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The Mario Righini Collection

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By Alain Raymond

From the Archives, May 2019

Italy, 2012

“The Mario Righini automobile collection is one of the finest private collections in Italy. Would you like to visit?” asks Signora Adriana Zini, Director of Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari, in Modena.

How do you say “of course,” in Italian? Admittedly, I had never heard of the Righini Collection, but here I was the next morning, entering the 15th century castle of Panzano at Castelfranco Emilia, near Modena. Waiting in the inner court, a tall distinguished looking gentleman greets us with a smile. “Io sono Mario Righini. Benvenuti in Italia” says the charming host in a soft voice to the travelling journalist and his two friends. Luckily one of those friends is Salvatore Montana, from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, ex-Ferrari master race mechanic, who also serves as our interpreter.

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The Banaszak Stanguellini Sport P2

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Story by Pete Vack and Howard Banaszak
Read Part 1

Our lead appears whimsical but in fact, Banaszak’s Stanguellini (CS04080), called a “Mercollini” by the wags at Kiekhaefer, did set the Class H land speed record at Daytona Beach on February 28, 1956, at 102.1 mph, driven by Herm Behm. The combination of the Mercury 55 outboard and the tiny, lightweight but sturdy Stanguellini was a winner out of the box.

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BMW’s Italian Designers Part 10

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By Jackie Jouret
Photos courtesy The BMW Archive

Following its near-death experience at the end of 1959, BMW announced its renaissance at the Frankfurt auto show of September 1961. The Giovanni Michelotti-designed 1500 drew huge crowds, and the all-new midsize sedan tended to overshadow the other cars on the BMW stand. That’s a shame, because two of those cars were also making their debut: a convertible version of the popular 700 microcar—another Michelotti design—and the 3200 CS coupe wearing stylish bodywork designed by a young Giorgetto Giugiaro at Bertone.

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Geoffrey Goldberg and Lancia in Paris

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Gilena’s impressive stand.

We’ll Always Have Paris…Like Art Buchwald, the Goldbergs will always have Paris. Geoff and his wife Lynne Remington traveled from Chicago to Paris with 130 lbs of Lancia books for the book dealers at Retro. “After the show, we did some non-car stuff in Paris – a number of museums, saw a wonderful show on the history of department stores, another one on magnificent hats (truly) that blew us away, backstage at the Opera, and exotic bakeries, after eating falafel in the Marais. It was enough to make one want to do it all over again.” Here are a few reflections.

By Geoffrey Goldberg

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Paul Wilson at Garage Steutel

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Garage Steutel, photos from the website.

A Movable Feast…After a delightful time at Retromobile in Paris, Paul Wilson and Mark Bennett traveled to Belgium with Alfa doyen Frank Rameckers, then to the Netherlands, where Paul had been invited to give a presentation about the design and construction of his three amazing Alfas. Here is Paul’s story….

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Retro on the French Side

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Presented at the 1962 Paris Motor Show, this DS19 with its fully faired underbody presented the new front of the DS with its faired headlights. The DS Totem symbolized the avant-gardism of the Citroën brand and delighted photographers, thus helping to establish the model’s reputation.

Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

Retro thoughts

Every year, at the same time, the world of classic and collector cars comes out of its lethargy for the event that opens the season. I am talking about the unmissable Rétromobile show in Paris.

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Ferrari at Retro

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A very popular exhibit on the ‘Le Man Classic’ stand, the Ferrari 312P chassis 0872.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Pilgrimage to Paris

This year my pals and I thought we would attend Retromobile much earlier in the week as we are all mostly retired. Whilst the first full day of the show is on Wednesday, we decided it would be nice to also attend the preview Tuesday evening, assuming that it would be nice and quiet.

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Italians and Others: Vanhoolandt

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Mercedes-Benz presented this 300 SL currently being restored by its Heritage department. It was delivered to New York in May 1955 and remained in the USA until 2011 when it joined a German collection. Now for sale again, it has been undergoing a complete restoration since April 2024 while reusing as many original parts as possible. The work is scheduled to be completed in autumn 2025.

Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

Retro thoughts, continued

Another development is the rise in quality of the show, with several dealers, particularly British ones, presenting some of the most expensive cars on the market as well as major manufacturers who communicate about their past to better sell their current range. Moreover, Rétromobile has attracted at the same time auction houses that organize their auctions in prestigious places such as Bonhams at the Grand Palais or RM Sotheby’s at the Louvre Museum.

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Italians and Others, Jonathan Sharp

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Martin Otto Lambert Heukeshoven’s simply amazing ISO Grifo/Berliet lorry barn find model.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Pilgrimage to Paris continued

I hate the sound of a mobile phone alarm in the morning. But it allowed time for a quick breakfast and rather too many coffees, then off to the show, ready for the 10am opening. Ah lovely; Wednesday being a working day, the halls were not too crowded and the aisles much easier to navigate.

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BMW’s Italian Designers, Part 9

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By Jackie Jouret
Photos courtesy The BMW Archive

With his designs for the 700 and 1500, Giovanni Michelotti made an invaluable contribution to BMW’s survival at the start of the 1960s. The success of those cars put BMW on firm financial footing, which allowed the company to expand its product lineup to include a small coupe, a full-size sedan, and a larger but still sporty coupe—cars with the same kind of mass-market appeal as the 1500 sedan that also filled important niches in the marketplace. As the 1500 sedan had given BMW a recognizable brand identity, each of those cars would bear Michelotti’s imprint, to a greater or lesser degree.

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And How! CBS does the MM, Evan Wilson

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Making the Big Time…

Hot on the heels of Allen R. Kuhn’s announcement that he’ll be appearing on a California PBS special on Paramount Ranch comes a note from Joe Hurwich, who told us that he had just appeared on CBS Sunday Morning on February 2 in a segment about the Mille Miglia. [Read more…] about And How! CBS does the MM, Evan Wilson

Jonathan Sharp’s Car of the Year

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Advance and retard

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

So the ex-King Leopold Bugatti Type 59 was named car of the year at this year’s International Historic Motoring Awards (a public vote and a good choice, it got my vote). But this got me thinking. Of all the fantastic cars I have seen and photographed this year what would be my ‘Car of the Year’? That is a hard one, but the 1907 130HP Fiat that took part in this year’s London to Brighton Veteran car run would be very near, if not on top of my list.

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