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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

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The Fred Puhn Story

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Fred Puhn and the Santee SS.

By Fred Puhn
All photos courtesy Fred Puhn

Read Part 2 Fred’s Maserati

I was born in 1939; my childhood was spent in a country environment near Lakeside California. We lived on a dirt road and played outdoors most of the year. A big activity was the design, construction, and driving of “coasters” (gravity powered race cars). Not having much money, we scrounged materials such as old shopping cart or wagon wheels, scrap lumber, and old bolts and nails. Our coasters ranged from very nice to very crude, and we spent many weekends and summers riding down hills, crashing, and rebuilding. I learned how to throw a coaster sideways in the dirt to stop it because they never had any brakes. It was during these early years I learned to control a vehicle and to design and build one.

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Flying With Pegasus: The continuing story of Alfa Romeo #50013

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By Peter Darnall

Any of the racing Alfa Romeos from the decade of the 1930s will fetch a king’s ransom in today’s collector market. Put a Tipo C on the block and the opening bids would normally be associated with high-end real estate properties. When the rarest of them all, a 1935 8C-35 with matching engine and chassis number 50013, was offered by Bonhams in 2013, the winning bid was the highest price ever paid for a single seat racer! [Read more…] about Flying With Pegasus: The continuing story of Alfa Romeo #50013

Reflections: Forty Years of the Monterey Car Week

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The Alfa 6C 1750 was produced in six series from 1929-33. In 1929 it won every major racing event, including the GP’s of Belgium, Spain, Tunis, Monza, as well as the Mille Miglia, the Brooklands Double Twelve, and the Ulster TT.

Story by Brandes Elitch
Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

I first time I attended what has become known as “The Monterey Historics” was back in 1979, when I moved to California from New York City. I have not missed a year since – 40 years is a long time for anything.

In the early years, my focus was primarily the Laguna Seca racetrack. These were the beginnings of historic racing, the genius of Steve Earle creating the blueprint for what was to come worldwide. I was amazed that I could walk anywhere in the pits, and go right up to the owner and talk about his car, exotic racecars I had never seen in person before, just read about in Road & Track. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. [Read more…] about Reflections: Forty Years of the Monterey Car Week

Hugues Vanhoolandt, World Class Photographer

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Abarth 1000 Record Pinin Farina “La Principessa”

Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

What can you say about Hugues Vanhoolandt, who almost every year travels the world, attending and reporting on almost every major classic car event in the UK, the U.S., and Europe? [Read more…] about Hugues Vanhoolandt, World Class Photographer

Coming Up in VeloceToday

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VeloceToday rarely gives our readers any idea of what’s coming up. We like surprises and assume the readers do as well. But we are so pleased and excited about the articles coming up in September that we just had to show you a few. We hope we haven’t ruined any surprises, but there are still many more in store. And don’t miss the Archive selections this week, just past the coming attractions. They are free for all readers.

Coming up in VeloceToday: Paul Wilson finally tells all about how he created a very special body – entirely on his own – for an Alfa 6C 2500. Something we all wanted to do but few have the talent and tools to complete such a daunting task.

How about a little Kimberly? No, not Jim but his nephew Bill. Willem Oosthoek presents life in full with a six chapter feature on this little known driver.

Much more well known was Luigi Villoresi. Toward the end of his long and active life, Graham Gauld sat down with him to learn about this fascinating Italian race driver.

Pebble Beach, 2016 by Michael T. Lynch

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Vicki and Michael T. Lynch, Pebble Beach, 2016.

From our Archives, September, 2016

Story and photos by Michael T. Lynch


The Capstone

The Pebble Beach Concours is the emotional finish of Holy Week on the Monterey Peninsula. Events continue into the next week, but none can match the feeling of climax that the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance provides.

If your pilgrimage is five days or longer, the fall days are losing enough sunlight that it seems one is leaving in the summer and returning home in fall. Certainly, it is clear that another year has passed. [Read more…] about Pebble Beach, 2016 by Michael T. Lynch

Pebble Beach 2016 by Hugues Vanhoolandt

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Sunday morning, 6 am, the cars are waiting to be placed on the Pebble Beach lawn. Here is another creation of Michelotti, also on Fiat 1100 chassis, and shown at the 1953 Turin Auto Show but this time the coachbuilder is Vignale. It is back to the Pebble Beach Concours 61 years after its first appearance here.

Sunday morning, 6 am, the cars are waiting to be placed on the Pebble Beach lawn. Here is another creation of Michelotti, also on Fiat 1100 chassis, and shown at the 1953 Turin Auto Show. The coachbuilder is Vignale. It was back at the Pebble Beach Concours 61 years after its first appearance here.

From our Archives, September, 2016

Photos and story by Hugues Vanhoolandt

In its 66th year, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance was celebrating among other things the Ford GT40, Chapron, Delahaye, Bizzarrini and the centennial of BMW. [Read more…] about Pebble Beach 2016 by Hugues Vanhoolandt

Excerpts from “The Thrill of the Chase” Part 3

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Read Part 2

One might think that after discovering and purchasing a Mercedes W125, a W154 and a D Type Auto Union, Colin Crabbe might settle back and relax. But his business, and that of the classic car industry, had just begun. Already a seasoned world traveler, in the 1970s and 80s Crabbe ventured off to the U.S., Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Cuba where dozens of treasures were in wait. We have selected, at random, just a very few stories from his remarkable book.

The answer to “Car 54 Where are You” is here, here! Colin’s find in the U.S. was the famed SCCA racecar driven by Jack McAfee and Oscar Koveleski.

[Read more…] about Excerpts from “The Thrill of the Chase” Part 3

Etceterini Corner Number Six: Stanguellini

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Stanguellini 1100 Sport, Mille Miglia 2017

By Hugues Vanhoolandt, Lorenzo Marchesini, Graham Gauld

As we wrap up Hugues Vanhoolandt’s amazing portfolio of Etceterinis, we focus on perhaps the most famous of all, Stanguellini. In addition to Vanhoolandt’s photos, we went to the archives and found a story from 2003 by Lorenzo Marchesini who visited the Stanguellini museum and combined that with a history of the make. We then accented that report with photos given by Francesco Stanguellini to Graham Gauld. These rare prints are for sale, so contact Graham if you are interested.

So, enjoy our last foray into the delightful and diminutive world of the tiny Italian sports racers. May Hugues add to his collection next year, when we hope we’ll see another Mille Miglia retro. [Read more…] about Etceterini Corner Number Six: Stanguellini

Berliet, Bologna and Tyres

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This wonderful cartoon drawing of the Bologna circuit was produced by the organizers.

Story by Graham Gauld

For more years than I care to remember, almost daily I have been faced with what I am going to write about, particularly when the publication is concerned with motoring and motorsport history.
This is why some of my stories might appear to be out of the ordinary. The following is one of them.

Twenty years ago, I was appointed a member of the FIA Historic Commission in Paris, which sounds terribly grand. It was an enjoyable five years, and one met very interesting people.

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BS Levy: More Alfa Amore

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Burt’s agile Alfa nips adroitly to the inside of a lumbering Datsun Z-Car at Blackhawk Farms Turn Four. Courtesy BS Levy

By BS Levy

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Read Part 2

There’s a great story about a younger friend who came to visit the irreverent, irascible and famously sour comedian W.C. Fields in the hospital towards the end of his life. The friend was surprised to find him leafing through a copy of the Holy Bible. The friend of course asked what he was doing, and the oft-taciturn W.C. arched up an eyebrow and answered: “Lookin’ for loopholes, son. Lookin’ for loopholes…”

And that, dear friends, is where one begins, in the dead of a Midwestern winter—rulebook in hand and green 1974 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce racecar-to-be sitting as-yet untouched in the garage—dreaming, scheming, plotting and planning how to build a world-beater. Or, on a slightly less ambitious scale, a top-flight Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs Showroom A-class contender.

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Jano, De Virgilio and Fessia Lancias

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To the Moon with Fessia.

By Pete Vack

From the Archives, October 2014

There is so much to say about Lancia, and Lancia and De Virgilio: At The Center. Both topics are far too large for the confines of an online magazine so we will try to contain ourselves. But we’ll take a quick look at the book itself and then discuss the Jano/Fessia Lancias and how they differed. [Read more…] about Jano, De Virgilio and Fessia Lancias

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