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Via Flaminia Pre-War Tour, May 26th to June 1st

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The Via Flaminia Tour in 2011 was a great success, and the winner in a 1937 Citroën Traction are Ruud and Miriam Wesselink. They won the Bulova watch and the challenge cup. This year the Via Flaminia Pre War will start in Trieste. After 1200 kilometers and the legendary passes through the Dolomites the rally will end in the historic centre of Udine. This delightlfully cozy rally has only 25 entry positions so be quick to grab the last entry. Service team, baggage car and film/photo crew included. Only € 2.990,- for a great week of motoring fun. The formula for success remains much the same. A daily drive of about 170 km, a light competitive element but most of all plenty of enjoyable scenery and accommodations. Transport from Dusseldorf by car train.

For all inquiries contact Bart Kleyn at 0031 6 242 343 45 or b.kleyn@via-flaminia.com. For more information visit Via-Flaminia.com.

Ollon Villars 1958: AC Zagato, Lotus Ghia-Aigle

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Graham Gauld finds oddities at the 1958 Ollon Villars Hillclimb

Clearly the readers of VeloceToday have enquiring minds. They appear to warm to the oddities of this world and no doubt in future months the odd oddity will make its way into my features. Just to give you a warm up I want to take you back to 1958 when Brazil won the world soccer cup and Mike Hawthorn became the first Englishman to win the World Formula 1 drivers championship.

I had decided to return to Modena to see what was happening since last I had been there, but I was stuck as I did not have a car – even though I was sports editor of an automobile magazine. The fact that a friend loaned me his Heinkel three-wheel “bubble car” and I drove it from Scotland to Modena and back…including over the Alpine passes…is another story but we were tough back then as well as stupid! However, on the way to Modena I planned to go to the European Hill Climb Championship event at the Ollon-Villars Hill Climb near Lake Geneva.

Hans Herrmann on the line at Ollon-Villars with the Borgward 1500. Note Wolfgang von Trips looking at him behind the car with von Trips’ RSK lined up behind. The red and white car is Albert Leuenberger’s Lotus II-Maserati with a 1500cc engine.

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Gordini Transporter

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By Roy Smith, historical images copyright Bob Dance

Our lead photo is of the Gordini Transporter Recreation, based on a Laffly chassis and it is actually a race car transporter, not a support truck. Sadly, the original vehicle, based on a Lancia 3RO 6.8 liter, no longer exists as we are given to understand, though many stories abound.

We thought it might be interesting to recall some of the highlights or maybe lowlights of one of the most recognisable racing car support vehicles to grace the paddocks of Europe’s racing circuits in the 1950s. [Read more…] about Gordini Transporter

Ferrari Transporters

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By Pete Vack, Roy Smith and Graham Gauld

As you recall, Marshall Buck reviewed the superb 1/18 scale Ferrari Transporter last December. But recently we came across some other information about the Fiat Bartolettis shared by Ferrari and Maserati, with the help of Roy Smith and Graham Gauld. Combine that with some new images of the “Old Car” 1/43 Ferrari Transporter yours truly dug up out of the past and poof, out comes this article.

The Editor should also mention that Graham’s Maserati transporter photo will be used in his new book on Maserati to be published later this year. French-wise, later, in another article, Roy Smith will tell us a little about the Gordini transporter, the full story of which will appear in his Gordini book, also to be published later on this year.

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Our Features This Week, April 18th, 2012

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We are back, just in time to help celebrate Bill Milliken’s birthday. Last week, many asked us where the new stories were in VeloceToday. We were on an all-too short break, but it also serves to remind us that if our readers don’t either contribute or become a Premium Subscriber, VeloceToday will not be there at all. We need your help to continue to bring you these aticles each week!

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The Milliken Bugatti T35A

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There is much more to the Milliken Bugatti Type 35A than just an incident at Watkins Glen.

By Pete Vack

According to Bill Milliken, the acquisition of his first sports car was simply elementary. While visiting New York City in 1946, he happened upon a shiny black MGTB, asked the owner if he’d like to sell, wired home for the $1500 necessary to title it in his name and drove it up to Albany.

At a time when the average price of a new American car was about $1200, the TB was a bit pricey, being a 1940 model and right hand drive. It was very similar to the later TC, with the same snazzy wire wheels, upright chromed radiator grille, and the same 54 hp engine, but only 379 TBs were made before the War stopped production at Abingdon.

Milliken was in seventh heaven; his previous transportation was a secondhand Chevy that was “…little more exciting than a grocery cart.” His thoughts of the early Duesenbergs and Millers of his boyhood returned to him and he found himself in a “machine that turned on all my senses and made driving a delightful experience….my childhood euphoria of driving had returned, and I was to never lose it.”
[Read more…] about The Milliken Bugatti T35A

La Jolla Concours

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Story and photos by John Wiley

Now in its 8th year, the La Jolla Concours d’Elegance returned to the theme of the first show by featuring Italian cars for the 2012 event, held on April 1st. Held in Scripps Park which draws its name from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the ocean front location provided a beautiful backdrop for a variety of Italy’s automotive creations. The weekend featured activities in and around La Jolla starting with a book signing Friday evening, a tour Saturday, a party Saturday night in Scripps Park, and the concours on Sunday.

Maserati-A6G-2000

The 1956 Maserati A6G-2000 Allemano s/n 2125 owned by Jonathan Segal, was awarded Reserve Best in Show next to the Best in Show 1925 Hispano-Suiza H6B Kellner Landaulet. The Maserati also collected Most Elegant Post War Car. Residing in Italy most of its life, s/n 2125 came to the U.S. in 2007 and was recently refinished in the correct original color. Before appearing at La Jolla, the car won Best in Class at Pebble Beach in 2011.

Lamborghini

Malcolm Barksdale’s1966 Lamborghini 350 GT Touring participated in Saturday’s tour and won its class for Italian Sports 1966 – 1985. Found in a small body shop in Marseille France, the car had sat for 25 years while it was debated how best to repair a small dent in the nose of the aluminum Touring Superleggera body. Restored by the Bobileff Motorcar Company of San Diego, the 350 GT now gets exercised regularly on driving events and shown in concours.

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Don’t Forget Enter The Drawing For “Inside the Paddock”

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CELEBRATING TEN YEARS OF VELOCETODAY!

Please help VeloceToday celebrate ten years of publishing weekly articles on your favorite cars by your favorite authors! Here’s a few ways you can keep VeloceToday coming your way.

Tell a friend about VeloceToday. If everyone just asked on person to subscribe for free and we’d double our subscriber numbers (which our advertisers would appreciate).
If you haven’t joined our Premium Subscription, PLEASE DO, so we can afford to keep our contributors like Graham Gauld, Michael Lynch, Roberto Motta and all of our other great writers and photographers!

Sign up for our Premium Subscription now to get a chance to win the hot, and hot off the press “Inside the Paddock”. We’ve extended the deadline to May 1st to enter the contest for this fascinating book on race car tranporters! To enter, send your name and address to vack@cox.net.
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Can You Help With Information About Dubonnet?

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Gijsbert-Paul Berk, who wrote the biography of the French engineer André Lefebvre and the cars he created at Voisin and Citroën, is now preparing a new book. (Read our review)

The new book will be about André Dubonnet (1897-1980), another Frenchman who devoted his life to automobiles.

To complete his research Gijsbert wishes to contact Dubonnet’s family and / or descendants. Some of them could live in the USA. Because André Dubonnet’s second wife, Mrs. Xenia Howard Johnston (they were married on 9 march 1932, in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris, France) and his last wife Mrs. Elise Curtis (they were married on 28 June 1966, in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris, France) were both American.

André Dubonnet flew in WWI a Hispano-Suiza powered SPAD S.VII fighter plane, and was part of the famous Escadron des ‘Cigognes’ (Storks). During the early twenties he raced quite successfully with Hispano-Suizas, Bugattis and Duesenberg. Later he became inventor and entrepreneur and was actively involved in the concepts of a number of rather fascinating prototype cars.Together with the French engineer Gustave Emile Chédru he developed the suspension system (covered by US Patent No. 2,054,063, filed on March 8, 1933), that was used from 1934 to 1939 by General Motors for the independent front suspension of their Chevrolet cars. He also sold the manufacturing rights of the Dubonnet suspension to Fiat, Simca and Alfa Romeo.
Between 1938 and 1944 Dubonnet created the impressive Hispano-Suiza engined and Saoutchik bodied Xenia II streamline coupé (with Dubonnet independent suspension on all four wheels). It is now part of the collection in the Mullin Automotive Museum at Oxnard, California.

If you can be of any help to Mr. Gijsbert-Paul Berk, please contact me at vack@cox.net. I will forward all correspondence.

Phillip Island Classic 2012, Australia

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Ferrari-500-F1

1952 Ferrari Tipo 500 Rick Hall, Turn 6 Phillip Island.

Story and Photos by Vince Johnson

It has been sixty years since Alberto Ascari won not only his first Formula 1 World Championship, but Ferrari’s as well. It was fitting that the car which gave him nine straight victories during 1952-53 should fire up in Australia a week before the start of the 2012 F1 season. This was not the first time this car had run down under.

After earning Ascari his second championship, chassis number 5 (0480) was sold to Australia’s first F1 driver, ex-WW2 Spitfire Squadron Leader Tony Gaze. Gaze’s debut in the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa on 22 June had also been the first outing for this very car. The factory fitted it with a new 3-liter 750 Monza engine for Gaze and it won races in South Africa and New Zealand. In 1956 Gaze sold it to Australian Lex Davison. The Ferrari continued its winning ways with six major victories, including consecutive Australian Grand Prix successes in 1957-58 before leaving Australia in the 60’s. Its return after five decades created a hive of interest in the pits and on the track at this year’s Phillip Island Classic held in March.

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