Karl Ludvigsen

Karl E. Ludvigsen (born April 24, 1934) is a journalist, author, and historian of motorsport and the automotive industry.

Personal life Karl E. Ludvigsen was born on April 24, 1934, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He was the son of Elliot "Lud" Ludvigsen, an engineer and executive of Eaton Corporation.

Karl Ludvigsen has been resident in England since 1980 and lives in Suffolk with his wife Annette.

Education He graduated Cum Laude from Phillips Exeter Academy, and attended both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying engineering, and Pratt Institute where he matriculated in industrial design.

As an author, co-author or editor Ludvigsen has some four dozen books to his credit. Four Ludvigsen books concern the Chevrolet Corvette, one of them that was credited with sparking the Corvette hobby. He has written three times about Mercedes-Benz, twice about its racing cars. His books on the latter subject have won the Montagu Trophy (once) and the Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot Award (twice), both recognizing outstanding automotive historical writing. In 2001 he again received the Cugnot award from the Society of Automotive Historians (SAH) for his book about the early years of the Volkswagen, Battle for the Beetle. In 2002, he was named a Friend of Automotive History by the SAH, the Society's highest award.

Since 1997, Ludvigsen has been drawing on the photographic resources of the Ludvigsen Library to write and illustrate books on the great racing drivers. His first title in this series was Stirling Moss: Racing with the Maestro. He followed this with Jackie Stewart: Triple-Crowned King of Speed and Juan Manuel Fangio: Motor Racing's Grand Master. Fourth in this series for Haynes Publishing was Dan Gurney: The Ultimate Racer and fifth was Alberto Ascari: Ferrari's First Double Champion. Sixth and seventh in the series are Bruce McLaren—Life and Legacy of Excellence and Emerson Fittipaldi—Heart of a Racer.

Also in the field of motor sports, Karl Ludvigsen has written about the cars of the Can-Am series, the AAR Eagle racing cars, the Ford GT40s and Prime Movers, the story of Britain's Ilmor Engineering. His introduction to At Speed, a book of Jesse Alexander's racing photography, won the Ken W. Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism. Other motor-sports titles include Classic Grand Prix Cars, a history of the front-engined G.P. car, and Classic Racing Engines, Ludvigsen's personal selection of 50 notable power units.

Karl Ludvigsen is the author of definitive histories of Porsche and Opel. His Porsche history, Excellence was Expected, is considered to be a model of the researching and writing of the history of an auto company. The updated edition was published in three volumes by Bentley Publishers in 2003. In 1997, Ludvigsen researched and wrote the catalogue for a special exhibition of Ferrari technological innovations on the occasion of the company's 50th anniversary and contributed a major section to the company's official 50-year history. He updated and expanded this work for Ferrari's 60th anniversary in 2007. He is the author of a series of monographs on great Maserati cars.

In co-operation with publisher Iconografix, Ludvigsen has established a series of photographic books now numbering some nineteen titles, including books on Indy racing cars from the Speedway's first contest in 1911 through the 1970s, the Indy Novis, Chevrolet's Corvair and Corvette, the Mercedes-Benz 300SLs of 1952 and 1954–64, the Porsche Spyders and Porsche 917, the Ferrari Factory, Can-Am racing cars, the sports-racers of Briggs Cunningham and Jim Hall's Chaparral cars. More titles are in preparation.

On motor-industry topics Karl Ludvigsen has written books about high-performance engines, the Wankel rotary engine and the histories of American auto makers. He was editor of The Future of the Automobile, the report of the 1981–84 study of the world auto industry by MIT. This was named one of the best business books of the year by Business Week. In the 1980s, he established Euromotor Reports Limited, for which he wrote and edited numerous research studies.

Collections

Ludvigsen has collected his library of the same name throughout his career and it now holds extensive original negatives and transparencies from the 1950s forward with special strengths in motor sports, American cars and sports cars.

He publishes the Substack Why Cars Are So Bad

Books Creating the Customer-Driven Car Company. International Thomas Business Press, 1996. . Stirling Moss: Racing with the Maestro. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1997. . Jackie Stewart: Triple-Crowned King of Speed. Sparkford, UK: Haynes Publishing, 1998. . Juan Manuel Fangio: Motor Racing's Grand Master. Sparkford, UK: Haynes Publishing, 1999. . Dan Gurney: The Ultimate Racer. Sparkford, UK: Haynes Publishing, 2000. . Alberto Ascari: Ferrari's First Double Champion. Sparkford, UK: Haynes Publishing, 2000. . Battle for the Beetle. Cambridge, MA: Bentley Publishers, 2000. . Classic Racing Engines. Sparkford, UK: Haynes Publishing, 2001. . Bruce McLaren: Life and Legacy of Excellence. Sparkford, UK: Haynes Publishing, 2002. . Emerson Fittipaldi: Heart of a Racer. Sparkford, UK: Haynes Publishing, 2002. . The V12 Engine. Sparkford, UK: Haynes Publishing, 2005. . Classic Grand Prix Cars: The Front-Engined Era, 1906-1960. Sparkford, UK: Haynes Publishing, 2006. (2nd Ed.) . BRM V16. Veloce Publishing, 2006. . Porsche: Excellence Was Expected. Cambridge, MA: Bentley Publishers, 2008. . Italian Racing Red. Ian Allan Publishing, 2008. . Ferdinand Porsche, Genesis of Genius: Road, Racing and Aviation Innovation, 1900 to 1933. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Bentley Publishers, 2009. . German Racing Silver. Ian Allan Publishing, 2009. . Colin Chapman: Inside the Innovator. Sparkford, UK: Haynes Publishing, 2010. . Professor Porsche's Wars. Pen & Sword Military, 2014. . Reid Railton: Man of Speed. Evro Publishing, 2018. . Karl Ludvigsen's Fast Friends: Stars and Heroes in the World of Cars. Delius Klasing Vlg GmbH, 2019. . Power Unleashed: Trailblazers Who Energised Engines with Supercharging and Turbocharging . Ervo Publishing, 2025. .