The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Ango-Italian of the rarest order: The Farina Jupiter, one of four built.
By Pete Vack, Pat Lockyer and Edmund Nankivell
Recently a rare Stablimenti Farina-bodied Jowett Jupiter came to our attention. It is particularly charming, and based on a very advanced British chassis, at a time when British chassis were not particularly advanced.
A body in search of a chassis.
A mystery in Italy, France and anywhere there might be an Alfa SZ without its original body. A VeloceToday reader and collector from TrustClassics in Bar le Duc, France, sent these photos of a front and back section of an Alfa SZ.
Beginning tomorrow, November 18th, The Rolling Sculpture 2015 will take place in NYC. The first event is a symposium, then auctions including the collection of Werner Pfister and finally an automobile auction. Read below for details and click to go the auction’s websites. [Read more…] about Keno Brothers offers Werner Pfister Collection and More
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In Part 1 Restoration expert Alex Bacon begins a project to create a 1950s era-Sports Racer based on Alfa 2600 components. After completing the chassis the body is now taking shape.
Photos courtesy Alex Bacon
Next came a classic use of CAD-derived inspiration; CAD, meaning Cardboard Aided Design, in which cardboard templates are cut for front fenders, hood, cowl, doors, rear fenders, and trunk to quickly simulate the body shape. The cardboard templates were revised multiple times until a satisfactory shape was achieved. Plywood forms fashioned from the cardboard templates were installed to provide references for body panels and the locations for the small diameter tubing to support them.
The initial template for the rear section is place over the frame.
Brown Brother of London offered Tricycles and a light steam car. However as they did not have any manufactures premises, they offered the American Whitney as the Brown Whitney and also some cars made by Star. This Quadricycle, entered by Mr. David Oakley, hails from 1899 and is powered by a 2.25 cylinder engine.
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
November 1st, 2015
The sun came out and it was lovely and warm in Brighton today. Not the usual weather for the London to Brighton Run. It is November but this year there was a blazing sun and I needed a sun blocker. My first memory of the event is watching the cars pass from the side windows of my father’s Austin 1300 whilst parked on the A23 just outside of Brighton; it was usually raining. Sunday the 1st November, 2015 will go down in the weather history books as being the hottest November day in Great Britain for 70 years. [Read more…] about The Brighton Run, 2015
In our continued tribute to the 50th birthday of the Dino 246GT, we went to files and brought out two important factory brochures. Our first Dino brochure is listed as:
No. 40/70 Printed in Italy Poligrafici il Borgo San Lazzaro di Savena (Bologna) and probably one of the earliest brochures made for the production 246 series.
Genevieve arrives in Brighton, 2015. Photo by Jonathan Sharp.
By Pete Vack
We wonder if there is something like a natural aversion to Veteran cars – those antiques made before 1904. After all, the Brighton Run aside, there are no weekly vintage car events held in their honor, no shows, no races, and the few that still exist are hidden in dark corners of museums and collections.* Perhaps it is because they are sooo ancient, so upright, so open, so slow, why they could even be thought of as carriages without horses! Can a true car nut really get into these, these horseless carriages? [Read more…] about The Joys of Genevieve
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This week Graham Gauld remembers Griff Borgeson. “In his prime, Griff was one of the truly great auto historians and he forged relationships with the people responsible for important and fantastic automobiles,” said ex-Automobile Quarterly editor Jonathan A. Stein. Borgeson had a great influence on Gauld as well, so don’t miss this exclusive VeloceToday article.
Making a replica Alfa sport racer is a dream we all have, but restorer Alex Bacon created a 50s-era Colli-like Alfa 6CM3000 from a delerict 2600. J.E. White describes how he did it (and how you can too!) in a three part article, Alfa Past and Present.
Artist Mark Stehrenberger is offering a Limited Edition Dino poster to celebrate its 50th anniversary. And, another fascinating As Found Classic. So, read, subscribe, (and note that we also offer two or three free articles every week) and we’ll keep great stories like these coming to you every week, as we have done for the past fifteen years.
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By Graham Gauld
I think if you do not have someone to look up to and respect, there is no incentive to improve. When it came to motoring journalism there were a handful of people I respected and one of the first to become a hero was American writer and historian Griffith Borgeson.
When I bought my first motor racing book in 1951, it was one of the soft cover booklets produced by Fawcett in the U.S.A. It was about Hot Rods and written by Griffith Borgeson and Eugene Jaderquist. Perhaps it was his depth of knowledge or his command of English that turned my head, but I was a fan for many years and eventually met him here in the South of France.
Above photo by David Gooley
Creating a a stunning 50s-era Sports Racer from a derelict Alfa 2600
Alex Bacon grew up a student of automobile design. He cut his teeth as a teenager with a ground up restoration on his father’s ’63 Ferrari 250 GTE and fell willing victim to the allure of its sexy design, exotic engineering, and the quixotic addiction that comes from driving something you meticulously rebuilt piece by piece. He liked the car but he wanted less; less concession to creature comfort, less performance-robbing accessories, less overhead to wrangle through curves. An idea began to form, an idea about something light, fast and nimble, something simple but exotic: A purpose-built vehicle like the cars competing in the 1953 to 1961 Worlds Sports Car Championship. But first he had a skill set to acquire, experience to gain, time to refine a vision of just what that idea entailed. [Read more…] about Past and Present Alfa Romeo Part 1
A period photo of Richard’s Simca 8.Back of photo reads: 1951 Simca 8 Sport, 1100cc, 4 cyl Fiat based Gordini modified engine. Farina Envelope Aluminum body. Restored and owned by T.A. Glendening 1953-1955
Reader Richard Plavetich writes:
When you started the As Found Classics column on VeloceToday, I submitted photos of my Simca 8 Sport I bought a few years ago. (see above). Well, suddenly, the story has become much more interesting! [Read more…] about As Found Classic Number Sixteen