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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

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Building BAT Better Part 1

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Story by Paul Wilson

I’ve decided to build an Alfa BAT. Yes, I know it’s a crazy idea. The Men in White Coats, always worried about my sanity, will come for me if they find out. I hope they don’t read VeloceToday.

We’re all familiar with BAT 5, BAT 7, and BAT 9, experimental cars built on Alfa 1900 chassis in the ‘50s. Of course they were presented as studies in aerodynamics; the air flow theme dominates the designs. But this was just an excuse for making the wildest, most extravagant sculpture ever put on four wheels. It’s their function as expressive forms, not their drag reduction features, that gives them their status today.

Everybody agrees that they’re exciting, original, and eye-catching. But are they beautiful?

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Simon Moore Mini Bio Part 2

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Story by Simon Moore

Read Part 1

I got married in 1976 and spent the next two years living and working in Holland. I even wrote a story about the ex-Prince Bernard 8C2900B in a Dutch magazine for editor Wim Oude Weernink. Soon after returning to London, I managed to acquire the rolling chassis of an 8C2900A Alfa Romeo that was lying in a field in Washington state.

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Susie Moss Remembered

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Sir Stirling’s widow, Lady Susie Moss died recently at the age of 69. Photo of Jackie Stewart and Ladie Moss by Jonathan Sharp.


Diane Brandon is a specialist in Bentley and Rolls-Royce motorcars, Diane Brandon consults with prospective and current owners of the two marques, and frequently researches these cars for car-related publications, brokers and auction houses. She has been a member of the Rolls-Royce and Bentley judging team for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance for over 30 years.

Sir Stirling Moss and Lady Susie were truly a delightful couple, and were simply crazy about each other. He had two brief marriages early on, but when he married Susie in 1980, he had obviously found his soul mate. I used to see them at the Pebble Beach Concours every year because Sir Stirling was a honorary judge for years.

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The Simon Moore Story Part 1

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Driving Gidding’s Alfa chassis 2311243 in 1966.

In the past, we have had brief interviews with the prolific Simon Moore, so we hesitated to ask him more about himself. He came forth, telling us a great many things we were not aware of, and included personal photos. What Moore could we ask…?

Story by Simon Moore

Growing up in London in the late 1940s and early 1950s, there were very few foreign-made cars on the roads, although one occasionally saw a British-built sports car like the MG TC. I have photographs of my father and grandfather’s car before the war (MG and Lagonda saloons) but after the war we had small Austin or Standard saloons. Three of my mother’s sisters married people in the motor trade so cars were always being discussed in the family. But it was only when my mother bought me a book to read (Ken Purdy’s Kings of the Road) that I learned about the great pre-war cars like Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Duesenberg, Mercer and, of course, Alfa Romeo.

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Phillip Island Classic, Australia, Pre War

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Painting (Artist Mike Harbar) of 1923 Aston Martin SV2S, Heaven corner, 1928 AGP Phillip Island.

Story and photos by Vince Johnson

As we mentioned in Part 1, F1 cars weren’t the only Grand Prix cars at Philip Island this year. In 1928, six and a half miles of open roads not far from today’s track were used for a 16 lap, 100-mile race, which subsequently became known as the Australian Grand Prix. The event was held annually at Phillip Island until 1935 and these roads were last used for racing in 1940. Today they still exist but, as expected, are no longer the dusty gravel with which the original racers had to cope.

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Phillip Island Classic, Australia Post War Cars

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1973 Alfa Romeo GTV2000 Stephen Callaghan, 1962 Ferrari Dino 196SP Peter Harburg.

Story and photos by Vince Johnson

Overseas cars were back at the island on March 9-12 after an absence of almost three years, for the Southern Hemisphere’s largest historic and classic race meeting. There were Formula 1 and Sports Cars from the United Kingdom and Europe, and Californians Ernie and Elaine Nagamatsu returned with Old Yeller 2 to enjoy more laps of the 4.4km (2.7mi) circuit with the immediate post-war sports and racing cars. [Read more…] about Phillip Island Classic, Australia Post War Cars

Inter Team Memo: A Rare “Esprit de Corps”

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Photo by Vince Johnson

By Ernie Nagamatsu

In our ‘life-time journey,’ we sometimes have the fortuitous opportunity to share and experience the “Esprit de Corps,” that is felt to the marrow of our bones. That life journey experience includes the hurdles and challenges thrown down like huge gauntlets at our feet. During our recent races in Australia, special ‘team’/ ‘Esprit de Corps,’ was the mystical convergence of people/friends that were on a journey and mission, which happened to include an iconic old yellow race-car.

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May 30, 1955, Iowa City SCCA Races

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Photographs by Glen Glendenning courtesy Dave Rex
Text by Pete Vack

We begin our review of the SCCA races at Iowa City on May 30th 1955 with Janet Guthrie. While doing our homework on this small Midwest town, we learned that it was the birthplace of the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, both in 1977. Born in 1938, Guthrie was seventeen at the time of the Iowa City SCCA race and already obtaining her pilot’s license. Seems that her father, also a pilot, was the manager of the Iowa City Municipal Airport, across the river from the old state capitol building, in 1938. Furthermore, Janet first began racing at SCCA events with a Jaguar XK140MC, of which there were plenty at the Iowa City races in the mid-fifties.

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Porsche 356/2 SL at Road America

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Carl Schmidt’s Porsche coupe at Road America, June, 1960.

By Pete Vack

I’ve had this photograph around for 63 years and it has always been a mystery. My father took the shot at the June Sprints at Road America in 1960; I was a bit of a Porsche fan so it was of special interest. Notes on the back of the photo, written at the time, say that this was a 10-year-old Porsche with an aluminum body. I don’t know how we knew the body was aluminum, but I daresay it was not mere speculation. It was driven by Carl Schmidt in the race. I never didn’t know any more about the car until just recently.

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Making Tracks: My Love Affair with the California Circuits of the ’50s

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Once again, I bring pixels to the screen with the hope that these images or text will tweak some memories from your bygone youth and bring a smile to your face. “I was there” is a favorite one I like to hear. Any idea of which track this is? I’ll give you a hint, it’s at Turn 5. The parties behind the wheels are: #69 Dan Gurney Ferrari 375 Plus, #59 Bob Oker Aston Martin, and #21 Hal Dolden Sparks-Bonney Special. Dan won and Bob was second. But, where?

Story and photographs by Allen R. Kuhn

In the next few months I will chronicle some of the 13 race tracks where I photographed the world of sports car racing in Southern California from 1955 to 1965. In this issue, I am featuring the wonderful world of the Paramount Ranch Race Track itself, my favorite shooting gallery. I will try and capture some of the topography of the landscape there in the following images. [Read more…] about Making Tracks: My Love Affair with the California Circuits of the ’50s

French Post Cards With Our Cars

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By Pete Vack
All photos courtesy Erik Verhaest

From the VeloceToday Archives, April, 2018

Many years ago I put away my copy of Erik Verhaest’s amazing booklet of post cards with an Italian car theme. It’s a small booklet, and went unnoticed in a large stack of books stored in a corner until the inevitable clean up revealed it once more. And again I was amazed and delighted with the postcards, most of which were in color and from the 1960s. And so I went to the huge archives of VeloceToday.com and retrieved the below article, updated it, and made contact again with the delightful Mr. Verhaest.

After a few days of enjoyable email discussion about his postcard collection and helping to identify some cars in the gorgeous locations, Erik Verhaest, aka “M.carpedi”, reflected a bit on the fun we had guessing the cars. “What a wonderful hobby!” he said. We couldn’t have agreed more.

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