July 19, 2019

Everybody enjoys a good quote. Snippets of ramblings that for whatever reason are so meaningful and profound they stay with us forever.

Since the inception of the automotive industry, there have been some memorable quotes, some questionable quotes and some that just made us smile.

Here is a list of our favourite great automotive quotes, with a few names making the list more than once:

• To finish first, you must first finish. – Juan Manuel Fangio

• Nobody remembers the guy who finished second but the guy who finished second. – Bobby Unser

• The winner ain’t the one with the fastest car, it’s the one who refuses to lose. – Dale Earnhardt

• Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines. – Enzo Ferrari

• The lead car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it which is identical. – F1 Commentator, Murray Walker

• Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports…. all the others are games. – Ernest Hemingway

• Calling upon my years of experience, I froze at the controls. – Stirling Moss

Pictured: Stirling Moss

• Faster, faster, faster. until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death. – Hunter Thompson

• It’s amazing how many drivers, even at Formula 1 level, think that the brakes are for slowing the car down. – Mario Andretti

• Once you’ve raced, you never forget it…. and you never get over it. – Richard Childress

• Race cars are neither beautiful or ugly. They become beautiful when they win. – Enzo Ferrari

Pictured: Enzo Ferrari

• There’s no secret. You just press the accelerator to the floor and steer left. – Bill Vukovich

• To achieve anything in this game you must prepare to dabble in the boundary of disaster. – Sterling Moss

• What’s behind you doesn’t matter. – Enzo Ferrari

• When you win a race you’re on top that day, so take it for what its worth, have a good time and party, ‘cause the next day you get out of bed, th meter goes back to zero again. – Bobby Allison

• If you’re in control, you’re not going fast enough. – Parnelli Jones

• Why worry about death, it’ll come sooner or later. – Jim Dunn

• Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary… that’s what gets you. – Jeremy Clarkson

Pictured: Jeremy Clarkson

• Auto racing began 5 minutes after the second car was built. – Henry Ford   

Pictured: Henry Ford

• You can’t fix stupid. – Larry Morgan, NHRA Pro Stock driver.

• You can tell you’re in trouble when you feel the air on the back of your neck instead of in your face. – Buddy Baker

• I got hit in the head pretty hard. My clock ran backwards for two years. – Buddy Baker

• He ran out of talent about halfway through the corner. – Buddy Baker

Pictured: Buddy Baker

• After the third flip, I lost control…………… – Don Roberts after crashing in the Jade Grenade at New England Dragway in 1975.

Pictured: The Jade Grenade at New England Dragway, 1975

• We worked 80 hour weeks for 30 years to keep from having to get a real job. – Tom Lemon’s comment on the rigour of being in the drag racing industry.

• The crashes people remember, but drivers remember the near misses. – Mario Andretti

• There have been other tracks that separated the men from the boys. This is the track that will separate the brave from the weak after the boys have gone. – Jimmy Thompson speaking about Daytona International Speedway.

• Winning is everything. The only ones who remember you when you come second are your wife and your dog. – Damon Hill