The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Robert Balfour 1909 Stanley Steamer Model Z 9 passenger Mountain Wagon
By Vince Johnson
Photos by Vince Johnson unless othewise marked
It’s been sixty-seven years since the first cars went up the hill at Collingrove in the wine country north-east of the state capital. They’ve been doing it ever since and it doesn’t look like slowing down anytime soon. Not even when the morning is wet, cool and windy.
Pope John Paul II visited the Ferrari factory in June 1988. After the visit, he was driven around the factory ground aboard this Ferrari Mondial 3.2 cabriolet, chassis number 77848. The present owner bought the car in auction in 2012.
Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Now in its tenth edition, the Zoute Grand Prix, held in the prestigious resort town of Knokke-le-Zoute on the Belgian coast, has become a regular event on the European classic car calendar. Besides the Zoute Rally, the Zoute Sale by Bonhams and the Zoute GT Tour, the Zoute Concours d’Elegance is the last of its kind before the season of European events comes to a close.
By the staff of Giorgio Nada Editore
When the Mille Miglia emerged from the ashes of the Second World War in the June of 1947, among the crowds thronging Brescia’s Piazza della Vittoria in those early summer days was a young man with a camera slung around his neck, absorbed in capturing faces, cars and views with his Leica. [Read more…] about Alberto Sorlini: Visual Poet of the Mille Miglia
Savonuzzi’s role in the design of the Cisitalia 202 was significant but unheralded. The Cisitalia 202 at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Photo by Jerry Lehrer.
From the VeloceToday Archives, March, 2011
By Pete Vack
During a career that spanned all facets of automobile design, mechanical innovations and inventive research, Giovanni Savonuzzi was not only a superb stylist but also a brilliant engineer – a rare combination of technical prowess and design artistry fused by his training in aeronautics.
This Pinin Farina-bodied 1953 Ferrari 342 America Coupe, chassis 0246AL, (one of only six 342 America series constructed), was built to the order of wealthy shipping magnet Franco Fessio of Genova.
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
If having viewed last weeks visit to Salon Prive you were wondering where the Ferraris were? well as they were so good we decided to keep them for their own feature. [Read more…] about A Fine Fettle of Ferraris at Salon Prive
Lenny Hummel’s Highway Interchange Set with Alfas.
In December of 2018, we ran an And How! article that featured several green Alfas, the real car, a bubble gum card and a tinplate Alfa, of which we wrote: [Read more…] about And How! Alfa Highway Interchange Game
David Beaumont with his 15 year-old grand-daughter Emelda in the 1929 Amilcar Surbaisse.
Words by Doug Gordon
Photos by Roger Foster, Doug Gordon & Vince Johnson
The weather forecast for the southern coast and Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia for the weekend of September 27, 28 & 29 was fine. Cool, but sunny with very little chance of rain. So what? You might well ask. These three days were set aside for the third running of the now familiar Tour de Fleurieu Rally for vintage and pre-war cars of French origin, very few of which are fitted with any form of roof or weather protection.
Readers had a lot of comments about the Alfa 2600 Zagato featured in last week’s VeloceToday. This is the editor’s 2600 Zagato in 1971.
We introduce this “Comments from our Readers” section because we realize that we get many interesting comments from readers which are posted to the article in question but then rarely seen, as the article and the comment section then go to the archives. Plus, we get many emails which are sent directly to the editor at vack@cox.net, but do not get posted under any particular article. Herein then, are some selected comments and emails we received in the past week that might have been missed. Feel free to comment at the bottom of this article!
Talbot Darracq (via email)
Recently I did a search to look up the Talbot Darracq and Jack Day and found some of the articles and photos in VeloceToday.com very interesting. [Read more…] about Last Week’s Comments From Our Readers
Making its World debut at this year’s Salon Prive was Bentley Motors re-created Cornich from 1939, originally conceived to be a high-performance version of the new Mark V saloon.
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
2019 marked the 14th annual Salon Prive concours, and to my mind it is an event that just keeps getting better and better. Held at Blenheim Palace on September 5-7, 20 motorbikes and 57 motor cars whose owners came from 16 countries were all displayed in the stunning surroundings of Blenheim Palace. [Read more…] about Salon Prive at Blenheim Palace, 2019
A Zagato for the Autobahn. Stefanie Schmidt photo
Story by Ralph Mantel
Photos by Stefanie Schmidt
Zagato cars always had and still have the potential to provoke strong opinions amongst car enthusiasts. Feelings vary between ugly to extremely beautiful. There is no such thing as common opinion or mainstream point of view on Zagato cars. You hate it, you love it, you might find them interesting or unusual, exciting or disturbing; there are many adjectives you could use. Some people just don’t know what to think when they see a Zagato. The mixture of lightweight and streamline, born from the race track, combines with a strong and striking design philosophy. The link between technical and aerodynamic needs and individual aesthetic character gave birth to cars with Zagato bodies. [Read more…] about Alfa Romeo 2600 S Zagato
Fiat Abarth 1000, aka the Abarth Monomille Bialbero. Sean Smith photo
Story by Sean Smith
Do the posters we hang on our walls as kids really influence us later in life? A poster featuring the design and beauty of a black Porsche Turbo inspired Mike Pinkus. Over the years, the poster may have disappeared, but the ideas of design and beauty lingered. After graduating from high school Mike was moving aimlessly from job to job. He was a busboy in a restaurant, he worked for a moving company, but he had no real direction. Then Mike discovered the concept of industrial design. It lit a fire in him. With this revelation, Mike immersed himself in a five-year program at Syracuse University and came away with a bachelor’s degree in industrial design in 1984.
Gianni Petta’s incredibile diorama of the 1970 Targa Florio.
Story and photos courtesy Gianni Petta
Upon seeing our articles about Clyde Berryman’s Grand Prix dioramas, Gianni Petta of Palermo, Sicily, sent us a note about his World Sportscar Championship diorama of the 1970 Targa Florio which he has designed and constructed. Here is Petta’s description of the project…
This diorama reproduces the day of the official tests of the 54th Targa Florio on May 3, 1970, in 1/43 scale. That year there were the major race car manufacturers on hand to compete for the World Championship: Abarth, Alpine Renault, Alfa Romeo, AMS, Chevron, Daren, Jerboa (both of which sprang from the Ginetta), Ferrari, Lancia and Porsche.