VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

pete

Alfa’s Pre War Titans, Part II

By

Tazio Nuvolari, Peter Greenfield
and two Tipo C Alfa Romeo 8C35s

Color photos by www.rprincephoto.com

By Pete Vack

Read Part I

alfa 8c35.jpg
Greenfield at Mt Tremblant with Tipo C 8C35 chassis #50015C, the last “C” standing for clone.

alfa 8c35.jpg
At Monterey, Greenfield brought out the real thing; the ex-Nuvolari, ex-Ruesch, ex-Poore 8C35, chassis #50013.

Peter Greenfield is in the enviable position of owning and racing not one but two pre-war Alfa Romeo Grand Prix cars. Furthermore, chassis 50013 which he acquired from Peter Giddings in 2005, is the only complete, original Tipo 8C35 in the world.
[Read more…] about Alfa’s Pre War Titans, Part II

Phil Hill, On Record

By

Hill with a Peugeot in a R&T ad. Now listen to the recording below.


Below, we give our readers a chance to hear a rare 33 1/3 rpm recording, sent to us on a plasticized square piece of cardboard which measures seven by seven inches. For the record, it is simplistic, it is advertising, and it is not particularly well executed, even for the late 1950s. But it offers us a unique insight into what was then a new world for Americans, that of sports car racing and strange foreign cars with even stranger names. Despite being scripted, it says something about Phil Hill we may not have been able to ascertain elsewhere. Most telling, even though it is obviously a bought and paid for commercial, it is honest, as honest as Phil Hill always was.

hill record.jpg
Click on record to listen to Phil Hill.
Note that there is a 20 second
pause at the start.

This rare audio record came our way via Serge Dermanian, a retired Ferrari restorer living in Nice, France. Shortly after publishing an excellent article by Philippe H. Defechereux, which used an ad in which Phil Hill was photographed with a Peugeot 403, we received an email from Dermanian who mentioned that he had a record to go along with the ad. He added that he would be glad to send it along. We hooked up our stereo phonograph, carefully played the ancient audio device for pickup to a digital recorder, and finally converted it to the digitized format for use on a computer.

In addition, on this old, scratchy record, we hear Road & Track Editor John R. Bond, almost a lone voice in the wilderness, who used the magazine’s power and platform to beg Detroit to build cars with good handling, quality, common sense and good gas mileage. There is a message here, then, and now.

Our thanks to Serge Dermanian for finding and sending along this rare recording of the late Phil Hill. Note that there is a 20 second pause before the actual voices are heard, so have patience.

Lynch at the Quail 2008

By

308-1.jpg
We lost one of our finest when World Champion Phil Hill left us on August 28. He was enjoying cars and his many friends and admirers right up until the end. Phil won three races at the old Pebble Beach road course and also won the Pebble Beach Concours twice with cars he restored personally. Here, he poses at The Quail with former Ferrari President, Jean Todt, who managed Ferrari’s racing team during the Schumacher era. Credit: Marcel Massini

Michael T. Lynch reports on this year’s Quail Logde happenings.

The Quail – A Motorsports Gathering has now established itself as the hottest ticket of Monterey Peninsula automobile festival week. The tickets sold out back near the beginning of 2008 in a matter of hours. [Read more…] about Lynch at the Quail 2008

Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours on the Avenue

By

Michael T. Lynch looks at an August Legend in Progress
Photos by William Edgar

vin.jpg
Ferraris were thick on the ground Monday. Jeff Abramson’s 500 Mondial Pinin Farina roadster was one of the nicest.

The second edition of the Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours on the Avenue again led off the Monterey Peninsula auto festival week concours parade. [Read more…] about Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours on the Avenue

Bugatti Goes Targa

By

bugatti_veyron_grandsport_m.jpg

by Wallace A. Wyss

Wallace Alfred Wyss is a historian recently turned to depicting exotic cars on canvas. A sample can be obtained via email by contacting him at Photojournalistpro@hotmail.com

Allright, already. The Bugatti Veyron was already an over-the-top car; what with more than 1,000 horses, no less than 16 cylinders, four turbos, all-wheel drive, 12 radiators and a wing that would not look out of place on a small airplane. Plus did we mention it goes over 250 mph? [Read more…] about Bugatti Goes Targa

Alfa’s Pre War Titans, Part I

By

Rex Mays, Peter Giddings and the Alfa Tipo C 8C35

By Pete Vack

Color photos by www.rprincephoto.com

alfa 8c35.jpg
Giddings at Mt Tremblant with the Tipo C, 8C35 Grand Prix car.

Given the might of the Mercedes and Auto-Union teams, the Alfa Romeo 8C35 had a brief but reasonably successful two seasons in Europe. Designed to be fitted with either a V12 engine, or an 8 cylinder, the 8C35 used a longer version of the famous Alfa 8C 2.3 engine, running almost concurrently with the initially unreliable V12 (12C36) while it was being developed. In 1936 Tazio Nuvolari drove the 8C35 to great victories at Coppa Ciano and the Hungarian GP.
[Read more…] about Alfa’s Pre War Titans, Part I

Hungarian Grand Prix

By

ferrarif1.jpg
Kimi, hanging on to third.

Not The Results We Were Expecting

By Erik Nielsen

The Hungaroring is not a track that is known for great passes or exciting chases, but one thing that it does have going for it is that there are usually several surprises come race day and the most recent round held there was no different. [Read more…] about Hungarian Grand Prix

Six from RM’s Monterey Auction

By

VeloceToday selects six favorite cars, three French, three Italian, consigned to the RM Auction, which will be held at the Portola Hotel and Spa on August 15th and 16th 2008. Italics ours, text from the RM catalog.

1956 Ferrari 250GT Tour de France 0563GT Lot 442

ferraritdf.jpg

The Tour de Force would have to be the Tour de France. One of the earlier, perhaps more attractive TdFs, this consignment has got to be at the top of our auction dreamlist.
[Read more…] about Six from RM’s Monterey Auction

Shell Ferrari Historics at Mt. Tremblant

By

Story by David Seibert, photos by rprincephoto.com

ferrari.jpg
Track owner Lawrence Stroll in the blue Sunoco 512M taking an early lead. He would dominate the disc brakes set.

Mt. Tremblant, Canada, July 18-20th

The field for the Ferrari Shell Historic Challenge event last weekend may have been slightly smaller than usual, but fans were treated to four exciting races, with titans batting for the win in each. Le Circuit, the winding 2.65 mile track in the old Quebec ski country of Mont Tremblant, was an ideal setting for those duels.
[Read more…] about Shell Ferrari Historics at Mt. Tremblant

MENU