Photos and captions by Alessandro Gerelli
The Bonhams Retromobile event took place at the Grand Palais on Thursday, February 9. Many of the Italian/French items did not sell, but this is not an indication of the overall sales percentage.
The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
By pete
Photos and captions by Alessandro Gerelli
The Bonhams Retromobile event took place at the Grand Palais on Thursday, February 9. Many of the Italian/French items did not sell, but this is not an indication of the overall sales percentage.
By pete
Photos and captions by Alessandro Gerelli
This year Alessandro Gerelli covered all three auctions held at or around Retromobile. The Artcurial Auction below was held last, on Friday on the same complex as Retromobile. This auction resulted in the highest price paid for a car during the auctions at Retro – the unique Dino 206 P berlinetta speciale of 1965 by Pininfarina sold for about 4.4 million euros against an estimate from 4 to 8 million euros and no reserve!
By pete
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Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Rétromobile, Paris February 7-11
Once again, the latest edition of Rétromobile has raised the bar to the highest standards and it won’t be easy for its British, German or Italian counterparts to reach the same level.
Next to the many dealers showing their best offers, there are plenty of car clubs and associations exhibiting small treasuries, as well as many displays celebrating some anniversaries or putting the light on some unknown stories.
This year, these exhibitions were, among others, the “70 years of Ferrari”, “Bugatti meets Bentley”, the “Four-wheel drive and six-wheel F1 cars” , “30 years of Group B rally cars”, the “1927 Delage Grand Prix cars”, the “Renault Turbo years”, and many others.
On the French Side…
On the Italian side…
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Story by Graham Gauld
Color images by Hugues Vanhoolandt unless otherwise noted.
Every year tends to mark the anniversary of something significant in the automobile world and 2017 is important for one car in particular, the Delage 15S8. It was one of the most successful Grand Prix cars of all time and it was born ninety years ago this year.
It was fitting that Retromobile in Paris reserved a special area upstairs and in the smaller hall for a remarkable display that featured five of the six original cars built ninety years ago! It was a tremendous feat to gather them all together in one place for the first time thanks to a group of dedicated Delage enthusiasts including my old friend Christophe Pund.
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Story by Nicholas Lancaster
[While doing research for this article,originally published in VeloceToday in October of 2007, Mr. Lancaster began a search to find the current location of the ex-Ramponi/Seaman Delage. He found it in the hands of Mr. Abraham Kogan, who had consigned it to the RM Auction in London. It then passed into the hands of Peter Giddings. Our thanks to RM Auctions for providing the illustrations used in this article.Ed.]
Louis Delage had been active in Grand Prix racing since before the First World War with a series of first-rate designs that had achieved numerous successes, culminating in victory in the Indianapolis 500 in 1914. In the mid-1920’s Delage returned to front line motor sport with the introduction of the 1923 2 liter V12 engined Grand Prix car, designed by Charles Planchon, and refined by his protégé Albert Lory.
Whilst the V12 eventually came good, winning the Grand Prix of Spain in 1925, the design had suffered from numerous initial teething problems, and this cost Planchon his job. For 1926, a change of formula required the use of 1.5 liter engines and Lory — who had eventually developed the V12 into a winner — took a different approach with the new car, designing a jewel-like supercharged straight-eight engine capable of 170 bhp at 8000 rpm.
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One is remembered by his work
By Pete Vack
We are saddened by the loss of Bowtie Ferraris author and vintage racer Randy Cook, who passed away on February 16, 2017 after a being diagnosed with cancer.
When I first met Randy, he was carrying a huge, I mean huge, three ring binder bursting with facts and photos of Chevy-engined Ferraris.
He plopped it down in front of me and said, “Well, let’s get to work.” [Read more…] about Randy Cook, a Tribute
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By Peter Darnall
Our thanks to Matteo Rinaldi at the Museo Nuvolari
The AIACR (Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus), which was the governing body controlling Grand Prix racing, issued an innovative ruling which would define racing events beginning with the 1934 season. Known as the 750-kilogram rule, the weight of a race car was limited to 750 kg, less tires, liquids, and driver. Intended to restrict the ever-increasing speed and power of Grand Prix machines, the ruling had quite the opposite effect: German interests, closely followed by Italian efforts produced the fastest and most powerful racing cars the world had ever seen.
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Story and photos (except as noted) by Graham Gauld
This year Retromobile was bigger than ever with a surprise every ten yards. And that’s why most of what is contained in this early story is a mere fragment of the kind of stuff you can find if you look in all the nooks and crannies. I’ll be writing more about this year’s Retro so just stay tuned to VeloceToday.
I am always on the lookout for cars that remind me of times gone by when they were new and fresh and so it came as a surprise to find a very interesting stand supported by Fiat Group, concessionaires and associated car clubs as they had brought along a number cars that all had stories to tell.
By pete
By pete
The Story Behind Janis Joplin’s Psychedelic Porsche 356: and 49 other Highly Entertaining Tales From the World of Rare and Exotic Car Collecting
Binding: Trade Paperback
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Enthusiast Books 2016
ISBN Number: 1583883436 / 9781583883433
Order from Enthusiast Books 715-381-9755 $19.95
Wallace Wyss has been contributing articles to VeloceToday since 2008 but now has gotten into a groove with his series of Incredible Barn Find books. This is the fourth book in the softbound series. Previously we’ve covered two of Wyss’s Barn Finds book, Incredible Barn Finds and The Baroness and the Mercedes. The last was “The Story Behind Smoky Yunick’s Boss Mustang” which we didn’t review but I can’t remember why not.
While we don’t know if the run is over…a total of 200 or so barn find stories is a pretty good run after all, and if Enthusiast Books sees fit to publish as many as Wyss can write, they must be selling pretty well. After all, they are entertaining and just the sort of thing that Wyss is good at. And, such books may attract a new generation of car enthusiasts, who in turn may look past the dollars and find the histories fascinating. [Read more…] about Wyss’s Latest Barn Find Book: We review