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The 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps 2023

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If the BMW M4 GT3 is only in its second year of competition, the German manufacturer has long been faithful to the 24 Hours of Francorchamps. Thanks to the #98, entered by the German team Rowe Racing and driven by the trio Philipp Eng/Marco Wittmann/Nick Yelloly, the Munich manufacturer won the race for the 25th time in 75 editions.

Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

Each year, the 24 Hours of Francorchamps is the biggest race in the world reserved for GT class cars. 2023 was the 75th edition of the race, held on July 1-2. Next year it will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Formerly reserved for touring cars, GTs have been on the grid since 2001 and since then their success has been undeniable, the grid comprising no less than 70 cars this year, representing 8 different manufacturers. This represents no less than 251 drivers entered, the cars of the PRO class having only three drivers while, in the other classes, the crews have four drivers.

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Festival of Speed with Hugues Vanhoolandt

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In order to celebrate Porsche’s 75th anniversary with dignity, the monumental sculpture located in front of Goodwood House was dedicated to the Stuttgart brand. Here, in the foreground, the 911 Carrera RSR 2.8 in Brumos colors used at the time by the young Mexican Hector Rebaque before his move to Formula 1 in the late 70s.

Photos and story by Hugues Vanhoolandt

Coming from Belgium, I was back at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on July 16th for the first time in 4 years. Since then Covid 19 and Brexit have happened. However, I was not too out of place because the Festival of Speed is still as successful (and causes as many traffic jams!) and still arouse as much enthusiasm among fans. The British weather is also always equal to itself, with heavy rain punctuating Friday afternoon while Saturday was completely canceled due to storms (a first in 30 years of Festival of Speed)! Finally, there was only Sunday left to enjoy the various themes prepared by Lord March and his team such as the 75th anniversaries of Porsche, Lotus and the first race at Goodwood as well as the 60th anniversary of McLaren and the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, among other celebrations. But let’s rather see in pictures a brief overview of the festivities.

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Meeting Elly Beinhorn

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Elly Beinhorn, 29, in the pilot seat of her Messerschmit Me-108 Taifun, code D-IMXA. With this she flew, among others, to Capetown and back together with husband Bernd Rosemeyer, who was due to drive in the early 1937 South African races. The Taifun was then the top of European touring planes. Can you image flying from Berlin above the whole length of Africa and back single-engined and navigating with the compass only? Elly Beinhorn was a master of that, and in the meantime she gave flying lessons to Bernd.

It was Jonathan Sharp’s photo of the Me-108 in last week’s VeloceToday that prompted long time reader and contributor Aldo Zana to send us this compelling and revealing 2003 interview with Elly Beinhorn, answering the question “Who was Elly Beinhorn?” Thanks to Jonathan for his interest in aeroplanes and to Aldo for this interview- Ed.


By Aldo Zana
Photos from author’s collection

She sits at a coffee table, opposite the door. White shirt and a black skirt. Her snow white hair perfectly trimmed and combed. Bernd, her son, enters first: “Hello, Mom. How do you feel, today? Good? Good, for we’ve visitors.”

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Kuhn’s Maserati P2, 1960-1963

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I feel a need to start this dissertation with a true icon of the sport. He is, of course, Carroll Hall Shelby. We were both at the Examiner GP Riverside on April 3, 1960 where Shelby won driving this Maserati Birdcage Tipo 61 RHD s/n 2458, entered by Camoradi U.S.A.

Photography and Story by Allen R. Kuhn

My Humble Contribution to the Legacy of Maserati from 1957 thru 1963

Almost everything I read about Shelby states that he was a great car designer. I find it hard to accept the fact that he was a car designer. My feelings are he was great at getting the right people on his team to get things done, and knowing what was available to make it happen. Nothing wrong with that.

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Goodwood Festival of Speed: Drivers

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Derek Bell helps celebrate the 60 years of McLaren.

Photos by Jonathan Sharp

Familiar faces, new faces, young faces, and certainly some old faces. With this years Goodwood Festival of Speed (July 14-18) not just celebrating 75 years of Motor Racing at Goodwood but also the 60th anniversary of McLaren, 75 years of Porsche and the 100th anniversary of Le Mans. The bike guys from Moto GP were there and certainly plenty of well known and some not so well known (to me) faces to spot during what, unfortunately due to the weather, became a somewhat truncated and shortened weekend. Due to an inability to be at two places at once the following are those stars I managed to catch, for the ones I missed, sorry! We remind you that if you are in need of more information about any of the drivers below, highlight the name, go to Google, paste.

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In the Shadow of Checkpoint Charlie

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Greetings from Berlin: Ralph Mantel and Stefanie Schmidt with the Sestriere.

Story by Ralph Mantel
Photos by Blazej Zulawski at Classic Driver

July 8th, 2023, a hot summer night in Berlin, one of those nights you don’t want to go to bed but rather go out and enjoy the temperatures with cold drinks and wonderful people, perhaps attending the Berlin Flitzer Club and Classic Driver Meeting. The Club is gathering together and inviting their people for an privately held event called “Gran Futurismo.“

It is happening inside an Industrial Power Substation built in 1924, located in the former East Berlin, just around the corner from Checkpoint Charlie. Have you ever heard about CPC? During the cold war CPC was a guarded gate inside the Wall of Berlin. The gate connected Berlin’s American sector to the Russian district. Numerous spy movies play around Checkpoint Charlie. Now, after the German reunion the area is right in the heart of Berlin (Berlin Mitte) and hip and cool.

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Heveningham Concours 2023

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1960 Bristol 406 Sports Saloon by Zagato. This example is chassis 5299, one of six constructed, that was sold by Tony Crook to Richard Robinson, a well-known Bristol owners club member, who retained the car for three decades. Compared to a standard 406, the Zagato Sports Saloon is shorter, lower, and lighter to the tune of 260kg giving the car a top speed in the order of 120 mph. Between 2002 and 2005, 5299 was restored as to how it appeared at the 1960 Earls Court Motor Show.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
Information provided by event organizers

I am writing this intro to the Heveningham show on what has for me become a free Saturday (July 15) as day three of the Festival of Speed at Goodwood has just been cancelled, meaning I can stay home. The sun is shining but it is very windy, not kind to tents and other temporary structures built on the Goodwood Estate. What a change to last Saturday (July 8th) when I was in Suffolk at Heveningham Hall for the Country Fair and Concours where the sun shone down but the heat and humidity were to put mildly…yuk!. So here is our report from that somewhat better weekend.

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Allen R. Kuhn: Maserati 150S, 200S, 450S

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Story and photos by Allen R. Kuhn

It’s time to dust off the old negs, with a camel hair brush, I might add. The ones that seem to want attention are from my Maserati archives. That’s good because they were some of my favorites. What drew me to them was their beautiful lines and stunning sounds. Another thing that drew them to me happened in 2007 at the Automobilia Monterey event during the August Car Week.

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Louis Bionier and the End of Panhard

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Panhard’s last stand.

By Gijsbert-Paul Berk

From the VeloceToday Archives, April 2014

Read Part 1

Read Part 2

Read Part 3

The mighty influence of Citroën (minority shareholder but major client) in the running of Panhard became most apparent when the Panhard management in 1959 started to plan a successor of their PL 17. Monsieur Pierre Bercot, Citroën’s boss, made it clear to Jean Panhard that they would not support the Panhard Company to invest in the development of a new mid-sized ‘berline’ (four door sedan). His argument was that Citroën was shortly going to introduce the Ami, an upgraded version on the platform of the 2CV and was already working on a totally new mid-sized model (the GS) to be launched in 1970. It would be a folly to compete with each other in this segment.

However, it was agreed that there was room in the Citroën/Panhard range for a sporting two-door coupé. Thanks to its many victories in rallies and at Le Mans, the name Panhard was associated with successful small high performance cars. They should now cash in on this favorable image. Thus the idea was born to develop the Panhard 24 (the name linked to the famous 24 Hours race at Le Mans).

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100th Anniversary Le Mans Classic

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Even Shelby Cobra Daytona designer and occasional VeloceToday contributor Peter Brock (with the green cap) was on hand to support the Cobra Daytona teams.

Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

Le Mans Classic has traditionally been held in even years. However, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and Peter Auto have deviated from the rule this year given that 2023 is the year of the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

For this unique occasion, eleven grids were brought together with 800 cars entered as well as 200 clubs representing 9,200 cars. Spectators came in large numbers; the classic event reached the figure of 235,000 three weeks after the 325,000 spectators who attended the ‘real’ 24 Hours race. This is proof that motorsport is not about to die and is even doing better than ever.

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Here’s Why I Bought a Bristol

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A Citroen and a Bristol?

Story by Brandes Elitch

I have learned over time, mostly the hard way, that when an extraordinary thing happens in life, you must seize the moment because you won’t get a second chance. You could not call this a rational or logical decision and possibly not a good financial decision; it was clearly an emotional decision, but there was nothing to be done but to pack up the car with the Motoring Dog. I told him, “Stan, let’s do this,” and he wagged his tail. [Read more…] about Here’s Why I Bought a Bristol

Participating in the 2023 Mille Miglia

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Joe Hurwich with his 1931 Aston Martin Le Mans on his fourth Mille Miglia.

By Joe Hurwich
Photos by Fabian Gallucci

On June 13th Bob Goldberg (co driver) and I started the Mille Miglia in my 1931 Aston Martin Le Mans; it was my 4th time and his 1st. My 1st Mille was in 2018 in a 1938 MG SA, then in 2019 with an original Mille car-a 1957 Fiat 600 (1st car to start the race in 1957 – this car has finished 5 Mille’s since I bought it in 2017) and in 2021 with my Aston Martin which was covered in VeloceToday.

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