Our Features This Week, December 21
A Lancia Fulvia HF and the Winter Challenge
Story and Photos below By Peter Collins
Above photo courtesy of the Classic Rally Association.
Portions of this article appeared in the new online classic rally magazine, Retro-Speed.
Check it out for classic rally stories and results!
When friend and colleague Peter Baker asked me if I would like to occupy the navigator’s seat in his well-prepared Lancia Fulvia 1600 HF for the Classic Rally Association’s Winter Challenge. The Rally started from Chester, which is a large and historic town south of Liverpool and close to the Welsh border (it has been used as a rally base several times in the past), and finished at Monte Carlo. I naturally acquiesced immediately. A fun drive with a spot of map-reading – easy, job done–but I had failed to notice that the event was an FIA Regularity round. This latter detail meant that it would be up to expert standards in all respects in order for it to be ratified by the international motorsport body, the Federation Internationale d’Automobile.
[Read more…] about A Lancia Fulvia HF and the Winter Challenge
Marshall Buck Reviews a Tamiya Ferrari 288GTO
Ferrari built 272 examples of the real thing. Tamiya built this one…
Review and photos by Marshall Buck
To my eye, the 1984-86 Ferrari 288 GTO is one of the most beautiful modern sports car designs ever penned. Though it was based on another great design, the new for ’84 GTO was once again perfection from the house of Pininfarina.
I am more of vintage car guy; my main interest is sports and classic cars from the 1930’s through about 1970, but this one rings every bell for me, as does the beautiful 1:12 scale model.
The 288 GTO was designed and built specifically to compete in a new Group B racing series. At that time the requirements for this particular series were that a manufacturer must produce a minimum of 200 cars for homologation.
“Best laid plans…….” Unfortunately the new Group B series was abandoned before it ever got on the track since only Ferrari and Porsche built cars for the series. None of the 272 cars which Ferrari built were ever raced; they all remained road cars…… very fast and scary road cars at that. Most were sold in Europe as they were not certified for sale in the USA, though there were many that were imported and federalized by specialists such as Amerispec.
Scary fast…… The 288 had the power to back up its looks. The heart in each one was a mid mounted V-8 with twin IHI turbochargers. Top speed in Europe was an eye watering 189 mph. Here in the US the top end was reduced to somewhere around a mere 175 mph.
Ferrari 458 Italia’s Winning Year In English and Italian
By Roberto Motta
Photos courtesy of Ferrari-Media
For Ferrari’s 458 Italia, 2011 was an exceptional year. In addition to the many awards and accolades from the international press, the Prancing Horse berlinetta won many successes in major national and international GT racing.
[Read more…] about Ferrari 458 Italia’s Winning Year In English and Italian
Pantheon Ferrari Exhibition
1962 250 GT SWB berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 3431 GT was a star of the Pantheon Ferrari Exhibit.
Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Ferrari, a Special Exhibition in the Pantheon, Basel, Switzerland
The Pantheon in Basel is located in a spectacular building where privately owned vintage cars are exhibited along a circular ramp. It is a garage, a workshop, a sales and rental facility, a place to hold special events, and a lot more. According to the Pantheon site, “Stephan Musfeld has been a vintage car enthusiast since the days of his youth. So, when he happened to hear about the vacant premises formerly occupied by the Züblin repair and machinery workshop in Muttenz, the project became virtually inevitable. And thus it came about that Basle once again became Switzerland’s center for yet another theme of special interest.”
The unique Pantheon building in Basel.
[Read more…] about Pantheon Ferrari Exhibition
Our Features This Week, December 14
Graham Gauld, By The Way
Bäumer at the wheel of the Mercedes when he had his driver test at Monza, 1937.
Graham Gauld talks to Maserati 300S author Walter Bäumer
Two years ago Walter Bäumer Jr. launched his tome on Maserati and in particular to the Tipo 300S and since then he has been working on an equally complicated book on the Maserati A6G 2000 Zagato models. However,If you are of a certain age the name Walter Bäumer might mean something to you for there was a Walter Bäumer who raced for Mercedes-Benz in 1938. He was the author’s uncle.
Young Walter is a very amusing and affable enthusiast who specializes in Maserati history (www.internationalMASERATIresearch.com) but about a year ago we talked a bit about his family and particularly his uncle.
[Read more…] about Graham Gauld, By The Way
Racing a Maserati 300S
In this archived article, Peter LeSaffre discusses driving the ex-Musy Maserati 300S back in the good days of the Ferrari Shell Historics.
By Pete Vack
Color photos by Richard Prince Photography
In his epic book, Maserati 300S, Walter Bäumer tells us a fascinating story about a little-known race driver by the name of Benoit Musy.
He was the son of a President of Switzerland and “a brave man, who saved the lives of many German Jews in the last months of WWII.” Musy purchased a Maserati 300S, chassis 3057 new from the factory in June of 1955. He bought a truck to haul the car, his beautiful wife Consuela and young son Edouard. In 1955 and 1956, he entered seventeen events throughout Europe, winning six outright. But at Montlhléry in late 1956, Musy entered a Maserati 200S Maserati as the 300S was being overhauled. Tragically, Musy was killed driving the 200S, and his grief stricken wife sold the 300S immediately.
[Read more…] about Racing a Maserati 300S
Bitsa Number One
The Author.
FORZA ITALIAN STYLE
File this under “It had to happen eventually.” In Japan on Dec. 4th there was a convoy of Japanese Ferrari enthusiasts proceeding at an average of 90 mph toward a car event. The track, er, highway, was the Chugoku highway in western Japan. Some ace driver changed lanes and there was a dispute over whose lane it was. The driver spun out and the result was a 14-vehicle pile-up. When the smoke cleared, there were eight Ferraris, two Mercedes and a Lamborghini and a couple lowly Toyotas severely wrinkled. The miracle was that 10 people were taken to hospitals but none were seriously injured.
[Read more…] about Bitsa Number One
Our Features This Week, December 7
Amilcar: The Poor Man’s Bugatti
Vintage Motorphoto’s Dale LaFollette recently found this remarkable, captivating photo of the Indy Delage. Click to enlarge.
All photos in this reveiw are from the book “Amilcar”
Book Review:
Amilcar by Gilles Fournier, Translated by David Burgess-Wise
Dalton Watson, 2006
300 pages 84 page French supplement
500 black and white photos, diagrams, and advertisements
Two volumes, hardbound with dust jackets and slip case
Review by Pete Vack
“Once an Amilcar, always an Amilcar!” declared Gilles Fournier, the author of the only serious book on the subject. Amilcar—its name reputedly an anagram of founders Emile Akar and Joseph Lamay–was a small displacement “cyclecar” built in France between the wars that according to Stan Grayson in Automobile Quarterly “…possessed undeniable charm and a healthy dose of that intangible quality that makes some cars stand out.”
[Read more…] about Amilcar: The Poor Man’s Bugatti