VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Vignale History, Part 1 The Early Years

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bagde-finalAlfredo Vignale, who at one time didn’t drive or even like to ride in cars, died in an automobile accident in November of 1969. According to his brother Giuseppe, interviewed in 1956, “Alfredo’s passion for automobiles begins and ends with his coachwork. He doesn’t own a car, won’t drive a car, and only rides in one with great reluctance.” It is perhaps ironic, but the man who was Vignale and Company was responsible for some of the finest and fastest automotive sculptures of our the twentieth century.

By Pete Vack

From 1946 to 1969, the workshop of Alfredo Vignale of Turin, Italy, was among the vanguard of a number of illustrious and creative Italian carrozzeria which included Allemano, Bertone, Ghia, Motto, Pininfarina, Touring, Viotti and others. In 1947 he created the amazing and advanced Cisitalia MM from the drawings of Giovanni Savonuzzi and by 1950 became Enzo Ferrari’s primary coachbuilder, usurping Touring for the honor.

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Gijsbert-Paul Berk: Retro Rockets and Chinese Italians

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Gijsbert-Paul Berk recently turned 85 years young. He has been our kind and generous mentor since his book, André Lefebvre and the cars he created for Voisin and Citroën was reviewed by us in 2010. His first article for VeloceToday was The 1923 French Grand Prix, in 2012, Part 1 of a massive 9 part series dealing with this epic race in depth.

What fascinates us most about Gijsbert-Paul, is that like all really great journalists, he is interested in the present and ponders the future, even while researching the past in depth. From 3D additive manufacturing to self-drive cars, he refuses to let history get in the way of absorbing the latest, constantly reminding us that we must stay abreast of industrial and automotive news although immersing ourselves in the distant past.

Below, he reports on the upcoming Rétromobile display of the 1905 Darracq V8 Record Car, and follows that up with the all-electric Neo concept car created by the Italian-Chinese collaboration of Icona and shown at the recent Festival Automobile International in Paris.
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Where to Shop and Eat at Rétromobile

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In 2010, Lizzie Sexton accompanied her husband John to Rétro, but instead of hanging about at the show, she decided to explore the 15th arrondissement. “Not all of us are car fanatics,” she wrote. “But that’s not an excuse to skip the wonderful Rétromobile. Take advantage of the trip to discover a part of Paris with culture, food and fun.”

With the 2016 version of Rétro opening this week we re-publish Lizzie’s article sharing her experiences with our readers.

Story and Photos by Lizzie Sexton

Rétromobile is housed in the Parc des Expositions at the Porte de Versailles, on the southwest border of Paris and at the base of the 15ième arrondissement. Nine of ten residents of the 15ième will rank the number 12 métro line to downtown as the best thing coming out of their area. But luckily I met Antoine, the one in ten who urged me to “Restez ici chez nous pour un peu!” (Stay here with us for awhile!). [Read more…] about Where to Shop and Eat at Rétromobile

Bugatti and Gordini Racecars at the Schlumpf

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1928 Bugatti Type 35A; 8 cylinders, 1991cm, 95cv, 190 km/h. This car was equipped with mudguards and headlights as a two-seater sport version. It belonged to Elisabeth Junek who raced Bugattis in the Targa Florio.

Photos by Jonathan Sharp

Dear reader,

Last week we brought you Part 1 of cars at the Schlumpf (click here). Below we present just a few of the Bugatti and Gordini race cars at the National Museum at Mulhouse. We have not attempted to identify the Bugattis by chassis number; we have asked for a list of cars and chassis numbers from the Museum but no response yet. Even simple identification is often difficult; for example is the wire wheeled Bugatti below a T35 or T37? We are not sure.

Therefore Mr. Sharp has made use of the placards at the Museum, the official Museum booklet, and the Museum Internet site to try to verify that the identifications in the captions below are as correct as possible. Our staff also checked sources from a variety of Bugatti and Gordini books. In some cases, we are still not sure we are 100% correct. Perhaps readers could help. We would also like to know if readers have had similar experiences.

The situation was no better with the Gordinis. Placards were often incorrect. We used Christian Huet’s landmark book, “Gordini” as well as Roy Smith’s recent work “Amédée Gordini-a true racing legend” to identify the cars by chassis number and type – always a difficult matter at best as Smith will attest to. So enjoy; comments welcome as usual! [Read more…] about Bugatti and Gordini Racecars at the Schlumpf

Ferrari In Art: A Look Inside

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Ferrari In Art: A Celebration of the Legend
Art,Text and Design by Paul Chenard
Paul Chenard, Blurb Books
ISBN 9781364577919
Hardcover, 10 x 8, 28 pages, full color art
$68.79 USD plus shipping
Order here

Review by Pete Vack
Click on art to enlarge

Paul Chenard has been around for a long time; his art has been featured in Classic and Sports Car, Motorsport, Octane, and Vintage Motorsport to name-drop just a few. Recently he sent us an email announcing his latest work, which he thought might be of interest to the VeloceToday readership.

He added an image of three Ferrari Sharknoses (pardon the use of a capital letter on Sharknose) in the garage at Spa in 1961. Instead of using red to attract attention, Chenard featured the yellow 156 of Gendebien as the focus of the pen, ink and watercolor painting. In the background brown is used to accentuate a busy scene of tires, trucks, boxes and workers. It is an image that comes to life and adheres itself to the mind’s eye. Send us more, we responded.

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Belgian driver Olivier Gendebien’s yellow Ferrari “Sharknose” receiving its number before the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix.
Pencil, pen&ink and watercolours on 12″x 9″ (30.4cm x 22.8cm) watercolour paper.
© Paul Chenard

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Gauld Drives a Rare Aravis Bugatti

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By Graham Gauld

I lost a good friend a few years ago, when the 20th Earl of Moray, from one of Scotland’s older noble families, died at the age of 83. Though born in Africa he lived for most of his life at the family’s Scottish estates in Perthshire and Moray. So why am I talking about this man? Well, back in the 1970s when he was still Lord Doune, Douglas John Moray Stuart decided to collect motor cars that fascinated him. The first was a little Citroen but then he went on a buying spree which culminated not only in him building the Doune Motor Museum but creating the Doune Hill Climb in his grounds which even today hosts a round of the British Hill Climb Championship.

Many years ago Douglas asked me to help him trace the history of his cars and I may well come back to the stories behind some of them in a future column. When I heard of his death I was reminded of the fact that he was the first person to let me drive a Bugatti.

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National Automobile Museum in Mulhouse (aka Schlumpf)

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This 1929 Bugatti T35B was Fritz Schlumpf’s personal car in which he regularly used to compete in various hill climbs.

Bugattis at the Schlumpf by Jonathan Sharp

I must have first become aware of the Schlumpf collection back in the late 1970s, when stories started to appear in the British daily newspapers following the discovery of a load of old cars that had been hidden in an old woolen mill in Eastern France. From that moment on I had vowed to visit it one day. A family motoring trip to Lido di Jesolo in Northern Italy had brought me to within 30 kms of Mulhouse back in 1984, but the call of the sun, sand and pasta proved to be more popular for the rest of the family than a visit to a dusty old car museum. It was not until October of last year that I was at last able to tick the “Visit the Schlumpf Collection” box on my bucket list.

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Italian Car Passion Show Part 2

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Frank Ramecker’s outstanding Alfa 1900 Super Bicolore adds to the show its owner helped organize. Super car, super event.

Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt Click on images to enlarge

Italian Car Passion, Autoworld Museum, Brussels

This week we catch up on rest rest of the cars at the Brussels Autoworld Museum Italian Car Passion show. This show will open until January 31st, so if you are in Europe, it is an impressive display, a special exhibition to “la bella macchina italiana”, featuring some 60 cars ranging from the 50s to this day, representing the most emblematic machines produced by mass manufacturers, renowned coachbuilders or talented craftsmen.

The other day we received an email from one of the organizers, Frank Rameckers, who wrote, “It is always great that visitors appreciated the hard work. For some cars it took me two years to convince the collectors of the cars to lend their car(s) for two months to the museum.”

We told him that the variety and selection was superb, and that he should take the show to New York and LA.

Wouldn’t that be nice? Don’t hold your breath.

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Italian UFOs and the Stratos Zero

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Story and photos by Roberto Motta

The Bertone Stratos Zero, introduced at Turin in 1970, is very different from the car that won three World Rally championships, and is totally different in respect to all its mechanics parts. However, this car provided the inspiration for the later Lancia Stratos Rally.

In the report below, VeloceToday Correspondent Roberto Motta describes the car in detail.

“Stratos”, from “stratosphere” is a name normally associated with an object alien to our environment, with strange links to time and space which surpass the confines and realities of daily life. In other words, something so fantastic it probably could not be real.

In reality, the new Stratos Zero prototype was a high performance car characterized by extreme lines but, as a project of Nuccio Bertone, was a fully functional, driveable car, unlike most of the extreme “concept” cars built for car shows.

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