VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

The Saga of the Caswell BNC Part 2

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At left, Tony Lymber with John Gianella, who had so carefully and thankfully preserved the Caswell BNC. George Lymber photo.

A Franco-American Hybrid

By Eric Davison

No one knows how George Lymber’s BNC reached America. We do know that a legendary figure of the early days of sports car racing, Otto Linton, (who was of great help in writing these articles) was a close friend and business associate of George Caswell, who purchased the car from motorcycle dealer George Taylor sometime in the early 1940s. Since both Taylor and George Caswell have both passed along to the great racetrack in the sky, there are no details to be had about the arrival of the BNC to these shores.
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Graham Gauld: Rally round the (Deutsch) Flag

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The two factory Mercedes 220SEs beside the monument on Loch Ness to the English racing driver and adventurer John Cobb, who was killed sixty years ago whilst attempting a new World Water Speed record on the loch.

By Graham Gauld

Unlike the Continent, rallies in the U.K. did not use special stages on closed roads to decide the winners; they normally used gymkhana style driving tests; in 1960 the RAC rally was going to use special stages for the first time. These were a handful in Scotland mainly using loose-surface tracks in the forests and prepared by the Forestry Commission.

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United States Grand Prix 2012

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Getty photo from Interent.

By Philippe Defechereux

Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media unless otherwise noted.

Grand Prix of the Americas: Splendidly, to the Finish!

Bernie Ecclestone always wanted the New York skyline in frame for a new attempt at conquering the U.S. market. After the inaugural “Grand Prix of the Americas” in Austin this past weekend, it seems that a Texas Hat Trick was a more perfect opener. New York will follow. The new Texas venue indeed proved a trifecta for Formula 1: world fans and the racing teams discovered a challenging, curvaceous, racy beauty of a new circuit; attendance on Sunday was full at near 120,000 spectators; last but not least, a thrilling “Race of World Champions” unfolded over 56 laps, leaving the Driver Title open until the season’s final event next Sunday in Brazil.
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The Saga of the Caswell BNC Part 1

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BNC in garage-under-cardboard

French Charm seeing the light of day after forty years. Photo by George Lymber.


French Charm

By Eric Davison

Getting involved in writing about old cars is something like a disease that is incurable. The symptoms keep on recurring. Case in point: Last year I was involved in helping my friend Phillipe Defechereux with the latest edition of his book about Watkins Glen in the period from 1948 to 1952. (Watkins Glen, The Street Years. 1948 – 1952. Dalton Watson)

The intention was to try to locate some of the cars that appeared at the Glen during those years and to tell where they are today. Unfortunately I had only a few months in which to work. To do a comprehensive job would take years and would make a pretty good book all by itself.

The famous cars were easy. Just about any car that Briggs Cunningham was involved with is in the Collier Museum in Florida. Talbot Lago Figoni coupes, while rare and wonderful, are easily traced. Poison Lil is a legend all by itself. Cars like 2.9 liter blown Alfas don’t disappear; they wind up in important collections. However it was the rare, unusual and not so famous cars that aroused my curiosity.

What's that car? Number 5 is George Caswell at Waktins Glen, 1948. The modified nose would make the car hard to identify. Behind him is the MG of Dean Bedford, Jr. Both cars would finish the Junoir Grand Prix. Photo by Harold Lance.

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Pininfarina in the 1970s by Mark Stehrenberger

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The third and final installment of our Pininfarina series deals with the 1970s. With hindsight, we can see that today’s Ferraris….still exhibiting the very essence of Pininfarina…have features that were inherited both from the curvaceous sixties and the razor edge seventies. But we’d like your opinion…of the three decades of Pininfarina, what is your favorite and why? Comment below…

PININFARINA_Modulo

Wyss: Into the 1970s Pininfarina continued to wow the design world with unique solutions to new packaging problems. Sometimes, and very boldly so, they went way beyond what was practical, such as the incomparable Modulo, built out of Ferrari race car bits.

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TC by Maserati via Chrysler

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The TC by Maserati had open headlamps which meant you didn’t have to worry about headlight covers failing to open like you do on the LeBaron. The hardtop was always painted body color and if you can get a hardtop with a car today, take it as it’s roughly 10% of the car’s value.

The TC by Maserati had open headlamps which meant you didn’t have to worry about headlight covers not opening like you do on the LeBaron. The hardtop was always painted body color and if you can get a hardtop with a car, take it, as it’s roughly 10% of the car’s value.


Wherein a top Detroit executive spends millions
to complement his Italian heritage…

By Wallace Wyss

Photos of the TC by Maserati courtesy of Beverly Hills Motorcars in San Diego California.

Most people are proud of their heritage. Lido “Lee” Iacocca was extremely proud of being born in Italy, although he grew up in America.

He became one of America’s top auto executives, first coming to the public’s attention in the ’60s when the new Mustang was rolled out. At one point he had his picture on the cover of TIME magazine along with the Mustang. Though the Mustang was a bang-up success (selling 22,000 units the first day!), all this publicity focused on him really teed off his boss, Henry Ford II, grandson of the first Henry Ford.

So one day HFII (nicknamed “Deuce”) summoned Iacocca to his top floor office and summarily fired him.

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Rally Spain 2012 in English and Italian

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Dani Sordo had a good Rally, but too little, too late for the Mini.

By Roberto Motta

Photos courtesy of Citroën Communication, Ford World Rally Team and Rally de Espania-Media

After a great season and having already won the WRC World Driving Championship, Sebastian Loeb won the Rally Spain for the eighth time in a row.

Loeb took the lead on Saturday and significantly increased his lead over rival Jari-Matti Latvala, and then controlled the event from that point on. [Read more…] about Rally Spain 2012 in English and Italian

Our Features This Week, November 7th, 2012

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Helpful Hint: While our articles seem to vanish, they are simply archived after two weeks. There are now over 1000 articles in the VeloceToday archives. Please use the three boxes at the top of the right column to find them. Use the “Find” box by typing in a car or model, subject or author. Entries will appear in the left column. Be sure to scroll to “previous entries’ at the bottom to see more. Or search by topic or date to find even more great articles.

Below, features for the this week. For our report of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, scroll down.

Driving a Rally Legend… In 1/10th scale

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By Pete Vack

Above: This is the Radio Controlled Rally Legends Fiat Abarth 131 on our driveway. It is big; over 17 inches long, almost 6 inches high and 7.5 inches wide. Not full size but you could have almost fooled us. It is fast; right out of the box these electric-powered cars will do at least 32 mph. Merry Christmas?
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Goodbye, John

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John Fitch

Elizabeth and John Fitch celebrate a win with the Cunningham C4R. Photo John Fitch collection.

John Fitch, one of America’s greatest drivers, died on October 31st at the age of 95. Shortly after, I received two short remembrances, one from Carl Goodwin and the other from Eric Davison. I was struck by how similar both sketches were in scope and nature; both Carl and Eric captured his kindness and sincere, warm personality. John’s racing life is well known by our readers and also covered in Carl Goodwin’s book “They Started in MGs”.
Below, a side of John Fitch rarely seen from two of our finest contributors.

By Carl Goodwin

It was a great pleasure to know and work with John Fitch for the last 28 years of his life. Some of it was for magazine articles but most of it was as the volunteer publicist for his company Impact Attenuation LLC, which held and developed John’s designs for energy-absorbing safety barriers to be used in racing (www.racesafety.com).

It was not always glamorous. But all of it was interesting. In fact Fitch was the most interesting person you could ever know. If only you could have been with us.

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Pininfarina in the 1960s by Mark Stehrenberger

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Wallace Wyss and the Editor continue to assess Pininfarina’s work through the 1960s via the posters of Mark Stehrenberger. The separation of the works of PF by year and highlighting various models gives us a unique opportunity to look back on the history of the firm and of Italian post-war design through 1970. This week, the sixties, next, the 1970s.

pf-lusso

Wyss: In the ’60s Pininfarina did designs that stand well the test of time. In fact, some think the Ferrari 250 GT Lusso is the most beautiful road Ferrari of all time (if you consider race cars, though, you would have it up against the incomparable P3/4).

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