Welcome to Who? What? Where? When? Why? on the World Wide Web. Your comments, criticism and suggestions: editors#8w.forix.com (replace # with @).
8W is forix.autosport.com's motorsport history section and covers the drivers, cars, circuits, eras and technology that shaped the face, sounds and smells of motor racing.

Sharing knowledge on motor racing history

8W's main aim is to create easy access to all kinds of knowledge on the history of motor racing. Our focus doesn't lie with the cold facts and the statistics but instead we dig into the motorsport stories that continue to warm our hearts.

8W is presented by FORIX and kindly hosted by autosport.com.

Check our 8W photostream on Flickr.

The editors

Chief editor: Mattijs Diepraam (NL)
Responsible for the day-to-day running of the site, Mattijs has been a driving force behind 8W since day one. A copywriter and business journalist since 1992 as well as a professional motorsport journalist and photographer since 2012, he has the writing and editing bug flowing through his veins. Mattijs reports on historic motorsport for Autosport.nl, Octane magazine NL and Historic Motor Racing News and is Autosport.nl's reporter on the modern single-seater categories on the road to Formula One. Besides that, he has helped create dB, a site dedicated to the memory of Holland's most evocative racing driver ever, Carel Godin de Beaufort. Furthermore, he is known as the press officer and official race reporter for Masters Historic Racing, one of the leading historic series organisers in Europe. Mattijs is the author of five motorsport books: 20 Years of MP Motorsport, Senna Versus Schumacher and Other Formula One Rivalries that Never Happened, Ab Goedemans: Altijd tot het uiterste, Wim Boshuis: Racer zonder poeha and Marcel Albers: De stuurmanskunstenaar.

Founding editor: Felix Muelas (E)
In the nineties, Felix acted as the inspiring light that turned 8W from a private exercise between himself and Mattijs into a quiz that quickly found its niche on the Web. He was also responsible for the decision to expand 8W to a general knowledge site on motor racing history. Felix is now pursuing pastures new while keeping a close eye on 8W's progress.

Editors-at-Large: Rainer Nyberg (S) & Leif Snellman (FIN)
Rainer and Leif got involved with 8W at different stages of the original game. Rainer's main role was putting his vast picture archive at his disposal, just as he does for FORIX, while also providing the site with his technical knowledge and facts about the motor racing world outside Grand Prix racing.

Leif was a welcome addition to the team when the quiz expanded to the pre-war era. As the founder of the highly acclaimed website on The Golden Era of Motor Racing, a site covering the clash between Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union in the thirties, he was well-placed to provide 8W with striking portraits of the thirties' greats.

History

The 8W site started out in May 1998, centering around a game that was meant as an hommage to Autosport magazine's long-running and most famous part of their annual Christmas Quiz - Who? What? Where? When? We then added an extra W - Why? to cover the story behind the picture - and gave it another three Ws by putting it on the Web.

Every month we picked a selection of ten pictures from F1's long and winding history, putting in some pictures some of you were able to solve as fast as changing four tyres on a Ferrari F1 car, while cracking other pictures was as tough as Michael Schumacher's driving style. It was the players' job to identify the driver (Who? - 1 point), the car (What? - 1 point), the track (Where? - 1 point), the occasion (When? - 1 point), and the reason why this picture is so special (Why? - 3 points), adding up to a maximum score of 7 points per picture. Bonus scores were gained through recognizing other cars and drivers in the pictures.

The contestants had to work hard for the full 3 Why? points! Two points were awarded to the wealth and depth of biographical, historical and technical background they were able to come up with, with the third point going to originality. As a consolation for those who tried hard and failed in the process, desperately wrong answers with a fun-to-read Why? (romping away like in a last-ditch qualifying attempt) also received some points all the same. Every picture was selected to have an identifiable starting point, and none were impossible to crack.

Starting August 1999, the pictures were sorted by decade, allowing players to compete in sections covering the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, with also a new pre-war section added. The overall winner was picked from the contestants that took part in all decades. The Trintignant Trophy and McLaren Cup (introduced for the October 1999 game and onwards) were two more opportunities for our players to get their name on the winners list. The Trintignant Trophy was awarded to the player with the highest score from the pre-war, 50s and 60s sections. Points from the 60s, 70s and 80s decades were eligible for McLaren Cup honours.

In the game's history there was neither trophy nor bubbly (at least not in the physical sense) at the chequered flag - all we offered was the fun of slick investigation and strategic deduction, and maybe the honour of being among the best at what grew out to be the ultimate Grand Prix detective game.

In the Autumn of 2001 we held our last game before switching to the current format.

Some old poll pages

Previous winners

Senior/overall

1998

1999

2000

2001

Junior

1998

1999

Trintignant Trophy

1999

2000

2001

McLaren Cup

1999

2000

2001