A winning combination of tremendous speed and timeless beauty, the Maserati 250F was the drive of choice for the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss in the mid-1950s. These days it is remembered as one of the sport’s greatest machines.

Estimating a 250F’s current market value is difficult, but buying one now would almost certainly require a number of millions.

The Tipo 250, on the other hand, is a little more attainable. A beautifully hand-crafted bespoke replica of the original 250F, the Tipo 250 is useable, reliable and even road-registerable (depending on where you’re located).

It gets its grunt from a BMW M20 2.5 litre straight six running three Weber carburettors and sitting in a steel tubular space frame surrounded by lovely aluminium alloy bodywork. Each car is hand built to order, so if the standard specs aren’t to your liking you’re free to collaborate with the team to build the car that suits you.

Check it out at the Tipo 250 website here.

Photos via Tipo 250

Follow @motorsportretro on Twitter, and join in the discussion on Facebook.

Gear: The Tipo 250 is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Silverstone Auctions’ upcoming Race Retro sale will present automobilia collectors with an incredibly rare opportunity to own a pair of artifacts from the Formula One legend – one of Ayrton Senna’s race-used helmets and racing suits.

Adorned with Senna’s iconic yellow, green, blue and white livery and appropriate sponsorship, the helmet was used by Senna during his 1991 season with McLaren. It comes via Ron Dennis and a private collector and sports an authentication certificate from McLaren.

Seriously desirable and seriously rare, it features an appropriately serious price tag. It is expected to fetch betwen  £42,000 and £50,000.

Also up for auction at the Race Retro sale will be one of Senna’s race suits from the same period. It features Senna’s full set of sponsors for the season and is personalised with the Brazilian flag and ‘Ayrton Senna’ across the belt. The suit is expected to fetch £22,000 – £30,000.

The Race Retro Classic Car Sale will be held by Silverstone Auctions on the 25th of February, 2012, at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire. The lots will be available for viewing on the 24th.

Via Silverstone Auctions

Photos via Silverstone Auctions

For Sale: Ayrton Senna’s Helmet and Race Suit is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

8380 Laboratories have put together a series of seriously groovy retro motorsport t-shirts based on the idea of a food chain for classic racing cars.

The food chain has three links thus far and 8380 Laboratories have some interesting ideas behind each. The iconic gulf-liveried Porsche 917 prowls as the apex predator – devourer of circuits and the competition. It is followed by BMW’s M1 Procar – the cannibal; “by way of its excessively long development it was rendered obsolete by the time it was ready for competition. It was saved by a stroke of marketing genius, the creation of an M1-only racing series, where identically prepared M1s cannibalized one another.” And finally the Mk. 1 Golf, which uses its nimbleness and speed to keep ahead of larger and more powerful beasts.

And the retro goodness doesn’t stop at the food chain series. Additional designs include the glorious Porsche Yellowbird, Audi’s 700 horsepower ’90 Quattro IMSA GTO and an ’86 DTM shirt.

The shirts are Gildan 50/50 cotton/polyester and the designs are professionally screen printed by hand in the USA, using high quality, durable inks.

Head to 8380 laboratories’ website to check ‘em out, and let us know what cars or bikes you would put on your retro racer food chain and why!

Gear: 8380 Laboratories’ Classic Race Car Food Chain is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

In late 1961 a group of drivers including Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, and John Surtees took to the sunny circuits of Australia and New Zealand in the past season’s Formula One cars to go racing while they waited out the northern hemisphere’s winter. It proved a popular idea and grew into the Tasman Championship by 1964.

It was a unique and compelling period of motorsport and Sydney-based photographer Rod Mackenzie was in the thick of it. He and Full Throttle Publishing have put together a collection of his stunning images from ’68 and ’69 in the form of the stunning Tasman Series Calendar 2012.

His subjects include international stars like Jack Brabham, Chris Amon, Jochen Rindt, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Piers Courage and Frank Gardner as well as local legends Leo Geoghegan, John Harvey, Kevin Bartlett and Alfredo Costanzo.

Check out the pics above and head to Full Throttle Publishing to pick one up for $14.95.

Images via Rod Mackenzie

Gear: Tasman Series Calendar 2012 is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

The gigantic Airfix sculpture was unveiled to the public on Saturday July 16th at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire when COYS hosted its annual Concours d’Elegance and auction at the historic venue – and there to see it unveiled was Ayrton Senna’s former manager, Dennis Rushen.

Read more

Gulf Racing by Hunziker Apparel

Pale blue and orange; Ford GT40s and Porsche 917s – the Gulf livery is one of the most evocative and iconic aesthetics of classic racing. Instantly recognizable, these are the colours of racing royalty.

Read more

Chopard Classic Racing: Jacky Ickx

If you ever find yourself needing to check the remaining race time in the 24 Hours of Le Mans while hurtling down the classic Mulsanne straight at the top speed record of 405 kilometres an hour, we have you covered!

Read more

Top Five of 2011: Gear is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Pale blue and orange; Ford GT40s and Porsche 917s – the Gulf livery is one of the most evocative and iconic aesthetics of classic racing. Instantly recognizable, these are the colours of racing royalty.

Nicolas Hunziker is a man well versed in the colours of racing royalty, and he has teamed up with Gulf Oil to bring fans of motor racing and its history a collection of Gulf-liveried apparel.

The garments continue Hunziker’s quest to bring wearable art to motor racing enthusiasts everywhere and feature the iconic Gulf branding as seen through the eyes of his ‘period correct’ painting style.

The collection includes jackets, polos, vests and both long and short-sleeved t-shirts. Each garment is made to exacting standards from high-quality materials. Polos and t-shirts are 100% cotton.

Looks like I’ll have to grab a Gulf Racing Targa Florio 1970 908/3 t-shirt to go with my 917 Monza.

Gulf Racing by Hunziker Apparel is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Check out this excellent 2012 Can-Am Calendar from Pete Lyons and the guys at Octane Press.

The calendar will look good in any office or garage and here’s why:

“This new, 12-month calendar features 24 historic images taken by American motorsports journalist/photographer Pete Lyons, when he covered the original series for Britain’s Autosport.

A beautiful new “Big Bore” homage to the “Big Bore” race cars of the Canadian-American Challenge Cup series, famed for their practically unrestricted power and technology.

Specially selected for the theme “Days of Epic Power,” these new-for-2012 images display the thundering McLarens, Chaparrals, Porsches, Ferraris and other fabulous machines as they raced in the day.

Published by Octane Press and professionally designed by Tom Heffron, this year’s product is a premium piece that does justice to its subjects. Sized BIG like the old Can-Am itself, the pages are 17 inches wide by 11 high (43cm x 28cm), meaning the calendar measures 22 inches (56cm) tall when open for display.

Grab one for $29.99 at  octanepress.com or directly from Pete’s site

2012 Can-Am Calendar: Days of Epic Power is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

We’re rolling in to a festive summer here in Sydney, which means it’s time to drop the shirts ‘wot got buttons and collars on ‘em and bust out the groovy t-shirts.

Retro Classic Car Parts have just what we need to update our look for the summer, with the ‘Gritty Marques’ range of Retro Classic t-shirts. The range features designs based on famous classic race cars and bikes, such as Porsche’s 917 and a ’63 MV Augusta. The retro racing royals are done in a “gritty” style on a simple “Sand” coloured t-shirt. It’s my kind of design – clean, simple and fun.

The shirts are all 100% cotton and top-notch quality. They come in at an eminently reasonable £17.00 plus VAT.

They had me at Gulf-liveried Porsche 917.

Check ‘em out at the Retro Classic Car Parts website here

Images via Retro Classic Car Parts

Gritty Marques: Groovy T-Shirts is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Bradley Price is a man after our own hearts. Founder of Automobiliac and life-long car nut, he has just added to his retro motorsport resume with the release of a series of timepieces inspired by the golden age of motoring.

The collection includes three watches – the Veloce, Brescia and Vallelunga. Each watch houses Swiss Made Ronda movement in a 42mm brushed stainless case and is finished with sapphire-coated K1 glass and a leather strap. Quality construction combines manly motoring materials like stainless steel and leather to produce confident, elegant timepieces that are as well put together as they look.

The design takes inspiration from the instrument panels of vintage Italian racers to create timepieces that celebrate classic motorsport with a sophisticated and mature look. Each design is distinct and seems to recall different periods or aspects of motoring and motor racing, which makes for a balanced and varied collection.

I love the clean, sophisticated and striking look of the Vallelunga with the white dial, though something should be said for the Veloce, which looks to rev to a very healthy 13,000. This, I imagine, is the timing equivalent of going up to 11.

Check them out on the Autodromo website here

Images provided by Autodromo

Handy: Autodromo Motoring Watches is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

I received this interesting press release last week, which outlined the story behind the 100% brand. Its a logo I remembered, as during the the mid 1980s my heroes included US motocross legends like Rick Johnson, Jeff Ward and Johnny O’Mara. Expect a news release about the upcoming product line in January 2012.

Here is the official blurb

“Back in 1982, with just a hundred bucks to his name, the likeable young Drew Lien – then Jim Holley’s mechanic – came up with a cable guide and a stick-on heat shield as leading products for a new company he was dreaming of starting.

“Everything back then was alphabetical” said Drew Lien in a 2004 interview ; “DG, FMF, CMC, HRP, and so on. So I thought that “DRP” (Drew’s Racing Products) would be an awesome name! (Laughter)…. My buddy Chuck told me not to name it that. So I went home, and I was sitting on the couch, looking at a poster I had of Bob Hannah, who was number 100 one year. And I thought, “What does it take to win? You’ve got to give it 100% like Bob does…”. And I named her “100%” on the spot. And what’s funny is, everyone, and I mean everyone, told me not to name her that! And the truth is, that name is what has sustained her popularity today. She just seems to mean something to people.”

This noticeable 100% logo started to appear out of nowhere on factory bikes, riders’ jerseys and chest protectors. Not just any rider….we’re talking Bob Hannah, Ricky Johnson, Johnny O’Mara, David Bailey, Jeff Ward…the cream of the crop.

To this day, it is very rare that a logo or saying comes along so strong that Hall of Fame athletes choose to run it without any agents or contracts or business discussed.

30 years have passed since those days many still call the golden age of motocross and in spite of the brand’s ups and downs, the logo and its strong meaning has stayed synonymous of iconic moments and images which have built the roots and history of what is modern motocross.

Today, 100% is about to inspire a whole new generation of racers and ask them the original tag line, “How much effort do you give?”.

As Drew said back in 2004 : “Just a big, big thank you to anyone who ever saw that 100% logo, and “got” what it is all about. That’s all I ever wanted.”

For further info contact 100%  : info@ride100percent.com or Visit www.ride100percent.com

100%, “How much effort do you give?” is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.