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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Graham Gauld

Mike Sparken: Private Entrant Part I

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Mike Sparken, winning at Oulton Park in the rain with his trusty 750 Monza.

In the 1950s, if you had talent and the necessary finances, you could become a successful racing driver as a private entrant. This is the story of one of them, a French-born racing driver by the name of Mike Sparken. We were working on this article when on September 21, Sparken died at his home in the South of France at the age of eighty two. Our sincere condolences to his family; we wish he could have lived to read the following story.

By Graham Gauld

Mike Sparken, or Michael Poberejsky, to cite his proper name, was born in Paris in 1930 to a wealthy Russian family that had left Russia for Paris at the time of the 1917 Revolution.

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Franco Zagari 1930-2012

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Franco Zagari 2007

Franco Zagari in 2007.


This week we sadly note the death of famed Italian photographer Franco Zagari, who passed away on August 15th at the Maggiore hospital after a fight with cancer.

Photographs by Zagari and from his collections graced many outstanding books, some of the best produced with his longtime friend Luigi Orsini.

Below, Matt Spitzley and Graham Gauld fondly recall Franco Zagari. Our thanks to Matt and Di Spitzley for permission to use some of Zagari’s favorite photographs.
[Read more…] about Franco Zagari 1930-2012

Gauld on the Valescure Concours, French Riviera

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Alpine-A110

Christine Dacremont with the pink Alpine 110 she used to race and rally.

By Graham Gauld

Every August I am asked to judge a Concours held at the Valescure Golf Club just behind St. Raphael in the South of France. There is no entry fee and the cars are lined up on the 18th fairway for all to see.

Being a French event, there was a class for Renault Alpines and there was a raft of the factory racing cars including one of the long-tail 1967 Le Mans cars that had been raced at Le Mans. [Read more…] about Gauld on the Valescure Concours, French Riviera

Gauld: Martinengo Memories and Gentlemen Drivers

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Regular readers may remember my May 2012 article about the Monaco Historics in which I mentioned meeting Cesare Martinengo, whose father Franco was a typical Italian “Gentleman Driver” throughout the 1940s and ’50s. This sounded interesting and I had to find out more. Cesare then brought his scrapbooks to me in the South of France and I spent a fascinating day going back in time when people raced for the fun of it and enjoyed racing with their friends.

Cesare Martinengo, however, did some racing himself, mainly with small Italian sports cars. It was no surprise that thanks to his father’s long-time friendship with Elio Zagato, Cesare raced a double bubble Fiat 750 Zagato. (In the lead photo, Elio, left, with Franco Martinengo stand next to their Fiat 1100 Zagatos.)

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Gauld at Silverstone

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Jim Clark at the wheel of UUL 442 at a small MG Car Club Sprint in 1958 winning the sports car class with the 356 Super. Photo by Graham Gauld.

It doesn’t seem like a year since the last Silverstone Classic event, and with the rain-soaked British Grand Prix just two weeks before, I was prepared for rain. It came on Friday but throughout the rest of the weekend the weather was good. There was an enormous entry this year split into both the old traditional Silverstone Paddock and the new “Wing” Paddock which is the site of the Grand Prix start and finish line.

I had various reasons to be there, but mainly to do research for a book. Thus, I had less time to go on the wander than in the past, but still I am always amazed at the surprise meetings and coincidences that just happen.

Jim Clark’s Porsche
Take for example the ex-Jim Clark Porsche 356 Super; well, it was his after he bought the car from Ian Scott Watson who was his entrant.

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Gauld at the Blancpain GT Endurance

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McLaren-MP4-12C

Jack Clark's McLaren MP4 12C holds off the Ferrari 458 Italia of Patrice Groueslard.

Story and Photos by Graham Gauld

I took myself off to the Paul Ricard circuit in the South of France last weekend for the round of the Blancpain Endurance Series which brought together an enormous 56 car entry of top quality GT cars. The rise in GT racing has been steady over the past two or three years and it is now not only attracting some top drivers but also some of the leading manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, McLaren, Audi etc. [Read more…] about Gauld at the Blancpain GT Endurance

Gauld talks to French Champion Bernard Consten

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Consten-Alfa-Jags- Reims 1958

By Graham Gauld

All around the South of France there are former racing drivers tucked away in villages, or otherwise holed up in Monaco trying to preserve their race winnings. As a result one (this author, at any rate) tends to meet up with them from time to time and chew the fat. One of them who has become a good friend is Bernard Consten, best known for his multiple wins on the old original Tour De France event with his Jaguar 3.8 and Alfa Romeo. Bernard managed to combine rally driving with racing.

Consten has all the charm of a Parisian whose father ran a successful Renault dealership that allowed Bernard to follow his passion for motor sport.

He was born in the Courbevois district of Paris in 1932 and almost as soon as he had his driving license he began competing. His first event was the circuit de Bressuire with a little Renault 750 sedan. When competing on rallies he normally took his cousin, Jean Hebert, who was himself to become a successful driver with Alfa Romeo. The Consten/Hebert duo soon began to win a number of events which eventually led to Consten becoming French Rally Champion for the first time in 1958. He also became Champion in 1961 and 1962, on both occasions with a Jaguar 3.8 sedan, and finally in 1967 with an Alfa Romeo GTA.

The Tour de France wins are the ones that remain in the memory.

” In 1951 the Tour de France restarted and when I was a student I dreamed about competing on that event. The following year my mother was keen to buy me a Triumph TR2.


“It was very difficult to buy new cars in France at that time as it was not long after the war. You had to have the right currency as the French importer was only allowed to import about five or six cars a year. When I went to order the car the dealer asked me all the things I wanted. I told him it was to be white with red upholstery with wire wheels – even the heater was an extra. He then asked me how I was going to pay: American dollars, German marks or English pounds. When I told him I wanted to pay in French francs he said it was not possible to have a car.

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Graham Gauld’s Monaco

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A photo of the 1952 Monaco Grand Prix showing the old Gasworks hairpin with Frenchman Robert Manzon (who is 95 this year!) in his 2.3 liter Gordini leading Piero Carini’s 340 America Ferrari. Manzon had won the under 2 liter event the day before.

By Graham Gauld
Color images by Graham Gauld

The Monaco Historic Races are always full of surprises.

It’s been sixty years since the Monaco Grand Prix was held strictly for sports cars…the only occasion when the title “Grand Prix” was given to a sports car race rather than a Formula One event. At that 1952 meeting there were actually two races, one for up to 2 liter cars, the Monaco Cup, and one for over 2 liters for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Tony Crook, a pretty smart looking 92 year-old, was brought together with the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica he raced to third place in the Monaco Cup sixty years ago. Driver John Ure gave him second place in the race for sports cars.

Tony Crook
There were at least three cars at the Monaco Historics last weekend that took part in that race, which is not unusual. But also attending was one of the drivers who raced at the event, Tony Crook now 92 years of age! His presence was a truly delightful surprise. [Read more…] about Graham Gauld’s Monaco

Gianni Rogliatti 1929-2012

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Another Legend Passes

One of the problems when you get to a certain age is that you begin to lose your friends and with the death of Gianni Rogliatti on March 3, I certainly lost a good friend. I cannot remember how we first met, but it was over fifty years ago. He was a highly respected Italian motoring journalist who was born in Turin in 1929. He had studied engineering in Argentina but he had joined the Italian newspaper La Stampa as their motoring correspondent when first I met him.

I think the opening conversation was about Leica cameras because I was an avid Leica user and we started to compare notes on our Leica IIIGs. In fact, in 1979 with Dennis Laney he wrote the definitive book Leica the First 60 Years which proved to be a best seller and was revised in 1991.

The great thing about Gianni was that impish smile of his when he came out with the latest bit of Italian motor racing gossip.

However, his main claim to fame was his close friendship with Enzo Ferrari. Unlike the late Franco Lini, another well known Italian journalist who later became Ferrari Team Manager, Gianni would listen to what Ferrari would say at press conferences and then ask sensible, in-depth questions whereas Franco usually tried to turn the whole affair into a pantomime.

I was last with him about two years ago at a party in at Mario Righini’s castle just outside Modena. Despite the fact that he had been ill for some time he was still in great form. Two years before he had asked me for copies of photos I had taken at Scaglietti’s factory to help illustrate a book Franco Gozzi was writing about Scaglietti. So Gianni asked me if I had received a copy of the book. When I said no, he immediately took out his notebook and said “ I’ll phone Franco and get him to send you a copy right away”. A few minutes later Gianni came bounding back to say that Gozzi was actually at the party and as I approached him it was obvious Gianni had told him about the book. Looking a bit flustered Gozzi said he would send me a book immediately. However, the man with him was Mr Giacobazzi the owner of the famous Giacobazzi vineyard which makes some of the finest Lambrusco.

It turned out that Giacobazzi had paid for the book and he remarked that he had one in the car and brought it in to me. It was typical of Gianni Rogliatti that he was concerned I got a copy after he had asked for the photos. He cared for his friends and was a great help in sorting out Ferrari mysteries. Right up to his death of a heart attack, he was still writing and editing La Manovella, the magazine if the Italian Historical Car and Motorcycle Club. Now he is gone and Italian motoring history has lost one of its greatest exponents.

-Graham Gauld–

Graham Gauld Remembers Jim Clark

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Jim Clark deep in thought: Note the chewed finger nails.

By Graham Gauld

Had he lived, Jim Clark would have been 76 years of age on March 4th. This thought came into my head because someone sent me an email about Jim and the early days, before he came into Formula 1. Suddenly I realized that I had never written an article about Jim Clark in the past twenty years – partly because I had said it all in the three different editions of my biography of him and felt there was nothing more to say. Then I thought again. In twenty years a new generation has sprung up and at the same time my Clark books are now nearly 20 years out of print – so you can only find one on EBay or the like.

Jim Clark had great skill even in his earliest events like here at Leith Fort in Edinburgh with his Sunbeam Talbot sedan.

I thought a few notes and stories about his early days may not go amiss, if only to give a new generation an idea of what motivates and makes a racing driver.

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Graham Gauld at RetroMobile

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There is no doubt that the legendary Retromobile historic car show in Paris kicks off the season with a lot of fun, a lot of surprises, and just about every known dealer in expensive automobiles is prowling the stands with anguished looks at cars they might have sold if offered.

The show was bigger than ever this year taking in two halls and there was something for everyone. If you want a throttle cable for a 1929 Salmson and amidst barrels of what one would otherwise call junk, you will find one. As for cars, well, Retromobile always brings surprises. For a start, stroll with me to Christophe Pund’s stand. Christian is a jolly smiling Frenchman who manages to dig up the oddest cars from the oddest places and this year was no exception. Restored, but thankfully not to Pebble Beach standard, was a fascinating little Moretti 750 dating from 1955 that was bought by a dealer called Lino Fayen who was kind of French/Venezuelan. Shortly after he bought it he exported it to Venezuela which was just as well because the French tax men wanted to chat with him about tax and customs duty. He fled.

Moretti 750

In Caracas the car went through various hands and thanks to Christophe you see here a picture of Edward Speluvela racing the Moretti in Venezuela. It was a twin cam producing 70 bhp and the odd bodywork was by Aperta. You will note it has a head rest and this is the only thing missing from it today. It is very original and no doubt will be snapped up and let’s hope we see it out racing again.

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Interview with Graham Gauld

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Romolo Tavoni, right, and Graham Gauld, taken in 2006 when Tavoni was 80 years of age. Note the label on the Scotch bottle in the foreground. It’s an Ecurie Ecosse label with their cars on it! Photo courtesy of Graham Gauld.

By Pete Vack

Graham Gauld has always been involved with motor sport and has authored more than six books, including biographies entitled “Jim Clark at the Wheel”; “Jim Clark, Portrait of a Great Driver”; “Reg Parnell” and “Why Finish Last.” He was the founding editor of “China Car”, China’s first motoring magazine, and of the “Historic Motor Racing” magazine. “Prancing Horse” readers are familiar with his informative and interesting vignettes from the past in his column, “Gauld Mine.” And now he is ours…for as long as he’ll have us. Below is an exclusive interview with Graham.

You’ve had incredible experiences over your 50-year career in journalism. What’s the most important motorsport event, person or race you’ve covered or been involved in?

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