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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

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Safari Time for the Doc

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What, a story about a Porsche? Well, Porsches are the Editor’s first love, and when journalist Peter Münder submitted this great story about Doc Brandenburg, we couldn’t resist…You’ll enjoy.

Story and photos by Peter Münder

Erik Brandenburg, a 45 year old Hamburg proctologist, is certainly a very particular type of weightwatcher: While he is preparing his 36 year old Porsche 911-Safari for the African Eco Race from Morocco to Dakar/Senegal (December 27th-January 8th 2012), he seems to balance a pair of scales in his mind. [Read more…] about Safari Time for the Doc

A Lancia Fulvia HF and the Winter Challenge

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Lancia Fulvia 1600 HF

Story and Photos below By Peter Collins
Above photo courtesy of the Classic Rally Association.

Portions of this article appeared in the new online classic rally magazine, Retro-Speed.
Check it out for classic rally stories and results!

When friend and colleague Peter Baker asked me if I would like to occupy the navigator’s seat in his well-prepared Lancia Fulvia 1600 HF for the Classic Rally Association’s Winter Challenge. The Rally started from Chester, which is a large and historic town south of Liverpool and close to the Welsh border (it has been used as a rally base several times in the past), and finished at Monte Carlo. I naturally acquiesced immediately. A fun drive with a spot of map-reading – easy, job done–but I had failed to notice that the event was an FIA Regularity round. This latter detail meant that it would be up to expert standards in all respects in order for it to be ratified by the international motorsport body, the Federation Internationale d’Automobile.

[Read more…] about A Lancia Fulvia HF and the Winter Challenge

Marshall Buck Reviews a Tamiya Ferrari 288GTO

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Ferrari 288GTO

Ferrari built 272 examples of the real thing. Tamiya built this one…

Review and photos by Marshall Buck

To my eye, the 1984-86 Ferrari 288 GTO is one of the most beautiful modern sports car designs ever penned. Though it was based on another great design, the new for ’84 GTO was once again perfection from the house of Pininfarina.

I am more of vintage car guy; my main interest is sports and classic cars from the 1930’s through about 1970, but this one rings every bell for me, as does the beautiful 1:12 scale model.

The 288 GTO was designed and built specifically to compete in a new Group B racing series. At that time the requirements for this particular series were that a manufacturer must produce a minimum of 200 cars for homologation.

“Best laid plans…….” Unfortunately the new Group B series was abandoned before it ever got on the track since only Ferrari and Porsche built cars for the series. None of the 272 cars which Ferrari built were ever raced; they all remained road cars…… very fast and scary road cars at that. Most were sold in Europe as they were not certified for sale in the USA, though there were many that were imported and federalized by specialists such as Amerispec.

Scary fast…… The 288 had the power to back up its looks. The heart in each one was a mid mounted V-8 with twin IHI turbochargers. Top speed in Europe was an eye watering 189 mph. Here in the US the top end was reduced to somewhere around a mere 175 mph.

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Graham Gauld, By The Way

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Walter Baumer Monza_Tests_1937-545

Bäumer at the wheel of the Mercedes when he had his driver test at Monza, 1937.

Graham Gauld talks to Maserati 300S author Walter Bäumer

Two years ago Walter Bäumer Jr. launched his tome on Maserati and in particular to the Tipo  300S and since then he has been working on an equally complicated book on the Maserati A6G 2000 Zagato models. However,If you are of a certain age the name Walter Bäumer might mean something to you for there was a Walter Bäumer who raced for Mercedes-Benz in 1938. He was the author’s uncle.

 
Young Walter is a very amusing and affable enthusiast who specializes in Maserati history (www.internationalMASERATIresearch.com) but about a year ago we talked a bit about his family and particularly his uncle.
[Read more…] about Graham Gauld, By The Way

Racing a Maserati 300S

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In this archived article, Peter LeSaffre discusses driving the ex-Musy Maserati 300S back in the good days of the Ferrari Shell Historics.

By Pete Vack
Color photos by Richard Prince Photography

In his epic book, Maserati 300S, Walter Bäumer tells us a fascinating story about a little-known race driver by the name of Benoit Musy.
He was the son of a President of Switzerland and “a brave man, who saved the lives of many German Jews in the last months of WWII.” Musy purchased a Maserati 300S, chassis 3057 new from the factory in June of 1955. He bought a truck to haul the car, his beautiful wife Consuela and young son Edouard. In 1955 and 1956, he entered seventeen events throughout Europe, winning six outright. But at Montlhléry in late 1956, Musy entered a Maserati 200S Maserati as the 300S was being overhauled. Tragically, Musy was killed driving the 200S, and his grief stricken wife sold the 300S immediately.
[Read more…] about Racing a Maserati 300S

Amilcar: The Poor Man’s Bugatti

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Vintage Motorphoto’s Dale LaFollette recently found this remarkable, captivating photo of the Indy Delage. Click to enlarge.

All photos in this reveiw are from the book “Amilcar”

Book Review:
Amilcar by Gilles Fournier, Translated by David Burgess-Wise
Dalton Watson, 2006
300 pages 84 page French supplement
500 black and white photos, diagrams, and advertisements
Two volumes, hardbound with dust jackets and slip case

Review by Pete Vack


“Once an Amilcar, always an Amilcar!” declared Gilles Fournier, the author of the only serious book on the subject. Amilcar—its name reputedly an anagram of founders Emile Akar and Joseph Lamay–was a small displacement “cyclecar” built in France between the wars that according to Stan Grayson in Automobile Quarterly “…possessed undeniable charm and a healthy dose of that intangible quality that makes some cars stand out.”
[Read more…] about Amilcar: The Poor Man’s Bugatti

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