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The Saga of the Caswell BNC Part 3

November 28, 2012 By pete

The Caswell BNC Ford as it appears today, cleaned up but unrestored 'as last raced,' to quote Fred Simeone. Photo courtesy George Lymber.

Preserving History

By Eric Davison

It is hard to determine the ownership succession of a car like the BNC. We do know that Caswell bought it as a used car, after which he modified it and competed with it before it changed hands. To whom it went next is a mystery.

It was reportedly in the hands of Eric “Sonny” Grainger for a time. Grainger was the track announcer at the Islip, Long Island race track for a period and in 1955 was one of the founders of the Bridgehampton circuit.

The Brooklands windscreen with the Bridgehampton Paddock pass.

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NEC Show, Birmingham England, November 16-18, 2012

November 28, 2012 By pete

Lancia Appia Furgoncino Series 2. Supplied new on January 1, 1959 to Signor B. Caberlotto of Cornuda (TV). He used the vehicle up until 2006 for the delivery of wines and spirits to his local customers. He nicknamed the van ‘The Earl’. Caberlotto sold the van to the Appia consortium in 2010.

Photos and Captions by Jonathan Sharp

This year’s annual Footman James-sponsored NEC Classic Motor Show show at the sprawling National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham England was the largest yet. spread over 11 halls. The visitor number was also the largest ever with just shy of 58,000 attending over the three days. The show has certainly grown in size and stature since the early days at dear old Alexandra Palace in London (or as us ex locals call it Ally Pally). It is very much a show built by the attending owners clubs – everything from Alfa Romeos to Zastavas. Each year, many of the clubs try to outdo each other in their imaginative display settings. They also bring different cars each year which keeps everything fresh.
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Our Features This Week, November 21st, 2012

November 21, 2012 By pete

Looking for VeloceToday in your mailbox? Apparently a high level of holiday Internet traffic has delayed the sending out of VeloceToday. We hope there will be some relief by Friday.

The Alfa 8C2900 Experience

November 21, 2012 By pete

By Alan Yankolonis

In preparation for the 100th birthday of Alfa Romeo, the staff at the Simeone Foundation brought out the famous 8C 2900. This car is the “crème de la crème” of Alfa Romeo race cars; the 1938 8C2900B MM serial #412031 which won the 1938 Mille Miglia. Of the five original Mille Miglia cars only two remain intact and restored to the 1938 configuration (Simeone Museum & Ralph Lauren’s). There are two others that have been extensively modified with different body styles and chassis changes and look nothing like the Mille Miglia cars; the last car was the Le Mans coupe that had been reconfigured from the 1938 Mille Miglia Spider and is now in the Alfa Romeo Museum. (see Mike Sparken)

What’s nice about this author’s job at the Foundation is working on the cars. What is really great is that the Foundation’s collection focuses on sport racing cars that have two seats. In this case, one for the author and another for curator Kevin… who did the driving “chores”.

The staff at the Simeone out in the Alfas. Alan is in the 8C2300 in this shot.

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The Saga of the Caswell BNC Part 2

November 21, 2012 By pete

At left, Tony Lymber with John Gianella, who had so carefully and thankfully preserved the Caswell BNC. George Lymber photo.

A Franco-American Hybrid

By Eric Davison

No one knows how George Lymber’s BNC reached America. We do know that a legendary figure of the early days of sports car racing, Otto Linton, (who was of great help in writing these articles) was a close friend and business associate of George Caswell, who purchased the car from motorcycle dealer George Taylor sometime in the early 1940s. Since both Taylor and George Caswell have both passed along to the great racetrack in the sky, there are no details to be had about the arrival of the BNC to these shores.
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Graham Gauld: Rally round the (Deutsch) Flag

November 21, 2012 By pete

The two factory Mercedes 220SEs beside the monument on Loch Ness to the English racing driver and adventurer John Cobb, who was killed sixty years ago whilst attempting a new World Water Speed record on the loch.

By Graham Gauld

Unlike the Continent, rallies in the U.K. did not use special stages on closed roads to decide the winners; they normally used gymkhana style driving tests; in 1960 the RAC rally was going to use special stages for the first time. These were a handful in Scotland mainly using loose-surface tracks in the forests and prepared by the Forestry Commission.

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Our Features This Week, November 14th, 2012

November 14, 2012 By pete

The Saga of the Caswell BNC Part 1

November 14, 2012 By pete

French Charm seeing the light of day after forty years. Photo by George Lymber.

French Charm

By Eric Davison

Getting involved in writing about old cars is something like a disease that is incurable. The symptoms keep on recurring. Case in point: Last year I was involved in helping my friend Phillipe Defechereux with the latest edition of his book about Watkins Glen in the period from 1948 to 1952. (Watkins Glen, The Street Years. 1948 – 1952. Dalton Watson)

The intention was to try to locate some of the cars that appeared at the Glen during those years and to tell where they are today. Unfortunately I had only a few months in which to work. To do a comprehensive job would take years and would make a pretty good book all by itself.

The famous cars were easy. Just about any car that Briggs Cunningham was involved with is in the Collier Museum in Florida. Talbot Lago Figoni coupes, while rare and wonderful, are easily traced. Poison Lil is a legend all by itself. Cars like 2.9 liter blown Alfas don’t disappear; they wind up in important collections. However it was the rare, unusual and not so famous cars that aroused my curiosity.

What's that car? Number 5 is George Caswell at Waktins Glen, 1948. The modified nose would make the car hard to identify. Behind him is the MG of Dean Bedford, Jr. Both cars would finish the Junoir Grand Prix. Photo by Harold Lance.

Pininfarina in the 1970s by Mark Stehrenberger

November 14, 2012 By pete

The third and final installment of our Pininfarina series deals with the 1970s. With hindsight, we can see that today’s Ferraris….still exhibiting the very essence of Pininfarina…have features that were inherited both from the curvaceous sixties and the razor edge seventies. But we’d like your opinion…of the three decades of Pininfarina, what is your favorite and why? Comment below…

Wyss: Into the 1970s Pininfarina continued to wow the design world with unique solutions to new packaging problems. Sometimes, and very boldly so, they went way beyond what was practical, such as the incomparable Modulo, built out of Ferrari race car bits.

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Our Features This Week, November 7th, 2012

November 7, 2012 By pete

Helpful Hint: While our articles seem to vanish, they are simply archived after two weeks. There are now over 1000 articles in the VeloceToday archives. Please use the three boxes at the top of the right column to find them. Use the “Find” box by typing in a car or model, subject or author. Entries will appear in the left column. Be sure to scroll to “previous entries’ at the bottom to see more. Or search by topic or date to find even more great articles.

Below, features for the this week. For our report of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, scroll down.

Driving a Rally Legend… In 1/10th scale

November 7, 2012 By pete

By Pete Vack

Above: This is the Radio Controlled Rally Legends Fiat Abarth 131 on our driveway. It is big; over 17 inches long, almost 6 inches high and 7.5 inches wide. Not full size but you could have almost fooled us. It is fast; right out of the box these electric-powered cars will do at least 32 mph. Merry Christmas?
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Goodbye, John

November 7, 2012 By pete

Elizabeth and John Fitch celebrate a win with the Cunningham C4R. Photo John Fitch collection.

John Fitch, one of America’s greatest drivers, died on October 31st at the age of 95. Shortly after, I received two short remembrances, one from Carl Goodwin and the other from Eric Davison. I was struck by how similar both sketches were in scope and nature; both Carl and Eric captured his kindness and sincere, warm personality. John’s racing life is well known by our readers and also covered in Carl Goodwin’s book “They Started in MGs”.
Below, a side of John Fitch rarely seen from two of our finest contributors.

By Carl Goodwin

It was a great pleasure to know and work with John Fitch for the last 28 years of his life. Some of it was for magazine articles but most of it was as the volunteer publicist for his company Impact Attenuation LLC, which held and developed John’s designs for energy-absorbing safety barriers to be used in racing (www.racesafety.com).

It was not always glamorous. But all of it was interesting. In fact Fitch was the most interesting person you could ever know. If only you could have been with us.

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