The fascinating life of Don Nichols heads our annual Christmas gift ideas for racers as Pete Lyons explores the man behind the Shadow race cars. Lyons, the dean of American motorsports writers who has been writing and taking photos for seven decades, befriended Nichols and got the whole story of...

Champaign, IL -- Vintage Motorsport magazine is fortunate to count Pete Lyons and his Fast Lines column among our regular contributors and motorsports history content, so we’re happy to report that Lyons’ newest book -- Shadow: The Magnificent Machines of a Man of Mystery -- will be available in early...

Marina, CA—"Shadow" is what Don Nichols named his race cars, but the image could pertain as well to the man himself. Tall, lean and generally reserved, he was known to have a mysterious background in military intelligence—a mystery he cultivated by generally declining to speak of it. Shadow Cars founder...

ABOVE: Nichols (at right) with UOP Shadow's Alan Rees and designer Tony Southgate at the 1973 Spanish Grand Prix. Don Nichols, the American founder of the Shadow Racing team that rose to prominence in Formula 1 and Can-Am during the 1970s – especially with its black-liveried Universal Oil Products (UOP)-backed...

Regarded as one of the most radical and innovative Can-Am racecars in history, this is a unique opportunity to acquire the only remaining operational Shadow Mk 1.With the support of Shadow founder Don Nichols and designer Trevor Harris, it has been restored back to its spectacular original body and technical...