The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
The winner of November’s Dalton Watson book drawing is Premium Subscriber Peter McFadyen.Congratulations!
Coming to Retromobile: This Isotta Fraschini 8A once owned by Rajah Sajid Hussein of Kotwara and Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant, is part of a special exhibition of the cars of the Maharajas. Get your tickets now.
An OM 665 on the ramp at the Mille Miglia. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.
By Pete Vack
Note: Black and white photos are from the new book “O.M. The men, the cars, the races” and are typical of the oustanding and rare photographs presented in the book. Click to enlarge and our thanks to Fondazione Negri for permissions.
A two o’clock in the morning, Giovanni Canestrini was awakened by the sound of someone calling his name. Going to the window, he saw four figures in the courtyard below gesturing to Canestrini to let them in, for it was cold in December in Milan. The four – Count Aymo Maggi, Count Franco Mazzotti, Renzo Castagneto, and Flaminio Monti – wanted to talk, and Canestrini knew about what.
No sooner had he invited the foursome inside than they began the familiar complaint…Brescia needed to regain its place as the center of motorsports, lost to the nearby city of Milan when the new Monza Autodrome was constructed in 1922. And they presented another scenario; Italy’s car manufacturers were no longer building race cars. Bugatti dealer and racer Aymo Maggi well knew that if one wanted to buy a car to race, it seemed the only choice was to buy a T35 from Bugatti. Something needed to be done. If a successful cross-country race were launched, it would encourage the manufacturer to enter, and build Italian cars like the Bugatti. Automotive journalist Canestrini, of course, we help to promote the event. It would be good for the state, the roads, the people, communications, and of course improve the breed.
Le Mans, 1923: Ford's first attempt to conquer the 24 hour race.
VeloceToday’s latest Select Folio is hot off the press. Because the subject matter is relatively unknown, immensely interesting and concerns both the U.S., France, Le Mans, and Grand Prix racing, the story of the Montier Fords was clearly a great topic for a Select Folio. Below, Chris Martin tells us a little about the Montiers, but to get the rest of the story, you’ll have to read the Folio; unlike our earlier Select series, this one is not in the electronic VeloceToday.
By Chris Martin
First Fords at Le Mans
Most of us tend to think that Fords did not play much of a part at Le Mans until the early 1960s. But that does not appear to be the case. Charles Montier, a French Ford dealer, (called “Le Sorcier” by the locals long before Gordini) entered the famous endurance race in 1923, 1924 and 1925. Few people even realize that a Model T Ford not only raced in that grueling event (won by a Chenard Walcker) but finished in 14th place in the first ever 24 hours of Le Mans. But the Montier-Fords were just getting a start; amazingly, by the 1930s Montier-Fords would participate in a number of Grand Prix events, racing against Alfa Romeo, Mercedes Benz and Bugatti.
[Read more…] about Charles Montier’s French Racing Fords
This week’s VT on Tuesday
A full edition of VeloceToday will be sent on Tuesday, December 10th. If the response is favorable, we’ll publish on Tuesdays instead of Thursdays.
Winner on Tuesday
We will announce the winner of the Maserati “Birdcage to Supercage” drawing on Tuesday. If you are a Premium Subscriber and would like to put your name in the hat, you have until tomorrow, December 6th to do so. If not a Premium Subscriber, sign up below.
New VeloceToday Select, Order Tuesday
Did you know that Henry Ford’s famous Tin Lizzie raced at Le Mans?
Di you know that there was a Grand Prix Ford that raced against the Alfas and Bugattis?
Don’t feel bad, neither did we until Chris Martin introduced us to Charles Montier and family. This exciting story has never before been told in any detail in English. Martin describes how two generations of the French Montier family raced Fords with passion and success from 1921 to 1935. We proudly present Montier’s French Racing Fords as the third in our series of VeloceToday Select Folios available for orders next week. Only $20 with FREE shipping. For more about this new line of publications, click here or ask me at vack@cox.net.
Coming up on Tuesday
We won’t say. Yes, we know what’s coming, but it is more fun to be surprised every week. While you are waiting please, give in the spirit of the holiday season and become a Premium Subscriber. Click on the Lancia below to sign up today.
We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving..even if it doesn’t happen in your part of the world!
By David Beare
From the VeloceToday Archives, November 2013
It is unlikely that Louis Delagarde, the designer of Panhard’s flat-twin engine, could have foreseen the scale of competition successes his diminutive power-unit would achieve when he began work at his drawing-board during the dark days of World War II.
Retro on retro.
Fiat Innovates at LA Auto Show
By Richard Bartholomew
Photos by Wallace Wyss
At the LA Auto Show, Fiat had a large display, and showed signs of continuing to offer models that will appeal to those nostalgic for the “good old days” of Fiat. For instance, they came out with what is called the 500 1957 edition, copying the colors of the ’57 model imported to America. Of course back then it just had a two-cylinder city car but still was a worldwide hit, Autoweek saying 3,893,294 were built before production ended in 1975. [Read more…] about New Fiats at the L.A. Auto Show
The Bonetto Alfa Romeo as rebodied by Vignale in 1951. It disappeared in 1955. Photo from ‘Alfa Romeo Milano.
This article is from the VeloceToday archives, November 21, 2103
By Pete Vack and Dino Brunori
Perhaps the mystery of the missing Alfa Romeo 412 began back in 1975 with the publication of the photo book, Alfa Romeo Milano. British journalist Michael Frostick captioned a picture of Felice Bonetto’s special-bodied Alfa Romeo thusly:
Something of a mystery. The Alfa Romeo files say “16 cylinder 4500 Mille Miglia 1954 (Bonetto).” One can only assume a car was made up with a bored-out version of the Type 162, 3 liter, 16-cylinder car, or more likely, someone has made a mistake somewhere!
Indeed there was a mystery and a mistake, as Alfa 2.9 sleuth Simon Moore realized. The Bonetto car was fairly well documented in a variety of contemporary magazines as one of the four 1939 V12 (not a V16) Tipo 412 Alfas, rebodied post war by Bonetto via Vignale. The serial number was 412151, and after it was retired from competition in 1952, it was offered to Henry Wessells III for $3200 by Franco Cortese in 1954. Henry missed the deal and the car reportedly went to Spain. But by 1955 there was no trace of the car. It had seemingly disappeared, as old race cars are wont to do.
Tracing the engine
Although the Bonetto car was not specifically an Alfa 2.9, it nonetheless was part of the family and of great interest to Alfa historian Moore. By the time Moore wrote the second edition of his landmark book The Immortal 2.9 in 2008, he was on the trail of the remains of the car and the engine, but couldn’t quite pull it all together. The rare Alfa V12 engine provided the clue. It was known that the 412 engine was in the possession of Roberta Nardi, daughter of car builder Enrico Nardi. Enter Simon Kidston, working for Brooks Auctions. In mid-March of 1996, Kidston recalled for Moore, “I was contacted by Gino Macaluso, the owner of the Girard-Perregaux watch company. Roberta Nardi, whose father Enrico had left her an old Alfa Romeo engine which was languishing in the basement of her home near Turin.” Kidston recalls that Roberta didn’t know which car it had come from, but she wanted to sell it. Kidston put it up for auction in 1998, and it went to Lawrence Auriana from New York. Moore put the information in his 2008 revised edition, but the whereabouts of the body and chassis remained a mystery. [Read more…] about A Nardi, an Alfa, a Mystery
'Of course I drive a car. What makes you think I don't drive a car?' Copyright Stan Mott.
Last week the owner of the Delage-Bequet described driving his aero-engined Grand Prix car; this week the Brooklands Museum Director, Allan Winn, takes us on a spin with the Napier W12-engined Railton, the car which conquered Brooklands for all time. We think you’ll find his words more informative and interesting than the videos, found at the end of the article. Our thanks to both for these exclusive stories Also, thanks to Paul Stewart, Brooklands Museum Marketing and PR Manager, and VeloceToday’s Jonathan Sharp
Driving Impressions by Allan Winn, Brooklands Museum Director
First off, the Napier-Railton is an enormously powerful, iconic machine. However, the overwhelming impression you have from driving it on a regular basis is how benign and user-friendly it is. That’s not to say it is an easy car to start or drive, but it is an extraordinary, well-behaved machine.
Starting
Starting the Napier requires concentration. There is nothing like a choke. The first thing you have to do is to turn the fuel on, then pump the Ki-Gas about eight times, which squirts neat fuel into the inlet manifolds. There is an enormously long distance from the triple carb throats to the rearmost pistons. Then, you need to lock the Ki-gas pump on the dashboard so the handle does not come loose.
Allan Winn tells the story of the Napier-Railton for the cameras. Photo by Jonathan Sharp.
Then it’s a case of rocking the car to get it into first gear on the three-speed gearbox, switching on the two magnetos (with what looks a lot like a Victorian electrical house switch), then releasing the fly-off handbrake and getting up to four people to push furiously up to a walking pace. Finally, drop the clutch – after alerting the pushers – and it will fire on the first or second compression.
As soon as it picks up to 12 cylinders, you knock it into neutral, then stop and check that the oil pressure is up to 65 psi and that you haven’t had a spitback through the carbs and you don’t have a fire burning in the inlets. (If it did, any fire should get sucked right back into the carbs and you wouldn’t have a problem.)
It takes a long time to warm up 15 gallons of oil. Photo by Jonathan Sharp.
Warm up procedure
One must bear in mind that the “broad arrow” Lion W12 is huge, and requires 52 liters of coolant and around 15 gallons (not quarts) of Castrol GP 50. Warming up means bringing the coolant up to about 70 degrees C which can take up to ten minutes. We run it at about 1,000 rpm for first couple of minutes then bring it up to 1,100-1,200 rpm to hasten the process. We are using a waterless vintage coolant which has very good non-corrosive and wetting qualities and keeps the car running much cooler than it did on a water/antifreeze mix. In normal running it’s extremely difficult to get any reading at all on the oil temp gauge.
The Napier W-12.
George Harrison's Dino 246 GTS. George purchased the car in the early 1970s from Rodney Turner. George owned the car for 4 years
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Variety is very important when running a very well-established show. This year’s Classic Car show at the NEC in Birmingham was the 30th running and was probably the largest yet, with over 65,000 people attending over the three days, and the hundreds of cars and bikes being spread out over 11 halls. As the show attracts mainly car clubs as well as exhibitors, amazingly, each year the clubs bring out more cars you hardly ever see, if at all. And while perhaps this year’s content was a bit down on exotics, it certainly made up for it with rare, offbeat, and unusual items.
When was the last time you cast eyes on a Renault 30 from the early 80s, a Lancia Trevi, or a Fiat Uno Selecta? (By the way, the Fiat Uno also celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.) Another nice feature of the show is the grouping of the cars; the Italian car clubs are together in one area, the French cars together in another area. You only need to find the appropriate hall and see cars that are of particular interest to you; no need to trudge around 11 halls to find them all. But that would be a shame, because if variety is important, you may just miss something that you had never seen before, even if it was out of your normal sphere of interest.
The Beatles car display added interest, but the display area for the four cars was very small, which is why my shots do not show the whole car; too many ropes in the way. They did however, paint what we in the UK call a “Zebra Crossing” leading up to the display area, similar to the famous Abbey Road Album cover.
John Lennon's Iso Fidia. It is believed that John owned three Fidias during his lifetime. This was number two. The car was originally silver with a blue leather interior.
Paul McCartney's Aston Martin DB6.
Mott on Manney. Graham Gauld’s article last week on Henry Manney III elicited a special email from the talented artist Stan Mott, who also worked with Manney. Mott is responsible for the humorous and imaginative Cyclops and Pignatelli (art) that appeared in Road & Track and Sports Cars Illustrated. He drew this impression of Manney back in the days when journalists were journalists. It is too small to be appreciated above, so simply click on the artwork and it will appear much larger so that you can read the cartoon’s wording, which you’ll no doubt find hilarious. Published with permission of Stan Mott.
