Favourite Marques

[Peter Mallett]

Of all those manufacturers or teams who have plied their trade on the race tracks and streets around the world, which one is your favourite and why?

[Ray Bell]

There are so many!

Peugeot? Because they were there in the beginning and still at the end?

M-B for the same reason, but with that colorful time in the 1933-1955 era?

Holden, because they weren't meant to race?

Repco (where 'The Standard is Perfection') because they took on the big guys and blitzed them?

Lotus, because they led the way down so many interesting paths?

Ferrari because they have hammered away at the job despite the rigours of time, Italian workers strikes and their own intransigence?

Eagle because they just looked so good and went so fast?

Bruce's McLaren because they added so much colour?

Jack's Brabham because they took it to the big boys and were always on the pace?

Auto Union because they persisted with a difficult concept?

Bugatti because they... no, not Bugatti...

Miller because they made such beautiful examples of engineering?

There's a pretty tough lot to choose from there, Peter... and more than that:

Vanwall, Connaught, Maserati, BRM etc...

[Peter Mallett]

Ray I've looked at your list and whilst I generally agree with what you've written, for me, there is really only one marque which evokes all things positive about motorsport.

This particular manufacturer started off as a service centre for a major car producer in the early twenties. They went on to produce "lightweight" sports versions of touring cars. As a result of the sheer drive of the company's founder this marque started producing its own chassis and road cars which became the epitome of the "British" sportscar.

During the period between 1925 and 1939 they ran many semi works teams of sportscars in trials and at Brooklands. In 1933 they produced, possibly the best "square rigged" car of the decade, which in the hands of Count "Johnny" Lurani, won its class on the Mille Miglia. Tazio Nuvolari thought so much of these cars that he took one to an overall win in the Ulster TT.

They also had some magnificent failures. One of which occurred during the Double Twelve at Brooklands in 1930.

In the sixties they came back again and won their class at Le Mans in possibly the last year that "normal" road cars appeared in that classic of all races.

This company suffered at the hands of corporate bosses with their own agendas and without the loyalty of its workforce and indeed the public, would have died in the seventies. Yet today it is competing at a high level in sportscar racing and later this year will re-enter Touring Car Racing and Rallying.

Without a doubt, this marque deserves to be where it belongs, at the forefront of motorsport, but with its emphasis firmly on the enthusiastic motorist.

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you MG.

[yelwoci]

On an aside...as ever..

I think its amaising how many British motor companies suffered once they stopped their racing/rally programs, even if they ran them out of a old storage shed with a volunteer team.

IanC

[Vitesse]

Well yes, but usually what happens when a company starts to go into decline is that first thing the bean-counters tend to shut down are what they see as non-core, unimportant operations. So, racing goes first, because it doesn't produce any tangible positive results on the balance sheet ... sad but true. The Rootes Group is probably a prime example ... British Leyland too.

[Neil C]

FORD this year celebrates 100 years in motorsports! They are taken for granted in this forum since so many others are mentioned before them, by those with much racing history knowledge (Mr. Bell, how could you overlook Ford while compiling such a complete list?)

Henry Ford was a race driver many years before he began Ford Motor Company, and through thick and thin, they are one major manufacturer that has never turned their backs on motorsport.

And Ferrari.

[Speed Demon]

Favourite Marques?

Surely it has to be Tarso?!!

[Mekola]

Originally posted by Speed Demon
Favourite Marques?

Surely it has to be Tarso?!!

[Keir]

MATRA!!!

Just for the sound!!!!

[TimD]

My dears, it's all so terribly obvious.

There is only one motor car in the world. The craftsmanship behind it? Unadulterated. The concept? Pure. The pedigree? Immaculate.

There can be no other - from the great gleaming dome of the radiator, to the glittering reflector discs on the tail of her green bolster fuel tank. Her tonneau rippling in the wind as she speeds to her fifth outright win at the 24 heures du Mans.

An engine note that will crackle like thunder, and boom like an earthquake, with the purposeful whine of a tried and proved transmission - with a gearbox that takes no prisoners.

She is so well constructed that nearly two thirds of her sisters have seen their 70th birthdays, and are stronger and heartier than ever. There are other makes of car, I do concede, but the pride of place can go to but one machine.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you

The Bentley.

The greatest car in the world.