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Vanwall: The Story of Britain’s first Formula 1 World Champions

When international Grand Prix motor racing resumed following World War Two, the red cars of Italy were the dominant force, and Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati swept all before them. Patriotic industrialist Tony Vandervell – founder of bearing manufacturer Vandervell Products Ltd – resolved to break their stranglehold over the sport with a team of British cars.

Vanwall: The Story of Britain’s first Formula 1 World Champions by Denis Jenkinson and Cyril Posthumus

Latest book from Porter Press celebrates the pioneering Vanwall Grand Prix team

Publication Information
ISBN: 9781913089252 (Classic Edition)
ISBN: 9781913089368 (Collector’s Edition)
RRP: £90.00 (Classic Edition)
Limited to 1000 copies and all signed by Doug Nye
RRP: £TBA (Collector’s Edition)
Limited to 100 copies and all signed by Tony Brooks and Doug Nye
Format: Jacketed Hardback, 288 pages, 300mm x 300mm, November 2021
Photos/Illustrations: over 200 images
Subject: Cars, Motorsport
Publisher: Porter Press International
Author: Denis Jenkinson and Cyril Posthumus, with in-depth captions by Doug Nye

Vanwall: The Story of Britain’s first Formula 1 World Champions by Denis Jenkinson and Cyril Posthumus

When international Grand Prix motor racing resumed following World War Two, the red cars of Italy were the dominant force, and Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati swept all before them. Patriotic industrialist Tony Vandervell – founder of bearing manufacturer Vandervell Products Ltd – resolved to break their stranglehold over the sport with a team of British cars.

Vandervell was originally involved with the BRM project, but soon tired of its inertia and politics. Instead, this Churchillian figure decided to go it alone, first with a series of Ferrari-based Thin Wall Specials, and then with his own Vanwalls from 1954 onwards.

Deploying all of the engineering expertise and industrial might at his disposal, Vandervell pursued his goal with a single-minded devotion and determination, and in 1956 he enlisted a promising young engineer by the name of Colin Chapman – who was already making waves with his own Lotus company – to design a new Vanwall chassis.

In 1957, Vandervell assembled one of the most talented driver line-ups of all time in the shape of Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks and Stuart Lewis-Evans, and the breakthrough came at that year’s British Grand Prix. Moss and Brooks shared the winning Vanwall – the first time that a British car had won a World Championship Formula One Grand Prix – and in 1958 the team won six races to claim the inaugural Constructors’ Championship. Tony Vandervell thereby laid the foundation for the considerable success that would subsequently be enjoyed by British-built cars in Formula One.

First published in 1975, this book offers a unique insight into Tony Vandervell and the rise of his Grand Prix team. It has been extensively expanded by Porter Press via the inclusion of hundreds of official factory documents from the GP Library archive – from telegrams and letters to lap charts and technical records. There are also more than 200 superb period photographs with detailed captions written by Doug Nye specifically for this latest edition.

British ace Tony Brooks – who won four races for Vanwall – has written a new foreword, and the detailed appendices include race records and chassis histories that have been updated by Doug Nye after carrying out painstaking new research. The result is the definitive history of this ground-breaking British Formula One team.

More Information
  • The full story of Tony Vandervell’s rise to Grand Prix glory, from the ThinWall Specials to the Vanwall success of 1957 and 1958.
  • New foreword written by Vanwall driver and six-times Grand Prix winner Tony Brooks.
  • Hundreds of never-seen-before Vanwall documents from the GP Library archive, from correspondence with Enzo Ferrari to driver contracts and technical data sheets.
  • 200 superb archive photographs in colour and black and white, with detailed captions written by Doug Nye.
  • A complete race record of the ThinWall Specials and Vanwall Grand Prix cars – painstakingly updated using official factory documents.

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