Ever envied Indiana Jones? Ciick on the Ethiopian Adventure and visit the Ark of the Covenant; attend Goodwood with Jonathan Sharp, Palos Verdes with Wally Wyss and wrap up the Tours epic with a surprise. As usual, click on the icons to go directly to each article. Note that the Rally Wales report below does not have an icon. Loeb didn’t win but who did?
Italian
Our Features (8) This Week, September 12, 2012
This week, more Denise; Holbert and the Marquis; events from Australia to Colorado to the U.K. and Italy. Be sure to check out the exclusive photos from the Italian Grand Prix by Roberto Motta. Alos, let us know how VeloceToday reads on your iPad, Nook, or other device.
As usual, click on the eight icons to go directly to each article.
Our Features This Week, September 5th, 2012
We can’t help but slather over the work done by Hugues Vanhoolandt at Monterey this year; this week is a real scroller but have forbearance and one will experience pleasure.
Roy Smith continues the remarkable story of the one and maybe not Marquis…and how it all ties in with the Rosiers, Le Mans, and the post-war miracle of Fiberglas.
This week we present the Art of Tours…Visions of the 1923 French Grand Prix. Gijsbert-Paul Berk has gathered up some of the best racing art around, all inspired by that epic event.
We are a week late on the report of the WRC Rally Germany…but everyone knew who would win even before the event took place. As usual click on the button icons to see the stories.
But wait, there’s more, if only your Editor just pontificating about Spa Francorchamps.
Our Features This Week, August 22 2012
Eight feature articles this week include a look at events in both Europe and California. Lynch, Elitch and Dickinson sound off on the triumphs and tribulations of Monterey; Graham Gauld covers a unique concours on the Riviera, Alessandro Gerelli brings us the Oldtimer in Germany, Gijsbert-Paul Berk uncovers the Sunbeam and Voisins at Tours. Sadly, we lost Franco Zagari; Mark Spitzley and Graham Gauld remember the great photographer.
Our Features This Week, August 15 2012
Passings
William F. Milliken died July 28 at home in Buffalo, NY. He was 101 years of age. VeloceToday was honored to have fully reviewed his extraordinary life with the kind help of his son Douglas. Our deepest sympathies go out to all of his family. More about Bill Milliken and his cars and aircraft can be read here:
Bill Milliken and Equations of Motion
The Milliken Bugatti T35A
Lucie Bedford Warren, age 104, died July 17 at her home in Westport, CT. She was a large part of her husband Briggs Cunningham’s successful racing team that set the standard in American road racing in the 1940s and ’50s and into the 1960s. She was the mother of their children, Briggs Cunningham III, Lucie Cunningham McKinney and Cythlen Cunningham Maddock. Lucie was the granddaughter of Edward Thomas Bedford, who was a director of Standard Oil Co. with the Rockefeller family. (Credit IMRRC)
Testing the Fiat 500 Cabriolet
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
Our Features This Week, August 8th 2012
Photographer Jonathan Sharp exhibits select photos from Prescott. Click on the Bugatti in the rain above to see a preview of what we have coming up in Prescott, the Climb, the Cars.
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We have not been publishing all the comments about the Ferrari mystery car. Suffice to say, Ferrari historians Lynch, Seielstad, Seibert, Goosens, Massini et al figure this is the 335S Ferrari s/n 0674 when owned by Chinetti sometime in 1958. But no one has been able to definitely nail down the exact date and place…either the Ford Museum in Dearborn or the Franklin Hotel in NYC yet. Back to you.
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All Star issue: This week we are proud to welcome Denise McCluggage to VeloceToday. She joins Michael T. Lynch, Graham Gauld and Gijsbert-Paul Berk for our features this week. In additon, Roberto Motta’s Finish Rally report and Jonathan Sharp’s Prescott gallery help create a very special edition. Don’t forget, we need your dollars to continue to bring you articles such as these.If you enjoy VeloceToday, Donate or become a premium subscriber; only your support will keep these articles coming to your inbox every week
Our Features This Week, August 1st 2012
This week we feature Brandes Elitch and his Constant Search Part 3; Stephen Mitchell tells all about the Ettinger Shell collection; Gijsbert-Paul Berk continues the Tours saga. Our F1 report finds Ferraris are too slow on Sundays, and read a brief interview with a starving artist. Also, our thanks to those who either donated money or became premium subscribers!
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Shell Game
By Stephen Mitchell
Photos by Jeanetta Dumouchel
Matthew Ettinger’s long time game of cat-and-mouse with Shell Oil memorabilia
I’ve known Matthew Ettinger since I was in my late teens. When I first met him, he was a nightclub owner and, like me, a Ferrari owner. As our friendship developed and we really got to know each other, we had both moved on to Ferraris that were even more exotic, choosing racing cars as our daily transportation. I had moved on to a GTO while Matthew had acquired the famous Ferrari Breadvan. Matthew was also a serious collector. He loved going through antique shops and knew many of the dealers in Los Angeles personally. His home was filled with original art and rare objects of one sort or another and it would take several visits to get a sense of all that he had.
By Shell obsessed
One of the more obvious pieces one saw upon entering Matthew’s house was an Art Deco Shell Oil gas pump. It was imposing, topped by its white globe with red letters (referred to as the lollipop) proclaiming Shell. This was not Matthew’s first gas pump. He previously had a 1947 Union 76 pump that he had put on display in his Sunshine Meat & Liquor Company, a restaurant/nightclub that he owned. However, Matthew fell in love with the Shell pump when he visited the home of the infamous Gas Pump Ronnie who, according to Matthew, could spray on paint that looked like porcelain. He wanted that Shell pump and traded his Union 76 pump to get it.
More fun than eBay
The Shell pump was significant because it set Matthew on a quest for Shell products, signs, promotional toys and memorabilia. No other brand interested him from that point forth. In those days, there was no Internet to facilitate networking or scavenging. One had to look in the back of magazines and attend flea markets–or jumbles as they are called in the UK.
Our Features This Week, July 25th 2012
–Ferrari F40 Invasion of Silverstone by Jonathan Sharp–
We begin with an exclusive story by historian Michael T. Lynch about Project S 11, the revival of a rare pre-war V8 Alfa Romeo. Your opinions, please! Then a walk through the Silverstone Paddock with Graham Gauld who finds the ex-Jim Clark Porsche. There is only one Graham Gauld and only he can tell these stories with so much insight and first hand experience; Renault Alpine expert and multiple book author Roy Smith finds blue oddities at Silverstone; Automotive journalist Gijsbert-Paul Berk launches Part 1 of the Tours epic; walk the course, circa 1923 with these historic photos. You won’t find these stories anywhere else but here. Lastly a report on the Ferrari/Alonso win at the German Grand Prix.
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Smith at Silverstone
Our Features This Week, July 18th 2012
We sadly note the loss of L. Scott Bailey, founder of the influential “Automobile Quarterly”.
An obit can be found on the New York Times website.
Something that L. Scott Bailey would have appreciated is our landmark series by Gijsbert-Paul Berk on the 1923 Grand Prix of Tours…the famous race of the “Tanks”. Berk takes a different approach, and in doing so completely describes every detail of the event, accompanied by many historic photos. We’ll publish this in Internet-size bites over the next few weeks.
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