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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

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Richard Pietruska: Form Follows Fantasy

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Ferrari GTO and another familiar form. Photo courtesy Pietruska.

Interview by Wallace Wyss

RICHARD PIETRUSKA is a professor and an artist living in Venice, CA who has the distinction of having escaped the clutches of the auto industry to become an Internationally known sculptor. Contributor Wallace Wyss saw him at the FCA convention and asked for an update.

WYSS: I notice the patina on that one sculpture. Is that fiberglass, or have you gone to metal?

PIETRUSKA: That’s metal, bronze. The finish is a very unique silver nitrate patina that lends itself to that particular sculpture of the Ferrari 250/599 GTO.
[Read more…] about Richard Pietruska: Form Follows Fantasy

Rambo’s Lambos

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Just your basic Lamborghini off-road LM 002.

By Wallace Wyss

If the movie hero “Rambo” were real and John Rambo ever bought an Italian sports car..this would be it.

If ever there was a totally useless car…on the other hand, think if you were an Arab Sheik, with nothing but sand in the distance in all directions and you hear that a hostile army is coming your way, then you would want a Lamborghini LM002.

After all, it can cruise at 120 mph.

Over sand.

No wonder it got the nickname “Lambo Rambo.”
[Read more…] about Rambo’s Lambos

Intermountain Concours d’Elegance-Lehi, Utah 2012

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Ferrari Enzo in the Garden; the scenery at the Intermountain Concours is as spectaular as the cars.

By Wallace Wyss
Images by Booker-All Rights Reserved.

A world class Concours in Utah? There’s potential here!

First of all, there’s the cars. While this writer is not familiar with the classic cars in Utah, and rarely hears of Utah entries at events, he saw an incredible wealth of cars come out of the woodwork at the 2012 Intermountain Concours, representing a strong car culture.

Among them were several million dollar and multi-million dollar cars if you want to take value as one criterion (and the marketplace acknowledges this with big auctions adjoining these events, often on the actual grounds of famous Concours like Pebble Beach). [Read more…] about Intermountain Concours d’Elegance-Lehi, Utah 2012

Portfolio 1966 Ferrari 365 California

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365 California has a Pininfarina body and a 365P engine...enough said? Photo by Booker.

By Wallace Wyss

Enzo Ferrari definitely knew what side of the bread was buttered. Although he had production cars and race cars in production, he realized he would have to make special limited editions for executives and movie stars, because after all, exclusive wasn’t exclusive if there were hundreds of a model made.
[Read more…] about Portfolio 1966 Ferrari 365 California

Palos Verdes Concours September 16th, 2012

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Find all the Palos Verdes Concours winners at end of article.

By Wallace Wyss
Pictures by Richard Bartholomew and Wallace Wyss

Palos Verdes is a peninsula that sticks out into the ocean between LA harbor and Redondo Beach in Southern California. It can be a spectacular place, especially when the weather is acting up on the way there, as it was September 16th when the Palos Verdes show kicked off. It was dewy, cloudy, sunny, and variations of all of these every five minutes, but was very photogenic. Fortunately once we got there it all turned out to be the best weather imaginable–82 deg. or so with clouds hanging on the top of the hills. I bet those who didn’t go because they saw bad weather outside their window regretted it later. [Read more…] about Palos Verdes Concours September 16th, 2012

Barbarian at the Gate

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Betcha didn't think we'd run this photo....

Dear Boss,

I took a little trip up the Coast to Monterey, so as promised, I thought I’d drop a note with a few images. I selected a big ol’Chrysler 300 for the trip, and arrived in my secret low cost no-tell motel in five hours.

On Wednesday I set off for the Embassy Suites and set up my booth at Automobilia, a sort of emporium for the flora and fauna of the automotive world– posters, model cars, clothes, old books (and new books). I was pleased to be in a booth next to Mike Rabin who is famous for making wheel discs He had a great sense of humor, especially considering he had to endure hearing my sales pitch at least 100 times. Finally he got to where he would interrupt my pitch to a new client, saying “It’s getting deeper.”
[Read more…] about Barbarian at the Gate

Testing the Fiat 500 Cabriolet

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How it almost charmed a curmudgeon

In the road-testing world there’s a little bit of Stephen Stills “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with”. You have to forget about the car you drove last week and like the one you’re driving now.

When it first arrived here, I was at first very skeptical of the new Fiat and didn’t ask for one to test drive. I remember when Fiats were big back in the Sixties and how there was precious little parts and service and the dealerships seemed like back alley operations. So I wondered, “When Fiat comes back, will they do a better job in parts and service this time around?”
[Read more…] about Testing the Fiat 500 Cabriolet

Bitsa Number One

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wyss

The Author.

We at VeloceToday.com attempt to keep up with current world news concerning French and Italian cars but let’s face it, it’s a big job. So it is that we welcome occasional columnist Wallace Wyss in a new column called “Bitsa” where he mentions news stories and his take on their significance, or insignificance.

FORZA ITALIAN STYLE

File this under “It had to happen eventually.” In Japan on Dec. 4th there was a convoy of Japanese Ferrari enthusiasts proceeding at an average of 90 mph toward a car event. The track, er, highway, was the Chugoku highway in western Japan. Some ace driver changed lanes and there was a dispute over whose lane it was. The driver spun out and the result was a 14-vehicle pile-up. When the smoke cleared, there were eight Ferraris, two Mercedes and a Lamborghini and a couple lowly Toyotas severely wrinkled. The miracle was that 10 people were taken to hospitals but none were seriously injured.
[Read more…] about Bitsa Number One

Shelby’s TdF

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Art by Wallace Wyss

By Wallace Wyss

In 1959 Carroll Shelby won the biggest race there was in sports car racing, and that was the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He quit driving shortly after that, and just in time, because a heart condition he had managed to hide from the SCCA medical techs was threatening to take him out if he didn’t quit. He wasn’t worried about what he would do next; he was already was working on a plan to build his own sports car.

Although he was known for winning most of his victories in Ferraris and Maseratis, if you search deep down in the racing records you find that, among the fifty different marques of cars he drove was a Buick-powered special called “Ol’ Yaller”.

Shelby knew that the biggest expense in developing a new car was designing and engineering the chassis, the engine and transmission. If he could find a ready-made chassis that already had an existing engine and transmission, well then the problem was considerably smaller– only clothing it in an appropriately Italian sexy style and promoting it. He had spent too much time in Italy not to know that there were great designers and coachbuilders there. He also knew there was a snob appeal to having a car bodied in Italy. He probably had it in for Enzo Ferrari [according to historian Willem Oosthoek, when Shelby boasted of all his victories in the U.S., an unimpressed Enzo asked him: “But what was your competition?” Ed.]
so he thought why not stick it to the old man by having Ferrari’s own body builder build it?

His first idea was to use the All American Corvette. Hence the Corvette Italia.
[Read more…] about Shelby’s TdF

Interview with Michael Cannell, Author of “The Limit”

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The book is out, the reviews are rave. The Boston Globe says “The Limit, Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit” reads “like a thriller”; the Wall Street Journal calls it a “well researched chronicle” and “an enthralling history of road racing’s golden era”; USA Today said it “deserves a spot in the library—if not, soon enough, on the DVD rack” Indeed, author Michael Cannell, a lifelong New Yorker who is not a car nut and who doesn’t even own one, sold the rights to the movie before the book was even written.

For us hardcore euro-car-nuts, much ado about an old subject. But Cannell thought that the story of Phil Hill and von Trips would resonate with today’s audience, and apparently he was right. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Spiderman Tobey Maguire snapped up the rights to develop the project at Columbia Pictures long before the book was published, perhaps in an attempt to keep ahead of filmmaker Ron Howard, who will begin shooting the Lauda/Hunt epic, “Rush”, in February. Then there is A.J. Baime’s “Go Like Hell”, also presumably in the process of getting to the big screen, not to forget that Wallace Wyss’s book SHELBY: The Man The Cars The Legend has also optioned its movie rights to a film producer.

VeloceToday will review “The Limit” in depth next week. But even before the book was published, Wally Wyss caught up with author Michael Cannell, and asked all the right questions. His interview follows.

Interview by Wallace Wyss

Wyss: Mike, what is your background? Are you a car guy per se?
Cannell: Strangely enough, I’m not a car guy. Quite the contrary, in fact. As a lifelong New Yorker, I don’t own a car. And I’m a pretty poor driver. It is a source of some embarrassment to me that I have shown up to interview great automotive figures in a compact rental car that I can hardly park. [Read more…] about Interview with Michael Cannell, Author of “The Limit”

One Man’s Pantera

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A Man and his Car Series: Al Axelrod going on 33 Years with one Pantera.

By Wallace Wyss

They say after many years of marriage a couple tends to look alike.

So far, after a 34-year “marriage” to his Pantera, Al Axelrod hasn’t yet taken on a silver patina (except for a wee bit of gray around the temples…) like his Pantera, but it could happen.

Why so long with one car?

“It meets my needs as far as an exotic,” says Axelrod, who for 24 years ran his own shop adjacent to Beverly Hills servicing special interest and exotic cars.

Axelrod now lives in Centennial, Colorado, where, even though he’s in his mid 70’s, he still looks forward to each ski season, especially at Copper Mountain and Vail, let alone A-Basin and Winter Park.

But when there’s no snow on the ground, for entertainment, he drives his 1972 Pantera. (or maybe his ‘32 Ford street rod stake truck) “I bought the Pantera with 26k miles on it, fried engine and all, back in 1976,” he recalls after maintaining it for the original owner who purchased it at a Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Hollywood and refused to take it back there for “warrantee” work.

Hey, if you're 75 and you're still skiing, then you can handle a rip-roarin' sports car like a Pantera.

“I had looked at several and knew not to get the very early ones which had cooling problems and some detail issues needing upgrading. By the time mine (mid 72) was made they had sorted all that out.”

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