The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Elizabeth Junek, Helle Nice, and Miranda Seymour weren’t the only women to enjoy the power, speed and ecstasy of a Bugatti. Once upon a time, VeloceToday’s Office Manager Mary Decker Vack had a chance to become intimately friendly with a Type 35. Like others who have experienced Ettore’s masterpiece, the adventure was not easily forgotten. But how did our brave (in retrospect) come to catch a track ride in a magnificent unrestored Bugatti T 35?
Poster Boy: A shot taken of Whit Smith and his father in 1996 and used for this poster the following year.
Story by Sean Smith
From the VeloceToday Archives
After 18 years gone missing, Whit Smith finds his father’s Alfa racecar
It’s all Whit Smith’s mother’s fault. She and Whit’s dad met in Galion, Ohio. Pat was a local, Mason a New York city guy stuck in Ohio for work and a bit bored. The future Mrs. Smith spun tales of a race track just down the road at Mid-Ohio; they went to check it out.
Claviers was to be Gauld’s next home.
Story and photos by Graham Gauld
In 1994, Having made my decision to return to Europe, and the further decision to move to the South of France, I chose the tiny village of Claviers to be close enough to Italy and within easy driving distance to Milan, Turin and, of course, Modena.
Review by Pete Vack
Thanks to the kind services of Dalton Watson, we have been introduced to one of the more fascinating characters we have ever encountered.
Andy Saunders is a British artist, creator, historian, showman; a coachbuilder in the tradition of the great American customizers. And, like the great George Barris, he is unrestrained, outrageous, impractical, ingenious, he deconstructs and destroys and then creates with no mercy. Nor is he bound by a ’32 Ford body or chassis; his subjects run from a futuristic safety car prototype of the fifties to Citroën 2CVs to Panhards to Zagatos. Aside from mechanical constraints of using existing chassis, unlike other coachbuilders, Saunders has no limits to what he can create. He can and does build whatever comes into his head. I come, I see, I create. [Read more…] about Andy Saunders, Automotive Alchemist
The 1932 Salmson GS (Grande Sport) that arrived in the village. (Jane Wallis-Hosken)
By Graham Gauld
From the Archives October 2020
I live in a small village in the south of France in the hills behind the beaches of Cannes and Frejus where very little happens. However, I am constantly reminded of the major role France played in the birth and development of automobile racing.
Graham explaining the driving test to Jackie Chan at Kowloon.
Story and photos by Graham Gauld
Read Part 1
In the first episode of this yarn I left you with my reply to the company in Hong Kong regarding their wish to have someone edit a car magazine they planned for mainland China and going off to Silverstone for a historic race meet. On my return on a Sunday evening in 1993, there was a reply informing me that tickets from Edinburgh to Hong Kong via London would arrive the following day and could I fly on Wednesday. [Read more…] about Graham Gauld Mini Autobiography Part 2
It took a while for the organizers to realize that Carroll Shelby was leading the race in his Maserati Tipo 61.
By Willem Oosthoek
Photos by Bob Bellows and Dave Nicholas (Willem Oosthoek Collection)
Links to all previous chapters below
So how did the Nassau Trophy exactly unfold in 1959? With such a diverse field and some drivers making faster getaways than others, it always takes a few laps before everything is sorted out, However, reading what the motorsport journalists in period, and some of the subsequent book authors, tell us about this feature race, a rather vague picture emerges.
By Ernie Nagamatsu
Photos by Sam Snape
The American “Backyard Special,” 1959 Old Yeller II Buick Special was shipped to Australia to face off against some of the rare and iconic Formula Cars from Down Under. The event was the Summer Festival at Sydney Motorsports Park held on December 3-4, 2022. It was an honor for the Old Yeller II to be placed in the most challenging grid of race-cars with exceptionally skilled drivers.
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
From the Archives, November 2016
On the Sunday following the Goodwood Revival rather than taking a rest or perhaps cutting the lawn, my pals and I took a trip just down the road from our respective homes to the Firle Hill Climb Revival, being run for the second year by the Bo Peep Drivers Club.
The first Firle Hill climb took place in 1949, run by the Bentley Drivers Club. The climb was 600 yards in length and quite steep, running up Bo Peep Lane to the top of the Sussex Downs.
Graham Gauld with his partner Jane Wallis-Hosken at the Portimao historics in Portugal.
Story and photos by Graham Gauld
It is hard to believe, but by the time you read this it will have been seven months since Jane and I turned in the key to the house, got a lift to the Nice airport and flew to London, leaving behind 27 years’ worth of memories of living in the South of France, in easy driving distance from Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Ventimiglia on the Italian border. Four weeks earlier I had celebrated the 70th anniversary of my first work as a motoring journalist at the age of 17.
Why am I telling you all this? Well Editor Pete Vack thought it would be a good idea to explain how it has been settling down in the country of one’s roots, after being away for close on thirty years. My life, so far, can be split into three parts so let’s start with the first part.
By Willem Oosthoek
Photos by Bob Bellows, Benita Lane and J. Frank Harrison(Willem Oosthoek Collection)
And then the final day of racing began, with two events on schedule.
The start of the Memorial Trophy with, from the left, Bob Grossman [Ferrari California] and the AC Bristols of Jim Miller, Bob Keyes and J. Collins leading the field. Grossman would soon take command.
