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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

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Bertone’s Aston Martin

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Aston Martin by Bertone, 2013. Credit Bonhams Auction.

From the VeloceToday Archives, December, 2013

By Wallace Wyss

Sometimes it’s the odd one that appreciates the most…

At one time, race cars were fetching a lot more at the major auctions than car show one-offs. The idea was that if you buy a race car, if you’re lucky you get one with history. You buy a show car, a one-off what do you get? A momentary bauble. A flavor of the moment as it were. Designs that came and went, mostly forgotten.

Well this 1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT Bertone Jet coupe, chassis 0201L, Engine no. 370/-201/GT was sold at a May, 2013 Bonhams auction for the top dollar sum of 3,249,500 GBP ($4,928,697 USD) which is more than some Aston Martin DB4GT race cars go for even with some racing history.

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Allen Kuhn’s von Neumann Gallery

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John von Neumann is racing his Ferrari 860 Monza at Minter Field, now called Shafter Airport in Bakersfield, CA. on May 20, 1956. He finished second to Pearce Woods and his D-Type Jaguar. Enjoy.

Story and Photos by Allen R. Kuhn

As I pondered who or what might interest the readers of VeloceToday, a name popped into my aging mind. What about one of the pioneers of sports car racing in So Cal, the one and only John von Neumann? My first sighting of him was the third sports car race I attended. He was in his Porsche 550 Spyder at Glendale Airport in 1955; it was used in a previous issue of VT. He sounded like a good subject.

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Magnificent Mille Miglia 2022 Part 1

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The treasures of the Mille Miglia are back on Piazza Vittoria, in Brescia, where it all started 95 years ago.


Story and Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

This 40th re-enactment of the Mille Miglia was a special edition as it marked a return to normality after two editions impacted by the pandemic. The foreign crews, mostly absent in 2020 and 2021, were back in number as well as the public along the roads and in the city centers.

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The Sir Jackie Stewart Classic

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Jackie at the wheel about to roll out on the grid for his first race in the car which he won by a country mile in the F3 Cooper. He would be reunited with this car last weekend at the Jackie Stewart Classic.

Story and Photos by Graham and Larch Gauld

Last weekend, June 18-19,2022, was a memorable one for me for two reasons.

The first was that I attended the Sir Jackie Stewart Classic held at Thirlestane Castle, around 27 miles due south of Edinburgh, and the second because it was exactly seventy years and four days since I had covered my first motor race as a journalist at the old WWII airfield at Charterhall about 20 miles away!

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Savile Row Concours 2022

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Editor’s Choice: Commissioned by Count Antonio Bruno Sterzi, this 1952 Vignale bodied Ferrari 225S is one of only six examples built.

Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp

Popped up to London on Wednesday the 15th June to Savile Row in Mayfair, but not for a suit (I am more Marks and Sparks than Gieves & Hawkes) but for a new car event, ‘The Concours on Savile Row’ brought to us by Hothouse Media and the Pollen Estate. A blooming hot day but a nice setting for a concours.

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Magnificent Mille Miglia 2022 Part 2

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1934 Lancia Astura.

Story and Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

For the world’s best regularity run drivers, the Mille Miglia is THE race of the year, not to be missed. This year saw the third victory in a row of Andrea Vesco, with co-driver Fabio Salvinelli, aboard a 1928 Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Super Sport. This is the first time since 2000 that a driver managed to triumph in three consecutive editions. Below, we continue our presentation of the 2022 Mille Miglia, from Lancia to the French entries.

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Mike Sparken, Part 1 by Graham Gauld

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Mike Sparken, winning at Oulton Park in the rain with his trusty 750 Monza.

First published by VeloceToday in 2012.
In the 1950s, if you had talent and the necessary finances, you could become a successful racing driver as a private entrant. This is the story of one of them, a French-born racing driver by the name of Mike Sparken. We were working on this article when on September 21, 2012. Sparken died at his home in the South of France at the age of eighty-two.

By Graham Gauld

Mike Sparken, or Michael Poberejsky, to cite his proper name, was born in Paris in 1930 to a wealthy Russian family that had left Russia for Paris at the time of the 1917 Revolution.

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Mike Sparken Part 2 by Graham Gauld

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Mike Sparken would end up with this 1938 Alfa Berlinetta, but he would not have it for long…

By Graham Gauld
Photos by Graham Gauld unless otherwise noted

First published by VeloceToday in 2012. We have learned how Mike Sparken came into motor racing, his exploits with his very special Aston Martin DB3 and his Ferrari Monza, and how he had retired from racing after the British Grand Prix of 1955, where he drove a Gordini into seventh place. But what he did after he retired from racing would make him famous throughout the world…

Throughout his racing career, and later into his time with the Grand Prix Drivers Club, he met up with another well-known private entrant of the time who was born and spent his early life in Brazil and then moved to Paris; Hernano da Silva Ramos. [Read more…] about Mike Sparken Part 2 by Graham Gauld

Mike Sparken Part 3 by Graham Gauld

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The Alfa 158/9 at the Paul Ricard circuit.

By Graham Gauld
Photos by Gauld unless otherwise noted.

First published in VeloceToday in 2012. As we have learned in Part I, Lord Doune was a bit in the dark as to the importance of the 1938 Alfa 2.9 Berlinetta, and returned it to Danny Margulies who in turn called upon Mike Sparken.

Mike Sparken was more aware of the importance of the Sommer/Biondetti Alfa. He spared no expense to have it taken apart and rebuilt by Paul Grist. The engine was sent to Tony Merrick and he did a wonderful job on it. But Grist had really done his part superbly. When I had seen the car in Doune collection, the grille was wrong; it looked like chicken wire rather than the elegant egg-box grille of the original. Thanks to Grist, the car turned out to be stunning. It was road -taxed in England but Mike Sparken had a plan in mind.

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Stories for the AROC National Convention

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Click on each photo to read three stories tailored to get the Alfa owners attending the National Convention revved up this week: Dennis Pillar and the Porsches From Dale LaFollette comes a series of photos taken in 1971 at Portland International Raceway, showing how his Alfa-tossing friend Dennis Pillar trounced the Porsches that fine day….

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How I Met Jon Shirley and More

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Shelby, Maserati 300S, Palm Springs, April 7, 1957.

Story and photos by Allen Kuhn

Segment One How I met Jon Shirley

It was still early in my career, and I had no photo pass yet when I attended the races at Palm Springs on April 7, 1957. Once I found a good spot, next to the dreaded snow fence, I had a tendency to just settle in there. This sedentary occupation, however, resulted in these four Shelby images.

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Ferrari’s Fab Four Part 2: 0408 MD

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Story by Peter Darnall

The first five Mondials built were set aside by the factory to compete as “works” entries in the 1954 Mille Miglia. The third of these First Series Mondials to be built was Chassis Number 0408 MD. Owner Jeff Abramson treated me to several laps at speed around the Sonoma Raceway in this car and that run was my introduction to these extraordinary machines.

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