JoinedSeptember 18, 2021
Articles455
Comments145
South African-born Smale started his professional motor journalism and photography career back in 1994, but if truth be told, Glen has had a driving passion for all things motoring since a tender age. In 1997, Glen launched Autosport & Classics, a classic motoring and historic motorsport magazine covering the local scene in SA. Two years later, having sold his share in the magazine. Between 2004 and 2016 Smale has authored thirteen books covering sports cars and motor racing. In 2007 he received the Laurin and Klement ‘Design Writer of the Year’ award for his book Jaguar E-type: Portrait of a Design Icon. In 2012 his book, Porsche at Le Mans: 60 Years of Porsche Participation in the World’s Greatest Motor Race, was shortlisted in the British Sports Book Awards. Of his thirteen books, no less than seven have been on Porsche cars, perhaps suggesting where his passion lies. Glen first started writing for the only magazine dedicated entirely to the Porsche 911, namely Total 911, as far back as 2005 and still contributes to this magazine on a regular basis. He has also written for the well-known Porsche magazines in America, Excellence, for a number of years. In addition to this, Glen has contributed to the Porsche Club of North America monthly publication, Panorama, as well as a host of other titles over the years in Europe, the UK and South Africa. Away from the race track, Glen was an aspiring golfer in his younger days and represented his province in the under-18 age group for a number of years. He went on to win his University Championships and represented Rhodes University for five years, as well as playing club league golf for ten years. With both children now out of the house and working, Glen lives with his lovely German wife, Elke, in the beautiful county of Carmarthenshire in West Wales. Glen has been a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers since 1995.
1961 Porsche 718 W-RS Spyder ‘Grossmutter’ (chassis #047) photographed at the Porsche Museum, May 2019 The word unique is a much-overused word today, as it is applied, it seems, to just about anything that is produced in small numbers, or even just to enhance a claim about something unusual. In...
24 Stunden Nürburgring Nordschleife 2019 © Gruppe C Motorsport Verlag It must rank as one of the most awesome races in the world. This year was my first visit to the famed 24 Stunden Nürburgring Nordschleife, the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring, and what a baptism it was. Having covered...
The year 1974 will be remembered for many different reasons, depending on where you were living in the world at the time and what caught your eye. For instance, Richard Nixon became the first US president forced to resign, following the Watergate Scandal in August that year. George Foreman and...
Classic Car Auction Yearbook 2018-2019 Edition © Historica Selecta It’s a case of, more of the same for the 2018-2019 Edition of the Classic Car Auction Yearbook. Once again, the authors Adolfo Orsi and Raffaele Gazzi, have delivered an excellent publication providing good quality, industry-leading, analytical information on the classic...
1956 Porsche 356 A Carrera 1500 GS – 752 LMA For many years now, the name ‘Carrera’ has been associated with Porsche sports cars. But the story of how the fledgling 356 first got its ‘Carrera’ name is a fascinating one. This required the far-sightedness of the company founder, Ferry...
Kyalami 9 Hour, 23 November 2019 The ‘sunset’ for Team Perfect Circle in Kyalami 9 Hour occurred just three hours into the race when a mechanical fault ended the team’s dreams for a magical race on home soil. For the whole crew, it was a bitterly disappointing end to what...
Kyalami 9 Hour, 21-23 November 2019: #09 Team Perfect Circle Porsche 911 GT3 R On 23 November 2019, the sound of approximately 15,000 bhp will break the long silence that has persisted over the famous Midrand circuit as twenty-eight top GT3 race cars tear down the start/finish straight in the...
Porsche: Excellence was Expected by Karl Ludvigsen – © Bentley Publishers For many years, Excellence Was Expected, the book on Porsche’s models, motorsport, company history and much more, has been regarded as the final word on the subject. That accolade was well justified because the author, Karl Ludvigsen, has been...
Kremer Porsche 935 K3 – chassis #930 890 0021 The Porsche 935 was the Stuttgart manufacturer’s answer to the FIA’s Group 5 class regulations, making it eligible for the World Championship of Makes. The first Porsche car in this so-called ‘Silhouette’ series, was introduced for the start of the 1976...
The Ford that beat Ferrari – A Racing History of the GT40 © EVRO Publishing In 1963 Enzo Ferrari made a decision that had far-reaching consequences, when he snubbed an attempt by Ford to buy his company. The effect of this decision was not what he was expecting, but Henry...
1969 Porsche 917 and 1958 Porsche 356 Speedster at The Capital hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa It’s funny how things have a way of working out perfectly on the spur of the moment. Recently we covered the Team Perfect Circle’s preparation for the forthcoming Kyalami 9 Hour on 23 November 2019....
The Ultimate Book of the Porsche 356 by Brian Long © Veloce Publishing Limited Brian Long’s original book on the Porsche 356 was published in 1996, and this was later printed in softback form. A few years later a revised version of this book was published which included more colour...
Lined up in the pit lane before the 1994 Le Mans 24-Hours, is from the left: #36 962 Dauer Le Mans GT driven by Mauri Baldi, Yannick Dalmas and Hurley Haywood; centre is the street-legal 962 Dauer with rather appropriate Boeblingen region (Weissach) registration plate ‘P 962’; on the right...
© Porsche 917 – Zuffenhausen’s Le Mans and Can-Am Champion Porsche 917 – Zuffenhausen’s Le Mans and Can-Am Champion, is the third title we have reviewed in the Ludvigsen Library Series. The other two have been Porsche Spyders 1956-1964: Type 550A, RSK and 718 models, and the White Racers from...
Kyalami Racing Circuit – 2019 Last held officially as a 9-hour race back in 1982, Kyalami will play host to the revival of a great classic endurance race next month, the Kyalami 9 Hour. Run by the masters of the international endurance motor racing scene today, the SRO Motorsport Group,...
Works Porsche 956 – The Definitive History: by Serge Vanbockryck – © Porter Press International I met the author, Serge Vanbockryck, a good number of years back at the Le Mans 24 Hours, and since then I have known him to be the quiet, hardworking PR manager for the Chev...
Motor Racing – The Pursuit of Victory 1963-1972 by Steve Wyatt © Veloce Publishing Limited The age of motorsport, when an aspiring photographer could amble around the paddock snapping world championship drivers, team personnel and stripped race cars, is long gone. Today, even with the required media accreditation, you have...
Porsche 956 & 962 Owners’ Workshop Manual by Nick Garton – © Haynes Publishing It is a well-known fact that the Porsche 956 & 962 derivatives were together the most successful sports prototypes that have ever turned a wheel. So totally dominant were these cars during the Group C era...
Goodwood Revival, 13-15 September 2019: Union Jacks flutter in the wind above the Credit Suisse/Race Control building. The starting grid was overflowing with VIPs and crew, while the marshals enjoy a break before the action starts after lunch The colour and style of Goodwood, were better than ever this year!...
1968 Porsche 910 6-cylinder driven by Rainer Becker in the Whitsun Trophy at the Goodwood Revival 2019 It’s hard to believe that the Goodwood Revival 2019 has come and gone again. With memories of the deluge from a few years back, and snow during last year’s Members’ Meeting still fresh...
1976 Porsche 924 Coupé It is a fact that most of us with an interest in roadgoing or race cars, will have a favourite model that holds a special place in our memory for some reason. That reason might be something significant that happened in your life where a certain...
The Complete Book of Porsche 911 – Every Model Since 1964 by Randy Leffingwell: © Quarto Publishing The name, Randy Leffingwell, will be familiar to most Porsche enthusiasts. Leffingwell worked in Kansas City, Chicago and for the LA Times as a photographer and writer for more than two decades. In...
Le Mans 24 Hours, 14-15 June 1975: Porsche 9083 in the paddock ahead of the race (copyright Yves Ronga) When I’m not helping to sell the occasional old race car, or visiting old race car meetings, I’ve usually got my head down, researching various projects for clients, usually to do...
Kyalami – A Reflection on the History of the Original Circuit 1961-1987, published by Aquarius Publishing CC – © Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale On 4 November 1961, the Kyalami International Grand Prix Circuit opened its doors for the first event to be held on the brand-new Johannesburg circuit, namely the Rand...
A 1997 Porsche Boxster (left) and a 1958 Porsche 356 A Speedster (right) The day dawned bright and clear with little sign of any clouds, a typical Highveld winter’s day. After an early morning meeting for coffee, the small group consisting of two owner/drivers, a journalist (myself), a photographer and...
Spa 24-Hour, 2 August 2008: The #160 Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S was driven by David Loix (B)/David Dermont (B)/Franz Lamot (B)/Jan Heylen (B) Over the years, we have attended many motor races and seen first-hand how the performance of the evergreen Porsche 911 has improved. This feature,...
Le Mans 24 Hours, 16-17 June 2007: Busy grid just before the start of the race Porsche introduced their new 3.8-litre 911 GT3 RSR (Type 997) for the 2007 season, replacing the 3.6-litre 996 GT3 RSR. In many ways, this new model was a better all-round race car, being more...
Nissan GTP & Group C Race Cars 1984-1993 by John Starkey © Veloce Publishing Limited Yes, I know, this is not a book about Porsches, but it does cover one of the 962’s greatest rivals in IMSA and the Group C championships. Over the next few months, we will be...
John Fitzpatrick Group C Porsches – The Definitive History, Mark Cole. © Porter Press There seem to be a number of books entering the market right now on Porsche’s motor racing history. This is not a bad thing, because there is so much to explore about these fantastic and iconic...
Rennsport Collective, Donington Hall, 20 July 2019: Porsche 996 GT1 Evo 1997 on display with numerous other Porsche classics They were all there, from a Pre-A 356 to the latest 991.2 GT3 Clubsport, by way of the most mouth-watering collection of 911s, 956 and 962s, including the indomitable 917. The...
Total 6 Hours of Spa‐Francorchamps, 4 May 2019: The #56 Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR being prepped in the pit garage ahead of practice on 2 May Project 1 burst onto the World Endurance Championship (WEC) scene at the start of the 2018 Super Season. We covered their arrival on...
The new Porsche 911 RSR (2019) What better way to introduce a new race car model, than to do so as the 2018/2019 Super Season World Champions? This weekend, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Porsche launched the 2019 Porsche 911 RSR with 4.2-litre engine, the largest engine to power...
© White Racers from Zuffenhausen: Porsche 904, 906, 907, 908, 909, 910 In 2018, we reviewed one of the other books in this series, Porsche Spyders 1956-1964, and this year we will have a couple more to do. White Racers from Zuffenhausen, is another in this series, and as we...
Ford Chicane during practice on 12 June 2019 on 12/06/2019 at the Le Mans 24H 2019 Before we arrived in Le Mans for the start of the 2019 week of activities, we knew that the weather was going to be very changeable. Unfortunately we got to our administrative registration too...
IMSA 1969-1989 – © Octane Press Simply titled, IMSA 1969-1989, this recently published book gives the inside story of how John Bishop built one of the world’s greatest sports car racing series. In truth, there can be little doubt that the two decades of IMSA racing covered by this book...
Porsche 911 RSR: Porsche GT Team (#91) – Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki; Porsche GT Team (#92) – Michael Christensen, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor Although the factory squad was crowned the World Manufacturers champions for the first 2018/2019 Super Season, their success in the forthcoming 24-hour race...
The Porsche 917-001 will be shown in the Porsche Museum for the first time in its original condition My 2019 European Expedition had been organised for some months, which was to take in the WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours (1-4 May) followed by almost a week in Stuttgart (5-10 May). It...
Snow on race day early in the morning with 0°C showing at the top of the tower at the track on Saturday 4 May 2019 Spa woke to snow falling at 06h30 yesterday morning, and by the time I had made it to the circuit, the temperature was a steady...
#92, Porsche GT Team, Porsche 911 RSR, LMGTE Pro, driven by: Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre at FIA WEC Spa 6h 2019 on 04.06.2019 at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium Our second trip to Spa in the 2018/2019 Super Season takes place at a time when the teams, across all four classes,...
Targa Florio – 20th Century Epic: Pino Fondi & Gianni Cancellieri © Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale Mention the words ‘Targa Florio’ and any motorsport enthusiast’s thoughts will drift off to those tortuous roads, tight bends, sheer drops, villages crowded with eager spectators standing on pavements with race cars rushing by just...
It is forty years since the introduction of Porsche’s first RS, the mighty Carrera RS 2.7, back in 1973. For Porsche, the letters RS, which stand for Rennsport, inspire images of sporting achievement and excellence earned the hard way through countless racing victories. At the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1993,...
Norbert Singer, 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1996 Norbert Singer must rank as one of the most successful race engineers in Porsche’s long and glittering motorsport history. Porsche Road & Race spoke to him about his four-decade career with Porsche, the race cars he helped develop and the 24 Hours...
2019 model Porsche 911 Speedster Last week, at the New York International Auto Show, the iconic new 911 Speedster was unveiled by Porsche North America. Following on in the tradition that less is more, the Stuttgart manufacturer revealed to the public the latest model that will carry the Speedster flame...
Porsche 911 ST 2.5: Thomas Imhof, Jürgen Barth and Michael Keyser © Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale It landed on my desk one day, unannounced and unexpected. The package was large and covered in stickers and labels, suggesting that there was something important contained within. Indeed, a frantic exercise followed to open...
IMSA R3 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Long Beach, 13 April 2019: The #911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy leads the #912 of teammates Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor away from the start The week’s preparations started well for the factory Porsche team, as the...
1997 Porsche 911 GT1-109 photographed in June 2016 Porsche 993 GT1 chassis #109 was one of just nine customer racing Porsche 911 GT1s built between 1996 and 1998. The 911 GT1 became the Grand Touring Meister when it triumphed in the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours, but its route to...
Mid-Atlantic American Sports Car Races 1953-1962: by Terry O’Neil © Dalton Watson Fine Books This is the beginning of a series of book reviews on early American racing, written by some very committed authors and published by Dalton Watson Fine Books. Mid-Atlantic American Sports Car Races 1953-1962 is the first...
Porsche 959 by Jürgen Lewandowski, published by Delius Klasing Verlag – © Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale When the Pearl White metallic Porsche Group B concept car was revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1983, the response from the press and public was overwhelming. After the show had closed, Porsche...
California 8 Hours, Laguna Seca, 30 March 2019: The #911 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R was driven by Romain Dumas, Sven Müller and Mathieu Jaminet Dirk Werner, Matt Campbell and Dennis Olsen clinched victory in the opening round of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge at the twelve-hour race...
WEC Silverstone 6 Hour, 18 April 2014: Maiden outing for the #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Mark Webber/Timo Bernhard/Brendon Hartley. This is the car during the FP1 session Following a fifteen-year absence from the top tier of prototype racing on the world stage, Porsche officially returned to the LMP1...
Porsche Sport 2018 – © Gruppe C Motorsport Verlag For those who follow Porsche motorsport closely, the 26th edition of the well-known annual, Porsche Sport 2018, is definitely a book you want on your bookshelf. I have sung the praises of these publications before today, and for good reason, but...
Le Mans 24 Hours, 16-17 June 2018: #92 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Michael Christensen, Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, class winners in LMGTE Pro crosses the finishing line On 21 March, the Le Mans entry list for 2019 was revealed for the 24-hour race which is to be held on...
Le Mans 24 Hours, 16-17 June 2018: #92 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Michael Christensen, Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, class winners in LMGTE Pro crosses the finishing line On 21 March, the Le Mans entry list for 2019 was revealed for the 24-hour race which is to be held on...
Le Mans 24 Hours, 18-19 June 1983: By midnight, the #3 Rothmans 956 of Vern Schuppan/Al Holbert/Hurley Haywood was leading the field by a lap after a seventh place start on the grid. With just an hour to go and with Holbert behind the wheel, the lead looked secure until...
Porsche – The Golden Years: Leonardo Acerbi © Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale It is always a pleasure when a top-quality book lands on my desk, so when Porsche – The Golden Years arrived at the Porsche Road & Race offices, I was especially pleased. We had the pleasure of reviewing Ferrari...
WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring, 15 March 2019: #92 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre leads the pack through the first corner of the race There was a double victory for Porsche at Sebring, as the #91 Porsche 911 RSR of Gianmaria Bruni/Richard Lietz won round...
Porsche 911 RSR – Porsche GT Works Team #91: Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz; Porsche GT Works Team #92: Kévin Estre, Michael Christensen This weekend sees the first double-header at Sebring with the running of both round 6 of the World Endurance Championship WEC, as well as round 2 of the...
Porsche – Graphisme 917 by Stéphane Coradi © Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale Porsche Graphisme 917: This is Stéphane Coradi’s second publication in less than a year, the man is irrepressible. His enthusiasm for the Stuttgart marque knows no bounds, and combined with a unique artistic talent, this new book is quite...
Legendary – The history of the Porsche 919 Hybrid, published by Delius Klasing Verlag – © Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale There will be few who would argue that much of Porsche’s history has been shaped by motorsport. From the very early race cars, some constructed by privateer teams (in the 1950s),...
Le Mans 24 Hours, 10-11 June 1978: The pace car, a Porsche 928, leads the field away followed by the #5 Porsche 936/78 (Ickx, Pescarolo, Mass), #1 Alpine Renault A443 (Jabouille, Depailler) and the #43 Porsche 935/78 ‘Moby Dick’ (Schurti, Stommelen). In 1978, the Porsche 928 was voted ‘Car of...
70 Years of Porsche Sports Cars – Edition Porsche Museum – © Delius Klasing Published in recognition of the company’s 70th anniversary, 70 Years of Porsche Sports Cars, understandably highlights and promotes the milestones along the way for which the Stuttgart motor manufacturer has become well known. The book is...
Ice Races GP, Zell am See, 19-20 January 2019: #118 Porsche 911 SC driven by Michael Stock After a 45-year hiatus, the popular Ice Race GP at Zell am See near the picturesque Austrian town of the same name, was revived last month to great acclaim. Thanks to an abundance...
The author at the entrance to the Automuseum Prototyp, December 2018 This last December, we planned a trip to Hamburg to visit with family and to see the Automuseum PROTOTYP. This time, though, I wanted to travel via a different route, not the normal Dover-Calais channel crossing. Stena Line offer...
2019 Falken Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (front) with the 2018 Porsche 911 GT3 R (back) – signed by hundreds of Porsche enthusiasts after the car’s last race in 2018 Falken Motorsports starts 2019 with a new Porsche 911 GT3 R, which will be used alongside the proven BMW M6...
Falken Motorsports team 2017 Falken Tyre Europe GmbH is the European subsidiary of Japanese tyre manufacturer Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. The Falken brand was born in 1983 and five years later the company’s European headquarters was established in Offenbach am Main, Germany. A similar operation followed in 1991 in the...
Rolex 24 at Daytona, 26-27 January 2019: The #911 Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy and Frederic Makowiecki leads the GTLM class off at the start of the race The 2019 season opener at Daytona will certainly go down in history as memorable, but perhaps not for the...
Rolex 24 at Daytona, 26-27 January 2019: Porsche 911 RSR, Porsche GT Team (911): Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy, Frederic Makowiecki, Porsche GT Team (912): Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor, Mathieu Jaminet The 57th Rolex 24 at Daytona on the weekend of 26-27 January will kick off IMSA’s 50th anniversary season and...
Porsche’s roadgoing model line-up has seldom, if ever, been very far removed from the company’s motorsport programme. This thread can be traced back even to the early 356 and 356 Carrera days. The Porsche 964 Carrera RS 3.8 is a very different beast from the cars of old, but the...
Kim Copperthite watches the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo during its record run at the Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI, Laguna Seca, 2018 (© Mike Copperthite) It is interesting how, sometimes when you trace an old classic car or historic racer back to its roots, you end up not far from the...
Porsche 70 Years – There Is No Substitute: by Randy Leffingwell © Quarto Publishing It’s a heavyweight book, landscape in shape, with a cover picture to (almost) beat all other cover shots. Randy Leffingwell needs little introduction to Porsche enthusiasts, and with a publisher such as Quarto Publishing, you know...
As we wave goodbye to 2018 and usher in a brand-new year, we look back on the top ten favourites that we were privileged to publish in the last twelve months. We have decided to bring you our top 10 from 2018 (in chronological order) to show you, our valued...
© Historica Selecta/Classic Car Auction Yearbook 2017-2018 edition How do you improve on a product that is already the ‘go-to’ publication in the industry? The answer lies in continuing the same level of quality research, listening to the players in the market (buyers, sellers and dealers), and all the while being...
Turbo 3.0, by Ryan Snodgrass – © Parabolica Press Amongst its numerous attributes, Porsche sports cars have always been about performance, engineering, innovation and being different. From the production of the very first sports car to bear the Porsche name, the 356 which came into this world in 1948, the...
Carrera RS – The Rennsport Reunion VI Edition: Dr. Thomas Gruber/Dr. Georg Konradsheim © T.A.G. Motor Books GmbH The Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI in September 2018, was always going to be a special event, as the Porsche company celebrated its 70th anniversary around the world. The event did not disappoint,...
The ‘white, red and blue’ 956 LHs line up at Weissach ready for their onslaught at the Le Mans 24-Hour 1982 The decline of Group 6 and the growth of Group C saw the emergence of what is today widely regarded as the most entertaining and successful era in modern...
