The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Catching the Scaglietti exhibition in Turin.
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
Well, it was all rather last minute, but my wife and I flew to Turin to do a bit of late Christmas food shopping. It’s a bit far to go to just buy a panettone, but this being Turin, old Italian cars will no doubt be part of the trip.
As we reported in our
Sergio Scaglietti (l) is seen here with Piero Ferrari. Piero issued the following statement; ‘He was one of my father’s best friends. He was next to me with Marco Piccinini also the day my father died and stayed with me the whole night until the funeral. I loved him and he was a very important part of my life. The world is emptier without Sergio.’
In this brief tribute from the VeloceToday Archives, November 23, 2011, Michael Lynch tells us why Sergio Scaglietti is so important in Ferrari’s history. And as usual, so very well-told.
By Michael T. Lynch
The world has lost one of the great artisans of immediate post-World War II coachbuilding. Sergio Scaglietti died last Saturday night at his home. A son of Modena born in 1920, he joined his brother at Carrozzeria Emiliana when he was just 13, a year short of what Italian labor laws of the time allowed. This was due to the death of his father and the need for family income.
By 1937, he and his brother joined Renato Torcelli and formed Carrozzeria Torcelli & Scaglietti. The shop was directly across the street from Scuderia Ferrari and they were soon repairing the Alfas of the Scuderia.
Mike & Kerry Lowe 1990 FSM Niki 650, Modern Comp. Anstey’s Hill
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
December’s annual motorsport festival in South Australia’s capital kicked off on the 4th with the Adelaide Rally scrutineering and drivers’ briefings. Parc Ferme was at the Wayville Showgrounds and competition cars left on Wednesday for seven closed-road special stages south of the city. Entries in the Competition category were split into classic and modern classes. Within the Classic Competition class, crews also competed for the Heritage Trophy, with a handicap system based on each car’s actual engine capacity and the vehicle’s standard, unmodified weight. [Read more…] about Adelaide Rally, South Australia, 4 – 7 Dec 2019
Paul Faulkner Willams F1 FW07
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
From 2014 to 2018 the sprints in the then ‘Adelaide Motorsport Festival’ had been centered on Victoria Park using part of the city’s old Formula 1 track. Government funding cut backs this year prevented its use so The Bend Motorsport Park stepped up to fill the void with a totally new event, ‘The Bend Classic’. The world’s second-longest permanent racetrack, it has a variety of circuits suited to just about every motorsport category. Three of the seven layouts were used: the West (3.4km), East (3.9km) and International (5km) tracks. [Read more…] about The Bend Classic, South Australia, 7-8 Dec 2019
She thinks we should change the name of VeloceToday to AmoreToday…
Story and photos by Alain Raymond
Three Canadian friends and Italian car enthusiasts returned to Padova for the 36th annual Auto e Moto d’Epoca, one of Europe’s most comprehensive collectible car show and flee market. [Read more…] about 36th Annual Auto e Moto d’Epoca
The new exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum covers a wide range of topics with great thought and imagination.
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone to the newly named Victoria and Albert Museum in May 1899, and proclaimed “I trust it will remain for ages a monument of discerning liberty and a source of refinement and progress.” Whilst it is said that she did not say “we are not amused” I think the latest exhibition ‘Cars Accelerating the Modern World’ would have amused her.
Story and photos by Rick Carey
This article originally appeared in VeloceToday in 2003 and again in 2018. Due to the many requests we had to see this article after the series on the B.A.T.s as published last week, we thought it might be nice to give everyone a chance to read it again without a premium subscription.
I’ve always admired the work of Franco Scaglione. Anyone who could create the B.A.T.s on the tall-engined Alfa 1900 chassis, who displayed such sympathy for airflow and was willing to challenge convention with shape and curve rather than embellishment and accoutrement, was an exceptional talent. And full credit also to Nuccio Bertone who gave Scaglione free rein to reinvent extravagantly. [Read more…] about It Must be B.A.T. 1
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Text by Pete Vack
The display of the three B.A.T. Alfas was held at the Phillips Auction House in Berkeley Square, London and only displayed for four days, November 20-23. Jonathan Sharp attended on a Wednesday afternoon and here is the first of three reports.
The first of the B.A.T.s was perhaps the most celebrated, gaining notice in magazines across the western hemisphere. But was it the first? Rick Carey, writing in VeloceToday, thinks the Packard-Abarth Bertone might have been B.A.T. 1. Nevertheless, B.A.T. 5 was shown first in April of 1953 at Turin. [Read more…] about B.A.T. 5: A Stunning Achievement
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Text by Pete Vack
The display of the three B.A.T. Alfas was held at the Phillips Auction House in Berkeley Square, London and only displayed for four days, November 20-23. Jonathan Sharp attended on a Wednesday afternoon and here is the second of three reports.
Oh, poor B.A.T. 7. It was, in our opinion, the best of the trinity, a refined 5 with an even more dramatic aft that was the quintessence of coachbuilder’s art. Just looking at the various views of those remarkable appendages is awe inspiring. How did they do it?
About a year after it was shown at Turin in the spring of 1955, someone came along cut them off. Those beautiful, inspiring wings. Let’s let the late Strother MacMinn and his cohort Robert Henry Gurr tell us what they thought about the car at the time: (Road & Track, July, 1955, Panel Discussion on Automotive Styling.) [Read more…] about B.A.T. 7: The Best of the Bunch
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Text by Pete Vack
The display of the three B.A.T. Alfas was held at the Phillips Auction House in Berkeley Square, London and only displayed for four days, November 20-23. Jonathan Sharp attended on a Wednesday afternoon and here is the third of three reports.
While the BAT 9 (aka BAT 9d) will eternally be tied with the story of Gary Kaberle, it failed to attract a lot of attention when introduced at Turin in the spring of 1955. Press coverage had been high with the BAT 7 of 1954, but by the time the third and definitely less dramatic BAT appeared, it was no longer newsworthy, despite being much more roadworthy. It was not until December 1958 that BAT 9 appeared on the cover of Road & Track, no longer news. The Kaberle story is well known, but we’ll recap it here. [Read more…] about B.A.T. 9d: Ready for the Road
Courtesy Centro Documentazione Storica Alfa Romeo
From the VeloceToday Archives, April 2018. This is an updated version of Chapter 5 of Franco Scaglione, “My Father: His Life in the Words of His Daughter Giovanna” as told to Robert Little, Renzo Carbonaro, Vladimir Pajevic and Ulrich Zensen. Republished with permissions.
The MacMinn Telefax
Instead of presenting a narrative based upon the writing of others who probably had no first or second hand knowledge of the true facts surrounding the creation of the Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica series, we have chosen to simply quote from a facsimile of a Telefax which should serve to illuminate the B.A.T. process from the standpoint of Bertone. [Read more…] about Scaglione, Strother MacMinn and the B.A.T.s