VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

pete

Fiat 1100 Geburth

By

By Pete Vack and Alex Vazeos
Geburth Fiat Photos courtesy of Alex Vazeos

What about sending an Italian chassis out of Italy to have coachwork built? The normal direction would be to send your chassis to Italy where it would be given a fine set of new clothes by one of the famous carrozzerias that dotted the landscape in the 50s and 60s. It would be unique, well done, inexpensive and probably beautiful. A criss-cross, then, would involve having a chassis made in Italy bodied in some country not particularly known for automobiles and automobile design like Austria.

Italian chassis have been sent outward of their native land to be bodied and re-bodied for years, for example many pre-war Alfa Romeos were sent to the UK and bodied by James Young, Ranalah, or even more obscure firms such as Thornton. There was even a Ferrari 166 bodied by Abbot which did not last too long before being re-bodied again; another example was the couple of early Ferraris bodied by the Swiss firm of Ghia Aigle.

But still, such attempts go against the tide and in many cases were not very successful. Recently another such effort was uncovered in Austria, and therein lies our story…and as our resident car collector, Alex Vazeos, was quick to point out, “There couldn’t have been so many Austrian bodied Fiat 1100’s around so it might be worth a story”. We agreed.

The Fiat 508C
Fiat-508C

The Fiat in question was a 1938 model, a simple 1089cc 508C four-door sedan, officially still called a “Balilla”, but the name was fading by then. The 508C was one of the most popular and successful Fiats to date, and over 250,000 were built between 1937 and 1939.

This 508C found its way to Austria, but the first ten years of its life are unknown, probably due to the war. It re-surfaced in November of 1948, when a Carl Rainer Harbach duly registered the car in the town of Pörtschach, famous for Johannes Brahms, who worked on his second symphony while staying in the tiny town, about 125Km from Venice. The next year it made its way to a new owner and location in Wein, a suburb of Vienna. After changing hands a few more times, on April 23 1955, it became the property of Dr. Oskar Göhring, the owner of a Heating-A/C firm by the name of Geburth-Kühlanlagen. Little did it know that it would be transformed, given a new life, and unlike most of the other 250,000 examples of 508Cs, be saved for posterity.

This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.
LoginSubscribe

Graham Gauld Remembers Jim Clark

By

Jim Clark deep in thought: Note the chewed finger nails.

By Graham Gauld

Had he lived, Jim Clark would have been 76 years of age on March 4th. This thought came into my head because someone sent me an email about Jim and the early days, before he came into Formula 1. Suddenly I realized that I had never written an article about Jim Clark in the past twenty years – partly because I had said it all in the three different editions of my biography of him and felt there was nothing more to say. Then I thought again. In twenty years a new generation has sprung up and at the same time my Clark books are now nearly 20 years out of print – so you can only find one on EBay or the like.

Jim Clark had great skill even in his earliest events like here at Leith Fort in Edinburgh with his Sunbeam Talbot sedan.

I thought a few notes and stories about his early days may not go amiss, if only to give a new generation an idea of what motivates and makes a racing driver.

This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.
LoginSubscribe

Italians at Carnevale, South Australia

By

Clive Bennett and Andrew & Marlene Scadding's Alfetta.

Story and Photos by Vince Johnson

South Australians have been treated to a showcase of Italian culture, tradition and style at Carnevale time for the last 36 years. The food, fashion and music festival at the Adelaide Showgrounds in February brings out the best in Italian style, nowhere more so than in the car and motorcycle displays. Single-make clubs included Alfa Romeo, Ducati, Ferrari and Fiat 500. The Scuderia Italian Car Club presented a colourful selection of several makes and local distributor Prestige Formula had new examples of Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Maserati on show.
[Read more…] about Italians at Carnevale, South Australia

Le Mitiche Loses Their Captain

By

For many of us, Danilo Calmonte is ‘the captain’ of Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano. It is difficult to write ‘was’. Every barchetta aficionado knows about the fantastic event he and his brother Renato created about 20 years ago; participating in Le Mitiche at least once means that one is a real sports car enthusiast.

For the last ten years Danilo was fighting for his life against cancer, but only a few knew it. On February 23, 2012 Danilo lost his battle against lung cancer.

When he was young, Maserati stole his heart. In his collection sits a real jewel, a Maserati A6GCS 1954, the sole Maserati bodied by Scaglietti. Danilo used it regularly, attending all sorts of events, from the Mille Miglia to less known country fairs, always eager to meet people that share the same passion. That passion also brought him to manage his own F3 team in the 1970s, and to finance the career of Miki Biasion, (two time World Rally Champion with Lancia) as he started his profession.

Well, no more phone calls every week to talk about cars, friends, people and what to do for the next Mitiche. I’m gonna miss you, captain. And I’m sure not to be the only one.

Dino Brunori

More Reasons to Subscribe to Our Premium Service

By

Below are only a few of the many subjects of our Premium articles available only to our Premium Subscribers. Please help support VeloceToday and our contributors by becoming a Premium Subscriber at one of three levels; $9.95 for one month, $7.95 per month for six months, or the best bet, $4.95 per month for one year ($59.40). Use the mediapass form found with each article to subscribe. If you need help, just email us at vack@cox.net.


Fast Ladies
Left, Miss Betty Haig and Mme Yvonne Simon, tuning their 2 liter Ferrari 166MM: one of many unpublished images from the book “Fast Ladies”. Dr. Patricia Lee Yongue not only describes this book but tells us about the lesser known women drivers featured in “Fast Ladies.”


Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano
What is Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano? Roughly, it means “Mythic Sport Cars in Bassano”. Bassano is more correctly Bassano del Grappa, and Grappa is a Brandy. It’s nice to have both an entrant and an organizer write the story of this delicious event in Italy. Only VeloceToday covers this wonderful event every year.


An Atlantic Reappears
Much of the breathless reportage in the business and popular press of the recent sale of a Type 57SC Bugatti Atlantic focused on its price and the supposed fact that there were only two — some said three – Atlantics built. So what’s the real deal?
Michael T. Lynch at his very best…only in VeloceToday


Beauty, Interrupted
The DeTomaso Mangusta is one of the most beautiful cars ever to come out of Italy. But it does have its problems, and we tell it like it is. This article really got our readers up in arms, both pro and con. The comments alone are worth the price of admission. By WallaceWyss

Subscribe Today!

Frank Bott: OSCA Driver

By

Frank Bott sails over the start/finish line as Nil Mickelson waves the checkered flag. Frank has just won the Queen Catharine Cup at the 1954 Watkins Glen race. Photo by Alix Lafontant.

There was a driver from Chicago, not as well known as he should have been. But long before Kimi Räikkönen, they called him the “Ice Man” – for he was as cool as could be out on the track. Racing driver Frank Bott died November 25th, 2011 and we followed the rumors until we confirmed it recently. He was born on August 25th 1921. He was one of the sport’s more under-rated drivers.

During World War II, Frank was an air transport pilot. Afterward he worked as a service mechanic at the Mercedes-Benz distributorship of importer Max Hoffman.

Bott at Bridgehampton in 1952, where he won the Mecos Trophy with his OSCA S/N 1112. Photo credit Bill Harkins.

In the immediate postwar years, Frank became interested in circle track racing and then moved on to sports cars. He knew TV personality Dave Garroway through the Chicago Region of Sports Car Club of America. Garroway had an early Jaguar, an SS 100, and he wanted a little more performance for it. So Frank installed a twin-cam XK 120 engine. Garroway was going to race it at Elkhart Lake in 1951 but was called back to New York for contract renewals. Frank said “I’ll put it back in storage then.” And Dave replied “Oh no, Frank, you race it.” Frank placed second ahead of all the XK-120s except that of Roger Wing. [Read more…] about Frank Bott: OSCA Driver

Shampooing a Lion: Ludvigsen on His Tatra T87

By

My Tatra T87 behind my house in Pelham Manor, New York. I later sold the car to Clive Cussler.

Story and Photos by Karl Ludvigsen

Journalist Gordon Wilkins said that ‘although it has an impressive performance, it produces in the driver the uneasy exhilaration which may be got from shampooing a lion.’ Consumer advocate Ralph Nader called it the only car that was more dangerous than the much — oft unjustly — maligned Corvair. The German Army was said to have barred its officers from driving it, lest their numbers be diminished even more rapidly than World War II was already managing.

How are we to judge these harsh estimations of the Type 87 Tatra? I found a good assessment to be 14 years of ownership of just such a car. Why did I buy a Tatra T87 from the Honda dealer to whom it had been traded for two motorcycles? I had always nursed a passion for the innovative experiments of the 1930s with streamlined rear-engined cars. Burney, Stout, Tjaarda, Porsche, Fuller, Bel Geddes, Ledwinka, Übelacker and Schjolin were only the best-known of the many adventurous designers and engineers who saw the future of the automobile in rear engines and advanced aerodynamics.

In the 1930s most of these men designed and built, at best, short series of cars or prototypes. Hans Ledwinka was the only engineer whose advanced rear-engined passenger cars were series-produced during the decade. The pathbreaking Tatra cars were manufactured by Ringhoffer-Tatra at its sprawling factory at Koprivnice in Moravia, since World War I part of Czechoslovakia.

Tatra T87

The Ludvigsen Tatra as photographed in 1964. Rear vision was better than reported. The car was very original aside from the bumpers, which are a bit larger than the stock items.

This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.
LoginSubscribe

Tatra T87: A Portfolio by Don Hodgdon

By

A comprehesive look at Paul Greenstein/Dydia De Lyser’s restored Tatra by Don Hodgdon.

Mr. Greenstein’s car, a 1941 T87 was an Ebay find from Upstate New York in 2001. After a three-and-a-half year restoration, including returning the car to Koprivnice in the Czech Republic, the car now resides in Southern California where it is driven weekly.

Paul Greenstein received the Tatra in this condition. Photo courtesy Paul Greenstein.

The T87, considered a luxury car in its day, is quite comfortable and quiet cruising the streets of Los Angeles. We experienced very little buffeting with the windows lowered on the freeway, and the low rumble from the rear mounted air-cooled V8 engine never intruded on our conversation. The T87, with its huge dorsal fin and center-mounted headlight, draws a fair amount of attention, even in car crazy L.A., many drivers stopping to admire the car and ask questions about it while we were stopped to shoot photos. It was not at all a surprise to learn that Mr. Greenstein’s car was voted “Most Collectable” in a recent poll of New York Times readers.

This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.
LoginSubscribe

Subscribe Today to Access all of our Premium Articles

By

OSCA, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Nardi, Giovanni Savonuzzi, and Charles Addams are only a few of the many subjects of our Premium articles available only to our Premium Subscribers. Please help support VeloceToday and our contributors by becoming a Premium Subscriber at one of three levels; $9.95 for one month, $7.95 per month for six months, or the best bet, $4.95 per month for one year ($59.40). Use the mediapass form found with each article to subscribe. If you need help, just email us at vack@cox.net.

Charles Addams Series

Charles Addams and his Cars 1948-1960
Charles Addams was a world famous cartoonist. Less well know was the fact that Addams had what he called a “long collection of rather good vintage cars,” which included two Bugattis, a 1933 Aston Martin, a supercharged Mercedes S, an Amilcar and the Castagna-bodied Alfa 2300. It was no passing fad; an interest sparked in 1948 at Indianapolis lasted forty years until his death at age 76 in 1988.

Charles Addams and his Bugattis
In 1960, Charles Addams was beginning the most lucrative years of his career as a cartoonist. His income had almost tripled as the Addams Family was just making its TV debut. Finally, he would be now able to enjoy his Bugattis, to the distress of his neighbors. He competed with the Bugatti at VSCCA events at the old Bridgehampton racetrack near his home.

Charles Addams CAR toons
A consummate car enthusiast and creator of the “Addams Family”, Charles Addams could not resist putting cars into his cartoons. Here, with exclusive permissions from the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, are some of Addams’ most interesting artwork incorporating his favorite hobby. The Charles Addams series can only be found in the pages of VeloceToday!

Renault’s Shooting Star

Renault’s Shooting Star Part I
The Bonneville Salt Flats, normally the home of monster records cars and big V-8 hot rods, played host to a tiny Renault streamliner in 1956. The car was small but established a big record of 190 miles per hour. Roberto Motta recounts the story of this remarkable turbine-powered car that won the hearts of Americans and international records at the same time.

Renault’s Shooting Star Part II
Once the engineers at Renault figured out how to shoehorn the turbine into a tiny one man chassis, they shipped the Renault Shooting Star off to America and the lonely Salts Flats in Utah. Roberto Motta, using rare factory color images, relates the record runs and wraps it up with the demonstrations at Montlhéry where Berhard Cahier drove the Shooting Star.

The Nardi Bisiluro Series

Nardi at Le Mans
The French Panhards and Renaults were dominating the small car classes at Le Mans in the post war era. Italians Enrico Nardi and Mario Damonte set about to challenge the French. Nardi created a new car with a Crosley engine and Motto body and trailered it to France. But it was just the opening act of Nardi at Le Mans. Here is the full story of the amazing Nardis at Le Mans.

The Nardi Bisiluro
Undaunted by their 1954 experience at Le Mans, Nardi and Damonte brought in an eccentric artist and architect by the name of Carlo Mollino to design a streamlined body to compete at Le Mans. The results were startling. With the driver on one side and the engine on the other, the Bisiluro was one of the strangest cars ever to compete at Le Mans. Roberto Motta recounts the story.

OSCA 1600GT at Le Mans Series

OSCA 1600GT at Le Mans Part I
Part I deals with the team of John Gordon and John Bentley, whose exploits and successes at Le Mans and Sebring in a 750 cc OSCA led to the drive of an official OSCA factory entry at Le Mans. Their mount was the only flat-topped Zagato coupe, with a twin plug head and live rear axle. Co authored by Sebring Index winner John Gordon himself. Now available to all premium members.

OSCA 1600GT at Le Mans Part II
There were two OSCA 1600GT entries at Le Mans in 1962, s/n 0036, driven by Gordon and Bentley, and 007, entered by N.A.R.T. for Arents/Behra. Yet 007 appeared to be a very stock GT2 model, with IRS and a 108 hp single plug engine. We investigate these mysteries; relate what happened to the cars at Le Mans, and where they are now. Co authored by John Gordon.

The Saga of Giovanni Savonuzzi

From Showcar to Turbine
This first premium article deals with the Ghia Gilda, its history and restoration with full details of the installation of the turbine by as seen by Scott Grundfor in this exclusive interview. Written by Roberto Motta, the article includes rare diagrams, photos and inside views of the famous Ghia Gilda, designed by the great Giovanni Savonuzzi. “Gilda” sets the pace for the entire series on Savonuzzi.

Gilda, the Movie, the Star, the Inspiration
The second premium article, written by editor Pete Vack, explains the connection between the Ghia studios, the American movie of 1946 directed by Charles Vidor, and the impact of Rita Hayworth as the protagonist Gilda on both the movie and the designers of the era.
And did Savonuzzi really name his streamlined wonder Gilda? Find out.

The Cars of Giovanni Savonuzzi
In a stunning color portfolio by Hugues Vanhoolandt, we explore the Savonuzzi enigma: how does one man create the Cisitalia 202, most beautiful, iconic and legendary Italian car ever, and yet was also responsible for one of the most outrageous Prancing Horses ever built, the flying finned Ferrari 410 Superamerica. Along the way we highlight the Cisitalia Ford, the Nuvolari Spider, Nibbio II and much more.

Savonuzzi, the Designer, Part I
Giovanni Savonuzzi was a genius with the ability to be a superb stylist as well as an engineer. He was responsible for the Cisitalia Spider Nuvolari, the Cisitalia 202, the Ford 808XF project, the Ghia Gilda and record breaking motorboat engines. In Part 1, with the help of his daughter Alberta, we document his work at Cisitalia and SVA and why Pinin Farina got the credit for the Cisitalia 202.

Savonuzzi, the Designer, Part II
In Part II of Savonuzzi, the Designer takes us from Ghia to Chrysler, then on to Fiat. Never-before published documents and photos illustrate Savonuzzi’s role in the Ghia Chrysler Turbine and his fascinating American adventure. Written with the help of his daughter Alberta, Savonuzzi, the Designer describes his accomplishments and frustrations while at Chrysler.

Alfa Berlina Series

Alfa Giulietta Berlina Portfolio
Alfa’s 1300 Berlina is rarely seen outside the borders of Italy. In this portfolio, we’ve gathered up the best of show and factory images to present a variety of the Berlina station wagons, limos, special bodies and the standard sedans from the 1300 to the T.I. This is just one part of a series of four articles that cover the Berlina like never before. Only in VeloceToday!

Alfa’s Giulietta Berlina
The Alfa Giulietta Berlina should have been the greatest sedan of the 1950s. We kick off a multi-part look at the semisweet success of Alfa’s first Giulietta, the Berlina, with a fascinating original brochure reproduced at 300 dpi. This is followed by a owners’ manual already available. Coming soon, the full history of the 1300 Berlina, variants, competition history and much more.

Alfa Berlina, Italian Style
VeloceToday’s Italian Editor Roberto Motta explains how the Alfa Giulietta Berlina won the hearts of Italians. “It was a car with a dual personality. Compact, aggressive and peaceful at the same time, the new family sedan was the ideal vehicle to transport children to school, while at the same time engage in competition on the weekends on track all over the world.” Written from the Italian perspective.

Alfa Giulietta Berlina Manual
Part of an in-depth series of Premium articles about the much-neglected Alfa Giulietta Berlina, this segment offers a rare look at a Alfa 1300 Berlina owner’s manual. The series also includes factory brochures, a full history, variants, and much more, all dedicated to what should have been the most advanced sporting saloon of the 1950s.

A Technical History of Tatra

By

A Tatra in VeloceToday? Of course!

By Pete Vack with help from Karl Ludvigsen

Why a Tatra in VeloceToday, you might ask. Probably because it is a carmaker lost in the mountains of Moravia, lost almost to history, lost to VW, lost to the ravages of the 20th century and revolution, lost to the incessant demands of a system that requires both profit and excellence. A survivor, Tatra still exists and produces trucks, but the famous and advanced Tatra automobile is no more, one of the homeless but technically interesting cars we often welcome to the friendly shores of VeloceToday. We bring you this to serve as an introduction to our next two articles, one about the Tatra T87, and the other on the post war T600. We also thank Karl Ludvigsen for his help with researching this article.

This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.
LoginSubscribe
MENU