From the moment his father died behind the wheel of a race car, Alberto Ascari was haunted by loss. Against his mother's wishes, he pursued a racing career of his own and went on to become Formula 1's first-ever back-to-back World Champion with Ferrari. Still, he was unable to shake the feeling that he was following in his father's footsteps — right down to wondering if he, too, would die behind the wheel.

Throughout his life, Ascari turned to superstition to make sense of the chaos. He avoided black cats and shunned the numbers 13, 17, and 26, the latter of which was the number of the day his father died. He worried he'd die at age 36, just like his father, and fiercely protected the blue helmet that soon became as much a talisman as it was a protective device.

Today on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're digging into the life of Alberto Ascari, the superstitions that helped him find order, and the shocking reverberations of his father's death in Alberto Ascari's own fatal crash on May 26, 1955.

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Episode Bibliography: 

The Man with Two Shadows: The Story of Alberto Ascari by Kevin Desmond

Alberto Ascari: Ferrari's First Double Champion by Karl Ludvigsen

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9885050/ 

https://umsu.unimelb.edu.au/news/article/7797/The-fantastical-realm-of-Italian-superstition/

https://farragomagazine.com/article/farrago/the-fantastical-realm-of-italian-superstition/ 

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-1955/36/xiii-grand-prix-de-monaco/ 

When we last left the Formula 1 scene, the 1977 season was underway. Over a decade had passed since the formation of the Formula One Constructors Association — an organization first formed to guarantee better starting, prize, and travel money for low-budget teams, but that had morphed into a powerful force that could challenge for control of the sport.

In this special two-part feature on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're going to uncover everything there is to know about the FISA/FOCA war — and in this final section, we're going to get into the nitty-gritty details of the specific fights that characterized the battle after the formation of FISA.

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Episode Bibliography: 

• https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/march-1979/31/formula-one-scene-5/

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/2003/jan22/capps.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/2003/jan29/capps.html 

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/2003/feb05/capps.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/2003/feb12/capps.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/2003/feb19/capps.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/99/hun/mirror.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/99/bel/mirror.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/99/ita/mirror.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/99/oct06/mirror.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/99/mal/mirror.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/99/jpn/mirror.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/99/nov24/mirror.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/2003/nov05/okeefe.html 

Many of the defining characteristics of modern Formula 1 — two-car teams, limits on who can enter the sport, big-money broadcasting deals, and so much more — are the direct result of a decades-long battle between the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA, which represented the teams) and the Federation du Sport Automobile (FISA, a subsidiary of the FIA). 

Fans have likely heard of the FISA/FOCA war, but truly understanding how it impacted the sport of Formula 1 isn't easy when there were so many little battles taking place from 1964 through to 1987. In this special two-part feature on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're going to uncover everything there is to know about the FISA/FOCA war — and in this section, we'll dig into the origins of FOCA and its grievances with F1’s lack of professionalization.

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Episode Bibliography: 

• https://8w.forix.com/fiasco-introduction-timeline.html 

• https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/august-1967/12/continental-notes-august-1967/ 

• https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/december-1967/16/continental-notes-december-1967/ 

• https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/may-1970/26/the-grand-prix-of-spain-ole/ 

• https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/december-1972/32/continental-notes-december-1972/ 

• https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/january-1973/25/continental-notes-12/ 

• https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/july-1977/27/continental-notes-july-1977/

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/2003/jan22/capps.html

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/2003/jan29/capps.html 

• https://atlasf1.autosport.com/2003/feb05/capps.html 

In the mid-1960s, the Chevrolet Corvair became the most reviled car in the United States of America. The automotive press loved this zippy rear-engined machine for its crisp handling and its race-y feel — but it didn't take long before the machine to become the center of hundreds of lawsuits alleging that the car was not only responsible for injuring and killing its drivers and passengers, but that General Motors had known that would happen all along. It was a huge allegation, one that at best would cost GM millions of dollars, and at worst would kill the company.

But the folks at Chevy's research and development department were adamant that they'd created a great, well-tested, and safe product, and they decided that the only way to prove it would be to fight back. The only way to fight back would be to gather as much data as possible about how cars handled. The only way to gather that data would be to hire the best minds in motorsport — the engineers and drivers who knew more about performance than anyone else — to undertake a comprehensive but secret program of testing.

And General Motors decided that the best folks for the job would be the tiny, Midland, Texas-based Chaparral race team, headed by automotive legend Jim Hall.

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Episode Bibliography: 

• Texas Legend: Jim Hall and His Chaparrals by George Levy

• Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader

Enzo Ferrari. Merely speaking his name aloud conjures up grandiose images of a titan of motorsport: his towering presence, the dark sunglasses obscuring his eyes. He is the man behind the legendary Scuderia Ferrari, a team that has competed in every single Formula 1 season since the sport was born in 1950, and whose legacy extended back decades even before. Even today, the inimitable Enzo still casts a broad shadow over the motorsport.

We know his accomplishments as a racer, a team leader, and a constructor. We know the idiosyncratic way he ruled over the Scuderia, like a military strategist ruthlessly playing both sides of a chess board. And we also know the exceptional accolades that the team has amassed even in the wake of Ferrari's death. 

But Enzo Ferrari was far from perfect. Between a tumultuous marriage, and extramarital affair that brought him his only living son, and an ever-revolving cast of girlfriends, Ferrari's love life alone could fill the pages of any autobiography — and today on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” his love life — and its impact on his company — is exactly what we're going to discuss.

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Episode Bibliography: 

• Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races by Brock Yates

• Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and the Making of an Automotive Empire by Luca dal Monte

• The Limit: Life and Death on the Grand Prix Circuit by Michael Cannell

• https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/february-2024/56/laura-ferrari-the-driving-force-behind-enzos-empire/

• https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/august-1994/34/enzo-ferraris-right-h/ 

• https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2004/jan/23/formulaone.comment 

• https://thinkdesignmagazine.blogspot.com/2012/06/fiamma-breschi-first-lady-of-formula.html

• https://www.lanazione.it/pisa/2009/06/29/198198-donna_creo_anima_stile_cavallino.shtml 

On May 2, 1982, the green flag flew for the NASCAR Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, and among a grid of legends like Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Benny Parsons, and more was a mystery racer no one had ever heard of before: L. W. Wright.

Wright managed to nab a competition license, a race car, and some positive press, but there was just one problem. He wasn't a race car driver. He was a conman with a big dream and studied confidence so strong that no one much questioned this stranger. At least, not until his checks started bouncing. 

Today, we're digging into the story of L. W. Wright, the NASCAR driver who never existed.

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The AAA Contest Board was the primary sanctioning body for motorsport in the United States until 1956, but the organization that sanctioned the Indy 500 refused to allow Black drivers to compete in its disciplines. Those barriers, however, didn't stop Rajo Jack from pursuing his dream of racing competitively — and he became one of the most influential Black racers in early American motorsport history.

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Episode Bibliography:

The Brown Bullet: Rajo Jack's Drive to Integrate Auto Racing by Bill Poehler

https://www.gordonkirby.com/categories/columns/theway/2016/the_way_it_is_no525.html 

Motorsport safety is an ever-evolving process, but American open-wheel was ground zero for some of the most exceptional innovations in motorsport medical history — be that in the form of a traveling medical staff, a permanent infield hospital, or a mobile medical center capable of handling severe trauma. This is the story of how IndyCar's groundbreaking safety team came to fruition.

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Episode Bibliography:

Rapid Response: My inside story as a motor racing life saver by Stephen Olvey

https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=jmotorsportculturehistory 

https://www.911.gov/assets/1997-Reproduction-AccidentalDeathDisability.pdf 

Achille Varzi is one of the most iconic pre-war racing drivers of all time — but we know so little about him outside of his fierce rivalry with Tazio Nuvolari. Why? Perhaps because Varzi nearly lost his career to a morphine addiction that saw him disappear from the public eye and be shunned from polite society.

Varzi's story is as complex as his legacy, and today, we're delving in to learn more.

To find out more about Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys: 

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Episode Bibliography:

Fangio: The Life Behind the Legend by Gerald Donaldson

Nuvolari by Count Giovanni Lurani

Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races by Brock Yates

Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and the Making of an Automotive Empire by Luca dal Monte

https://ehne.fr/en/encyclopedia/themes/gender-and-europe/european-man-a-hegemonic-masculinity-19th-21st-centuries/european-man-a-hegemonic-masculinity

https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/2293141/1/CDP%202014-0512%20Final%20accepted.pdf 

https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/epdf/10.3828/cfc.2019.19

https://sportscardigest.com/silver-arrows-key-people/#google_vignette

https://www.tracksracingthesun.com/about-the-book

https://www.italyonthisday.com/2022/07/achille-varzi-racing-driver.html

https://www.crash.net/f1/feature/207273/1/kate-walker-achille-varzi

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ask-nigel-october-17-5048684/5048684/

https://www.goodwood.com/editorial/chequered-past/ 

The motorsport world is full of fantastic and particular experiences, but there is one driver's life story that has always particularly fascinated me — that of Roberta Cowell.

See, Cowell was a fighter pilot, a prisoner of war, and a racing driver, which alone would have been enough to build up an impressive resumé. However, she was also the first documented person to receive gender affirming surgery in the United Kingdom, making her the first known trans woman to compete in motorsport. Today, we're discussing her life and her experiences in an era where her mere existence was criminalized.

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Episode Bibliography:

Roberta Cowell's Story: An Autobiography by Roberta Cowell

Roberta Cowell by Queer as Fact https://open.spotify.com/episode/0uz4EG1xkR1VFsrPXmmDAf?si=be4060a1bf7a4158

https://www.lizhodgkinson.com/journalismArticle/interview_with_transsexual_roberta_betty_cowell 

https://blog.bham.ac.uk/historybham/lgbtqia-history-month-trans-pioneers-michael-dillon-roberta-cowell/ 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/it-s-easier-to-change-a-body-than-to-change-a-mind-the-extraordinary-life-and-lonely-death-of-roberta-cowell-8899823.html 

https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2022/06/13/roberta-cowell-in-our-newspapers/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/obituaries/roberta-cowell-overlooked.html