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Bertone’s Aston Martin

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Aston Martin by Bertone, 2013. Credit Bonhams Auction.

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 1960Aston 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.

There is a reason for this. This particular car was the last DB4 GT chassis—and the last of any series is worth more than the ones in the middle.

First a little bit about the Aston Martin DB4 GT as a model. “DB” means “David Brown” by the way, he being the owner of Aston after WWII. The DB4GT was introduced as the competition version of the DB4 sports saloon. First launched in in 1958, the Aston Martin DB4 was a direct challenge to Ferrari. It had an all new steel platform chassis with disc brakes all round, and a race-developed twin-cam six-cylinder 3.7-litre engine, all clothed in a perfectly proportioned aluminum body designed by Touring Superleggera of Milan.

Press release photo of the Giugiaro Aston.

[Read more…] about Bertone’s Aston Martin

Kjell Qvale: 1919-2013

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Kjell Qvale. Credit British Motor Car Distributors


By Wallace Wyss

“Mr. Q”, described by newspapers as “a legendary powerhouse in the international motor industry,” died on November 1 in San Francisco at the age of 94.

His name is pronounced completely different from what you expect, more like SHELL CUE-VOL-A. I met him a couple of times, first when I went to his impressive office on San Francisco’s Van Ness Avenue to interview him about the period when he imported the first DeTomaso Mangusta to America. I knew when I met him in his office that he was taking the time to meet an unknown journalist to discuss a sensitive topic (and later, you could not mention “DeTomaso” without some friction….). But he was extremely helpful and honest.

Born in Norway in 1919, the son of a sea captain, he showed salesman’s chops early selling household items door-to-door. He migrated to Seattle in 1929 and went on to serve the US military flying transports during the war.

Soon after the war, he bought a distributorship for Jeep. About that time, he happened upon a fellow in San Francisco driving an odd little car. He asked where it was made and the man said “Britain.” Making further inquiries he found out it was a sports car called the MG. Duly impressed, in 1947, Qvale became the MG distributor for the West Coast, calling his San Francisco based company “British Motor Car Distributors, Ltd.” In 1953 Qvale, along with partner Reynold C. Johnson, gave his first order to Volkswagen Germany for 12 VW Beetles to sell in Northern California. Along with his brother Knute, Kjell started Riviera Motors as the sole Volkswagen importer for the Pacific Northwest in 1954, which eventually grew to over 2,500 Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi vehicle sales per month. He later became a distributor for the MG, for Jaguar, for Bentley, for Rover and brought back the name Jensen to America.

He was also very big in sponsoring sports cars in racing. I know he imported the first lightweight Jaguar E-type, one he wrested away from Briggs Cunningham, and if you look at old Competition Press newspapers there are hundreds of examples of cars he sponsored. He eventually reached beyond British and German cars to import Italian cars such as the DeTomaso Mangusta, and later Maserati, with the Bora, the Merak and the Quattroporte.

When Qvale caught sight of the Mangusta, he ordered 300.

He helped establish San Francisco’s International Auto Show. But more important to collectors, one time he thought of displaying some cars on the Pebble Beach golf course in a little informal car show and that eventually grew to become the venerable Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance that takes place each August in Monterey. Being a racing fan he also aided in the creation of Laguna Seca raceway and is credited with the design of the tricky part of the course, the “corkscrew.”

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Art Center Classic 2013: A Show for Connoisseurs

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Alfa Sprint Veloce Zagato looking refreshingly original. But we have no idea if that is actually the case...

By Rick Bartholomew and Wallace Wyss

Italian cars were a definite draw at the Art Center Classic for 2013, the annual show held at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. The college is the premier art school in the world for training car designers. [Read more…] about Art Center Classic 2013: A Show for Connoisseurs

Terry Cook: Faux French

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Strange but beautiful concoctions…

By Wallace Wyss

The Pacific. Bids to start at $250K.

If you are an old hot rodder, you might remember when Terry Cook was the dynamo editor of Car Craft, and later Hot Rod magazines. Most of the time, these gearheads don’t “cross-over” to classic cars but this writer was surprised to find Cook is the name behind Delahaye USA. He’s now a full-fledged classic car aficionado, designing cars and having them created from scratch via a number of fabrication shops. True to form though, his self-styled classics still have hot rod underpinnings. Sounds like a dream come true and Cook agrees. VeloceToday contributor Wallace Wyss, assisted by photographer Richard Bartholomew, interviewed Terry Cook at the Palos Verdes Concours in September.

The Pacific on the street as photographed by Richard Bartholomew.

WYSS: I saw your stunning Bugatti-styled car at Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance. Are you a fabricator yourself?

COOK: Never a fabricator or builder, and not a mechanic. I’m a designer/bullshitter. A world-class bullshitter. I went drag racing in early 60’s, then quit racing myself and concentrated on journalism. I never had writer’s block.

WYSS: Is it true that you were unaware of classic cars until quite recently, like seeing a Bugatti in a NYC show?

COOK: It was in 1995 that I saw Oscar Davis’ 1939 Shah of Persia Bugatti and its pontoon fenders. That glimpse of that car changed my life for the better.

WYSS: I can understand… the Bugatti of the Shah will be featured in my next Incredible Barn Finds book. But how did you acquire the name “Delahaye USA?” Did you buy U.S. rights to the name? What happened to the last vestiges of the company?

COOK: The Delahaye Company went out of business in 1953. I started using it 8-9 years ago and nobody sent me a cease-and-desist letter; been using it for years with no objections from anyone. I received lots of nice letters from people with the Delahaye name thanking me for keeping the memory alive, and treating it with respect. I also have been making fiberglass Zephyr and boattail bodies under the flag of DECO RIDES.

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Palo Verdes Concours, 2013

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Best of Show was this Hispano Suiza towncar. Excellent choice!

By Wallace Wyss

One of the best things about the Palos Verdes Concours, which takes place at the Trump National Golf Club, is that it is on a peninsula that sticks out into the Pacific. The view is to die for–rolling golf greens and limitless ocean.

Not only that, it seems they have a tradition there of honoring obscure French marques. This year, though, the overall theme was “Age of Elegance” with examples of Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Duesenberg, and Dietrich coachwork. Ray Dietrich was a celebrated American designer in the custom coachwork era.

But rest assured there were plenty of Italian and French cars.
[Read more…] about Palo Verdes Concours, 2013

One Man’s Monterey, 2013

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Fiat Otto Vu s/n 000051 was one of two similar Vignale bodied V-8 Fiats and was seen at the Quail. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.

By Wallace Wyss
Photos by Author unless otherwise noted

Dear Editor,

Automobilia was the first event I rolled into, which starts Tuesday morning of “car week” and is held in the Embassy Suites hotel in Seaside. This event has at least 30 vendors and they all bring their specialties. Some bring out of print books (I was shocked when the vendor next to my booth told me he sold three books for over $1400 each!). Some bring older posters both pre-war and post-war; there was a vendor from England with original photographs that he was proud to say “weren’t digital.” A few sell car bits, like the fellow next to me selling Rolls Royce radiator ornaments.

And then some were selling clothes that were either copying old pre-war racing clothing or in the spirit of sports car clothing. I had my own booth vending the brand spanking new Incredible Barn Finds and was pleased when, on the second day of the event, I met people who’d bought one the first day and were enthusiastic to finish it.

Go ahead, make my day. Wyss gets the nod from Leno.

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Missed Opportunities: Rita’s Ghia Cadillac

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Art by Wallace Wyss

By Wallace Wyss

This is a story of unrequited love all the way around. It occurred in the early ‘50s. Think film noir, mood lighting, moonlight on the Riviera, that sort of thing.

First, (and good casting for this story I might add) as the female lead was Rita Hayworth, born Margarita Carmen Cansino, to a Spanish Flamenco dancer father and Ziegfield girl mother. She was reportedly an under-age dancer at a Tijuana club when she was discovered by Fox Studios.

She became one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood. Her one-glove strip tease in the movie Gilda put her on the map. Rita was a top movie star and a popular pinup girl during the forties. Her second husband was famed director Orson Wells, who she married in 1943. Her career bloomed during that time, but she lived on the edge, by having a fling around 1948. Not with some ordinary Joe, mind you, but with an Ismaili prince, Aly Kahn.

I had heard about Aly Khan since I was a teenager but back then (you might say “before Wikipedia”) I never actually had been able to figure out what country he was a prince of, primarily because the Ismaili sect of Muslims have no country or territory of their own. Prince Ali Salman Aga Khan, known as Aly Khan, was a son of Sultan Mohammed Shah, Aga Khan III, the head of the Ismaili Muslims. Aly Khan’s son, born in 1957, is the current Sultan Aga Khan IV and worth about $800 million.

Rita was also associated with the Savonuzzi Gilda project. Click here to read story.

[Read more…] about Missed Opportunities: Rita’s Ghia Cadillac

Interview with Marc Sonnery

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Marc Sonnery (Copyright Haymarket)

Marc Sonnery (Copyright Haymarket)

Marc Sonnery

By Wallace Wyss

[We’ll have a review of the latest book by Marc Sonnery next week]

Marc Sonnery, age 48, half French and half Swedish, is a fit and well-groomed author who is ready to travel the globe in his quest to write about his favorite marque, Maserati. His name was seen in CAVALLINO for ten years, where he wrote about Ferraris, but in the 1990’s he began researching Maseratis and now spends most of his waking hours researching the history of various models. So it is that he recently authored a book on the Maserati models built when Citroen owned Maserati as well as the Citroën SM. I met with him during Sonnery’s California publicity swing and had an opportunity to do a short interview.
[Read more…] about Interview with Marc Sonnery

La Ferrari and Other Notables Critiqued

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Wallace Wyss likes to draw. Granted, he’ll never be a Picasso- and the good Lord knows the Editor will never be a Hemingway – so we both do what we can with what we have.

Over the past five years Wyss has sent us a variety of critiques of new designs out of Italy, and a few old ones as well. It’s a lot of fun and he makes some good points along the way.

His latest is below, the new La Ferrari (or whatever they will end up naming it). And below that, we’ve found a gathering of his previous critiques of Ferraris, Alfas, and even Rolls-Royce as they came to us. [Editor]
[Read more…] about La Ferrari and Other Notables Critiqued

A Citroën Right Hook

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This 1954 Traction Avant was found in Australia by the late Gary Byrd.

By Wallace Wyss

Picture the scene: it’s pitch dark, you’re down by the Seine on a foggy night. A guy in a trenchcoat lights a cigarette, and in the flare of the flame you see a woman in a full length black coat and red beret aiming a pistol at him…
[Read more…] about A Citroën Right Hook

The Significance of Scottsdale Vis-à-vis Ferraris

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Lot 23 at the Gooding Auction brought $737,000. It was a 330 GTC.

Opinion by Wallace Wyss
All photos courtesy of Gooding & Company Auctions.

We are still reeling from the prices achieved at Scottsdale auctions. For example, $737,000 for a mere 330GTC is mind-numbing. It is about three times what GTCs usually get at auctions.

Other mind-numbing numbers at the Gooding auction were: [Read more…] about The Significance of Scottsdale Vis-à-vis Ferraris

TC by Maserati via Chrysler

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The TC by Maserati had open headlamps which meant you didn’t have to worry about headlight covers failing to open like you do on the LeBaron. The hardtop was always painted body color and if you can get a hardtop with a car today, take it as it’s roughly 10% of the car’s value.

The TC by Maserati had open headlamps which meant you didn’t have to worry about headlight covers not opening like you do on the LeBaron. The hardtop was always painted body color and if you can get a hardtop with a car, take it, as it’s roughly 10% of the car’s value.


Wherein a top Detroit executive spends millions
to complement his Italian heritage…

By Wallace Wyss

Photos of the TC by Maserati courtesy of Beverly Hills Motorcars in San Diego California.

Most people are proud of their heritage. Lido “Lee” Iacocca was extremely proud of being born in Italy, although he grew up in America.

He became one of America’s top auto executives, first coming to the public’s attention in the ’60s when the new Mustang was rolled out. At one point he had his picture on the cover of TIME magazine along with the Mustang. Though the Mustang was a bang-up success (selling 22,000 units the first day!), all this publicity focused on him really teed off his boss, Henry Ford II, grandson of the first Henry Ford.

So one day HFII (nicknamed “Deuce”) summoned Iacocca to his top floor office and summarily fired him.

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