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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Charles Montier’s French Racing Fords

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Le Mans, 1923: Ford's first attempt to conquer the 24 hour race.

VeloceToday’s latest Select Folio is hot off the press. Because the subject matter is relatively unknown, immensely interesting and concerns both the U.S., France, Le Mans, and Grand Prix racing, the story of the Montier Fords was clearly a great topic for a Select Folio. Below, Chris Martin tells us a little about the Montiers, but to get the rest of the story, you’ll have to read the Folio; unlike our earlier Select series, this one is not in the electronic VeloceToday.

By Chris Martin

First Fords at Le Mans

Most of us tend to think that Fords did not play much of a part at Le Mans until the early 1960s. But that does not appear to be the case. Charles Montier, a French Ford dealer, (called “Le Sorcier” by the locals long before Gordini) entered the famous endurance race in 1923, 1924 and 1925. Few people even realize that a Model T Ford not only raced in that grueling event (won by a Chenard Walcker) but finished in 14th place in the first ever 24 hours of Le Mans. But the Montier-Fords were just getting a start; amazingly, by the 1930s Montier-Fords would participate in a number of Grand Prix events, racing against Alfa Romeo, Mercedes Benz and Bugatti.
[Read more…] about Charles Montier’s French Racing Fords

Bertone’s Aston Martin

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Aston Martin by Bertone, 2013. Credit Bonhams Auction.

By Wallace Wyss

Sometimes it’s the odd one that appreciates the most…

At one time, race cars were fetching a lot more at the major auctions than car show one-offs. The idea was that if you buy a race car, if you’re lucky you get one with history. You buy a show car, a one-off what do you get? A momentary bauble. A flavor of the moment as it were. Designs that came and went, mostly forgotten.

Well this 1960Aston Martin DB4 GT Bertone Jet coupe, chassis 0201L, Engine no. 370/-201/GT was sold at a May, 2013 Bonhams auction for the top dollar sum of 3,249,500 GBP ($4,928,697 USD) which is more than some Aston Martin DB4GT race cars go for even with some racing history.

There is a reason for this. This particular car was the last DB4 GT chassis—and the last of any series is worth more than the ones in the middle.

First a little bit about the Aston Martin DB4 GT as a model. “DB” means “David Brown” by the way, he being the owner of Aston after WWII. The DB4GT was introduced as the competition version of the DB4 sports saloon. First launched in in 1958, the Aston Martin DB4 was a direct challenge to Ferrari. It had an all new steel platform chassis with disc brakes all round, and a race-developed twin-cam six-cylinder 3.7-litre engine, all clothed in a perfectly proportioned aluminum body designed by Touring Superleggera of Milan.

Press release photo of the Giugiaro Aston.

[Read more…] about Bertone’s Aston Martin

News for VeloceToday

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This week’s VT on Tuesday
A full edition of VeloceToday will be sent on Tuesday, December 10th. If the response is favorable, we’ll publish on Tuesdays instead of Thursdays.

Winner on Tuesday
We will announce the winner of the Maserati “Birdcage to Supercage” drawing on Tuesday. If you are a Premium Subscriber and would like to put your name in the hat, you have until tomorrow, December 6th to do so. If not a Premium Subscriber, sign up below.

New VeloceToday Select, Order Tuesday

Did you know that Henry Ford’s famous Tin Lizzie raced at Le Mans?
Di you know that there was a Grand Prix Ford that raced against the Alfas and Bugattis?

Don’t feel bad, neither did we until Chris Martin introduced us to Charles Montier and family. This exciting story has never before been told in any detail in English. Martin describes how two generations of the French Montier family raced Fords with passion and success from 1921 to 1935. We proudly present Montier’s French Racing Fords as the third in our series of VeloceToday Select Folios available for orders next week. Only $20 with FREE shipping. For more about this new line of publications, click here or ask me at vack@cox.net.

Coming up on Tuesday

We won’t say. Yes, we know what’s coming, but it is more fun to be surprised every week. While you are waiting please, give in the spirit of the holiday season and become a Premium Subscriber. Click on the Lancia below to sign up today.

Panhard Dyna Racers

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By David Beare

From the VeloceToday Archives, November 2013

It is unlikely that Louis Delagarde, the designer of Panhard’s flat-twin engine, could have foreseen the scale of competition successes his diminutive power-unit would achieve when he began work at his drawing-board during the dark days of World War II.

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New Fiats at the L.A. Auto Show

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Retro on retro.

Fiat Innovates at LA Auto Show
By Richard Bartholomew
Photos by Wallace Wyss

At the LA Auto Show, Fiat had a large display, and showed signs of continuing to offer models that will appeal to those nostalgic for the “good old days” of Fiat. For instance, they came out with what is called the 500 1957 edition, copying the colors of the ’57 model imported to America. Of course back then it just had a two-cylinder city car but still was a worldwide hit, Autoweek saying 3,893,294 were built before production ended in 1975. [Read more…] about New Fiats at the L.A. Auto Show

A Nardi, an Alfa, a Mystery

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The Bonetto Alfa Romeo as rebodied by Vignale in 1951. It disappeared in 1955. Photo from ‘Alfa Romeo Milano.

This article is from the VeloceToday archives, November 21, 2103

By Pete Vack and Dino Brunori

Perhaps the mystery of the missing Alfa Romeo 412 began back in 1975 with the publication of the photo book, Alfa Romeo Milano. British journalist Michael Frostick captioned a picture of Felice Bonetto’s special-bodied Alfa Romeo thusly:

Something of a mystery. The Alfa Romeo files say “16 cylinder 4500 Mille Miglia 1954 (Bonetto).” One can only assume a car was made up with a bored-out version of the Type 162, 3 liter, 16-cylinder car, or more likely, someone has made a mistake somewhere!

Indeed there was a mystery and a mistake, as Alfa 2.9 sleuth Simon Moore realized. The Bonetto car was fairly well documented in a variety of contemporary magazines as one of the four 1939 V12 (not a V16) Tipo 412 Alfas, rebodied post war by Bonetto via Vignale. The serial number was 412151, and after it was retired from competition in 1952, it was offered to Henry Wessells III for $3200 by Franco Cortese in 1954. Henry missed the deal and the car reportedly went to Spain. But by 1955 there was no trace of the car. It had seemingly disappeared, as old race cars are wont to do.

Tracing the engine

Although the Bonetto car was not specifically an Alfa 2.9, it nonetheless was part of the family and of great interest to Alfa historian Moore. By the time Moore wrote the second edition of his landmark book The Immortal 2.9 in 2008, he was on the trail of the remains of the car and the engine, but couldn’t quite pull it all together. The rare Alfa V12 engine provided the clue. It was known that the 412 engine was in the possession of Roberta Nardi, daughter of car builder Enrico Nardi. Enter Simon Kidston, working for Brooks Auctions. In mid-March of 1996, Kidston recalled for Moore, “I was contacted by Gino Macaluso, the owner of the Girard-Perregaux watch company. Roberta Nardi, whose father Enrico had left her an old Alfa Romeo engine which was languishing in the basement of her home near Turin.” Kidston recalls that Roberta didn’t know which car it had come from, but she wanted to sell it. Kidston put it up for auction in 1998, and it went to Lawrence Auriana from New York. Moore put the information in his 2008 revised edition, but the whereabouts of the body and chassis remained a mystery. [Read more…] about A Nardi, an Alfa, a Mystery

Driving the Big Ones: Napier Railton

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'Of course I drive a car. What makes you think I don't drive a car?' Copyright Stan Mott.

Last week the owner of the Delage-Bequet described driving his aero-engined Grand Prix car; this week the Brooklands Museum Director, Allan Winn, takes us on a spin with the Napier W12-engined Railton, the car which conquered Brooklands for all time. We think you’ll find his words more informative and interesting than the videos, found at the end of the article. Our thanks to both for these exclusive stories Also, thanks to Paul Stewart, Brooklands Museum Marketing and PR Manager, and VeloceToday’s Jonathan Sharp

Driving Impressions by Allan Winn, Brooklands Museum Director

First off, the Napier-Railton is an enormously powerful, iconic machine. However, the overwhelming impression you have from driving it on a regular basis is how benign and user-friendly it is. That’s not to say it is an easy car to start or drive, but it is an extraordinary, well-behaved machine.

Starting
Starting the Napier requires concentration. There is nothing like a choke. The first thing you have to do is to turn the fuel on, then pump the Ki-Gas about eight times, which squirts neat fuel into the inlet manifolds. There is an enormously long distance from the triple carb throats to the rearmost pistons. Then, you need to lock the Ki-gas pump on the dashboard so the handle does not come loose.

Allan Winn tells the story of the Napier-Railton for the cameras. Photo by Jonathan Sharp.

Then it’s a case of rocking the car to get it into first gear on the three-speed gearbox, switching on the two magnetos (with what looks a lot like a Victorian electrical house switch), then releasing the fly-off handbrake and getting up to four people to push furiously up to a walking pace. Finally, drop the clutch – after alerting the pushers – and it will fire on the first or second compression.

As soon as it picks up to 12 cylinders, you knock it into neutral, then stop and check that the oil pressure is up to 65 psi and that you haven’t had a spitback through the carbs and you don’t have a fire burning in the inlets. (If it did, any fire should get sucked right back into the carbs and you wouldn’t have a problem.)

It takes a long time to warm up 15 gallons of oil. Photo by Jonathan Sharp.

Warm up procedure
One must bear in mind that the “broad arrow” Lion W12 is huge, and requires 52 liters of coolant and around 15 gallons (not quarts) of Castrol GP 50. Warming up means bringing the coolant up to about 70 degrees C which can take up to ten minutes. We run it at about 1,000 rpm for first couple of minutes then bring it up to 1,100-1,200 rpm to hasten the process. We are using a waterless vintage coolant which has very good non-corrosive and wetting qualities and keeps the car running much cooler than it did on a water/antifreeze mix. In normal running it’s extremely difficult to get any reading at all on the oil temp gauge.

The Napier W-12.

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Beatle’s Cars Star at NEC

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George Harrison's Dino 246 GTS. George purchased the car in the early 1970s from Rodney Turner. George owned the car for 4 years

Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp

Variety is very important when running a very well-established show. This year’s Classic Car show at the NEC in Birmingham was the 30th running and was probably the largest yet, with over 65,000 people attending over the three days, and the hundreds of cars and bikes being spread out over 11 halls. As the show attracts mainly car clubs as well as exhibitors, amazingly, each year the clubs bring out more cars you hardly ever see, if at all. And while perhaps this year’s content was a bit down on exotics, it certainly made up for it with rare, offbeat, and unusual items.

When was the last time you cast eyes on a Renault 30 from the early 80s, a Lancia Trevi, or a Fiat Uno Selecta? (By the way, the Fiat Uno also celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.) Another nice feature of the show is the grouping of the cars; the Italian car clubs are together in one area, the French cars together in another area. You only need to find the appropriate hall and see cars that are of particular interest to you; no need to trudge around 11 halls to find them all. But that would be a shame, because if variety is important, you may just miss something that you had never seen before, even if it was out of your normal sphere of interest.

The Beatles car display added interest, but the display area for the four cars was very small, which is why my shots do not show the whole car; too many ropes in the way. They did however, paint what we in the UK call a “Zebra Crossing” leading up to the display area, similar to the famous Abbey Road Album cover.

John Lennon's Iso Fidia. It is believed that John owned three Fidias during his lifetime. This was number two. The car was originally silver with a blue leather interior.

Paul McCartney's Aston Martin DB6.

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Kjell Qvale: 1919-2013

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Kjell Qvale. Credit British Motor Car Distributors


By Wallace Wyss

“Mr. Q”, described by newspapers as “a legendary powerhouse in the international motor industry,” died on November 1 in San Francisco at the age of 94.

His name is pronounced completely different from what you expect, more like SHELL CUE-VOL-A. I met him a couple of times, first when I went to his impressive office on San Francisco’s Van Ness Avenue to interview him about the period when he imported the first DeTomaso Mangusta to America. I knew when I met him in his office that he was taking the time to meet an unknown journalist to discuss a sensitive topic (and later, you could not mention “DeTomaso” without some friction….). But he was extremely helpful and honest.

Born in Norway in 1919, the son of a sea captain, he showed salesman’s chops early selling household items door-to-door. He migrated to Seattle in 1929 and went on to serve the US military flying transports during the war.

Soon after the war, he bought a distributorship for Jeep. About that time, he happened upon a fellow in San Francisco driving an odd little car. He asked where it was made and the man said “Britain.” Making further inquiries he found out it was a sports car called the MG. Duly impressed, in 1947, Qvale became the MG distributor for the West Coast, calling his San Francisco based company “British Motor Car Distributors, Ltd.” In 1953 Qvale, along with partner Reynold C. Johnson, gave his first order to Volkswagen Germany for 12 VW Beetles to sell in Northern California. Along with his brother Knute, Kjell started Riviera Motors as the sole Volkswagen importer for the Pacific Northwest in 1954, which eventually grew to over 2,500 Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi vehicle sales per month. He later became a distributor for the MG, for Jaguar, for Bentley, for Rover and brought back the name Jensen to America.

He was also very big in sponsoring sports cars in racing. I know he imported the first lightweight Jaguar E-type, one he wrested away from Briggs Cunningham, and if you look at old Competition Press newspapers there are hundreds of examples of cars he sponsored. He eventually reached beyond British and German cars to import Italian cars such as the DeTomaso Mangusta, and later Maserati, with the Bora, the Merak and the Quattroporte.

When Qvale caught sight of the Mangusta, he ordered 300.

He helped establish San Francisco’s International Auto Show. But more important to collectors, one time he thought of displaying some cars on the Pebble Beach golf course in a little informal car show and that eventually grew to become the venerable Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance that takes place each August in Monterey. Being a racing fan he also aided in the creation of Laguna Seca raceway and is credited with the design of the tricky part of the course, the “corkscrew.”

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Our Features This Week, November 14, 2013

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Mott on Manney. Graham Gauld’s article last week on Henry Manney III elicited a special email from the talented artist Stan Mott, who also worked with Manney. Mott is responsible for the humorous and imaginative Cyclops and Pignatelli (art) that appeared in Road & Track and Sports Cars Illustrated. He drew this impression of Manney back in the days when journalists were journalists. It is too small to be appreciated above, so simply click on the artwork and it will appear much larger so that you can read the cartoon’s wording, which you’ll no doubt find hilarious. Published with permission of Stan Mott.

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