PAUL MURRELL has a fascination with cars. Like the rest of us at Cars4starters he has been writing about them for a long time. Sometimes he’s found the best stories are small ones. Look no further.
THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
It’s impossible to compare F1 champs from different eras, but with 105 wins, Briton Lewis Hamilton has won more Formula 1 Grands Prix than any other driver.
However, the most successful driver by percentage of wins to race starts is Argentinian Juan-Manuel Fangio who won 47.06 per cent of the GPs he started, compared to Hamilton’s 30.35 per cent, who didn’t manage a single podium finish in 2025 (he finished fourth on a number of occasions).
He also set an unwelcome new record for him as a Ferrari driver with a drought stretching 19 races since he last stood on the podium.
HOW SOON WE FORGET
For a couple of weeks towards the end of last year, I had to drive the Aging Audi, since press cars were a little hard to come by.
To be honest, it was something of a relief to be in a car that wasn’t constantly monitoring my driving, binging and bonging at me as if I couldn’t see out of the windscreen.
But the Audi is rather long (it completely fills some marked parking spaces from front to rear).
A couple of times, I’m embarrassed to have to admit, I had to get back in and pull it a couple of feet forward into parking spaces when I realised there was still plenty of space ahead of me.
And backing it out in crowded public carparks was an instant reminder of how much we have come to rely on sensors and cameras.
Technology has certainly advanced by leaps and bounds, occasionally even for the better.
Mazda badge from the 1964 R360
Mazda badge now
Mazda’s first badge and its current badge
THE BACKGROUND TO CAR BADGES
The Mazda Motor Corporation began in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Company, producing cork for gaskets, insulation and cushioning material.
In 1931, it produced a three-wheel truck and in 1960, its first passenger car, the R360 coupe.
The Mazda name first appeared in 1934, taken from Ahura Mazda, the god of harmony, intelligence and wisdom, although the founder’s family name of Matsuda is pronounced very similarly to Mazda.
In 1959, a new badge (a simple chrome circle with elongated sides on the “M”) was created for the R360.
When Mazda released the Cosmo in 1964, it featured the same “M” in a Reuleux Triangle, mimicking the shape of the rotors in the rotary engine.
Mazda moved away from the logo-style badge, adopting a simple block typeface logo during the 70s, focusing on the central “Z”.
In 1997, both the brand mark and badge were updated to become the badge we know today, with the “V”-shaped wings of the stylised “M” standing for growth and improvement.
NOT ALWAYS WHAT IT SEEMS
Scientist James Watt (the machine on the left is his steam engine of c1778) defined one horsepower as “the amount of work required from a horse to pull 150 pounds out of a hole 220 feet deep” (and I’m sure most people reading this are comfortable with the imperial measurements).
In reality, a horse galloping at full speed pulling a coach or carrying a rider has a maximum of 15 horsepower.
However, over 24 hours, the average output of a horse is around one horsepower.
Ironically, the maximum output of a human is also one horsepower, although this can be exceeded by elite athletes.
And brake horsepower? The braking effect of friction between the tyres and the road means a car’s brake horsepower is always less than its actual horsepower.
A PROPOS OF NOTHING
We’re often wrong about many quotes that we think we know.
For instance, the phrase “the Devil is in the detail” is attributed to architect Ludwig Miles van der Rohe; what he actually said was “God is in the details”.
The expression “England and America are two countries divided by a common language” is attributed variously to either George Bernard Shaw or Winston Churchill.
The nearest quote is actually found in Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost, “We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.”
Another favourite, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”, is attributed to Albert Einstein (and also Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain).
Einstein died in 1955 (the others died even earlier!), and the first recorded appearance of the quote is in literature produced for Narcotics Anonymous in 1981.
A similar quote, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got” is frequently linked to Henry Ford. But he never said it.
And often attributed to Oscar Wilde is “Bigamy is having a wife too many; monogamy is the same”, but the source of this rather sexist comment is unknown.
IS IT STILL TUCKED AWAY IN AN ADELAIDE GARAGE?
Some years ago, the editor of much-missed magazine Australian Classic Cars asked me to find and write about a Ferrari Daytona (365 GTB).
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find one locally, but finally tracked down an owner who had not one, but two!
He also said he could point out three more “within a kilometre” of his home (in Adelaide, but that’s as much as I will divulge).
When his garage door lifted, there were two Daytonas (both red, one a coupe, the other a non-factory convertible).
Then I spotted another car under a cover behind them. “That’s a Lamborghini Miura…” I said.
“Better than that,” he replied. “It’s an SV!”
Any Miura is special; the SV even more special.
The first Miura, from 1966, was called the P400 (“Posteriore 4 Litre”) and 275 were built.
That was followed in 1968 by the P400S (also known as the Miura S) with 338 built.
In 1971 came the SV, of which 150 were built with a 385bhp (287kW) V12 and a 0-100km/h time of 5.75 seconds, making it the fastest car in the world at the time.
Even more collectable is the P400 SV/J.
There is some debate about the actual numbers, but either four or six were built (factory records suggest four, according to UK expert Simon Kidston) while the Miura was still in production, one built from new and three (or five) converted from existing chassis.
Two further Miuras were converted by the factory after they had been delivered, and many more have been independently converted in the years since.
AND THAT’S HOW THE FIGHT STARTED…
I told my wife that I’m going to forget my past mistakes. After all, there’s no point two of us remembering the same thing.