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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Australian Grand Prix 2012

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Photo by Andrew Coles.

VeloceToday readers are already familiar with the work of Andrew Coles (see Fiat Nationals, Australia). Coles attended the first round of the F1 World Championship at Melbourne and filed this report for VeloceToday.

Story and Photos by Andrew Coles and Ferrari Media

Formula 1 has always been the holy grail of motorsport. It doesn’t matter if you’re a driver, an engineer, an official or even just a spectator, the FIA’s premiere category has an attraction that no true motor racing fan can deny. It was this magnetic-like pull that brought me to Melbourne for the opening round of the 2012 season. Being there live is a world class experience. No matter how many cameras are used to televise the event, no TV coverage can match. In many respects, TV does a very poor job of portraying what actually makes Formula 1 so special.
[Read more…] about Australian Grand Prix 2012

Special Drawing for Our Premium Subscribers

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In January Premium Subscribers were eligible to win an official 2012 Ferrari Calendar; in February we gave away a copy of Dino Brunori’s “Nardi, a fast life”. This month, for our Premium Subscribers only, we are having a drawing for one of the best books on Alfa Romeo ever written: Alfa Romeo Giulietta, tutto su tutti I modelli della Giulietta by Tito Anselmi and Lorenzo Boscaraelli. This is a second edition published in 1998 by Giorgio Nada Editore, (text in Italian). Shipping is free! If you are a subscriber or subscribe before March 26th, send an email to me at vack@cox.net. Drawing will be held on March 27th.

PLEASE SUPPORT VELOCETODAY BY BECOMING A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER

In addition, the Premium articles about Alfa Romeo described below are available only to our Premium Subscribers. Please help support VeloceToday and our contributors by becoming a Premium Subscriber at one of three levels; $9.95 for one month, $7.95 per month for six months, or the best bet, $4.95 per month for one year ($59.40). Use the mediapass form found with each article to subscribe. If you need help, just email us at vack@cox.net.

Racing Giuliettas
The Alfa Giulietta did not come on the sports car scene as Porsche did, with dramatic wins and startling performance. Instead, it kind of slid into the U.S. market, and began to race two years after its introduction in Italy. Carl Goodwin devotes two full articles to provide all the details of Alfa’s early days in the U.S.

Doing Villa d’Este
Some guys just dream, other guys dream and do. Oliver Collins is one of the latter. But better yet, he not only lives his dream but comes back and is glad to tell the world (via VeloceToday) what and how he became a contestant in the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este.

Alfas on the Track
Jeff Allison, editor of “Prancing Horse”, switches to Alfas and writes a firsthand tribute to Alfa Romeo’s 100th anniversary. Many unpublished color photos from races where Alfas competed in 1972 and 1974. In two parts.

Driving the 8C2300
VeloceToday was provided an opportunity to drive the Alfa Romeo 8C2300 MM Spyder on display at the Simeone Foundation in Philadelphia. It is the only 8C 2300 Spyder to be bodied by Castagna. Why are these pre-war Alfas are so great to drive? Find out.

Desert Classic Delivers

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2012 RANCHO MIRAGE DESERT CLASSIC CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE DELIVERS CROWD-PLEASING EXCITEMENT

Rancho Mirage, CA (February 28, 2012) — The 2012 Rancho Mirage Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance ended its 5th annual event on Sunday, February 26, showcasing over 250 world class rare vintage cars and motorcycles displayed on the green at the 4-star Westin Mission Hills Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage. The event was produced in partnership with Palm Springs Life magazine.

Awards in several prestigious categories were handed out including Best in Show Award to Don Murray and his elegant 1963 Ferrari Super America, and the People’s Choice Award to Peter Giabobbi’s outstanding 1959 Ferrari Testa Rossa replica hand built by him from all authentic Ferrari components.  

With an exceptional field of classic cars, race cars, and vintage motorcycles, as well as a breathtaking aerial display of international war birds by the Tiger Squadron, the 2012 Rancho Mirage Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance offered a thoroughly memorable spectator experience.  The spectacular weather and stunning ambiance of the Westin Mission Hills Resort & Spa provided the perfect combination for this event which was attended by a record number of spectators.

‘‘The premiere of the Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance in Rancho Mirage exceeded our expectations,” commented Rancho Mirage Mayor G. Dana Hobart. “We look forward to a long and productive relationship with the event’s leadership.”

The event was attended by members of the prestigious guests from the Petersen Automotive Museum and The Checkered Flag 200 Club who were out in force mixing with the large crowds of car enthusiasts and the general public. The weekend of fabulous events included The Desert Tour Classic, The Desert Auction, and the Rancho Mirage Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance. In addition, the Classique on Saturday morning drew hundreds of people who lined the streets of the Coachella Valley to watch the Desert Tour participant’s parade past.

The Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance is a Palm Springs Life Event
For further information visit: http://www.desertconcours.com/

Geneva 2012

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Story and Photos by Graham Earl

Early March in Europe means just one thing to the motor industry: the Geneva Salon. Historically, this is the show that the manufacturers bring their new products to, and over the years there have been more launches of concepts and new models at Geneva than any other show in the world.
[Read more…] about Geneva 2012

Back to the Drawing Board

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Stratos-

The recent introduction of the Bertone Nuccio and its obvious (and striking) connection with the 1970 Bertone Stratos caused our Italian Editor to recall driving the famed Lancia Stratos Zero (see last week’s article) but also to dig through his archives, where he found these remarkable drawings from the Archive Bertone. We now present them with the sketches of the new Nuccio for your pleasure.

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Rally Mexico 2012 In English and Italian

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By Roberto Motta
Photos courtesy of Citroën Communication, Ford World Rally Team and Rally Mexico

Sebastien Loeb has won the third round of the World Rally Championship. It was his sixth win in Mexico, and this year he confirmed his supremacy from the opening round.
[Read more…] about Rally Mexico 2012 In English and Italian

Gianni Rogliatti 1929-2012

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Another Legend Passes

One of the problems when you get to a certain age is that you begin to lose your friends and with the death of Gianni Rogliatti on March 3, I certainly lost a good friend. I cannot remember how we first met, but it was over fifty years ago. He was a highly respected Italian motoring journalist who was born in Turin in 1929. He had studied engineering in Argentina but he had joined the Italian newspaper La Stampa as their motoring correspondent when first I met him.

I think the opening conversation was about Leica cameras because I was an avid Leica user and we started to compare notes on our Leica IIIGs. In fact, in 1979 with Dennis Laney he wrote the definitive book Leica the First 60 Years which proved to be a best seller and was revised in 1991.

The great thing about Gianni was that impish smile of his when he came out with the latest bit of Italian motor racing gossip.

However, his main claim to fame was his close friendship with Enzo Ferrari. Unlike the late Franco Lini, another well known Italian journalist who later became Ferrari Team Manager, Gianni would listen to what Ferrari would say at press conferences and then ask sensible, in-depth questions whereas Franco usually tried to turn the whole affair into a pantomime.

I was last with him about two years ago at a party in at Mario Righini’s castle just outside Modena. Despite the fact that he had been ill for some time he was still in great form. Two years before he had asked me for copies of photos I had taken at Scaglietti’s factory to help illustrate a book Franco Gozzi was writing about Scaglietti. So Gianni asked me if I had received a copy of the book. When I said no, he immediately took out his notebook and said “ I’ll phone Franco and get him to send you a copy right away”. A few minutes later Gianni came bounding back to say that Gozzi was actually at the party and as I approached him it was obvious Gianni had told him about the book. Looking a bit flustered Gozzi said he would send me a book immediately. However, the man with him was Mr Giacobazzi the owner of the famous Giacobazzi vineyard which makes some of the finest Lambrusco.

It turned out that Giacobazzi had paid for the book and he remarked that he had one in the car and brought it in to me. It was typical of Gianni Rogliatti that he was concerned I got a copy after he had asked for the photos. He cared for his friends and was a great help in sorting out Ferrari mysteries. Right up to his death of a heart attack, he was still writing and editing La Manovella, the magazine if the Italian Historical Car and Motorcycle Club. Now he is gone and Italian motoring history has lost one of its greatest exponents.

-Graham Gauld–

Fiat 1100 Geburth

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By Pete Vack and Alex Vazeos
Geburth Fiat Photos courtesy of Alex Vazeos

What about sending an Italian chassis out of Italy to have coachwork built? The normal direction would be to send your chassis to Italy where it would be given a fine set of new clothes by one of the famous carrozzerias that dotted the landscape in the 50s and 60s. It would be unique, well done, inexpensive and probably beautiful. A criss-cross, then, would involve having a chassis made in Italy bodied in some country not particularly known for automobiles and automobile design like Austria.

Italian chassis have been sent outward of their native land to be bodied and re-bodied for years, for example many pre-war Alfa Romeos were sent to the UK and bodied by James Young, Ranalah, or even more obscure firms such as Thornton. There was even a Ferrari 166 bodied by Abbot which did not last too long before being re-bodied again; another example was the couple of early Ferraris bodied by the Swiss firm of Ghia Aigle.

But still, such attempts go against the tide and in many cases were not very successful. Recently another such effort was uncovered in Austria, and therein lies our story…and as our resident car collector, Alex Vazeos, was quick to point out, “There couldn’t have been so many Austrian bodied Fiat 1100’s around so it might be worth a story”. We agreed.

The Fiat 508C
Fiat-508C

The Fiat in question was a 1938 model, a simple 1089cc 508C four-door sedan, officially still called a “Balilla”, but the name was fading by then. The 508C was one of the most popular and successful Fiats to date, and over 250,000 were built between 1937 and 1939.

This 508C found its way to Austria, but the first ten years of its life are unknown, probably due to the war. It re-surfaced in November of 1948, when a Carl Rainer Harbach duly registered the car in the town of Pörtschach, famous for Johannes Brahms, who worked on his second symphony while staying in the tiny town, about 125Km from Venice. The next year it made its way to a new owner and location in Wein, a suburb of Vienna. After changing hands a few more times, on April 23 1955, it became the property of Dr. Oskar Göhring, the owner of a Heating-A/C firm by the name of Geburth-Kühlanlagen. Little did it know that it would be transformed, given a new life, and unlike most of the other 250,000 examples of 508Cs, be saved for posterity.

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Graham Gauld Remembers Jim Clark

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Jim Clark deep in thought: Note the chewed finger nails.

By Graham Gauld

Had he lived, Jim Clark would have been 76 years of age on March 4th. This thought came into my head because someone sent me an email about Jim and the early days, before he came into Formula 1. Suddenly I realized that I had never written an article about Jim Clark in the past twenty years – partly because I had said it all in the three different editions of my biography of him and felt there was nothing more to say. Then I thought again. In twenty years a new generation has sprung up and at the same time my Clark books are now nearly 20 years out of print – so you can only find one on EBay or the like.

Jim Clark had great skill even in his earliest events like here at Leith Fort in Edinburgh with his Sunbeam Talbot sedan.

I thought a few notes and stories about his early days may not go amiss, if only to give a new generation an idea of what motivates and makes a racing driver.

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Nuccio Unveiled

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Top, the Stratos Zero, bottom, the new Nuccio.

On February 10th, Bertone released the first images of the Nuccio, a dramatic showcar that will have its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show (March 8-18th 2012) to celebrate the centenary of Bertone.

As one can see, the Nuccio is an “extreme” sport design which represents the ultimate evolution of the concept of the central rear engine automobile. Do you feel a sense of deja vu? The new Nuccio was, you guessed it, inspired by the Stratos Zero created by Nuccio Bertone in 1970.

Nuccio Bertone

If anything, son of a legend is even more dramatic than the father.

The new concept car from Turin was designed by Michael Robinson at Bertone Style and has much of the flair and drama of the legendary Stratos. Like the Stratos, the Nuccio has a strong emotional impact; it is short, low, wide and powerful. It would be both difficult and a real thrill if one were to drive it on the streets.

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