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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Road & Track

Cars of the Vatican and Crankshaft Magazine

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This 1946 Fiat 1100 Spider by Frua was featured in the very first Crankshaft magazine…a hint of things to come.

Story by Pete Vack
All photos courtesy Crankshaft magazine unless otherwise noted

Richard Lentinello: No introduction needed

Like the editor and most of our readers, at an early age Richard Lentinello was captivated by Road & Track and other car magazines, which fed the passion for cars he still has today. He wrote“…my journey started over 50 years ago as a young teenager reading Car Craft and Super Stock. Then came Autoweek, Road & Track, Thoroughbred and Classic Cars, Automobile Quarterly and Supercar Classics, having spent hours immersed in their pages while sitting in our spacious 20 x 20 backyard in Brooklyn.” (Crankshaft #1)

But unlike his fellow travelers, Lentinello would become the editor-in-chief of nine car magazines, including Hemmings Motor News and Hemmings Classic Car, Special Interest Autos, Hemmings Muscle Machines and Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car.

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Road & Track, the Bond Years

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The Bonds in front of the R&T offices with their Ferrari 330GT, 1964.* Courtesy Marilee (Lee) Bond Nudo

By Pete Vack with Jim Sitz, John R. Bond, Jr. and Marilee (Lee) Bond Nudo

From the VeloceToday Archives, April 2021

John Bond took over a distressed Road and Track in the fall of 1952, but always admitted that Elaine was the brains of the outfit. David E. Davis wrote (C&D Nov 1990) that she “…was the ramrod that turned R&T into the magazine it was in the Sixties and Seventies.” [Read more…] about Road & Track, the Bond Years

Jim Sitz: Road and Track

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The story of the early years of Road and Track, thanks to Jim Sitz.

Off to a great start: Bonneville, 1951. Road and Track, Hop Up, and Motor Trend staff members gather for the Bonneville Speed Week. Jerry Cheseborough is on the far left, that might be Oliver Billingsley on the other side of the MG. Motor Trend photographer unknown. Courtesy Jim Sitz.

By Pete Vack and Jim Sitz

From the VeloceToday Archives, April 2021

Ed. note: Most of the information below was provided by historian Jim Sitz, who was a witness to the early years at the magazine, via emails to me over a period of weeks in 2020. He also was in the possession of the rare photos taken at the Road & Track offices in 1951, obtained from the Billingsley collection in the early 1990s. We have not been able to determine who took these photos or under what circumstances. Any questions regarding these photos can be sent to the Editor at vack@cox.net.

You Bet Your Life

In 1952, while Groucho Marx was gambling his future on the new-fangled TV with a show called “You Bet Your Life”, a thirty-nine-year-old engineer in California with a bright, enthusiastic wife, a new son and a MGTC was betting that the sports car fad was here to stay. In fact he was betting his family’s entire future on a sports car magazine that was deeply in hock. It had been offered to other magazine publishers but turned down, and one wouldn’t even take Road and Track (no ampersand in the early days; the “&” in the title was introduced in 1954) for just the bills. But staff members John and Elaine Bond were determined to save the magazine and were fully aware of its potential of a magazine devoted to the growing sports car movement. They decided to take a huge risk. [Read more…] about Jim Sitz: Road and Track

More on the R&T Figoni Cover Car

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The Delahaye was on cover of the February 1949 edition of Road & Track. The photograph was taken in front of the famous Ciros Nightclub. This is the same car which was photographed later that year by Strother MacMinn.

Strother MacMinn photos from the collection of Robert Ames
Courtesy VintageMotorphoto
Text by Jim Sitz

From the VeloceToday archives
Read Behold the Narwal

Strother MacMinn was one of my closest and dearest friends. I met him in 1951. He was a real gay blade and man about town, the Cary Grant of automotive circles.

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Road & Track, the Bond Years

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The Bonds in front of the R&T offices with their Ferrari 330GT, 1964.* Courtesy Marilee (Lee) Bond Nudo

By Pete Vack with Jim Sitz, John R. Bond, Jr. and Marilee (Lee) Bond Nudo

John Bond took over a distressed Road and Track in the fall of 1952, but always admitted that Elaine was the brains of the outfit. David E. Davis wrote (C&D Nov 1990) that she “…was the ramrod that turned R&T into the magazine it was in the Sixties and Seventies.”

This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.
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The Early Years of Road and Track

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The story of the early years of Road and Track, thanks to Jim Sitz.

Off to a great start: Bonneville, 1951. Road and Track, Hop Up, and Motor Trend staff members gather for the Bonneville Speed Week. Jerry Cheseborough is on the far left, that might be Oliver Billingsley on the other side of the MG. Motor Trend photographer unknown. Courtesy Jim Sitz.

By Pete Vack and Jim Sitz

Ed. note: Most of the information below was provided by historian Jim Sitz, who was a witness to the early years at the magazine, via emails to me over a period of weeks in 2020. He also was in the possession of the rare photos taken at the Road & Track offices in 1951, obtained from the Billingsley collection in the early 1990s. We have not been able to determine who took these photos or under what circumstances. Any questions regarding these photos can be sent to the Editor at vack@cox.net.

You Bet Your Life

In 1952, while Groucho Marx was gambling his future on the new-fangled TV with a show called “You Bet Your Life”, a thirty-nine-year-old engineer in California with a bright, enthusiastic wife, a new son and a MGTC was betting that the sports car fad was here to stay. In fact he was betting his family’s entire future on a sports car magazine that was deeply in hock. It had been offered to other magazine publishers but turned down, and one wouldn’t even take Road and Track (no ampersand in the early days; the “&” in the title was introduced in 1954) for just the bills. But staff members John and Elaine Bond were determined to save the magazine and were fully aware of its potential of a magazine devoted to the growing sports car movement. They decided to take a huge risk. [Read more…] about The Early Years of Road and Track

And How! Strother MacMinn and the Delahaye

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And How! features open and innovative formats for notices, articles and posts.

The Delahaye was on cover of the February 1949 edition of Road & Track. The photograph was taken in front of the famous Ciros Nightclub. This is the same car which was photographed later that year by Strother MacMinn.

Strother MacMinn photos from the collection of Robert Ames
Courtesy VintageMotorphoto
Text by Jim Sitz

Strother MacMinn was one of my closest and dearest friends. I met him in 1951. He was a real gay blade and man about town, the Cary Grant of automotive circles. [Read more…] about And How! Strother MacMinn and the Delahaye

Stanford/REVS Receives Road & Track Archives

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John Morton sits in the Collier Collection’s Porsche 356B Abarth Carrera GTL with his head and torso wired. Various parts of the car are electronically monitored as well, all in the name of research by the Revs Program at Stanford. The sending unit for the telemetry can be seen above the rear window. The event is the 2011 Porsche Rennsport Reunion at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Impressive Progress at the Revs Program at Stanford University

By Michael T. Lynch

Last week we spoke of the issue of disposing of one’s automotive ephemera, or at least the portion that has been unused for some time. The solution offered was Steve Fields Automobilia, which provides a service to do so through eBay.

This week we will discuss the question of donations of serious collections. I get at least two calls a week on this subject. The horror stories I have heard include going back to the donee later and finding that most of the donation has vanished or seeing the donated material ten years later in the same boxes in which it was delivered. While there are repositories that properly sort and index what they get, budgets, volunteer help and other issues do not usually provide a process that takes the gift from the box to a medium that can be distance accessed by researchers, let along the public. There is now such an institution. [Read more…] about Stanford/REVS Receives Road & Track Archives

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