engines as heroes such as Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks, Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien, Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby drove them to the limit on foad circuits such as the Nürburgring, Le Mans, the Targa Florio and, finally, Goodwood.

The Sportscar World Championship had been inaugurated in 1953 and the Prancing Horse won it every year until the Astons from Feltham finally wrested it away from the Ferraris of Maranello. That was in 1959 and not until 1987 would another British manufacturer - Jaguar - win the title. Throughout the 1950s Ferrari and Aston Martin were the only constants in sportscar racing, as Enzo Ferrari and David Brown somehow managed to enter their cars year after year, whereas other manufacturers such as Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Lancia, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati came and went. Unfortunately, it has to be said that until the advent of the DBR1 in 1957, Astons were no match for Ferrari and more's the pity that, having won the Sportscar Championship, David Brown decided to withdraw his cars from competition. However, the years 1957-1959 produced some epic battles between the DBR1s and Testa Rossas and in this book author Chris Nixon covers them in detail, with the help of personal reminiscences of many of the people who took part. Nixon has also uncovered a wealth of unpublished photographs - many in rare colour - to illustrate his story.

With a foreword by Tony Brooks.

Buch, Hardcover, 30 x 23,5 cm, 198 Seiten, 73 farbige und 150 s/w-Abbildungen, englischer Text
Einzelstück - Zustand: neu