VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Marshall Buck Reviews a Tamiya Ferrari 288GTO

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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.

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Ferrari 458 Italia’s Winning Year In English and Italian

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Ferrari 458

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

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Ferrari 250GT SWB

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

Graham Gauld, By The Way

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Walter Baumer Monza_Tests_1937-545

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

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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

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wyss

The Author.

We at VeloceToday.com attempt to keep up with current world news concerning French and Italian cars but let’s face it, it’s a big job. So it is that we welcome occasional columnist Wallace Wyss in a new column called “Bitsa” where he mentions news stories and his take on their significance, or insignificance.

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

Amilcar: The Poor Man’s Bugatti

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khkhlkjh

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

Bertone Museum Becomes a National Historic Site: In English and Italian

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By Roberto Motta
Photo courtesy of the Archives Bertone

On November 2 the Italian Ministry of Heritage and Culture announced that the “Bertone Collection” kept at the company headquarters in Caprie, is now part of the national artistic heritage of Italy. Unfortunately, the Collection is missing some jewelry, but the majority of the collection now is safe.
[Read more…] about Bertone Museum Becomes a National Historic Site: In English and Italian

Shelby’s TdF

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Art by Wallace Wyss

By Wallace Wyss

In 1959 Carroll Shelby won the biggest race there was in sports car racing, and that was the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He quit driving shortly after that, and just in time, because a heart condition he had managed to hide from the SCCA medical techs was threatening to take him out if he didn’t quit. He wasn’t worried about what he would do next; he was already was working on a plan to build his own sports car.

Although he was known for winning most of his victories in Ferraris and Maseratis, if you search deep down in the racing records you find that, among the fifty different marques of cars he drove was a Buick-powered special called “Ol’ Yaller”.

Shelby knew that the biggest expense in developing a new car was designing and engineering the chassis, the engine and transmission. If he could find a ready-made chassis that already had an existing engine and transmission, well then the problem was considerably smaller– only clothing it in an appropriately Italian sexy style and promoting it. He had spent too much time in Italy not to know that there were great designers and coachbuilders there. He also knew there was a snob appeal to having a car bodied in Italy. He probably had it in for Enzo Ferrari [according to historian Willem Oosthoek, when Shelby boasted of all his victories in the U.S., an unimpressed Enzo asked him: “But what was your competition?” Ed.]
so he thought why not stick it to the old man by having Ferrari’s own body builder build it?

His first idea was to use the All American Corvette. Hence the Corvette Italia.
[Read more…] about Shelby’s TdF

Post Season Rally News: In English and Italian

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(Photos courtesy of Autodromo Nazionale Monza)

By Roberto Motta

Photos courtesy of Roberto Motta, Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Citroën Communication, Abu Dhabi World Rally Team and VW-media

Sebastien Loeb: Another win at Monza

On 25 and 27 November, Sebastien Loeb, assisted by his wife Severin as co-pilot, dominated the Monza Rally Show. The Alsatian and his Citroen DS3 WRC won seven of the nine special stages, finishing the event with 24 minute, 2-second lead over motorcycleman Valentino Rossi driving a Ford Focus WRC.
[Read more…] about Post Season Rally News: In English and Italian

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