Silverstone R.A.C. British Grand Prix 1958

This striking 1958 original poster for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone captures the speed, danger, and glamour of post-war motor racing at the dawn of Formula One’s golden age. Announcing the race of Saturday, 19 July 1958, organized by the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) and sponsored by the Daily Express, the poster is both a sporting document and a powerful example of mid-century graphic advertising.

Dominated by a dramatic image of a racing car bursting through a sweeping black curve, the composition conveys violent motion and mechanical intensity. The driver, leaning forward in his cockpit, appears almost suspended in mid-air, as if propelled directly toward the viewer. This visual device—combined with the expressive brush-stroke background—evokes speed, centrifugal force, and the physical risk that defined Grand Prix racing in the 1950s.

The hand-painted typography of “GRAND PRIX,” rendered in electric yellow, reinforces the sense of urgency and spectacle, while the detailed lower section listing race categories, admission prices, and schedules grounds the image firmly in its historical moment. Such posters were not only promotional tools, but essential components of racing culture, announcing events to a broad public at a time when motorsport was becoming a mass phenomenon.

Produced during a period when British motorsport was rapidly gaining international prestige, this poster reflects Silverstone’s emergence as a global racing venue and Britain’s growing influence within Formula One. Today, it stands as a vivid artifact of 1950s sporting modernism, where illustration, typography, and adrenaline combine to celebrate the romance of speed.

Original Poster

Sport - Automobile - United Kingdom

Daily Express London

Good condition