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Cunningham Sports Cars: American Racing Legends 1951-1955

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"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.

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.