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Tazio 6 is about Stratos and Safari… and so much more
It’s just a little more than a week before we start shipping the new Tazios. But we could not keep it a secret anymore. Not this cover. Here is issue 6, on the 1975 Lancia Stratos in the Safari rally.
This story comes courtesy of Reinhard Klein and Helmut Deimel. Now if you know rally, you know enough with these names. If you are not: you need to check ‘Helmut Deimel Group B’ on YouTube. And Reinhard Klein is part of rally history through the famous McKlein photo agency.
Both of them know the 1975 Safari Stratos by heart. They were there when it came second in Nairobi with Sandro Munari and Lofty Drews. They were there when it was spread out over a yard in Kenya. And they were there when the restored car was presented at this year’s Eifel Rallye Festival. And now they tell us the amazing story of this car.
A diesel for Indy
Wait, there is more. Seventy years ago, a diesel-powered car took pole position in the Indy 500. Cummins Inc. gave us a tour of the car. Raffaella Comas wrote down the story of her husband, Erik Comas, and how his life is forever intertwined with Ayrton Senna’s. How the drama at Imola made him quit Formula 1 and move to Japan, where sporting success came. And how now a new passion took over: restoring race cars.
IROC
In the first episode in a series of two, Matt Stone relives the history of IROC, the International Race of Champions. The first IROC season in 1973-74 pitted the likes of Emerson Fittipaldi, Mark Donohue, Peter Revson, AJ Foyt, Richard Petty and many more against each other in identical Porsche 911s. History was written on the spot.
Varzi
Achille Varzi, Tazio Nuvolari’s arch-rival, was clawing his way back to the top of the motorsport ladder. In 1948, he held a contract with Alfa Romeo and was ready to prove there was enough life left in him to still make it in Grand Prix racing. Before the Grand Prix season started, he set out on a South American adventure with this mighty twelve-cylinder Alfa Romeo 12C/136. His win in Brazil in this car would prove his last.
Ferrari 166 MM
In the year Ferrari celebrates it 75 years as a manufacturer, we let Hugo Reis go back to the early days. He went out in a 1950 Ferrari 160 MM, the first Ferrari owned by a Portuguese. Not just that, but the car has a significant racing career that saw it compete not only on the mighty Vila Real circuit but also in Africa.
Morgan’s GT racer
To add a bit of a modern touch, we had the pleasure of shaking down the Morgan Plus 8 GTR. It was an oddball in GT racing in the nineties, but as period Morgan chairman and racer of this car Charles Morgan explains to us, it was so much more than that. This car was also the prototype for the Morgan Aero 8 and the reason why Morgan could strike a deal with BMW for its engines. It’s an insanely cool race car, and it serves up an experience behind the wheel you will never forget.
Jimmie Johnson
Finally, George East had the pleasure to talk to five-time Nascar Cup champion – in successive years no less – Jimmie Johnson to talk about past, present and future. Le Mans is featuring high on his to-do-list, as it turns out.
And that is still not all…
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