Series: Ludvigsen Library | Publication Date: October 2003
Time magazine cover hero and Americas Cup yachtsman Briggs Cunningham cut a swathe through the post-war sports-racing scene with his magnificent Cunningham sports cars. He burst into view in 1951 with his Chrysler-powered C-2 sports-racers and in 1952 launched the production C-3, a Vignale-bodied car built as both a coupe and cabriolet. Some two dozen were made. The C-4R was his 1952 racer, still Chrysler-powered, which performed well at Le Mans and with Phil Walters and John Fitch was all but unbeatable in American racing.
Radical with its solid-axle front end and colossal drum brakes, the C-5R of 1953 was a challenger to the Jaguars at Le Mans. In 1954 Cunningham raced a much-modified Ferrari with water-cooled brakes and in 1955 introduced his C-6R, beautifully engineered by Briggs Weaver and Offenhauser powered.
Fabulous unpublished pictures from the Ludvigsen Library show these great cars on the track and at rest. They carried the American flag at home and abroad with style and panache.
In addition to his motor industry activities as an executive (with GM, Fiat and Ford) and head of a consulting company, Karl Ludvigsen has been active for over 50 years as an author and historian. As an author, co-author or editor he has some four dozen books to his credit. Needless to say, they are all about cars and the motor industry, Karl's life-long passion. Since 1997 Ludvigsen has been drawing on the photographic resources of the Ludvigsen Library to write and illustrate books on the great racing drivers. His first title in this series was Stirling Moss ' Racing with the Maestro. He followed this with Jackie Stewart ' Triple-Crowned King of Speed and Juan Manuel Fangio ' Motor Racing's Grand Master. Fourth in this series for Haynes Publishing was Dan Gurney ' The Ultimate Racer and fifth was Alberto Ascari ' Ferrari's First Double Champion. Next came Bruce McLaren ' Life and Legend of Excellence and Emerson Fittipaldi ' Heart of a Racer. Also in the field of motor sports Karl Ludvigsen has written about road racing in America, the cars of the Can-Am series, the AAR Eagle racing cars, the GT40 Fords and Prime Movers, the story of Britain's Ilmor Engineering. His introduction to At Speed, a book of Jesse Alexander's racing photography, won the Ken W. Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism. Other motors-sports titles include Classic Grand Prix Cars, a history of the front-engined G.P. racer, and Classic Racing Engines, Karl's personal selection of 50 notable power units. Four of Karl Ludvigsen's books concern the Chevrolet Corvette, one of them an industry best-seller. He has written three times about Mercedes-Benz, twice about its racing cars. His books on the latter subject have won the Montagu Trophy (once) and the Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot Award (twice), both recognising outstanding automotive historical writing. In 2001 he again received the Cugnot award from the Society of Automotive Historians for his book about the early years of the Volkswagen, Battle for the Beetle, a Robert Bentley publication. Karl Ludvigsen's Porsche history, Excellence was Expected, is considered by many to be a model of the researching and writing of the history of an auto company. He has updated it twice in a three-volume format for Bentley Publishers for the new Millennium. He is the author of a series of monographs on great Maserati cars. His book BRM V16 for Veloce Publishing tells the story of one of the most controversial racing cars of all time. In The V12 Engine for Haynes he describes the creation and consequences of all the cars ever powered by the iconic vee-twelves. In 1997 Ludvigsen researched and wrote the catalogue for a special exhibition of Ferrari technological innovations on the occasion of the company's 50th anniversary and contributed a major section to the company's official 50-year history. He has updated this for the company's 60th anniversary. Karl's understanding of the Ferrari world combined with his Library's holding of the Rodolfo Mailander photo archive to produce Ferrari by Mailander in 2005, a Dalton Watson publication. In 2006 with Dalton Watson Karl has published The Incredible Blitzen Benz, the story of six great record-breaking cars. In co-operation with publisher Iconografix, Ludvigsen has established the Ludvigsen Library Series of 128-page books drawing on the holdings of the Ludvigsen Library. The series now numbers 19 titles, including books on Indy racing cars of 1911 to 1939, the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the Indy Novis, Chevrolet's Corvair and Corvette, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL of 1952 and 1954-1964, the 300SLR of 1955, Porsche Spyders, Porsche 917, Jaguar XK120, XK140 and XK150, Land Rover Defender the Ferrari factory and American sports-racers: the Cunninghams, Chaparrals and Can-Am racing cars. More titles are in preparation.
This review is from: Cunningham Sports Cars: American Racing Legends 1951-1955 (Paperback)
"Cunningham Sports Cars: American Racing Legends 1951-1955" is an outstanding compilation of photographs on America's often forgotten first true post war sports cars. Karl Ludvigsen is no stranger to those of us that are automobile and racing enthusiasts, his works are some of the best in the business. In this book, which is part of a series of photo archive books published by Iconographix, Karl writes the introduction, and then allows the pictures to tell the story from page six onwards. The book follows other Iconographix titles in format; one large format picture per page with a detailed caption. It's important to note that these photos come directly from the Ludvigsen Library, perhaps one of the most well stocked libraries concerning the early post war time period in road racing history. Needless to say, the pictures are amazing, even for all of the photos being in black and white. There are shots that will leave you staring at a page for days on end, such as the picture of the massive drum brake internals used on the C-5R on page 89 or the picture of John Fitch bringing the C-5R across the line at Le Mans to finish 3rd in the 1953 French Classic on page 97. All the Cunningham models are featured, including the awesome looking C-4RK and the C-3 street cars.
If you are a 1950s Sports and Racing Car enthusiast like myself, this book is essential to your collection. I was a bit skeptical of it because of the "picture book" format, but my brother then showed me his entire collection of Iconographix books on ancient big rigs from the 1920s-1960s; I then took a chance on this title and I am sure glad that I did! Truly, "Cunningham Sports Cars: American Racing Legends 1951-1955" would be a fantastic addition to any racing book collection.
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This review is from: Cunningham Sports Cars: American Racing Legends 1951-1955 (Paperback)
The only time I was ever privileged to see the mighty Cunninghams race was on November 8, 1853 when Briggs brought two C4Rs and the C5 to March Field in Riverside, CA where General Curtis Le May enthusiastically allowed the SAC runways to be transformed briefly into a sports car raceway. I can't remember what other cars ran that day, apart from the oh-so-pretty Corvettes, with the potato mashers over the headlights. On the long straight the Cunninghams simply accelerated like rockets, running away from everything else on the track (while on the corners everybody was easily passing the poor Corvettes on the inside and outside--anything to get by.)
"Cunningham Sports Cars" in 3 pages of text and 122 pages of great photographs, from C1 to C6, brings back cherished memories of a time when one man dreamed of and spent a fortune building a team of sports cars with the intent of trying to win one particular race for America: The 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Briggs was the ultimate sportsman and a very fine gentleman. I was lucky enough to meet him twice and may be the better for it. Cunninghams were never to win at Le Mans but it was not for lack of giving it everything there was to give. This is one good book to have in your library.
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