FULL CIRCLE: A Hands-on Affair with the First Ferrari 250 GTO may be the first car memoir – a car revered for its international racing performance and artistic mystique – the first Ferrari 250 GTO, born in Italy in 1962.
It is also the memoir of a man, himself unique – Larry Perkins, a rocket scientist /car racer /artist. His stories chronicle how The Car (a.k.a. “Sophia” named for the elegant Italian bombshell Sophia Loren) pops in and out of his life. These events, and the people associated with them, create a series of full circles in their shared journey.
Full Circle: the past becomes future becomes past, illuminating words to the famous song… “When Everything Old is New Again”.
While Larry was working on the Apollo program to land a man on the moon, and later the Viking Mars Lander program and other space missions, Sophia and Larry had an on-again off-again relationship – an “affair” so to speak – for over 50 years. They found each other in 1963 and formed a surprising dynamic of man-machine synergy. Life was fast and furious, fun and full of trophies. When it seemed destined to be over, Larry sold the Ferrari in 1966 for a mere $3600. The racing duo lost track but were re-united and then parted again. Finally … unbelievably … Sophia found Larry when they were both a little older. With the spark alive, their racing history was re-born in a most spectacular way. Each was transformed by the other.
The memoir starts with a man searching for the perfect race car and develops into a previously unrecorded history of s/n #3223 GT with racing tales. Larry and his wife, Petra, tell of an irresistible GTO attraction and adventures during the exciting era of ’60s sports car racing. (Petra first saw the Ferrari at a memorable race with a fiery crash at Sebring, Florida, when she was 15, but did not meet its driver for 15 more years.)
The authors show the exhilaration of key races and an anecdotal chronology of #3223 with photos, some never seen. They examine what a race driver is really like, the attributes of a highly competitive personality, and the unrelenting dedication to Winning. After all, it was not easy for a small privateer – someone who had started racing relatively late in life (with a consuming day job) – to compete with the likes of racing champions Phil Hill, Pedro Rodriquez, Mario Andretti, and Dan Gurney.
The book emphasizes the value of teamwork. “Doing the impossible” – in racing or rocketry – demands the best of humans working together to render perfect machines. This is an intimate account about the people who made The Car what it ultimately became.
How did this car acquire its timeless aura of mystique?
How cool is it to drive such a powerful and exquisite piece of machinery?
To what degree can a car be considered fine art?
What happened to Larry and why did it turn out to be so spectacular, almost eclipsing his early successes in racing the GTO? When and Where did all this happen?
And best of all, Who are the passionate people that made it happen?
Full Circle: A Hands-On Affair with the First Ferrari 250 GTO answers these questions and provides readers with a thrilling personal play-by-play of racing the very first Ferrari GTO for the very first time.
Selwyn Francis Edge, invariably known simply as ‘SF’, was a highly significant pioneer of motoring in Britain. When, in 1902, he drove a Napier to victory in the Gordon Bennett Cup, a mighty event on public roads between Paris in France and Innsbruck in Austria, he initiated serious British endeavour in motor racing.
He was deeply involved in the birth of Brooklands, setting a 24-hour solo driving record there when the circuit opened in 1907. As a towering industry figure most closely associated with Napier and AC Cars, he played an important role in the growth of car manufacture in Britain. In the words of ‘Bentley Boy’ S.C.H. ‘Sammy’ Davis, ‘His keen grey eyes, the bushy eyebrows and the hawk-like face… made him a notable figure in any assembly.’
- Dedicated cyclist: SF’s early interest in cycles led to racing achievement on two wheels and three, including setting records for round trips between London and Brighton, and taking
- Introducing the motor car to Britain: from his first driving experience, in 1897 with a De Dion-Bouton, SF quickly became an influential advocate of all things automotive in a country that initially lagged far behind France.
- Motor racing pioneer: after early competitions on motor tricycles, SF became a regular competitor in the heroic long-distance races of mainland Europe, famously winning the 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup in a Napier and becoming a national celebrity.
- Growth of Napier: with SF as a guiding force, this long-established engineering company evolved into the manufacturer of some of the finest cars of the Edwardian era.
- Brooklands: upon the circuit’s opening in 1907, SF drove a Napier solo for 24 hours at an average speed of just over 65mph, establishing a record that stood for 18 years.
- AC Cars: after the First World War, SF helped to develop AC Cars into an important manufacturer of sporting cars, with more attempts at speed records along the way.
This biography uncovers the life of an extraordinary man whose achievements deserve to be far more widely recognised.
‘If a Buick Special ever got a fierce ambition to become a Ferrari – and tried hard enough – it would be likely to end up just about like this.”
Car and Driver magazine – September, 1963
Such prophetic words from Car and Driver magazine back in 1963 underscore the goal of three California twenty somethings who sought to build a world-class grand touring sports car. And, for a while, found themselves on equal ground with Europe’s best.
Their concept: A marriage of Italian style and the mechanical excellence of a premier American manufacturer – Buick – to create a true gran turismo sports car with head-turning looks, outstanding performance and comfort, and something that, up to then, was not common among European exotics: Reliability!
Their challenges were legion: A complex product combining hand-crafted bodies with mass-produced engines and transmissions on an assembly line spanning two continents and an ocean. A limited capability for product development and testing. And the need to create a marketing program to promote the car to an enthusiast public as well as develop a distribution channel to get the car into their hands. All this with limited operating capital.
The result? The Apollo was highly praised by both road testers and owners alike. “Workmanship is of the highest quality…comparable to cars costing twice that of the Apollo” crowed one magazine report. “…the Apollo handles as well or better than a 2+2 Ferrari, an Aston Martin DB4 or a Sting Ray Corvette,” exclaimed another. High praise indeed from the critical press!
And the owners? “I dearly love my Apollo!” enthused singer Pat Boone. And this from another owner: “It’s a wonderful work of art. You can see the quality. You can feel the excitement they felt when they were hammering it out, putting it together and driving it for the first time. It is a milestone, a one-of-a-kind car and no one can really compare anything to it. It stands on its own.”
This is the story of the Apollo GT. The American Ferrari.
Details: 8.5″ x 11″, 138 pages. 87 color and black & white photos and illustrations.
Written in collaboration with Gerry Coker, the designer responsible for the iconic Austin-Healey 100 and Sprite, this extraordinary volume represents the most accurate and complete account of the sports cars built at Warwick, Longbridge, Abingdon and West Bromwich. The author had unprecedented access to Donald and Geoffrey Healey’s private papers, diaries, scrapbooks and photo albums, corporate and financial records from BMC, Donald Healey Motor Company and Healey Automobile Consultants, the files of Jensen Motors and Nash-Kelvinator, dozens of personal interviews and exhaustive research into previously unavailable primary source material. As a result, Healey: The Men and the Machines offers a compelling examination of the true story behind these incredible automobiles and the individuals who created them.
From his early childhood and heroic service as an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, this book provides a comprehensive account of Donald Healey’s motoring career, including competition outings and his involvement with Invicta, Riley and Triumph. The story of the Healey marque’s birth during the darkest days of the Second World War is told through the words of the men involved, revealing the myriad obstacles that faced the small team during a period of strict rationing, limited resources and government meddling.
Fast, elegant and endowed with excellent handling, the early Healey sports cars were among the fastest in the world, acquitting themselves admirably at events such as the Alpine Rally, Mille Miglia and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Warwick’s survival was constantly in doubt until the landmark agreement that resulted in the Nash-Healey erased many of small firm’s financial struggles. With access to Nash-Kelvinator’s internal correspondence for the first time, the authors are able to set the record straight about this crucial period in the marque’s history, including the controversial machinations behind the development of the Healey Hundred that made a smash debut at the 1952 London Motor Show.
Lavishly illustrated with previously unpublished photographs, Austin-Healey competition and record-breaking efforts are covered in exquisite fashion, seen through the eyes of legendary names like Rauno Aaltonen, Clive Baker, Paddy Hopkirk, Count Johnny Lurani, Lance Macklin, Timo Mäkinen, Roger Menadue, Don and Erle Morley, Pat and Stirling Moss, Carroll Shelby, John Sprinzel, and Ann and Tommy Wisdom. Equally fascinating are the stories behind the troubled Jensen-Healey and Donald Healey’s attempts to continue building sports cars well into the 1980s, refusing to enter a sedate retirement that would have been so richly deserved.
Destined to become the definitive reference on the subject, Healey: The Men and the Machines includes over 200,000 words, more than 700 detailed footnotes, and eight appendices that cover the competition and record breaking activities of the various models, specifications for every model produced, including the limited production variants, and Donald Healey’s personal musings on racing and sports car design. An instant classic, this is a work certain to inform and entertain enthusiasts of the men and machines that brought the world to its feet at a time when Britain was down on its knees.
One fateful night in February….. Sounds like the beginning to a mystery. In fact, it was a February evening, in 1944, when seven well-heeled gentlemen met at a Boston estate. The gentlemen shared not only wealth and privilege, but also a love of driving and owning the specially engineered and built vehicles they called “sports cars”. The group elected officers, drafted a constitution, including strict membership rules designed to invite only their kind into the fold and gave their club a name. This was the rather staid beginning of the Sports Car Club of America. The club was formed more to promote the preservation and restoration of early sports cars than to host racing events. SCCA historian Pete Hylton recalls an interview with Ted Robertson, one of the original founders and its first president. Robertson, by his own words, had a different vision of what the club would become. “His focus when he wrote the draft of the club constitution and called together some of his similar minded friends for the first meeting was to create a club of ‘owners of elderly sports cars to insure their preservation’.” Ironically, the founding meeting of what would become an internationally recognized racing organization was marked with a significant lack of vision. According to Roberston, “On looking back to that faithful gathering of seven enthusiastic owners of early Americana on that Saturday evening on 26 February 1944, one fact stands out quite clearly,……we didn’t know what we were doing.”
Paperback: 160 pages
