Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine Issue 1114 | Page 16

driving title. Trips was killed early in the race in an accident with
Lotus driver Jimmy Clark.
In a bit of tragic irony, the only other U.S. citizen to become
World Driving Champion was Mario Andretti. It was in 1978,
and Andretti’s title was also decided at Monza. His main rival was
his teammate, a Swede named Ronnie Peterson, and he also died
as the result of an accident that happened early in the race.
After a disappointing 1962 season, Hill left Scuderia Ferrari
to join the new ATS Grand Prix team created by other former
Ferrari men. Unfortunately, things never really gelled at ATS and
it was a forgettable year. Ditto in 1964 with the Cooper team.
That was essentially the end of Hill ’s Formula One career,
though he continued to compete. Now his career centered on
sports car racing, in which he already had an enviable record, having won not only at Le Mans and Sebring, but also having scored
victories in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sweden; and on Germany’s
Nürburgring.
He drove for Aston Martin, helped establish the early reputation for Carroll Shelby’s Cobras and was one of the early development and race drivers of the Ford GT40.
Hill then joined the Chaparral team of Texan Jim Hall and
with Jo Bonnier had the distinction of winning at the Nürburgring in 1966 – the only sports racing car to win a major event
with an automatic transmission. Hill finally bowed out when the
1967 season was over, having the distinction of being victorious
in his final race, the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch in England.
Hill’s interest in racing was converted into working as a commentator with ABC’s broadcasts of European automobile races.
He continued a career as a writer for Road & Track magazine,
where he had been a correspondent for decades, and now began a
series of articles on great racecars.
After years of living out of a suitcase, Hill returned permanently to Santa Monica and married. He and his wife, Alma,
have three children. Their only son, Derek, has enjoyed his own
wins as a race driver and is currently building his business career,
though ready to get back to racing.
In the early 1970s, Hill made a major career change that was
actually a fulfillment of another aspect of his lifelong love of automobiles.
Even in the early 1950s Hill had enjoyed the restoration of
vintage automobiles. After a number of incidents that brought
the mortality aspects of racing to the fore, Hill backed out of
racing. He spent his time with his brother Jerry, restoring the
1931 Le Baron-bodied Pierce-Arrow Town Cabriolet that had
belonged to their aunt.

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Obviously the retirement from racing didn’t last, and the result
for the Hill brothers was a Best of Show award at the Pebble Beach
Concours in 1955. Phil Hill still owns the Pierce.
Too busy with racing to exercise that side of his love of cars, Hill
had put it on the back burner, but now relit that side of his life. In the
early 1970s he joined his old friend Ken Vaughn in establishing Hill &
Vaughn, which became one of the top automobile restoration firms in
the world. Instead of making high-tech racecars go quickly, Hill helped
make old, historic automobiles go properly.
“There’s always a sort of pleasant obsession involved in making
race cars be at their best for you. That’s an enormous part of one’s involvement with race cars. I found that same type of pleasant obsession
restoring classic cars,” he says.
Though Hill & Vaughn closed its doors in 1994, it was such an
influence that a restoration by the company is a proud note for any of
the cars that went through its