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The Saga of the Caswell BNC Part 3

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BNC Ford

The Caswell BNC Ford as it appears today, cleaned up but unrestored 'as last raced,' to quote Fred Simeone. Photo courtesy George Lymber.

Preserving History

By Eric Davison

It is hard to determine the ownership succession of a car like the BNC. We do know that Caswell bought it as a used car, after which he modified it and competed with it before it changed hands. To whom it went next is a mystery.

It was reportedly in the hands of Eric “Sonny” Grainger for a time. Grainger was the track announcer at the Islip, Long Island race track for a period and in 1955 was one of the founders of the Bridgehampton circuit.

The Brooklands windscreen with the Bridgehampton Paddock pass.

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NEC Show, Birmingham England, November 16-18, 2012

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Lancia Furgoncino

Lancia Appia Furgoncino Series 2. Supplied new on January 1, 1959 to Signor B. Caberlotto of Cornuda (TV). He used the vehicle up until 2006 for the delivery of wines and spirits to his local customers. He nicknamed the van ‘The Earl’. Caberlotto sold the van to the Appia consortium in 2010.

Photos and Captions by Jonathan Sharp

This year’s annual Footman James-sponsored NEC Classic Motor Show show at the sprawling National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham England was the largest yet. spread over 11 halls. The visitor number was also the largest ever with just shy of 58,000 attending over the three days. The show has certainly grown in size and stature since the early days at dear old Alexandra Palace in London (or as us ex locals call it Ally Pally). It is very much a show built by the attending owners clubs – everything from Alfa Romeos to Zastavas. Each year, many of the clubs try to outdo each other in their imaginative display settings. They also bring different cars each year which keeps everything fresh.
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Grand Prix of Brazil: All Great Things Happen in Threes

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Philippe Defechereux
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media and Planet F1

Before reaching Brazil, its grand and final destination, the 2012 Formula 1 season had already given us a thrilling cornucopia of high excitement. A relentless unfolding of momentous events throughout the year – eight different winning drivers and six different manufacturers, for instance – had already marked it for the history books once the teams had taken to the air in Texas only days earlier. And we all knew the World Driver Championship would be at last decided in São Paulo.
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Our Features This Week, November 21st, 2012

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Looking for VeloceToday in your mailbox? Apparently a high level of holiday Internet traffic has delayed the sending out of VeloceToday. We hope there will be some relief by Friday.

The Alfa 8C2900 Experience

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By Alan Yankolonis

In preparation for the 100th birthday of Alfa Romeo, the staff at the Simeone Foundation brought out the famous 8C 2900. This car is the “crème de la crème” of Alfa Romeo race cars; the 1938 8C2900B MM serial #412031 which won the 1938 Mille Miglia. Of the five original Mille Miglia cars only two remain intact and restored to the 1938 configuration (Simeone Museum & Ralph Lauren’s). There are two others that have been extensively modified with different body styles and chassis changes and look nothing like the Mille Miglia cars; the last car was the Le Mans coupe that had been reconfigured from the 1938 Mille Miglia Spider and is now in the Alfa Romeo Museum. (see Mike Sparken)

What’s nice about this author’s job at the Foundation is working on the cars. What is really great is that the Foundation’s collection focuses on sport racing cars that have two seats. In this case, one for the author and another for curator Kevin… who did the driving “chores”.

The staff at the Simeone out in the Alfas. Alan is in the 8C2300 in this shot.

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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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