Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
When I visited Guy Moerenhout’s
The Ferrari that Won Twice at Le Mans
Ed McDonough is back! Driving the 275 P on an Essex duel carriageway. Photo Peter Collins
Review by Ed McDonough
The photos in this article are not included in the book reviewed
Ferrari 275 P Chassis 0816: the only Ferrari to have won Le Mans twice
Author Keith Bluemel
Order here:
Publisher Porter Press International
240 pages
260images
Price £125 (UK)
Any Ferrari book by Keith Bluemel is always welcome. He is by far the best of current Ferrari historians, his research is amazing and he always manages to capture the ‘feel’ of any Ferrari he writes about.
We Review “The Yanks at Le Mans, 1980-1999”
The Yanks at Le Mans, Take two. Photo by Christian Vignon
Review by Pete Vack
A Tragic Death and a New Beginning
After completing his landmark three volume “Twice Around the Clock, The Yanks at Le Mans,” covering the years 1923 to 1979, Tim Considine was well into writing and researching Volumes IV and V, creating a history of Le Mans up to the year 1999 when he suddenly died on March 3, 2022. But the last two volumes lay unfinished. While Considine was a one-man band, a writer, historian, publisher, photographer, project manager, interviewer and fact checker, he was gone. Who could possibly replace him and help complete his magnum opus? [Read more…] about We Review “The Yanks at Le Mans, 1980-1999”
Best of Alan Boe: Ferrari s/n 0628 M
Story and photos by Alan Boe
From the VeloceToday Archives, November 2018
In the mid-1950s Ferrari was deeply immersed in the business of building, selling, and racing an impressive array of sports cars; four, six and twelve cylinder engines were employed in spyders and berlinettas bodied by Touring, Vignale, Scaglietti, and Pinin Farina on chassis of varying wheelbases. The ability to manufacture such an amazing variety of sporting machinery did not seem particularly out of the ordinary…for Ferrari. It was accepted practice then, but it would be impossible today! And none of Ferrari’s competition of the time was ever able to produce anywhere near the range of sports racing cars that Ferrari did.
Mail from Ernie: Time Spent is a Gift of Time
From the receptacle that is euphemistically called a ‘mail’ box but now holds only advertisements and bills, out jumps this envelope. Receiving a real letter today is rare enough, one like this is heretofore unknown.
Story by Pete Vack, art by Ernie Nagamatsu
The envelope immediately evokes wonderment, surprise, and smiles and makes risking one’s life to fetch mail from the mailbox near the road worthwhile. It is from vintage racing’s famous ambassador, “Ernie” Nagamatsu and is known as “Mail Art.” We shall let the interested reader Google the subject. Suffice to say Mail Art is a “Pop Art” phenomenon and has been around since the 1960s and is now international in scope.
So, what could possibly be inside? [Read more…] about Mail from Ernie: Time Spent is a Gift of Time
Meeting Sam Caronia
Could be Cranky Caronia
A note to our readers: Norfolk, Suffolk, Portsmouth and Hampton are all locations in the UK, but also cities in the Tidewater area of Virginia, USA, and the locale of the Sam Caronia chronicles. The U.S. cities were all named by the English settlers who arrived in the colonies beginning in the 1600s.-Ed.
Story by Tom Gonnella
Over the years, I’ve had three Fiat 850 Spiders, two Moretti Tour du Monde, a Dino 308gt4, a Mercedes SL500, a Ford Escape, a BMW 325xi, and 15 Alfa Romeos dating from 1951 to 2019.
Salon Prive at Blenheim Palace 2025
Welcome to judging at Salon Prive.
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
Blooming typical! After what feels like weeks and weeks of no rain the forecast for the 27th August said rain, but when I pulled back the curtains at 5.30am the sun was shining in Brighton, as it still was 4 hours later when I arrived at Blenheim Palace for this year’s Salon Prive.
Hot Laps with Phil Hill
Phil Hill and Dale LaFollette returning to pits in the 1902 D50 Napier.
By Dale LaFollette
Photos from the collection of Dale LaFollette
From the VeloceToday Archives, October, 2019
In 1980 Road & Track scheduled a day at the Portland race track where I worked so Phil Hill could test some vintage cars for articles he would be writing. On the appointed day several important old cars arrived including my favorite, a 1902 D50 Napier Gordon-Bennett racer that had been assembled from parts of the actual winner of the race. At the time the car was owned by the Harrah Collection.
Sam Caronia, Abarth Dealer Part 1
Sam Caronia. Obituary photo, photographer unknown
By Pete Vack and Tom Gonnella
Sam Caronia was not famous and more irascible than most. But he was an unforgettable person, the owner of a foreign car repair shop and sometime race driver, who helped and encouraged a younger generation to maintain and race the Italian cars we all loved. And though he died many years ago, he is still remembered.
A Navy Veteran, an Abarth Dealer, a Race Driver
Tom Gonnella, a fellow Ferrari owner and Tidewater, Virginia, resident, worked for Sam as a teenager, and was a long-time friend. Recently Tom sent me his well-written reflections on Sam which provided the basis for a belated biography, and allowed us to make use of an interview I had with Sam in 2014 and never published. I too, had known Sam for many years, and Tom’s recollections mirrored my own.
Ferrari 212 Export Berlinetta
Dr Martin Halusa’s very early Ferrari 212 Export Berlinetta at Monaco in 2018.( Photo (Gauld)
Story and photos by Graham Gauld
On a web site such as VeloceToday our stories tend to paint with a broad brush. It is clear, however, our reports on concours-style events always attract attention because through these events we can observe the changes made over the decades in the actual shape of the car, in other words: styling.
Radiator Mascots: Come Fly with Us
1907 Renault radiator cap ornament, but not up front, as the radiator was back on the firewall between the engine and the driver’s cockpit.
Story and photos by Charley Seavey
Time was when almost all cars had some representational statuary of some kind on the hood (bonnet) of the car. Some were famous: the Rolls Royce “Spirit of Ecstasy,” and the Jaguar “Leaper” Spirit…is now a tiny vestigial remnant of its former self. The Leaper is no more. Bentley’s Winged B is now a flat representation. The three-pointed star of Mercedes Benz is mostly flat, although there may be a pop-up version. Ornaments on lesser cars rarely attracted attention, although many were quite lovely, and some (Pontiac’s illuminated Chief) were quite clever. While seemingly superfluous I remember using them as a nice way of keeping track of where the off side of the car was in any tight situation.
Finding a Lost Cisitalia D46 Part 2
By Pete Vack
Read Part 1
As Sam Caronia and I approached the tomb of what promised to be the long lost Cisitalia D46 (oh, well, there may be more lost D46s, but nevertheless, this one was truly long lost) we wondered if it was really possible that one of the rarest and most treasured Italian race cars ever built had been hidden from sight for over 40 years, and was only one hour from VeloceToday Headquarters?
“Howard Carter and King Tut’s tomb had nothing on us..”
After talking with owner Betty Peters at her home in Suffolk, Virginia, we were led out to a corner of a very large lot. Her grandson Bruce pointed to the shed, and said, “Go, see for yourself.”