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Burt Levy on Selling and Racing Alfa Romeos

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My first win in an Alfa Romeo, co-driving the resurrected “totaled” ’74 Alfa Spider a Midwestern Council Enduro with my friend Mike, who also worked at Mellow Motors.

By Burt Levy

Craig Morningstar was a big, Viking-looking guy with a great sense of humor, a huge love for Italian cars and motorcycles and a massive taste for fun. And he needed that sense of humor because it was his job to visit Alfa dealerships, make nice with the dealership principals and staff and smooth the ruffled feathers of sometimes—no, make that more than sometimes—indignant recent Alfa purchasers who had encountered difficulties, real or imagined, that the dealership couldn’t seem to satisfy. [Read more…] about Burt Levy on Selling and Racing Alfa Romeos

Let’s hear it for the (Bentley) Boy(s)

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Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Having sent the Editor the photographs for this piece, he asked me to tell our audience why a Brit who drives an Alfa appreciates Bentleys. An interesting question, and one to which I had never given much thought. The stock answer might be that I am English, and that we are hard-wired to appreciate Bentleys as much as we appreciate the Spitfires and Hurricanes of the Battle of Britain; it is in our DNA. [Read more…] about Let’s hear it for the (Bentley) Boy(s)

In the Way of the War

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S.C.A.R. factory before its destruction in World War I.

Story by Jim Donick

S.C.A.R. (Société de Construction Automobile de Reims) is not exactly a household name amongst motoring enthusiasts. Not even Lord Montague saw fit to mention them in his Lost Causes of Motoring. Yet, for a relatively brief moment in time, much like Brando lamented in On the Waterfront, they “coulda been a contender.” Examples of the marque were raced with some success at the Brooklands Circuit in the UK as well has having taken part in a number of other significant racing events during the period.

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Sir Stirling Moss, A Man of Letters

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The year was 1955 and my father and I had a brilliant idea of how to settle an argument. Being all of eight, I insisted that a Grand Prix car – for instance like the Mercedes W196 Stirling Moss was driving – could get around a 90-degree corner much faster than my wise old father could imagine.

He suggested that we ask the expert, Mr. Moss himself. I don’t recall how he came up with Moss’s address, but we mailed a letter which eventually found its way to the apartment that belonged to Stirling Moss, LTD.in London England. We put the question in general terms, suggesting an average streetcorner at the end of a block without stating the width of the road.

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Sir Stirling Moss, First and Last

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Exuberance personified, Moss three wheels the Vanwall at Melling Crossing, Aintree, 1957 (Gauld Photo)

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

1952. It is remarkably 68 years since I first wrote about and photographed Stirling Moss when I was a trainee journalist with an Edinburgh newspaper. In a remarkable bit of chutzpah, I had talked the Sports Editor into letting me take over the motoring and motor racing correspondents role at the age of 17!

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Sir Stirling Moss, by the Numbers

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1957, Moss at the Swedish Grand Prix. Photo by Jim Sitz.

Story by Clyde Berryman

The following is a QPRS review of Sir Stirling Moss’ F1 Grand Prix career. Allow me to explain.

As a boardgame enthusiast in my teen years, I conceived the first of several math formula systems to try and rate the performances of real racing drivers and their cars in order to re-create actual historical Grand Prix seasons using the game mechanics of a popular Avalon Hill game called ‘Speed Circuit’ By the mid-1990’s this formula had evolved into the final version which I called the Quality Point Rating System (QPRS) because I sought to distinguish the ‘quality’ of driver performances since they all drove different cars of varying levels of competitiveness. So how does Stirling Moss rate via our QPRS system?

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Sir Stirling Moss, Mr Goodwood

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Susie and Stirling Moss, Goodwood 2010.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

“Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?” was an oft-used phrase by British Bobbies when pulling over speeding motorists in the mid-twentieth century. So well-known in fact, that Renault used the line during the 1970s for a Renault 20 television advertisement. If I recall correctly, the scene starts with the Renault stopped on a country road with a Bobby on a bicycle next to the car. The driver’s front window then comes down electrically, and the Bobby looks at the driver in the car whilst saying the immortal line. As the camera pulls away, we see Stirling Moss at the wheel. [Read more…] about Sir Stirling Moss, Mr Goodwood

The Alfa Museum, Under the Hood

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A sight one does not normally see in other museums.

When the Alfa Museum was open and hoods were up.

Story and photos by Roberto Motta
From the Archives, January 2017

Wander through the many automobile museums of the world (or just follow VeloceToday!) and you will quickly note that they all have one thing in common; the hoods are usually closed and if not, one can’t get close enough to study the mechanicals. This is unfortunate, for unlike today’s plastic-covered engines, many powerplants of the 20th century were hi tech engineering, awesome to look at, art in and of themselves, and designed to be easy to work on. Yet they are so often hidden under the hoods of museum pieces. Not so in Milan however!

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Toly’s Iconic Appia Zagato, For Sale!

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That’s right, the fabled Arutunoff Appia is for sale. Photo by Jon Kempf.

Well this is something different. No, VeloceToday is not becoming a market place for old cars. But the Toly Arutunoff Lancia Appia is a special case. [Read more…] about Toly’s Iconic Appia Zagato, For Sale!

A Reader’s Story: Stand Down in Albert Park

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Ernest Nagamatsu in his Porsche. Photo by Peter Knight.

2020 Australia F1 Grand Prix Historic Support Races
March 12-15, 2020

By Ernest Nagamatsu

One of the most coveted ‘invitations’ in Historic Motorsports Racing in Australia is to participate in the Australia F1 Grand Prix Historic Support Race. There are only 60 historic race cars selected to race on the Albert Park F1 race circuit.

The Historic Support Race is on the weekend of the huge F1 season opener race in Melbourne. Shannon’s Insurance provided the sponsor support and there were tents for the historic race cars. It was the 25th Anniversary for the Australia F1 GP and the excitement was rising. This race followed the great Phillip Island Classic Historic race with over 500 cars racing and five races for the weekend. [Read more…] about A Reader’s Story: Stand Down in Albert Park

Ferrari 212 Touring Berlinetta S/N 0108 E

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Story by Alan Boe
Photos by Alan Boe unless otherwise noted

This is the first part of a story about two magnificent Ferraris, both owned and maintained for many years by a man we consider to be one of the greatest Ferrari enthusiasts of all time. His name was Tom Caulfield of Janesville, Wisconsin, and for many years owned both a Ferrari barchetta and berlinetta.

The berlinetta is a Touring bodied 212 Export and the spyder is the only Touring barchetta ever built with a 2.7 liter Ferrari V12, and the last barchetta built on the short 88 inch wheelbase chassis.

In this article we will focus on the berlinetta.

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