Does he miss his own priceless collection of 71 cars, sold in 1987 to Miles Collier, Jr., the son and nephew of Cunningham’s old friends and fellow American sports car pioneers, the Collier brothers? “Oh, I do in a way,” he sighs, “some days I do and some days I don’t, now. He has always had a real love for and curiosity about automobiles, from the time he convinced his mother to pay for steel wheels for Yale’s chassis dynamometer – and then ran one of the first tests on her Rolls Royce, while the family chauffeur watched – aghast. I like to watch that.”Ĭunningham has little regard for those who collect cars just to make money. And I watch Indianapolis, of course, because it’s Indianapolis. I don’t care about stock cars, but I try to watch the so-called sports cars when they’re on. “I’m the librarian,” he says, pointing to stacks of yet-unclassified books and publications, “and it’s all I can do to keep up with all the new magazines I get – too damn many of them!” He also keeps up with motor racing on television. You know, you used to have to be a resident to sail for a country, so they’ve had to fiddle that one a bit.”Īlways known as an energetic worker, Cunningham spends most of his time these days tending to what is regarded as one of the most comprehensive maritime and motor sports libraries in existence, row upon row of the literary history of both his passions. Of course,” he adds, “Dixon isn’t Japanese. They’ve done a good job and it’s a good boat. And then, this fellow Chris Dixon has been teaching them on their new boat. But they bought Bond’s whole fleet of 12-meters and took them over to Japan and taught these kids to sail. “It would be very interesting,” he says, “because the Japanese never had much over there in the way of sailors. C,” as he’s called around his beautiful Rancho Santa Fe home near San Diego, is watching the selection races for this year’s Cup very closely, particularly with the prospect of an America vs. Cunningham destroyed the British challenger Sceptre, easily winning four straight races. “I’d never done any match racing,” he explains, “so ‘Corny’ helped me with timing the starts and all that. Ask about his victory and he’ll remind you he was just substituting for a much better sailor, Cornelius Shields, who had heart trouble. But extreme modesty is another trait of Cunningham’s. In 1958, of course, Briggs Cunningham secured his place in the annals of his other favorite sport when as skipper of Columbia, he successfully defended the America’s Cup. Always was.” He was also a formidable competitor – at sea as well as on land. “Yes, gentleman, a good description of him,” says John Fitch, whose motor racing star rose to ascendancy in Cunningham’s cars in the 1950s, “he’s a gentle man. “He’s the last gentleman sportsman,” says Laura Cunningham, Briggs’s wife of almost 30 years. In this age of “I’m number-one,” in-your-face superstars, Briggs Cunningham is a throwback to a simpler, nobler time, a time when honor and character meant more than just winning by any means and at any cost. The occasion was a surprise party to celebrate the 85th birthday of the patron of American sports car racing, one Briggs Swift (how appropriate!) Cunningham.Īs he stood unobtrusively off to one side of the two-story entrance hall to his home, one would never have suspected that the quiet, courteous, silver-haired man with bushy eyebrows shaking hands with one admirer after another was a true American sports hero. They came from near and far to honor him, some of them legends in their own right: race-car drivers, builders, and engineers whose names adorn the pages of America’s automobile racing history – John Fitch, Sherwood Johnston, Dan Gurney, Bill Stroppe, John von Neumann, “Kas” Kastner, Warren Olsen, Bill Devin, and Augie Pabst, just to name a few. Ben Shuckburgh – Replica Based on C-3 Chassis #5238.Walt Hansgen Inducted into SCCA Hall of Fame.“The Quest” Documentary: 1960 Le Mans Corvette #3.Cunninghams at Limerock Vintage Festival (1991).Sebring International Raceway Hall of Fame. NEAR – New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame.
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