VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

A French Day at Brooklands P1

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1926 Bugatti Type 37 GP, and the Brooklands Watch Company’s ‘Little Car Company’ baby Bugatti Type 35. The Type 37 was originally owned by Mr Smith, the chief engineer at Lever Brothers who, during the 1930s, carried out a very well-engineered conversion of the engine to twin magneto ignition.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

August 13, 2023. Popped up to Brooklands in Surrey last Sunday for Brooklands French Car Day.  I think it was a new event, it was certainly new to me. So said the website, ” French legends from our Collection will be on display around the Motoring Village, from all-conquering Bugattis to veteran Peugeots, Malcolm Campbell’s Lorraine Dietrich ‘Vieux Charles III’ to the British Grand Prix winning Delage; you will be able to get close to these amazing machines.”

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Then and Now: Alfa DNA

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Four Alfa sedans representing almost 70 years of Alfa design; the 1950s with the Alfa 1900 Berlina, the Alfa 105 Sedan of the 1960s and early 70s, the 1990s with the 164, and today’s new Giulia Quadrifoglio. A wonderful display of automotive tradition, but do the genes really carry through? Does the latest Quadrifolgio have anything in common with the 1900? We’d like your opinions!

Story and photos by Sean Smith
From the VeloceToday Archives, 2019

Can you take cars that are 60 years apart and compare them? Is there any overlap? So much has changed over that time. So many improvements, so many refinements. Can a car company retain the imagination and passion it has from its past… can it transcend modernity and still retain the fire from bygone days? Comparing four Alfa sedans from disparate eras brings up interesting questions: Is there such a thing as automotive DNA and has Alfa succeeded reproducing desirable genes? Are designers, then and now, really passionate or corporate drones? Is Alfa different than, say GM? We’ll present the cars; you present your views.

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And That Was the Way it Was: F1 in 1971-2

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McLaren parts. Silverstone, British GP, 1971. The car, driven by Peter Gethin, DNF when the engine blew. A rare instance of the Cosworth-Ford engine failing.

Story and photos by Charley Seavey

Many years ago, getting near the pits and/or paddock was much easier. Earlier I’ve recounted my story about getting into the pits at

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Was Fangio Really the Greatest?

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Does this book answer the question of who was greater, Hill or Andretti?

Order here:

Review by Pete Vack
From the VeloceToday Archives

Clyde Berryman needs no introduction here, but then again maybe so. For it appears that Clyde is not only a model and diorama maker but a statistician as well. (Click to see the Berryman Dioramas) His first statistical rating project was a record of National College Football (he is also a football fan) which was so good it was included in the annual NCAA College Football Record Book. He loves statistics, loves to analyze results with all existing information, and loves Grand Prix racing. So, he invented his own system to rate Formula 1 drivers from 1950 to 2019, and attempts to answer that age old question, was it the driver, or was it the car? [Read more…] about Was Fangio Really the Greatest?

VSCC Prescott 2023

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1922/30 Austin Maggot.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

I had not visited an event at the Prescott Hill climb since 2016 so I decided it was time for another visit on August 5-6. The event, the VSCC (Vintage Sports-Car Club) speed championship round 5 ‘Vintage Prescott.’ So has the place changed over the years? Not that I could tell, it is still a lovely setting in the heart of the countryside and in the quieter moments it is possible to hear the distant sound of a steam whistle from the nearby Heritage steam railway above the sounds of the birds.

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A Prescott Primer

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Bugattis enjoy a rare moment of sun. David Hand’s 1925 T39 sits next to the 1924 Brescia T13 of Charles Knill-Jones.

By Jonathan Sharp
From the VeloceToday Archives, 2012

The Cotswolds: bucolic golden-hued thatched cottages, rolling farm land, wheat fields swaying in a warm summer breeze, antique shops, old English country inns selling fine English ales. All this and more, for it is also the home of the Bugatti Owners Club of Great Britain and the famous Prescott Hill climb.

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New! Charles Montier and His French Racing Fords

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Review by Pete Vack

Ten years ago Chris Martin contacted us with an idea for a short book about the Montier Ford.

The wha? I asked, foolishly of course. Well it’s a very special French Ford therefore fit for the pages of VeloceToday and company. And it ran at Le Mans. It was a marque and a history I was totally unaware of. Martin didn’t actually discover all this…he did, however, discover a French book on the subject, Et Vint La Ford T by Fabien Sabates and realized there was no English language version. [Read more…] about New! Charles Montier and His French Racing Fords

Scott Callan and the Model A

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Story and photos by S. Scott Callan

We were sitting at Gene’s dining room table discussing Jim Clark’s heroic drive at Watkins Glen in the 1963 US GP. Clark’s car wouldn’t fire on the line at the start, then it came alive and so did his drive from the back. Finishing third. He had driven out to the Glen to see Clark race.

Yep, Gene was a real Clark guy. Lotus too of course. All my derogatory Chapman, “Don’t take that bolt for a ride!” comments, quoted to me by Stirling Moss, had no effect. His ownership of a perfect Lotus Cortina in the day had sealed his enthusiasm. Or was it fate?” [Read more…] about Scott Callan and the Model A

Andrea Fraschetti, Ferrari Engineer

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The original 2.1 liter Ferrari Dino on its debut at the Modena Autodrome a few weeks after Andrea Fraschetti’s death. Graham Gauld photo

By Graham Gauld

When it comes to words and books, no marque in motoring history has been over-written and over-published than Ferrari. Through the years it has led to some weird publications, such as the book that featured only the different ways in which Ferrari race cars were numbered. Not the actual numbers, you understand, but the graphic style of numbering on the side of the cars. Esoteric, you bet!

And yet there are still many stories to be told, and one of them concerns a young engineer and designer who was with Ferrari for less than two years before he was killed testing a Ferrari Dino prototype at the Modena Autodrome in 1957. What made this poignant for me was that he died just three weeks before I arrived in Modena for the first time and from that day little or nothing has been written about him. His name was Andrea Fraschetti.

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World’s Oldest Rally Navigator

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By Pete Vack

Ninety-five-year-old Frank Shaffer recently placed third in the Fools Rush in Rally in Central Virginia, navigating in the same 1958 Mercedes Benz 190 sedan that he had purchased in Germany when new, and currently owned by Mercedes enthusiast and driver in the event, Chip Hughes.

Now if that’s not a record, it’s close to it. And if not a record, then a damn good story in any case. And if not a good story, then at least an inspiration for the rest of us. Here’s how it happened. [Read more…] about World’s Oldest Rally Navigator

Cartier Style et Luxe at the Festival of Speed

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Entered by Ferrari Classiche, a 1966 330 GT 2 plus 2

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

As mentioned in my previous reports, after completing all the necessary requirements in the press room at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, my first port of call is to try to capture the entrants in the Cartier Style et Luxe concours before they get buried in a sea of people. As in previous years the classes were a diverse and eclectic mix covering everything from early cyclecars to Low Riders and GT1 Homologation specials. The weather on Friday was not so good and as you know Saturday was cancelled, but I managed to grab a few extra shots on Sunday once the sun had come out.

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