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Techno Classica Essen 2015
Reunited in the same image (and now in the same VW group), the car of the people and the car of the Kings, the VW Beetle and the Bugatti Royale.
Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
More than 190,000 visitors attended the 27th edition of Techno Classica in Essen, Germany, making it once again the biggest indoor classic car show on earth, despite the competition from the more recent Stuttgart Retro Classics show.
More than 2,500 classic cars were on sale and 1,250 exhibitors were on stage as well as 220 clubs. Of course, as we are in Germany, the offers of local dealers mainly concentrated on Porsche 356s or 911s as well as Mercedes 300 SL or 190 SL. But the demand on Italian classics remains as strong as the prices.
As ever, the local German manufacturers took the opportunity to show their heritage and every German make had special displays celebrating model or racing victory anniversaries like 30 years of the Porsche 959 and the BMW 3 series or 60 years since the Mercedes-Benz victory in the Mille Miglia.
Mercedes-Benz also focused its exhibition on aerodynamic research through the ages. But enough speeches, let’s see a selection of what was not to miss in Essen.
Based on the popular Alfa Romeo 1900, this coupé was built in 1957 by the Swiss coachbuilder Ghia-Aigle on a design by Giovanni Michelotti. Only five examples were built.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the legendary victory of Moss and Jenkinson onboard their Mercedes 300 SLR at the 1955 Mille Miglia. In perfect weather conditions, they established a record average of 97.90 mph that remained unbeaten.
VeloceToday for April 21, 2015
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Spring Arrives at Silverstone
A beautiful and rare Triumph Gloria.
By Roy P. Smith
Silverstone, April 18th 2015…Now for something different…the incredible race meeting that is the VSCC (Vintage Sports Car Club) Spring Start. Roy Smith brings us the news in pictures of just some of the hundreds of amazing vehicles to be seen in the paddock. Not just the racers, there were parking areas full of exotica. We can say no more other than just enjoy. And perhaps our readers might help us with the background of the last car in this feature.<
ERA Type R4A[/caption]
1932 Austin 7 Special
The King’s Bandini
January 1952 Motorsport cover. The Bandini powered by a 1100cc Fiat engine finished 10th at Elkhart Lake, owned by Tony Pompeo, New York. With car is Perry Fina. Photo by Bill Finn.
Story by John Wright
The neat little cycle-fendered sports car pictured here is one of a few Bandinis which were exported to the U.S.A. in the immediate post war era. Their creator, Ilario Bandini was born in Forli, Italy, and because he was mechanically inclined, set himself up as a creator of sports cars using Fiat parts only as the basis of his pretty and slinky designs in coupes, roadsters and race cars. [Read more…] about The King’s Bandini
VeloceToday for April 14, 2015
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Listen up now…VeloceToday is undergoing an upgrade as well as coming up with a new and (of course) exciting homepage. During the month of April there may not be a normally scheduled Tuesday edition of VeloceToday. Do not fear if you don’t get your weekly fix or if you see glitches on the homepage.
We are on it.
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Cisitalia Ford
The unusual Cisi Ford..no match for the classic 202. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.
By Brandes Elitch
A few years ago, the organizers of the Pebble Beach concours, in an effort to dispel the image of the entrants as so called trailer queens, initiated a drive for the entrants around the Monterey Peninsula.
In the event of a tie in class, the car that has completed the drive gets the nod in the judging. As part of this procession, the cars are parked in downtown Carmel for a few hours in the middle of the day, and in the middle of the street, for everyone to see. As I was threading my way through them, I saw something I had never seen before. It was obviously an early fifties car, obviously Italian, and the script said “Cisitalia.” I approached the owner, Urs Jakob, and said, “I’ve never seen a Cisitalia this big before,” he replied. “This isn’t a Cisitalia; it’s a Ford!” Boy, was that a shock.
Interior is similar to the early Corvettes. Photo by Brandes Elitch.
He went on to explain that in the early 1950’s, Ford was considering the idea of what we now call a personal luxury car, which later became, of course, the two-seater Thunderbird. Keep in mind that, unlike GM and Chrysler, up until then, Ford did not really have any dream cars except the three cars made for Edsel Ford for his own personal use, which were never displayed for the public to see. In the early 1950s, Ford commissioned the building of six prototypes: two were bodied by Ghia, and four by Vignale, including Mr. Jakob’s car. Ford shipped 6 stock Ford chassis to Vignale; this particular car had a straight six, some of the others had the V-8. The current owner told me that he owns two of the cars, and he is hot on the trail of a third.
VeloceToday for April 7, 2015
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Listen up now…VeloceToday is undergoing an upgrade as well as coming up with a new and (of course) exciting homepage. During the month of April there may not be a normally scheduled Tuesday edition of VeloceToday. Do not fear if you don’t get your weekly fix. We’ll be back bigger than ever.
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FOR SALE! Style Auto duplicates: Numbers available are:
1,2,4,5,8,9,10,12,13,14,17,21,22,24,25,26,27,30,31,32,33,36,37. Most have English text, (4,14,27,33 are in Italian.) 1, 2 printed in (IT/EN). 1,2,27 are hard cover. Nice condition, #1 has a few loose pages but is complete; dust jacket on 2 70% complete. £495 GBP/$750 plus shipping Contact:willgrant@yahoo.co.uk
*$25 Ads for anyone who has something to sell, to giveaway, or to holler about. Ad will be placed above the fold and run for one month. Contact vack@cox.net .
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Three Moretti Gran Sports
Above: Posing with the Harry Jones Moretti are (left-to-right) Viola Jones, Pat McAfee (then wife of Jack McAfee), and Vi’s husband Harry Jones. Santa Barbara paddock, September 1954. Photo: John Edgar, Edgar Motorsport Archive
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By Pete Vack
From the Archives of VeloceToday
Thanks to Peter Vanlaw, William Edgar, Alex Vazeos, Rex McAfee, Cliff Reuter, John de Boer, Karl Ludvigsen and Cindy Meitle.
Road & Track, August 1954. The color photo is by photographer and journalist Bob Rolofson; the car, a Moretti Gran Sport—the archetypical “Baby Ferrari”. No doubt many more people saw this photo than would ever lay eyes on the actual car itself; few subjected to the cover photo or the reality would likely soon forget the sight. Even today, the car stirs the imagination.
There might be ten or twenty of these 748cc Michelotti-designed “Gran Sport” Morettis around. John de Boer lists ten known berlinettas (Gran Sport) but emphatically states that the list is far from complete and is constantly updated and there may well be only eight in existence today. Two are very well known and have clear provenances… chassis 1293s (ex-Ludvigsen) and 1294s (now owned by Alex Vazeos), and a third the Road & Track cover car, is featured here for the first time in competition.
Saving the Gran Sports
Karl Ludvigsen at the Mille Miglia in 1998 with Moretti GS#1293s. He found, restored and cared for the car for twenty years before selling it to Larry Auriana in 1998.
The Three Musketeers Part 3
A 1949 Pourtout Delahaye is now part of the Louwman collection in The Hague Netherlands. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.
By Gijsbert-Paul Berk
Of our Three Musketeers, only two survived the war. But despite all odds, both Pourtout and Darl’mat continued to create interesting designs well into the 1950s.
Georges Paulin and the Resistance
While it was sad that the Rolls-Royce Paulin Corniche was destroyed at Dieppe, even more tragic is the fact that Georges Paulin did not survive the war. After Hitler’s troops marched into Paris, Paulin joined the French resistance group Albi, which supplied information to British Intelligence. He produced drawings of German installations and armament and transmitted information using a clandestine radio transmitter. Sadly the activities of the Albi cell were betrayed by people working within the Vichy government for the Deuxième Bureau (the French Military Intelligence Service) to the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Service). Georges Paulin, Jacques Kellner, a famous Parisian carrossier and president of the French Coachbuilders Association and Roger Raven, a friend of Paulin who worked at Carrosserie Pourtout and was also part of the Albi resistance group, were arrested and sentenced to death by a German Military Tribunal. Paulin was nearly 40 years old; when on 21 March 1942 he was executed by a firing squad at the fortress of Mount Valérien. In 1944 the government of Charles de Gaulle posthumously awarded Georges Paulin the Medaulle Militaire et Citation à l’Ordre de l’Armée.
Pourtout in the post-war era
During the occupation Carrosserie Pourtout was confiscated by the Germans, who used its workshops and painting facilities to repair army vehicles. When the American troops and the 2nd Armored Division of the Free French army under Général Leclerc advanced to liberate Paris, the retreating German army badly damaged and plundered the buildings. Nearly all the equipment had disappeared.
Because of their reputation with series production Carrosserie Pourtout was commissioned by the French importer of the American Graham-Page cars to convert a number of their ’Sharknose’ business coupés into elegant cabriolets. According to Claude Pourtout a few of these cars were re-exported to the US.
Fiat’s X1/9: The 1300 and 1500 Street Cars
By Roberto Motta
Photos by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles press archive and GGRM archive
Read the history of the X1/9 Prototipos
Read X1/9 Prototipos Today
Characterized by taut lines, and equipped with the engine and various mechanical components taken from the 128 sedan, the Fiat X1/9 was, and remains, a dream car.
The “X1/9” was part of a design series designation that began with the Fiat 128, which was the “X1/1”. The X1/9 was the first ‘Targa’ car produced by FIAT and Bertone.
From the 1965 to 1968, with the Bertone’s help, Fiat produced a low-priced sports car, the 850 Spider.
In the past, it was been a normal Fiat practice to realize an highly-tuned Spider versions of its standard sedans; for example the 1100 TV (in the mid 1950s), the 1200 and 1500 Roadster (in the early 1960s) or, from 1969, the 124 Spider. During the 1965, with the Bertone’s help, Fiat produced also a low-priced car, the little 850 Spider. This Spider was a great commercial success, helping cement the relationship between Bertone and Fiat.
[Read more…] about Fiat’s X1/9: The 1300 and 1500 Street Cars
VeloceToday for March 31, 2015
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FOR SALE! Style Auto duplicates: Numbers available are:
1,2,4,5,8,9,10,12,13,14,17,21,22,24,25,26,27,30,31,32,33,36,37. Most have English text, (4,14,27,33 are in Italian.) 1, 2 printed in (IT/EN). 1,2,27 are hard cover. Nice condition, #1 has a few loose pages but is complete; dust jacket on 2 70% complete. £495 GBP/$750 plus shipping Contact:willgrant@yahoo.co.uk
*$25 Ads for anyone who has something to sell, to giveaway, or to holler about. Ad will be placed above the fold and run for one month. Contact vack@cox.net .
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