The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
VeloceToday has offered our readers eighty-eight feature articles since the beginning of 2012 ranging from personal memoirs to Formula One coverage to original articles of historic interest. To read any of the articles click on the article button below.
Gijsbert-Paul Berk, who wrote the biography of the French engineer André Lefebvre and the cars he created at Voisin and Citroën, is now preparing a new book. (Read our review)
The new book will be about André Dubonnet (1897-1980), another Frenchman who devoted his life to automobiles.
To complete his research Gijsbert wishes to contact Dubonnet’s family and / or descendants. Some of them could live in the USA. Because André Dubonnet’s second wife, Mrs. Xenia Howard Johnston (they were married on 9 march 1932, in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris, France) and his last wife Mrs. Elise Curtis (they were married on 28 June 1966, in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris, France) were both American.
André Dubonnet flew in WWI a Hispano-Suiza powered SPAD S.VII fighter plane, and was part of the famous Escadron des ‘Cigognes’ (Storks). During the early twenties he raced quite successfully with Hispano-Suizas, Bugattis and Duesenberg. Later he became inventor and entrepreneur and was actively involved in the concepts of a number of rather fascinating prototype cars.Together with the French engineer Gustave Emile Chédru he developed the suspension system (covered by US Patent No. 2,054,063, filed on March 8, 1933), that was used from 1934 to 1939 by General Motors for the independent front suspension of their Chevrolet cars. He also sold the manufacturing rights of the Dubonnet suspension to Fiat, Simca and Alfa Romeo.
Between 1938 and 1944 Dubonnet created the impressive Hispano-Suiza engined and Saoutchik bodied Xenia II streamline coupé (with Dubonnet independent suspension on all four wheels). It is now part of the collection in the Mullin Automotive Museum at Oxnard, California.
If you can be of any help to Mr. Gijsbert-Paul Berk, please contact me at vack@cox.net. I will forward all correspondence.
In the early fifties, the Ruggeri brothers from northern Italy, embarked on the construction of a Grand Prix car, due to Professor Speluzzi. The car had a transverse rear mounted engine, similar to the Bugatti 251. Because of the lack of funds, the project remained unfinished.
Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Has it been that long…We first met Hugues Vanhoolandt four years ago in April of 2012 as he offered to help us indentify some cars at the 2008 Essen show.
1952 Ferrari Tipo 500 Rick Hall, Turn 6 Phillip Island.
Story and Photos by Vince Johnson
It has been sixty years since Alberto Ascari won not only his first Formula 1 World Championship, but Ferrari’s as well. It was fitting that the car which gave him nine straight victories during 1952-53 should fire up in Australia a week before the start of the 2012 F1 season. This was not the first time this car had run down under.
After earning Ascari his second championship, chassis number 5 (0480) was sold to Australia’s first F1 driver, ex-WW2 Spitfire Squadron Leader Tony Gaze. Gaze’s debut in the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa on 22 June had also been the first outing for this very car. The factory fitted it with a new 3-liter 750 Monza engine for Gaze and it won races in South Africa and New Zealand. In 1956 Gaze sold it to Australian Lex Davison. The Ferrari continued its winning ways with six major victories, including consecutive Australian Grand Prix successes in 1957-58 before leaving Australia in the 60’s. Its return after five decades created a hive of interest in the pits and on the track at this year’s Phillip Island Classic held in March.
Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
This year our European Photographer traveled to Florida for the Sebring 12 hours, and the officials at Sebring including Ken Breslauer made sure he had press credentials. Our thanks to the staff for making his journey from Belgium to Florida worthwhile.
[Read more…] about Vanhoolandt’s Sebring 2012
Visible evidence of one of the most popular sports in the world. Where is the WRC Rally U.S.A.?
By Roberto Motta
Photos courtesy of Citroën Communication, Ford World Rally Team and Rally de Portugal
After an endless series of twists and turns, the “Vodafone Rally de Portugal” was turned upside down. Sebastian Leob nearly destroyed his car on an early special stage and retired. Many stages had to be cancelled for safety reasons. The Citroen DS3 of Hirvonen appeared to be a clear winner…until post race scrutineering excluded the Citroen from the results due to technical irregularities.
[Read more…] about Rally Portugal Surprises: In English and Italian
The winner of this delightful book is Eduardo Prado! Become a Premium subscriber now to be eligible for next month’s drawing.
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.
CLICK HERE TO A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER
For Premium Subscribers ONLY!!
The 2012 F1 season has just begun. Did you ever wonder how the team of David Hobbs, Steve Matchett and Bob Varsha do their magic on SpeedTV? Read this two part exclusive interview conducted by David Seibert with Speed’s F1 host Bob Varsha!
VeloceToday Interviews Bob Varsha
The F1 season begins soon, just in time to find out the real story behind SPEED coverage of the races. In an exclusive two part interview for VeloceToday, David Seibert talks to SPEED Formula 1 anchor Bob Varsha about life behind the SPEED cameras, and if Formula 1 will get another chance in the United States. Don’t miss this candid interview with a master Anchor.
VeloceToday Interviews Bob Varsha, Part II
In Part II of the Bob Varsha interview, David Seibert asks Speed’s top anchor about his favorite driver, Ayrton Senna. Varsha also reveals why it is so difficult to create content the typical VeloceToday readers enjoy, such as “Behind the Headlights” and the series “Victory by Design. He also explains why the BJ Auctions succeed in spite of the hype. Don’t miss this very revealing interview.
By Patricia Lee Yongue
Cars and Chicks
From the most elegant of international auto salons, posters, publicity photos, and magazine ads to the sleaziest of car shows and rags, a fetching female posed by—or slathered over—an attractive automobile remains an icon of Western popular culture. Occasionally, a woman sits behind the wheel and smiles through the side window. Less occasionally, she is depicted actually driving the vehicle. At the fancier shows and salons, she may move with the car by means of turntable. She and the car are assuredly objects of the ‘male gaze.’
Of late, some manufacturers have trained attractive young women to demonstrate the technology and other normally “guy knowledge” of the cars, but pretty girls talking in business-like voice about camshafts, rpms, and torque somehow diminishes the sexual sell despite the “smart is sexy” pitch. In a retro move, Ferrari offered a silent, stiletto-shod blonde-tressed female with a yellow 458 Italia at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show. And, for the most part, whether in print or at show, the non-driving, contextually sexually well-bodied and well-dressed (or undressed) young woman decorating an eminently drivable, beautifully bodied car still drives the marketer’s and, presumably, the target consumer’s desire.
The association of decorative women and cars dates back to the very introduction of the automobile at show. The poster for the opening of the first Salon de l’auto, organized by the Automobile Club of France and held in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris in June, 1898, featured a gowned, wasp-waisted goddess of speed reigning over the exhibit. In a poster for the French constructors A. Teste Moret and Cie Lyon-Vaise, a winged young lady in fancy dress pilots a voiturette encircled by a swarm of speeding flies. [Read more…] about Cars and Chic Chicks
Peter drives his first Talbot Lago, #110007, ex-Chiron. Courtesy Peter Giddings.
Hindsight is a good remedy for perceived mediocrity. Looking back on the 20-odd year run of the French Lago Talbot, it is easy to see that the cars of Anthony “Tony” Lago (born on this date in Venice in 1893)were not only were winners on the concours circuit, but significant winners on the Grand Prix tracks in the post war era. After five major Grand Prix wins, nine lesser ones and victory at Le Mans in 1950, Cyril Posthumus would write, “Lago, in his retirement years could look back on a remarkable chapter of accomplishment.”
On the day of his birth, we remember the cars of Tony Lago, thanks to VeloceToday reader and longtime vintage racer, Peter Giddings.
From the dramatic concours-winning Figoni et Falaschi coupes of late 1930s to the last-of-the-line Lago America coupes of 1956, Lago Talbots came on the scene with style and flair, making the most of a meager budget and limited facilities. In between the flashy sports cars were the real stars…the series of remarkable 4.5 liter Grand Prix cars that were campaigned primarily by privateers from 1939 to 1952.
Peter Giddings can claim to have been racing Lago Talbots for over thirty years. Although he recently parted with the ex-Etancelin car #110054 (which went to his good friend David Duthu), Giddings has an enormous amount of experience with the GP Lagos. He also owned and raced the ex Chiron/Whiteford French/Australian Grand Prix winning Lago Talbot #110007 for ten years. Like no one else, Giddings is the guy in the know.
The ex-Ron Smith Talbot-Darracq 150 which inspired Peter Giddings. Photo courtesy of David Venables.
Felipe Massa
By Pete Vack
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media, unless otherwise noted
Recipes and a Witches Wet Brew
First it promised to rain and it didn’t. Then it promised to rain again and it didn’t. In between it rained Malaysian cats and dogs. Grey skies made for an exciting race with surprise outcomes.
Most surprised of all was probably Alonso, who managed to pull off the impossible, winning with a car that everyone says is a dog even in the dry. Or maybe they are just saying that. Or maybe it was so last week but not this week.
[Read more…] about Malaysian Grand Prix 2012