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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

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A Brit in the Court of Cavallino Part 1

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Sun sets on yet another great day at Palm Beach.

In January, VeloceToday correspondent Jonathan Sharp left the comforts of home in Great Britain to enjoy the warm temperatures and blue skies of Palm Beach. He reports about what he found at and on the way to Cavallino. His notebook begins with Wednesday through Friday below, and continues with Saturday and Sunday in a further article. Please note the lack of owner’s names in all three articles; this intentional and by their request.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp


Wednesday 23rd January, Palm Beach

Hi Peter, well we made it – amazing, given the recent snow fall at home in England. We seem to have grabbed the only snow-free day to fly out. I am told that nothing is moving in my home town today and it is impossible to get to the end of my road due to the snow, but then England does not do snow very well. The weather here in Palm Beach is amazing, temperature in the mid-70s, sun and blue sky. My brain is struggling to cope with the fact that it’s January. The atmosphere is building in the town with plenty of Ferraris to be seen.

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A Brit in the Court of Cavallino Part 2

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Ferrari 250 GT Chassis 2429GT on parade.

Englander Jonathan Sharp continues his notebook and letter to VeloceToday, ever more awed by quality, presentation and rarity of the Ferraris featured at Cavallino.

Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp

Saturday, The Breakers

The WOW factor started on the walk from the Chesterfield hotel to the Breakers. A lovely, warm, bright-blue-skied morning was enlivened by the sound of two V12s running in convoy, a beautiful special-bodied 250TdF followed by the 375MM, both motoring towards the Breakers. I certainly hastened my step after seeing and hearing that!
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I Go Pro: Denise at the Ring, Part 2

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The McCluggage Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce Comfortable at Monaco. Photo copyright Denise McCluggage.

By Denise McCluggage

“I Go Pro” was written for and published by “Sports Cars Illustrated”, February, 1959 and is reprinted here with the permission of the author and artist.

ANYONE WHO HAS EVER HEARD the throb of a racing engine and knew what they were hearing has heard of the Nurburgring. And well they might. It is the giant, bearded Granddaddy of all racing circuits. And yet whatever one has heard, or been told, or has seen in photographs or in movies is misleading to the point of being completely wrong.

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ALFA TO ZECCOLI Part 2

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Zeccoli in the ‘Periscopio’ Alfa T33 prototype at the Nurburgring, 1967. (Zeccoli Archives)

Graham Gauld talks to Alfa test driver Teodoro Zeccoli

As we learned in Part 1, ATS was a recipe for disaster. It didn’t take Carlo Chiti long before he had enough. He joined forces with his friend Ludovico Chizzola in his Autosport Company, which prepared touring cars for racing. The company they formed together was Delta Auto, later changed to Autodelta. Chiti recalled the previous approach to ATS from Alfa Romeo and so contacted Giuseppe Luraghi, the Chairman of Alfa Romeo, and was offered the chance to take on the program. Chiti then resigned from ATS and took Teodoro Zeccoli with him as test driver. Zeccoli’s career took another step forward.

The Autodelta years

Racing in the wet with the Alfa Romeo TZ 2 at Monza in 1966. Teodoro Zeccoli brakes for the Parabolica. He would win his class with co-driver De Adamich. (Zeccoli Archives, Alfa Romeo)

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From the Archives: Famous Cars, 1954

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You probably know someone who keeps old newspapers; yellowed, full of mold, faded to brown at the edges and decaying with both alacrity and odor…

The headlines are usually “Pearl Harbor Bombed”, or “Kennedy Assassinated”, or “Long Live the Queen”. The ones lying about the office of VeloceToday are old and yellowed enough, but the headlines are “Famous Cars and Their Badges”. We all have our quirks.

All three pages seen at left are from “The Topper”, an English tabloid-sized comic book which was published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd and ran from 1953 to 1990. The “Famous Cars and Their Badges” page may be familiar to our British readers. These date from December 1953 and January 1954, and were shipped (literally) from England to the U.S. some fifty-six years ago.
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Ain’t French or Italian but…

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austin Healey

The Davison Lancia, the erratic Healey, and sensible transportation. Photo courtesy Eric Davison.

By Eric Davison

I couldn’t help but laugh when I read ‘Marquis of Mystery.’ Imagine, a French car that wouldn’t start: not until you blew in its ear and doused it with expensive champagne.

I can top a car that wouldn’t start. I once had an English car that would not only not start, it would not stop.
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ALFA TO ZECCOLI Part 1

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Alfa-GTA Zeccoli
Zeccoli flat out at Spa in the Alfa Romeo GTA . (Zeccoli Archives, Alfa.)

Graham Gauld talks to Teodoro Zeccoli, Alfa Romeo’s test driver and team member.

In the alphabet of the world’s racing drivers, Teodoro Zeccoli comes somewhere near the end. He is a driver we have all heard about, due to his particular exploits with Alfa Romeo, but he is more than just a young Italian who grew up wanting to be a racing driver; Zeccoli was one of the favored test drivers of Carlo Chiti. Apart from being one of Chiti’s principals at Autodelta he was also the test driver for Chiti’s Formula 1 bad-egg, the ATS.

Zeccoli was one of a group of young Italian hotshoes who came to light in the 1960s that included Spartaco Dini, Ignacio Giunti, Roberto Bussinello and Nanni Galli.

I met up with him about ten years ago at his svelte BMW dealership in Imola, within earshot of the Enzo and Dino Ferrari Circuit. Though in his seventies, the tall and elegant Zeccoli was at first perplexed that anyone should want to know about his racing, but it was clear his racing years were dear to him.

The back wall of his dealership had an array of trophies, photographs and certificates highlighting his racing career. There were diplomas from the Automobile Club of Milan naming him Italian 1600cc Sports Car Champion in 1966 (Abarth), Touring Car Champion in 1970 (Alfa Romeo) and Sports Car Champion in 1971 (Alfa Romeo) and photographs of him racing all over the world.

Born in 1929 in Lugo, near Imola, Zeccoli did not fancy joining his father in the family business – which was making saddles for motorcycles – but had a passion for racing. His first race car was a Zagato-bodied Ermini Fiat 1100TV that he ran successfully in hill climbs and races during 1957. Later he had a Fiat 8V Zagato which he bought second-hand from a local Fiat dealer, and such was his success in events that he was approached by Sig. Dei of Scuderia Centro Sud to drive an OSCA MT4 in the Grand Prix of Liberation in Havana, Cuba. This race was put on by
Castro to celebrate the overthrow of the Cuban government. Zeccoli finished 9th in the class driving a three-year-old Tipo S 1500 version of the OSCA MT4 (Chassis 1179).

Teodoro Zeccoli with his first race car, a Fiat 1100TV Ermini Zagato coupe. (Zeccoli Archives.)

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Roland Garros/Black Bess Bugatti Part 3: Ivy Cummings

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The Garros/Black Bess Bugatti crosses the Channel to a new life and legend.

By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

In its 100-year history, the Rolland Garros Bugatti had a number of significant owners, who together have accumulated an impressive amount of victories, often against competitors in more modern cars.

After the death of Roland Garros in 1918, the Bugatti became the property of Louis Coatalen, then Chief Engineer of the Sunbeam Motor Company Ltd. in Wolverhampton. During World War I he had designed the Sunbeam aircraft engines. In 1919 he was involved in the merger of Sunbeam with Talbot and Darracq to form STD Motors.

As Coatalen was born in Concarneau (Brittany) he spoke fluent French and was often in Paris. As a driver and an engineer he was greatly interested in fast and sporting cars. Sometime later –between 1919 and 1921- the Bugatti was bought by Sidney Cummings, a car dealer at Fulham Road, for his daughter Ivy.

Miss Ivy Cummings. Photo courtesy Octane.

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Roland Garros/Black Bess Bugatti Part 2: Bugatti T 18

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By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

Part 2 describes the development of the Garros Type Bugatti and the car when owned by French hero Roland Garros.

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The Development of the Bugatti “Roland Garros”
Before he set up his own company, Ettore Bugatti designed engines and chassis for various manufacturers, among them De Dietrich, Hermes, Mathis, Deutz and Peugeot. Bugatti’s own factory in Molsheim was operational in 1910 but he continued to work for others. One of these projects for Peugeot was to design racing car for the 1912 Grand Prix de l’Automobile Club de France and the Coupe de l’Auto.

The engine Bugatti developed for Peugeot was a large (around 5 liters) four-cylinder with a single overhead camshaft. One can quite well understand that Ettore drew on his experience with an earlier design he had done for Deutz, and also incorporated design features of the small engine he produced under his own label. Apart from the size of bore and stroke, the main difference was that the larger engine had three valves per cylinder (two inlet valves and one exhaust valve).

1910 Bugatti-designed Deutz had a SOHC, Bugatti's first. Note chain drive.

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