Here’s another magazine cover that inspired me with car photography when I was young. I grew up in the era of Porsche 930 Turbos, Group B rally cars, Escorts and Tyrrell F1 cars. The magazine I read in my bedroom was Cars and Car Conversions, cutting my teeth on articles about porting heads, jetting carbs.
So I was pretty pleased to see on Racecar Engineering’s website the ressurection of some old Triple C back issues from years ago including the stillborn Group S rally series.
The one that leapt from the screen for me, though, was my all time favourite, “Ayrton Senna – Rally Driver”, written by Senna’s friend, the late Russell Bulgin. Believe it or not, I was so taken with it, I still own my issue today, stashed away with my other favourite motoring covers, never to be sold on eBay.
Bulgin was a superb writer and inspired me in many ways, resulting in my current profession. From a car photography viewpoint, the cover shot of Senna at the wheel, perfectly lit by fill in flash, must have been a tricky one to pull off with film, but if ever there was a cover shot that sold issues, that must have been the one. Senna was at the top of his game when it was shot, with JPS overalls showing how early it was in his career.
The Triple C masthead is still seen on the newstands under a different name, but it’s now a different publication and a pale shadow of it’s former self. The full article is on the Racecar Engineering website here, so head over and read about one of the greatest drivers of all time, driving rally cars on his day off.
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Despite being Austin Rover Motorsport Press Officer at the time I did not go to Wales that day.
Amazing how that one story has echoed through the years. There is even a mass produced model of the car.
Bulgin did another unusual Senna story – for Motor I think – about being his body guard over a GP weekend.
I have a great picture on my office wall of Ayrton sitting in our Sierra Cosworth with the words and signature, ”Thank you for the lessons, Ayrton”. It’s in a poor quality frame and I wanted to put it in a good one with a section of the story in so I just googled up this story to remind myself what a great day it was and how privileged I was to have spent the day with such a legend. For the record the original story was prepared for and published in Car and Car Coversions. You are right though, Russell was a great writer, great company and a very sad loss.
Great to hear from you, Phil. What a priceless picture to own! I’d have it guarded with machine guns and laser beams if it was mine.
Russell inspired me into rallying and his words still read well today when you come across them. My copy of Triple C is a keeper.