VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Working with Sam Caronia

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Sam in his Intermeccanica Formula Jr. Photographer unknown, courtesy Same Caronia collection.

By Tom Gonnella

After my mother impressed Sam, anything she wanted he gave her, including a job for me. I worked for Sam for three summers and he was a great friend for the rest of his life.

I had discovered road racing at 14 through a friend whose father ran a Triumph Spitfire in the SCCA and we were his ‘crew.’ I also told Sam I had now started autocrossing my Alfa and asked Sam if I could get his rare Intermeccanica Formula Junior running to drive as I thought it would be more competitive.

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Drivers at the Goodwood Revival, 2025

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Tony Kanaaan, Dario Franchitti, Marino Franchitti and Scott Dixon.

Photos by Jonathan Sharp

Goodwood Revival, September 12-14 2025

As Jonathan Sharp’s photos began to arrive here, we noticed something different; the smiles that were so dominant at previous Goodwood Festivals and the Revival were not as abundant. There were many, to be sure, like the group shot above, exuding good cheer, but many not.

We asked Sharp why this might be, or was it just coincidence? Probably the weather, he said. “On Saturday and Sunday and I was in the pits for the driver’s shots during the pouring rain during the RAC TT Celebration on Sunday afternoon, after all, wouldn’t you feel just a bit stressed if you had to driver a 400 bhp Cobra flat out in a monsoon? Because at the Revival, boy do they race!” [Read more…] about Drivers at the Goodwood Revival, 2025

Global Resource for the Lancia Aurelia

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Centro Aurelia Launched as Global Resource for Lancia Aurelia Enthusiasts
LONDON, UK – September 18th, 2025

On the 75th anniversary of the iconic Lancia Aurelia’s debut in 1950 a new global resource is
announced to support the preservation of this landmark 1950s Italian automobile: Centro
Aurelia. [Read more…] about Global Resource for the Lancia Aurelia

The Ferrari that Won Twice at Le Mans

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Ed McDonough is back! Driving the 275 P on an Essex duel carriageway. Photo Peter Collins

Review by Ed McDonough

The photos in this article are not included in the book reviewed

Ferrari 275 P Chassis 0816: the only Ferrari to have won Le Mans twice
Author Keith Bluemel
Order here:
Publisher Porter Press International
240 pages
260images
Price £125 (UK)

Any Ferrari book by Keith Bluemel is always welcome. He is by far the best of current Ferrari historians, his research is amazing and he always manages to capture the ‘feel’ of any Ferrari he writes about.

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We Review “The Yanks at Le Mans, 1980-1999”

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The Yanks at Le Mans, Take two. Photo by Christian Vignon

Review by Pete Vack

A Tragic Death and a New Beginning

After completing his landmark three volume “Twice Around the Clock, The Yanks at Le Mans,” covering the years 1923 to 1979, Tim Considine was well into writing and researching Volumes IV and V, creating a history of Le Mans up to the year 1999 when he suddenly died on March 3, 2022. But the last two volumes lay unfinished. While Considine was a one-man band, a writer, historian, publisher, photographer, project manager, interviewer and fact checker, he was gone. Who could possibly replace him and help complete his magnum opus? [Read more…] about We Review “The Yanks at Le Mans, 1980-1999”

Best of Alan Boe: Ferrari s/n 0628 M

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Story and photos by Alan Boe
From the VeloceToday Archives, November 2018

In the mid-1950s Ferrari was deeply immersed in the business of building, selling, and racing an impressive array of sports cars; four, six and twelve cylinder engines were employed in spyders and berlinettas bodied by Touring, Vignale, Scaglietti, and Pinin Farina on chassis of varying wheelbases. The ability to manufacture such an amazing variety of sporting machinery did not seem particularly out of the ordinary…for Ferrari. It was accepted practice then, but it would be impossible today! And none of Ferrari’s competition of the time was ever able to produce anywhere near the range of sports racing cars that Ferrari did.

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Mail from Ernie: Time Spent is a Gift of Time

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From the receptacle that is euphemistically called a ‘mail’ box but now holds only advertisements and bills, out jumps this envelope. Receiving a real letter today is rare enough, one like this is heretofore unknown.

Story by Pete Vack, art by Ernie Nagamatsu

The envelope immediately evokes wonderment, surprise, and smiles and makes risking one’s life to fetch mail from the mailbox near the road worthwhile. It is from vintage racing’s famous ambassador, “Ernie” Nagamatsu and is known as “Mail Art.” We shall let the interested reader Google the subject. Suffice to say Mail Art is a “Pop Art” phenomenon and has been around since the 1960s and is now international in scope.

So, what could possibly be inside? [Read more…] about Mail from Ernie: Time Spent is a Gift of Time

Meeting Sam Caronia

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Could be Cranky Caronia

A note to our readers: Norfolk, Suffolk, Portsmouth and Hampton are all locations in the UK, but also cities in the Tidewater area of Virginia, USA, and the locale of the Sam Caronia chronicles. The U.S. cities were all named by the English settlers who arrived in the colonies beginning in the 1600s.-Ed.

Story by Tom Gonnella

Read Part 1

Over the years, I’ve had three Fiat 850 Spiders, two Moretti Tour du Monde, a Dino 308gt4, a Mercedes SL500, a Ford Escape, a BMW 325xi, and 15 Alfa Romeos dating from 1951 to 2019.

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Salon Prive at Blenheim Palace 2025

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Welcome to judging at Salon Prive.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Blooming typical! After what feels like weeks and weeks of no rain the forecast for the 27th August said rain, but when I pulled back the curtains at 5.30am the sun was shining in Brighton, as it still was 4 hours later when I arrived at Blenheim Palace for this year’s Salon Prive.

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Hot Laps with Phil Hill

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Phil Hill and Dale LaFollette returning to pits in the 1902 D50 Napier.

By Dale LaFollette
Photos from the collection of Dale LaFollette

From the VeloceToday Archives, October, 2019

In 1980 Road & Track scheduled a day at the Portland race track where I worked so Phil Hill could test some vintage cars for articles he would be writing. On the appointed day several important old cars arrived including my favorite, a 1902 D50 Napier Gordon-Bennett racer that had been assembled from parts of the actual winner of the race. At the time the car was owned by the Harrah Collection.

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Sam Caronia, Abarth Dealer Part 1

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Sam Caronia. Obituary photo, photographer unknown

By Pete Vack and Tom Gonnella

Sam Caronia was not famous and more irascible than most. But he was an unforgettable person, the owner of a foreign car repair shop and sometime race driver, who helped and encouraged a younger generation to maintain and race the Italian cars we all loved. And though he died many years ago, he is still remembered.

A Navy Veteran, an Abarth Dealer, a Race Driver

Tom Gonnella, a fellow Ferrari owner and Tidewater, Virginia, resident, worked for Sam as a teenager, and was a long-time friend. Recently Tom sent me his well-written reflections on Sam which provided the basis for a belated biography, and allowed us to make use of an interview I had with Sam in 2014 and never published. I too, had known Sam for many years, and Tom’s recollections mirrored my own.

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