The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
1953 Pegaso Z-102 ‘Thrill’. Hugues Vanhoolandt photo.
Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt and Jonathan Sharp
As was the case with Sunday’s Windsor Castle Concours, the previous Friday’s event at the Syon House was also attended by both Hugues Vanhoolandt and Jonathan Sharp. In this report we lead off with Vanhoolandts’s work. Saturday, Sharp emailed and sent his initial impression of the event:
[Read more…] about Salon Prive at Syon House in London, September 7, 2012
You didn’t think we’d finish Tours up without a full spec and result section? Below, just that. Below that, some YouTube links to several videos depicting the 1923 French Grand Prix.
Above, a notice about the 90th year celebration event at Tours which will take place next year. If you are interested in participating contact: grandprixdetours@wanadoo.fr.
Next week, Gijsbert-Paul Berk will provide an analysis of the race and its legacy. It will surprise you. [Ed.]
[Read more…] about 1923 Tours Grand Prix: Results, Videos, Specs and More
We can’t help but slather over the work done by Hugues Vanhoolandt at Monterey this year; this week is a real scroller but have forbearance and one will experience pleasure.
Roy Smith continues the remarkable story of the one and maybe not Marquis…and how it all ties in with the Rosiers, Le Mans, and the post-war miracle of Fiberglas.
This week we present the Art of Tours…Visions of the 1923 French Grand Prix. Gijsbert-Paul Berk has gathered up some of the best racing art around, all inspired by that epic event.
We are a week late on the report of the WRC Rally Germany…but everyone knew who would win even before the event took place. As usual click on the button icons to see the stories.
But wait, there’s more, if only your Editor just pontificating about Spa Francorchamps.
In Part 1, Barn Find, Smith described the search for the elusive “Marquis” which resulted in the amazing barn find of the Rédélé Special Number 2 in Pennsylvania. Part 2 deals with an eager American businessman, Zark W. Reed, who had a plan for Jean Rédélé and his car. Above, the Rogue; was this design by French racing driver Louis Rosier really the “Marquis”? And what is the connection to Rédélé? Read on.
By Roy Smith
Dreams of Glass
1953 witnessed the first Chevrolet Corvette to roll off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan. The concept of an all-glass-fiber production sports car had just become a reality. Glass fiber had arrived on the scene many years before. In the 1880s a glass maker from Massachusetts by the name of Edward Drummond Libbey had first discovered that glass in fiber “staple” silk-like format could be woven as a fabric – he even had a dress made that was exhibited at the Chicago World Fair in 1893.
[Read more…] about Marquis of Mystery Part 2: Dreams of Glass
The 1923 Tours Grand Prix has inspired many artists. Below are just a few of the paintings, cover art and advertisements that were generated by the epic event. Much of the art is still available via prints and we have linked appropriate sites to the paintings wherever possible. Please click on the images for ordering information and similar automotive art.
Art by Geo Ham (Georges Hamel) Art-deco impression of the Bugatti and Voisin.
[Read more…] about The Art of Tours: Visions of the 1923 French Grand Prix
The Dino Ferrari of von Trips photographed at Sebring, December 12th 1959 by Robert F. Pauley. The damaged nose was the result of von Trips rear-ending the Ferrari of Tony Brooks, who then spent two minutes inthe pits assessing his own damage. Brooks placed third and lost the Championship to the rear-engined Cooper of Jack Brabham.
VeloceToday features the work of Gijsbert-Paul Berk, Marshall Buck, Eric Davison and Brandes Elitch; Graham Gauld, Alessandro Gerelli and Carl Goodwin; Michael T. Lynch, Karl Ludvigsen, Denise McCluggage, Ed McDonough and Roberto Motta; Jonathan Sharp, Roy Smith and Hugues Vanhoolandt; we even do Wally Wyss. And that’s not the half of it!
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A rare barn find in the States leads Roy Smith to Alpine’s Jean Rédélé, French Champion Louis Rosier, the post-war US sports car craze, Porsche champion Bob Hobert, and back to France for Retromobile, all in search of a car that never existed. An incredible story in three parts.
By Roy Smith
Barn Find
“The car belonged to my father, Raymond Buckwalter; he drove it for a while, and then parked it. I soon found out why he parked it when I wanted to drive the car for a few months in 1958. Every time I turned the motor off and left it for a while, the car wouldn’t start again without a push. This kind of thing you remember, believe me! I always parked in the same parking lot and the attendant always saved a spot for me. Five days a week they would push me to get it started. I guess my father figured I couldn’t go shopping unless I could find some kind person to push it a few feet, but as I was a young lady at the time, I always found some kind gentleman to give me a push. It was the battery; something was draining it. Rather than fix it my father liked to challenge me and he would often laugh at how I managed these small challenges. Now the memory of it makes me laugh – I can just imagine me in a parking lot at my age trying to get someone to give my car a push! When I went to get it painted in the late 90s we found traces of blue, so I assumed that was the original color.” —Mary Ann Wood
Photo of the strange French special taken by the Wood family in 2009.
The 1923 Grand Prix of Tours
Friderich refuels his Bugatti T32 during the 1923 Tours Grand Prix. He would finish third; ironically neither the Bugatti “Tanks” nor the Voisin “Laboratoire” would ever race again.
By Gijsbert-Paul Berk
July 2, 1923, 8 a.m. For the start of the Grand Prix, seventeen race cars were placed in two rows. In 1923 the positions on the starting grid did not depend on lap times during practice but were, like the numbers on the cars, allotted by the organizers. Hence, pole position was taken by the V12 Delage (No. 1) with driver René Thomas and his mechanic Lhermit. Alongside was Guiness in the Sunbeam, car number 2. Guyot’s Rolland-Pilain was in the second row next to number 4, the Fiat of Bordino.
The noise and smell of the seventeen racing cars on the grid, with a total of 126 screaming cylinders, must have been similar to the noise and excitement of today’s Grand Prix starts. The pace car, driven by local motorcycle champion Paul Meunier, led the field before René Thomas in his blue Delage sprinted away with the Sunbeam of Lee Guinness. Above, Thomas and Bordino are already out of this photograph of the start. Number 2 is the Sunbeam of Lee Guiness, number 3 is Guyot in the Rolland-Pilain, the Voisin of Arthur Duray and the Friderich Bugatti, number 6.
At the end of lap one, Fiat of Pietro Bordino was in front; the Sunbeam of Lee Guiness second followed by the Delage of René Thomas; then Enrico Giaccone and Carlo Salamano both in the Fiats, Henry Segrave and Albert Divo in Sunbeams, Albert Guyot driving a Rolland-Pilain and Ernest Friderich the Bugatti. The race of the decade was on.
Eight feature articles this week include a look at events in both Europe and California. Lynch, Elitch and Dickinson sound off on the triumphs and tribulations of Monterey; Graham Gauld covers a unique concours on the Riviera, Alessandro Gerelli brings us the Oldtimer in Germany, Gijsbert-Paul Berk uncovers the Sunbeam and Voisins at Tours. Sadly, we lost Franco Zagari; Mark Spitzley and Graham Gauld remember the great photographer.
Franco Zagari in 2007.
Photographs by Zagari and from his collections graced many outstanding books, some of the best produced with his longtime friend Luigi Orsini.
Below, Matt Spitzley and Graham Gauld fondly recall Franco Zagari. Our thanks to Matt and Di Spitzley for permission to use some of Zagari’s favorite photographs.
Christine Dacremont with the pink Alpine 110 she used to race and rally.
By Graham Gauld
Every August I am asked to judge a Concours held at the Valescure Golf Club just behind St. Raphael in the South of France. There is no entry fee and the cars are lined up on the 18th fairway for all to see.
Being a French event, there was a class for Renault Alpines and there was a raft of the factory racing cars including one of the long-tail 1967 Le Mans cars that had been raced at Le Mans. [Read more…] about Gauld on the Valescure Concours, French Riviera
Mary Ann Dickinson (MAD) eyes Monterey
Check out this 1938 Lancia Aprilia Sport Aerodinamica, a modern reconstruction of a pre-war car. Andrea Zagato built this one in recognition of his father’s original design, following the images from old photographs as there is no other record of the car. It is a sleek beauty, with lines way ahead of its time.
Every August we all trek to the Monterey peninsula in California for the Holy Grail of vintage car events, which have grown beyond control over the years like an abandoned garden zucchini. It is now a plethora of car shows, auctions, races, exhibitions and collector markets, all occurring in the same frantic week. And this car fun is pricey; attending Monterey has become a compulsory – and expensive – pilgrimage.
[Read more…] about MAD about Monterey