VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Barossa Vintage Collingrove Hillclimb 2024

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1929 Bugatti Type 44 engine showing oil filter housing above water pump.

Story and photos by Vince Johnson

Barossa Vintage Collingrove Hillclimb, 6 October 2024 Spring in South Australia’s wine country sees the vines in leaf and the Barossa Valley hills at their finest. Vintage at the wineries is still a long way off but the long weekend in October brings a different vintage to the SA Sporting Car Club’s hillclimb track at Mount McKenzie near Angaston. Celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, the world’s second oldest continually-running veteran car club’s Collingrove meeting echoed to the sounds of last century’s classic and sports cars and motorcycles as they raced the clock to the top.

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Augie Pabst: Goodbye, Old Friend

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The smiling Augie Pabst (left) and co-driver Walt Hansgen after winning the 1964 Road America 500 in their Ferrari 250 LM (6047). (photo Road America Archives)

By Jeff Allison

One of America’s finest and most popular drivers, August “Augie” Pabst Jr., died on October 9, 2024 at 90, leaving a legacy of excellence in racing in the U.S., Canada and internationally at Le Mans, Brands Hatch and Nassau. He was the great grandson of Captain Frederick Pabst, who became the president of the Pabst Brewing Company in 1872. In an interview with Forza (April 2013), Pabst mentioned “… I used to work at the brewery in the summertime in the packaging department,” but that was his only association with the brewery until much later in his life.

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Augie Pabst Photo Gallery

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Pabst, E.P. Lunken and Gaston Andrey Ferrari 250 TR (0720TR) at the 1959 Sebring 12 Hours. (photo courtesy of E.P.Lunken)

Photos courtesy Jeff Allison, Willem Oosthoek, Tom Shultz, Alan Boe and others

Jeff Allison and Willem Oosthoek scoured their files for photos in the short time available after learning of Augie Pabst’s death. They’re not all conclusive, but they do show his talent and versatility driving such a diverse variety of cars with different teams, at different tracks and in different conditions. He was one of the best!

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BMW’s Italian Designers, Part 1

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By Jackie Jouret
Photos courtesy The BMW Archive

To be successful at Le Mans, or in any high-speed competition, you need more than just a powerful motor. You also need effective aerodynamics. With low drag combined with stability at speed, power becomes less important overall, and even a relatively underpowered car can win races.

BMW’s 328 had been winning races since its 1936 debut at the Nürburgring, but it did so largely thanks to exquisitely balanced performance and responsive handling rather than outright power. (Which is not to say that the M328 six-cylinder engine was anything short of a masterpiece; it remains a superb engine, with hemispherical combustion chambers and an innovative valvetrain.) Those traits had allowed the BMW roadster to sweep the podium for 2.0-liter sports car class in the 1938 Mille Miglia, for instance, where the mountainous course played perfectly to the car’s strengths.

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And How! Closing the Roundel

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By Pete Vack

This week we begin a multi-part series on Italian designers and BMW, researched and written by BMW Roundel columnist Jackie Jouret. These exclusive articles for VeloceToday are the result of some interesting connections and coincidences.

Although I’ve owned a lot of Alfas, my first new car was not an Alfa but a 1971 BMW 2002, chosen over an Alfa Berlina 1750. It will long be remembered, perhaps mostly because we kept the window sticker. It was in the days before the great inflationary spiral of the 1970s, and the cost off the showroom floor was only $3706. That’s three thousand, seven hundred six dollars. [Read more…] about And How! Closing the Roundel

Gauld Visits the Malaga Museum

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The Museo del Automovil y La Moda in Malaga, southern Spain.

Story by Graham Gauld
Photos by Graham Gauld unless otherwise noted

For me a visit to any motor museum not only exposes to you cars and models you have heard about but never seen in the metal, so to speak, but demonstrates the sheer variety of marques the world has produced in the 130 year history of the automobile.

Recently I took a short trip to Malaga in the south of Spain.

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Nick Soprano’s Dream Car

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Story and photos by Sean Smith
From the Archives, December 2018

Well before Nick Soprano climbed behind the wheels of some of the world’s greatest sports cars, he was drawing his version of the perfect high performance machine. Every young car lover does this, but Nick never grew out of it.

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Classic Memories: Gauld at Silverstone

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Peter Fenichel with his interesting Stanguellini.

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

As regular readers know, I always look forward to the Silverstone Classic in late August, but for me this year was a rush as I had to get back fast before going on a brief visit to Malaga in Spain (coming up), so only now can I sit back and reflect on an event which always churns up interesting cars and people.

Take Peter Fenichel, for example, who was racing a Stanguellini Formula Junior that interested me, as anything to do with Stanguellini does since I have known the family for over sixty years. Peter is an American retired financial man with a passion for racing and a cheerful demeanor.

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Chantilly Art and Elegance Concours 2024

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Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

Every two years, the château and grounds of Chantilly hosts a new edition of the Chantilly Arts & Elegance Concours. It is difficult to find a more beautiful setting to house the most beautiful automobiles of the past and present, especially when the sun is out. This edition already marked the tenth anniversary of the creation of this event which revives the tradition of the elegance concours of the 30s and 50s, when coachbuilders unveiled their latest creations.

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So Long Goodwood, Until We Meet Again

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1939 Parnell Challenger, Goodwood Trophy, entered and driven by Duncan Ricketts.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

I hope you dear readers will forgive me for one final photographic visit to this years Goodwood Revival; after all it is going to be a long winter without a Goodwood fix.

I seem to have spent a fair amount of time in the Goodwood estate this year, starting with various Sunday morning free breakfast club meetings at the circuit, members’ only test days prior to the 81st members’ meeting in April, The Festival of Speed in July, a family club day in the August sun (sun was a rare occurrence this year) also at the house, and of course the amazing Revival in September, and amazing it was, even though I got soaked far too often. So here’s to next year starting with the 82nd Members’ Meeting in April. Roll on spring.

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And How! Allen R. Kuhn at the Petersen

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Big car, big pic…

Story and photos courtesy Allen R. Kuhn

The yearlong tribute to the Corvette that was at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles came to an end in September, 2024. It was in 2023 that Jonathan Eisen, an Associate Curator at the Petersen Automotive Museum, contacted me to see what I had in the way of vintage Corvette photographs. Here is what he wrote:

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Goodwood Revival 2024, Sharp Part 1

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Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Boy did it rain. At one point I was thinking maybe I could do a feature on ‘Umbrellas at the Revival’ but this is Britain and rain does not usually stop play, or if it does then it is not for long.

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