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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

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Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano 2011

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By Chuck Schoendorf and Dino Brunori
Photos by Dino Brunori

If you own an open sports car from the golden era of the great Italian road races like the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio or Coppa d’Oro, you must attend Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano. Come once and you will become a Mitiche addict, and both a certified sports car driver and a certified nut ! A certified driver because of the gruelling, non-stop challenging mountain roads, a certified nut because all the cars are barchettas, meaning open cockpit, and it always rains in the mountains!
[Read more…] about Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano 2011

Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano 2011 Images

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Photo Story by Dino Brunori

Le Mitiche Sport brings out a wide variety of historic racing cars not seen elsewhere in the world including a great number of of our favorite small displacement Italian sports racers. But also eligible are the legendary big cars like the Mercedes SSK below making it an event not to be missed.

1928 Mercedes SSK is a huge affair next to the miniscule Italian specials. It was driven by the team of Bernhard and Henry Bauer from Germany.


[Read more…] about Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano 2011 Images

Ruote Borrani, Then and Now

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The latest wire wheel from Ruote Borrani is the X Ray, here making a big difference for the Maserati GTS.

In 2010, Borrani Americas partnered with Ruote Borrani Milano to be the exclusive importer and restorer of Borrani rims in North, Central and South America, thus bringing to the forefront a very relevant new story with a significant historical aspect that is rarely told. Our thanks to Ruote Borrani Milano, Borrani Americas, Roberto Motta, and David Seielstad for their help with this article.

For classic car enthusiasts, the name Borrani is synonymous with excellence. Their famed wire wheels have become an icon, known for quality, performance and design. In fact, the strength of Borrani is in its history and quality of its products. Borrani is still producing quality products, including their famous Borrani Classic wire wheels and new line of Xray, Sray and Bi Metal alloy wheels.
[Read more…] about Ruote Borrani, Then and Now

This Week, of Interest: Win Evan Wilson’s Giulietta Book

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It looks like our contests have been so successful we’ll just have to keep them going for a while, at least through the months of July and August. We congratulate last week’s winner, Virgil Taylor, who correctly and firstly identified the Wyss-Warhol as a 1964 GTO.

This week, something different. Alfa owner, writer and enthusiast Evan Wilson has revised his very enjoyable book about Giuliettas, a must have for anyone seriously interested in these small Alfas. We review the book below, and to win a copy of the latest and much improved book, Evan has supplied this quiz question:

On a Giulietta or a 101 Giulia, where is the mascherina typically installed?

Heads UP! New Contest Rules

Answer the question above as clearly as possible. But to accomodate our readers who don’t always open VT the instant it arrives and also give our readers in different time zones a chance to win the contest, we have devised a new way of conducting our contests:
*Please send your answer to the above question via email to pete@velocetoday.com, NOT the comment box below.
*(Entries will close at 12 noon EDT on Thursday July 7th (tomorrow).
*We’ll print out the correct answers and draw the winner from a hat.
*We’ll notify the winner via email and send out Evan’s excellent Alfa book to the winner by Friday. THere are NO strings attached; we won’t use your email address or geographical address for any reason other than to ensure you receive the book. Good Luck!

Below, the third installment of the Alfa 1300 Berlina series, Alfasud owner Evan Wilson’s Giulietta book is reviewed and the Revenge of the Lion. Scroll on.

This Week, of Interest: Win a Wyss Warhol

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WYSS GOES WARHOL (ESQUE)

Our frequent contributor, scribe/artist Wallace Wyss announced his newest illustration trend–a la Warhol. “I really didn’t think of making a tribute to Andy,” Wyss says, “but when I had to change the color a few times on the printing press for my illustration of one car, I thought , why not show the variations? Maybe that’s how Andy thought of it.”

Wyss will award one signed print to the first person who posts a comment below identifying the make and model of the car.

Those who are planning on attending the Concorso Italiano on August 19th should find a booth where Wyss will be displaying the tribute to Andy print, plus a few other design rendering prints in the original designer’s styles along with his regular full color depictions of Italy’s greatest sports cars. Those who won’t make Monterey can find his work on www.albaco.com Also, interested parties can write photojournalistpro@hotmail.com

Winner of last week’s contest

Last week’s winner of a copy of McQueen’s Machines was Barry Morgan, who almost instantly bought several raffle tickets in support of the Waktins Glen IMRRC. Thanks Barry!

This week’s articles
*Oosthoek’s book on sports car racing in the south is reviewed
*What’s in Your Driveway? Alfa 2600 Zagato
*Premium Article Update: See them all!
*Snooze Alert: Grand Prix of Europe

What’s in Your Driveway?: Zagato’s Alfa Romeo 2600

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2600 Alfa Zagato in 1970. Credit VeloceToday.com

By Pete Vack

“It looks like a giant praying mantis about to leap.” Kyle Fleming’s assessment of the Alfa 2600 Zagato, was, if not overly kind, at least somewhat accurate. Zagato was never known to be anything but bold about its designs, and the Zagato was big, bold and eye catching. Fleming, used to dealing in Maseratis and Ferraris, couldn’t quite put the Alfa Zagato into focus. Such was the attraction of Zagato. The Big Z was different, rare and unusual at a time and place when the U.S. was a veritable candy store, full of rare and unusual cars at bargain basement prices.
[Read more…] about What’s in Your Driveway?: Zagato’s Alfa Romeo 2600

Premium Articles Update

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Below is a list of all of our Premium and Freemium features.
Scroll down for links and full description of each article.

To access a Premium article, you must sign up to our Premium Service. However, we also offer several great in depth articles that are Freemium (Free to everyone), as examples of what you’ll get with our Premium Service.
Premium Service articles include:
*Alfa Berlina Series
*OSCA 1600GT Series
*Giovanni Savonuzzi Series

[Read more…] about Premium Articles Update

This Week, of Interest: Win “McQueen’s Machines”

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Proceeds of Watkins Glen F1 book to benefit IMRRC

Award-winning historian Michael Argetsinger’s latest book, “Formula One at Watkins Glen: 20 Years of the United States Grand Prix, 1961-1980”, is a special limited edition book and advance orders are now being taken at only $49.95 each. It’s a great price for this book with over 250 color and B&W images. But even more important, Michael and his publisher, David Bull, are donating ALL the proceeds from the sale of the book to the International Motor Racing and Research Center in Watkins Glen.
Orders can be telephoned to the Center at (607) 535-9044 and ask for Jon McKnight.

Enter Raffle and win copy of McQueen’s Machines!

Again this year the IMRRC is offering car for raffle, this year a 1967 Mustang Steve McQueen “Bullitt” replica valued at over $72,000. Tickets are $60 each or two for $100 and can be purchased by calling Jon McKnight at (607) 535-9044.

To help kick this off, the first VeloceToday reader to purchase four raffle tickets will win a copy of Matt Stone’s book McQueen’s Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon.

Be sure to tell Jon that you read about the raffle in VeloceToday. To participate, you MUST call Jon and order directly through him. Be sure to provide your complete mailing address.

The IMRRC is undoubtedly one of the most complete automotive libraries in the United States and also the most accessible and user friendly. We at VeloceToday have already put an order in for the new Formula One book and purchased raffle tickets. We urge you to support the IMRRC by doing the same.

For more information:
The International Motor Racing Research Center at Watkins Glen
610 S. Decatur Street
Watkins Glen, NY 14891-1613
Call: (607) 535-9044
Fax: (607) 535-9039
Raffle Mustang can be seen here: http://www.racingarchives.org/raffle.htm
Hours of Operation: 9 am – 5 pm Monday through Saturday

This Week, of Interest

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Below, some articles you may enjoy reading.

Doing Villa d’Este
Some guys just dream, other guys dream and do. Oliver Collins is one of the latter. But better yet, he not only lives his dream but comes back and is glad to tell the world (via VeloceToday) what and how he became a contestant in the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este.
Click here

Etceterini Books
What is surprising is that there are so many books about Etceterinis. While most books on the subject are in Italian, increasingly, more are being printed in both English and Italian. This article lists many of the books available on or about small displacement Italian cars.
Click here

This week we have a real gem: the Paul Farago story as written by Eric Davison. Plus we catch up on some of the events of May via the striking photography of Hugues Vanhoolandt.

The Paul Farago Story

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Watkins Glen, 1949. Paul Farago parades his Farago Fiat in streets. Color photo by Eric Davison.

By Eric Davison

The entry list of racing cars for the 1948-1950 events at Watkins Glen was a mixed lot and most were cars produced before WW2. One of the few new cars and arguably one of the most attractive was the Farago Fiat.

Paul Farago was an Italian from Calabria, Italy who immigrated to Detroit with his family in 1930.  Paul’s father operated a bus line and Paul was a skilled mechanic by the time the family arrived in Detroit. He quickly established himself as an expert on foreign car repairs as well as a race car driver on local Michigan dirt tracks.

When WW2 broke out Farago served in the Army Air Corps.  When the war ended he established Farago Auto Service at 18725 John R. Street between Detroit’s Six and Seven Mile Roads.  His business flourished as the private garages of Detroit and its suburbs spilled out all the wonderful cars that had been put on blocks for ‘the duration.’

Farago was also a charter member of the Detroit Region of the Sports Car Club of America.  The Region had been formed when Bill Woods and his brother Jack placed a classified ad in a Detroit newspaper.  The Woods brothers were sports car enthusiasts and were the owners of Woods’ Motors on Detroit’s east side.  They sold MGs, Hillmans and other miscellaneous imports. [Read more…] about The Paul Farago Story

This Week, of Interest

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Ferraris on the Big Screen?
It could happen, but they may have to share track space with Fords…

By Wallace Wyss


According to a story disseminated by Reuters last week, director Michael Mann is in talks with 20th Century Fox to develop and potentially direct “Go Like Hell,” the real-life story of the famous competition between the Ford Motor Co. and Ferrari that led to Ford winning the Le Mans in 1967. (Ironically the Reuters reporter must have forgotten that Ford first won in 1966.)

The Reuters story says that Ford ” was the first American car maker to win the world’s oldest car race, held annually in France. For years, Ferrari had dominated the contest.”

20th Century Fox plans to base their film on A.J. Baime’s (a Playboy editor) book of the same name, which they describe as the story of when “a young Henry Ford II — determined to infuse new life into his family’s company — decided to get into the European racing scene. With the help of racer Carroll Shelby and Lee Iacocca, Ford built and designed a car that could take on Ferrari cars, known for their speed and style. They ultimately won the Le Mans.”

In actuality, Ford pretty much designed the GT40 without Shelby’s help and ran their first season in endurance racing–1964–without his help but in the winter of ’64 sent the Ford GTs to Shelby to sort out since they had failed so miserably in ’64.

The Reuters story says “Insiders say the initial idea was for Mann to develop the script.” Various stories in the last few days say a script already exists, penned by Jason Keller. He has sold several scripts and is also developing “The Devil’s Throat” with Josh Brolin attached to star, as well as being in pre-production on “Snow White.” Coincidentally Brolin has been reported in being interested in the film, as well as Brad Pitt, though no stars are attached as yet.

Mann is a great friend of Ferrari. He, of course, is famous for featuring the Daytona Spyder in the pilot of the TV show Miami Vice though in the TV series itself it was a replica, later replaced by a Ferrari Testarossa replica. In the later feature film of Miami Vice, he features a Ferrari 430 Spyder. In 2009, Mann produced and directed a 3-minute promotional film on the new Ferrari California Spyder which was played at the American preview in Santa Monica to a Ferrari-owning crowd of invitees. Mann also once displayed his own modern Ferrari 599 GTO at a concours at the Art Center College of Design.

Wallace Wyss, a prolific non-fiction book author, has just signed with an agent to promote his unpublished suspense thriller set in the world of Ferraris.”
[Ed.]

This Week, of Interest

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Welcome to VeloceToday! Please scroll down to read: Rally Sardinia in Italian and English, The OSCA GT S/N 0094, Broadway Bugattis, and F1 in Turkey.

Morry Barmak sent us a brief description of a sign he just acquired that may be of interest to our readers. It’s pricey, but certainly caught our attention! If you are interested, drop us a line at pete@velocetoday.com.

Has anyone seen this car? This car was built by Andy Schwartz in the early 2000s. At the time he was an engineer with the Ford racing group but is currently not working there. He built this car in his home workshop from his own design using basically stock Cosworth Vega engine. We have not been able to locate Mr. Schwartz or the car. Can you help? Email pete@velocetoday.com.

We received an email from Bill Miller, who happened to purchase some items from the estate of the late John Bentley, who passed away on 10/26/98. Email pete@velocetoday if you are interested in purchasing these rare items. Omega watch engraved on the back as follows: 12 Hours Of Sebring 1st place Index of Performance 3/26/60. Helmet and software, SCCA driver’s license.

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