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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

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Graham Gauld on Nardi

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The mystery BMW Special. Note the two hoods, the front holding the engine and the top one holding the spare wheel.

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

From the VeloceToday Archives, March, 2016

Last week I talked about the car that truly stopped the show at Retromobile, the Ferrari 335S, so now I will go from the sublime to the ridiculous.

A tale of two? Nardis

I happened by the stand of Christophe Pund who runs La Galerie Des Damiers and has a habit of digging up remarkable cars that no one has ever heard of. This year he went better and put on show a car he told me he had found as a wreck – and by the time of Retromobile it was little more than that – but did not know exactly what it was. I mention it because some reader in Italy may remember something about it and be able to help out.
Fundamentally it is a two-seater sports car with a lightweight body and powered by a 750cc BMW motorcycle engine mounted in its own compartment at the front of the car. There is a second hood under which is the spare wheel so the driver sits in one of two sketchy seats holding what appears to be a Nardi steering wheel.

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Gauld and the Auburn Douze

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The Auburn Douze, a stylish race car for 1940. ( RRM Sothebys )

Story by Graham Gauld

Not a day goes by without some mention in the newspapers about alternatives to using petrol to drive our cars such as electricity or even hydrogen. So how about one of the older alternatives, LPG, liquid petroleum gas, such as propane. Not only that but let’s take an extreme example of this powering a racing car, around 80 years ago; the Auburn Douze.

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The Races of Life, a Review

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Review by Pete Vack

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Aldo Zana’s latest book has a fitting title, “The Races of Life”, and uses photographs to examines the period from 1965 to 1970 – a time of change, turmoil and above all danger in both sports prototypes and F1 racing. “Races have not been simply competitions, ” writes Alberto Scuro, President Automotoclub Storico Italiano. “They have always been, and forever remain, the races of life.”

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Aldo Zana at the Monaco Grand Prix, 1968

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The beauty that didn’t fly: the Eagle 1G Weslake by Dan Gurney. He qualified 16th and last, 1.32.9, and lasted 9 laps only in the race.

Story and photos by Aldo Zana

From the VeloceToday Archives, May 2020

If you are suffering from Grand Prix abstinence you might be interested in remembering the Monaco F1 Grand Prix from so many decades ago, now akin to a fictional tale of times bygone. It was May 1968 when France and, later, the whole of Europe, were on the verge of profound social, economic, and cultural changes: students in Paris had started what went into the history books as “La revolte de mai”, the May revolution. The whole country was either on strike or shut down.

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Wilson’s 6C 2500: Will it Fit?

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This is number 10 in a series of articles about the design and construction of Paul Wilson’s very special Alfa 6C2500.

Story and photos by Paul Wilson

I wrote this, looked at it the next day, and nearly threw it away. Who needs to hear about picky mechanical issues in restoring a rare car? If after reading it, you share this thought, I understand.

But then I realized that such a narrative fills an information gap. All most owners get is a gigantic bill, with hard-to-believe specifics: “At $150 an hour, you took two days to fit the hood???” The other side of the story rarely appears in print. I’m haunted by the feeling that True Experts aren’t delayed or puzzled by issues that I struggle with. But it’s likely that my experience is typical. So here’s more about what kept me awake at night.

Not only did I promise to bring my Alfa roadster to the Lime Rock show, but I also agreed to give a picture/talk on how I made it–logically concluding with its triumphant completion. It was far from finished, of course, but I still had a month. Four whole weeks. It shouldn’t take that long, I foolishly thought. [Read more…] about Wilson’s 6C 2500: Will it Fit?

Panning for Gold Part 2

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Ken Miles. Riverside, Porsche RSK

Story and photos by Allen R. Kuhn

Read Part 1

As we begin Part 2 of Panning for Gold, the above shot defies explanation, from me anyway. I have four other similar shots that look like normal car pictures. Here, it looks like the car is in pan motion with those streaks. And, what about that wheel? I have never seen one like that before. We recently showed this picture to Pete Stout of Excellence magazine. His art director asked me if I did that in Photoshop. I said I hadn’t, but that I had a theory on why this happened.

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Robert F. Pauley explores the SCCA parking lots

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Allentown Convair Race, Oct. 20, 1951. Bob with Siata Daina, photo probably taken by his brother Phil.

Story by Pete Vack
Photos by Robert F. Pauley

Robert Pauley: engineer, photographer, enthusiast, author

Over the years, we have featured the work of Robert F. Pauley. His color photography has graced our newsletter leads, and enhanced many articles. His contributions to VeloceToday began in 2011 when published a series of articles about “Gilda,” the 1955 Ghia showcar designed by the Italian Giovanni Savonuzzi. This prompted an email response from Pauley, who told me a remarkable story about working with the famous designer while both were employed at the Engineering Building in Chrysler’s Headquarters in Highland Park, Michigan. It was the beginning of a long, fruitful relationship.

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Lou Fageol’s Twin Engined Porsche

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Porsche Fageol on the grid for the C-Modified SCCA event a Westover, Massachusetts AFB, June 13, 1954. Photo by Robert Pauley.

Story by Pete Vack
From the VeloceToday Archives, September 2021

Born into a family of entrepreneurs and engineers, Louis J. Fageol (pronounced fadjl) would take over the family’s Twin Coach bus and tractor business as planned, but at the same time was hell bent for leather to satisfy his need for speed despite the wishes of his wife Caryl. Already famed for his speedboat victories, Fageol would push the envelope of all-wheel-drive race cars with his ultimate creation, the Fageol Porsche sports racer. In doing so, his life would literally hang by a thread.

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Panning for Gold

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No, Richie Ginther is not t-boning that massive pylon at Riverside in 1957. Note the nose of Richie’s Ferrari is visible through the pylon, another case for the beauty of panning.

Story and photos by Allen R. Kuhn

To pan or not to pan, aye, that is the question. Whether it is nobler to read the manufacturer’s name on the tire of a Ferrari going 247 kilometers per hour, or to sense the illusion of speed when your camera is set at 1/60 of a second. That is what a pan shot does best, to relish that vision of speed with focus and clarity.

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PBS, Kuhn and Paramount Ranch: Showtime!

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On January 6th, catch Allen on PBS SoCal. Photo courtesy PBS.

By Allen R. Kuhn

I was interviewed for a show on the PBS SoCal station for a show called Lost LA. I spoke about my experience photographing races at Paramount Ranch in the Santa Monica mountains in the 1950s.

The episode I’m in is going to air this week. It’s Season 8 of Lost LA, Episode 1 and called “The Fast and Forgotten.” You can watch it on LA PBS station KOCE this Tuesday, January 6, at 7:30 PM if you’re local, search for it on your local PBS station website, or watch the full episode directly on Youtube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEgE7qBT1kw&list=PLWu5ajp6Zk8c22IbTTF49HITJLuOM8HMv

Here is a description of the episode. [Read more…] about PBS, Kuhn and Paramount Ranch: Showtime!

VeloceToday: In the Beginning

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VelocePress (also still in business) preceded VeloceToday and by 2002 was reprinting books from Dick Merritt, Hilary Raab, as well as the Abarth Buyer’s Guide.

Story by Pete Vack

VeloceToday.com was born in a time of massive change and turmoil as the publishing industry came to terms with the digital age. The motoring website, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, was the result of a phone call in 1999 from out of the blue. “Hi, I’m Stephen Glenn calling from Reno Nevada. My partner Allison Reed and I are establishing a business and a website called VelocePress. We’ll scan out of print books and reprint these and sell them online via print on demand. We liked your Illustrated Abarth Buyer’s Guide, and wondered if you’d like to see that republished.” [Read more…] about VeloceToday: In the Beginning

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