A collection of opinion on motoring in the United States by RICHARD BENSTEDSMITH of London, editor of MOTOR, and KEN PURDY, a writer on automotive affairs.
KEN PURDY After years of following motor racing all over the world, Ken Purdy undertook to find out what attracts drivers and spectators. “As long as this excitement is to be found,”he concludes, “men will drive, and other men, jealous of them but settling for second best, will watch.”
BY KEN PURDY Automobiles have remained a central interest for Ken Purdy throughout his brilliantly varied career as an editor and writer. The unique automobile collection of Williani Harrah fascinates the antiquarian, the sportsman, the collector alike, and is as much an attraction as the gaming tables for the tourist in Nevada.
Little has been written about motor racing which can match, in zest and authentic detail, KEN PURDY’S first short story in a field which has long been his hobby, Atlantic readers will remember his recent articles on the Vanderbilt Cup race and the Indianapolis “500.”Mr. Purdy is the editor of True, and his book on high-performance cars, Kings of the Road, has just been published by Atlantic Little, Brown.
The 500-mile Memorial Day race on the Indianapolis Speedway is run each year at ever higher speeds. But in comparison with European road racing, KEN PURDY contends, track contests have contributed little to the advancement of design in production cars. Mr. Purdy is Editor of True and widely known for his writings on motor racing and high-performance automobiles. He is the author of the book The Kings of the Road, which will be published May 26 under the Atlantic-Little. Brown imprint.
KEN PURDY is editor of True, and an authority on motor racing and the road performance of automobiles. He now is working on an article which will size up speedway racing as exemplified by the 500-mile fixture at Indianapolis. If will appear in one of our spring issues.
Road-racing gave the American automobile industry an impetus it was never to lose, and few sports events in our history have drawn crowds comparable to the 500,000 who turned out for the Vanderbilt Cup competitions forty-odd years ago. KEN PURDY is editor of True, an authority on motor racing here and abroad, and he recently gave up his 1912 brassbound Mercer Raceabout in favor of a vintage Grand Prix Bugatti.