VeloceToday.com – Page 177 – The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Williamsburg Welcomes the Automobile

June 16, 2015 By pete

Rocky Von Dullen’s MG TC in front of the old bank building in Merchants Square.

Story and Photos by Pete Vack

The last drag race down historic Williamsburg’s 18th century Duke of Gloucester Street occurred sometime in the mid-1960s; in fact it was also the last time any automobile was allowed to amble down the ancient boulevard, though the exact date seems to be lost to posterity. Despite this ban on the automobile, this weekend the Colony Automobile Enthusiasts Club held its car show in Merchants Square, at the west end of the Duke of Gloucester Street, where normally cars fear to tread. [Read more…] about Williamsburg Welcomes the Automobile

VeloceToday for June 9, 2015

June 9, 2015 By pete

Coda Tronca: Fact and Fiction

June 9, 2015 By pete

Corrado Lopresto's recent find as displayed last weekend at the Wilton Concours. Sharp photo.

Corrado Lopresto’s recent find as displayed last weekend at the Wilton Concours. Jonathan Sharp photo.

Story by Pete Vack

The world of the Internet will likely soon be filled with stories of a particular Alfa Romeo that served as the prototype for a new Alfa Zagato GT, one with a long tail, suddenly clipped off and called the “Coda Tronca”. And so we add to the hoopla, for of course the prototype Coda Tronca as found by the long time and truly enthusiastic Italian collector Corrado Lopresto and introduced at the Wilton Concours last weekend, (see related story) is an important find and a truly significant Alfa Romeo and Zagato. In Part 1 we’ll look at the use of the Kamm effect and why the Alfa SZ Coda Tronca was different.

Winter, 1960

As Ercole Spada would later recall, these were exciting times. In February 1960, The 22 year old ex-soldier, lacking any kind of formal training, had applied for a job at Zagato upon completion of his military service. He brought with him no portfolio, no sketches. But he loved to draw cars. “While my friends were stealing a peak into Playboy, I had my nose deeply into car magazines,” Spada recalled. Elio Zagato asked him if he had a driver’s licenses and could draw on a one to one scale. Spada said yes and Zagato hired him on the spot. Before Spada came onboard, Zagato didn’t have a chief designer. Cars just more or less happened. Life was simpler then.

Spada: the long story of a short tail.

His first assignment was to design a body for Tony Crook’s Bristol 406S, which although high and narrow, was a great improvement over the earlier Zagato effort on the 406. Hot on the heels of the Bristol came the Aston Martin Zagato, and suddenly, with less than a year under his belt, Spada was if not famous, definitely had proven his worth. It was a story out of the dreams of thousands of boys, and Spada was living it.

The rounded shape of the production Alfa SZ 1300. Photo by Bartholomew.

[Read more…]

Wilton Concours 2015; Bugattis and More

June 9, 2015 By pete

Bugatti EB110 by the Palladian bridge.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Another weekend and yet again the grass has not been cut! Events keep getting in the way.

Not such a long journey this weekend, (June 6-7) just a two-hour jaunt to Wilton House near Salisbury in Wiltshire, the home of the Earls of Pembroke since 1540. The reason for the visit was not to view the recently restored, Inigo Jones designed South Front of the house, or indeed the glorious state rooms; no it was to attend Lord Pembroke’s Classic and Super car weekend.

This is an event that I have never attended before and judging by what I saw laid out on his Lordship’s lawns I can safely say it will not be my last visit. In front of the house, two rows of prize Bugatti’s with three Veyrons (to Celebrate its 10th anniversary) lined up between them. To the left of the house an enviable line up of classics whether you classic of choice be a Ferrari or a VW Camper. The right of the house, a further selection of Classics from a Mini to a Muira.

Corrado Lopresto’s recent find as displayed last weekend at the Wilton Concours. See this week’s related article.

[Read more…]

VeloceToday for June 2, 2015

June 2, 2015 By pete

Prescott Bugattis and Benjafield Bentleys

June 2, 2015 By pete

Piccard-Pictet-Aero of Geoff Smith.

Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp

Well it’s Sunday night and another weekend gone without the grass being cut, or the cars washed, as I just got back from the Bugatti Owners Club Vie en Bleu event at Prescott after a day at Goodwood to enjoy a Benjafields Racing Club meet. All for the glory of VeloceToday, of course!

From my front door it’s about 3 hours to Prescott. The first 2 plus hours are spent on the most boring of motorways but the last hour is spent driving through beautiful Cotswold countryside. It’s all honey-colored stone cottages and rolling green farm land. If it was not for the speed cameras and the modern car you could still believe it was 1930. The 1930s feeling continues when you arrive at Prescott. It’s not just the cars in the racing paddock, it’s the sound of a steam train whistle blowing in the distance. There will be a hush in the paddock when all the cars haven fallen silent when in the distance you will hear the distinct sound of a steam whistle and above the trees will appear the white smoke of an old Great Western Railway steam locomotive as it pulls out from the station at the bottom of the hill, filling several carriages loaded with happy steam train buffs, all ready to chuff their way through the rolling countryside. There was a time in England where every school boy grew up wanting to be steam engine drivers.

As is usual with Vie en Bleu event the paddocks and hillsides around the course contained many an interesting French cars and what is nice is that a lot of them I had not seen before. Unfortunately it poured with rain mid-morning but that did not stop play as you will see from the enclosed photographs. And this year, we managed our way into the Bugatti Trust Museum. All in all another great day.

Map of the Prescott hillclimb.

Brescia Bugattis in formation.

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Gerelli at the RM Auction, Villa Erba

June 2, 2015 By pete

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Villa d’Este coupè by Touring of 1949 sold for 785k.

Story and photos by Alessandro Gerelli

During the weekend of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, an important auction was held by RM Sotheby’s in the nearby Villa Erba. Only 40 lots were in the catalog with a couple of Riva boats and 17 Ferraris.

Top Ferrari models were a 1961 California SWB (with an estimate of more than 10 M euros) and a 1960 Berlinetta 250 SWB, unfortunately both unsold. Top price was reached for the Ferrari 212 Export by Touring of 1952 at 6.7 M euros.

All the prices are in euros and include the buyer’s premium.

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Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2015

June 2, 2015 By pete

Called the “Spanish Ferrari”, the Pegasos were only produced between 1951 and 1958. This model, the “Cupula”, was first shown in Madison Square Garden, New York, in 1953. It was then acquired by Dominican dictator Trujillo. Later it was shown in the Rosso Bianco Collection in Germany and is now part of the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands.

Story and Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

The park of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este at the Lago di Como was again the backdrop of the most prestigious European Concours d’Elegance. Due to the lack of space at Villa d’Este , only 58 cars were on show, including some of the latest concept cars.

But each of these cars is of high profile and few other Concours can equal the level of excellence of this one.

While the access to Villa d’Este on Saturday is private, the general public can enjoy the show at the more spacious Villa Erba, on Sunday.

This 1946 Delahaye 135 M is clothed by Figoni & Falaschi and fitted with an electromagnetic Cotal gearbox. Since the completion of its restoration in 2010, it has been presented at the Concours d’Elegance in La Baule, Deauville and Angoulême (France).

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VeloceToday for May 26, 2015

May 26, 2015 By pete

Inaugural Holy Land Tour 1000 Part 1

May 26, 2015 By pete

By Charles Schoendorf
All photos by Ronen Topelberg

Location, location, location

If vintage car tours are your bag and you’re looking for the next great and different one, I’m afraid you just missed it, the inaugural HolyLand 1000, yes, in Israel, held March 22-27. But there is hope that the organizers Elad Shraga and Amir Almagor will have the chutzpah to stage a sequel in a year or two. They are talking about it.

In lots of ways the HL 1000 was similar in format and execution and as big a rush as the best tours I’ve ever done in CO, CA and AZ and elsewhere in the US and in Italy too, only more so, because it was in Israel.

(Name) is already looking forward to a second running of the Holyland 1000.

Lee Levi is already looking forward to a second running of the Holyland 1000.

The top three things that give this road tour the edge over the other great ones are simple: location, location, location. Israel has all the scenery to rival the best of tours but what Israel also has that the others never will is the Biblical and historic and geographic locales. Add to that what has to be without exaggeration the most flavorful produce grown on the planet, which they prepare and present so incredibly, and this has to be the best bang for the tour buck in the world.

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Inaugural Holy Land 1000 Tour Part 2

May 26, 2015 By pete

Elad Shraga’s Osca MT4 at rest at the beautiful Beresheet Hotel.

By Charles Schoendorf
All photos by Ronen Topelberg

DAY 3 Sea of Galilee-Nazareth-Mitzpe Ramon

As the inaugural Holy Land 1000 progressed, the cars headed south to the Negev Desert, with a lunch stop along the way at a horse breeding estate, literally in the stables, and on to spend the night on the edge of the Great Crater of Ramon, nearly 1000 meters above sea level. This crater, so called, was actually formed naturally over millions of years through the forces of erosion and subsidence to be over 500 meters deep, and is as amazing a geological spectacle as can be found anywhere.

Climbing up away from the sea is Raymond Scheer from the U.S. in his Alfa.

1965 BMW 3200CS brought by the BMW Group Classic. Driver is Ralph Schutze.

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Mille Miglia, 2015

May 26, 2015 By pete

Fiat 500 Sport Zanussi from 1947.

Photos by Alessandro Gerelli

Alessandro Gerelli has been covering the Mille Miglia for us since 2004, not missing a year since. Each May, he takes us down to Brescia were he has a chance to wander about, finding fascinating cars even he has not seen before.

This year was no exception…the Zanussi, seen above, is a new one on us and just as attractive as a Fiat can possibly be. And every year there are new restorations, new owners and new experiences.

Missing in the captions are the name of the entrants, however, these can be seen on a PDF offered by the Mille Miglia website. Click here to obtain the PDF.

Or, just enjoy the Italian car show at Brescia, arranged in alphabetical order below.