VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano 2011

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By Chuck Schoendorf and Dino Brunori
Photos by Dino Brunori

If you own an open sports car from the golden era of the great Italian road races like the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio or Coppa d’Oro, you must attend Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano. Come once and you will become a Mitiche addict, and both a certified sports car driver and a certified nut ! A certified driver because of the gruelling, non-stop challenging mountain roads, a certified nut because all the cars are barchettas, meaning open cockpit, and it always rains in the mountains!
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Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano 2011 Images

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Photo Story by Dino Brunori

Le Mitiche Sport brings out a wide variety of historic racing cars not seen elsewhere in the world including a great number of of our favorite small displacement Italian sports racers. But also eligible are the legendary big cars like the Mercedes SSK below making it an event not to be missed.

1928 Mercedes SSK is a huge affair next to the miniscule Italian specials. It was driven by the team of Bernhard and Henry Bauer from Germany.


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Day of The Scorpion: In English and Italian

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Antony Berni with his Fiat Abath 1000 TCR.

Words and photos by Roberto Motta
Italian text at end of photo selection

The idea of creating a gathering dedicated to owners of Abarths stems from the fact that there are not many opportunities to enjoy Abarths. Therefore, about a year ago, a few friends and sympathizers of the marque decided to organize the Historic Abarth track day.

Giorgio Solda in a 1979 Formula Fiat Abarth, Carlo Abarth's last project.

Friends included Tony Berni, Abarth specialist and founder of Berni Motors, Perry (Pierangelo) Passini of Franzoni’s Auto Brescia, and Giuseppe Giuffré, president of the Italian Abarth Historic Register.

This year was the second event and was held on June 30 2011 at the Circuit de Francia Corta ‘Daniel Bonera’, (located in the province of Brescia in Lombardy) with participants from all over Europe, had both a race and show. Abarth owners were able to prove their car on the track, and a show is held for those not eager to race. This year the show turned the paddock of the circuit in a real open air museum.

Horst-Pichler with SE021, a 2000 sports prototype built for the 1971 European Constructor's Championship.

The event drew about 100 participants and over fifty cars registered for the track. The cars were divided into four categories, and each category was allowed to use the track for a test period of 25 minutes each.

Berlina 1000 TC Radiale of Giuseppe Giuffré, president of the Italian Abarth Historic Register.

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Ruote Borrani, Then and Now

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The latest wire wheel from Ruote Borrani is the X Ray, here making a big difference for the Maserati GTS.

In 2010, Borrani Americas partnered with Ruote Borrani Milano to be the exclusive importer and restorer of Borrani rims in North, Central and South America, thus bringing to the forefront a very relevant new story with a significant historical aspect that is rarely told. Our thanks to Ruote Borrani Milano, Borrani Americas, Roberto Motta, and David Seielstad for their help with this article.

For classic car enthusiasts, the name Borrani is synonymous with excellence. Their famed wire wheels have become an icon, known for quality, performance and design. In fact, the strength of Borrani is in its history and quality of its products. Borrani is still producing quality products, including their famous Borrani Classic wire wheels and new line of Xray, Sray and Bi Metal alloy wheels.
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British Grand Prix 2011

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Fernando Alonso drives a real Ferrari.

By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media

Ferrari Finds Speed, Finally
Grand Prix of Britain

Fernando Alonso did his best to convince everyone that he was worth every Euro the scuderia is throwing at him and brought Ferrari their first victory of the 2011 season in a typically damp British Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel led during the first half of the race, getting the jump on his pole sitting team mate, causing groans of “not again” from the dignified fans and more guttural shouts of “che cazzo” from tifosi. But the result was enough to put Red Bull on notice that the last ten races will not be a cake walk. Hopefully.
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This Week, of Interest: Win Evan Wilson’s Giulietta Book

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It looks like our contests have been so successful we’ll just have to keep them going for a while, at least through the months of July and August. We congratulate last week’s winner, Virgil Taylor, who correctly and firstly identified the Wyss-Warhol as a 1964 GTO.

This week, something different. Alfa owner, writer and enthusiast Evan Wilson has revised his very enjoyable book about Giuliettas, a must have for anyone seriously interested in these small Alfas. We review the book below, and to win a copy of the latest and much improved book, Evan has supplied this quiz question:

On a Giulietta or a 101 Giulia, where is the mascherina typically installed?

Heads UP! New Contest Rules

Answer the question above as clearly as possible. But to accomodate our readers who don’t always open VT the instant it arrives and also give our readers in different time zones a chance to win the contest, we have devised a new way of conducting our contests:
*Please send your answer to the above question via email to pete@velocetoday.com, NOT the comment box below.
*(Entries will close at 12 noon EDT on Thursday July 7th (tomorrow).
*We’ll print out the correct answers and draw the winner from a hat.
*We’ll notify the winner via email and send out Evan’s excellent Alfa book to the winner by Friday. THere are NO strings attached; we won’t use your email address or geographical address for any reason other than to ensure you receive the book. Good Luck!

Below, the third installment of the Alfa 1300 Berlina series, Alfasud owner Evan Wilson’s Giulietta book is reviewed and the Revenge of the Lion. Scroll on.

Alfa Berlina 1300, Italian Style

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All Black and White images © Alfa Romeo Automobilismo Storico, Centro Documentazione (Arese, Milano)

This is the third in our series of articles about the 1955-1961 Alfa Giulietta Berlina.

For Italy, the post war era was full of significant changes that would last more than a decade; these were the years of the Cold War as opposed to the dream of a united Europe; the launching of the first atomic-powered submarine; the Warsaw Pact; the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll; Sputnik from the east and Barbie dolls from the west; the success of the Beatles and the death of Kennedy that signaled the end of an era.
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Peugeot Wins at Imola! In English and Italian

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By Roberto Motta
Photos by: Media Audi, Peugeot Media, DPPI, Ferrari and Porsche Werk-Media photo

After the unfortunate experience in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Peugeot is back. Having resolved all the problems the team triumphed at the Circuit Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola 6 hours on July 3rd. [Read more…] about Peugeot Wins at Imola! In English and Italian

This Week, of Interest: Win a Wyss Warhol

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WYSS GOES WARHOL (ESQUE)

Our frequent contributor, scribe/artist Wallace Wyss announced his newest illustration trend–a la Warhol. “I really didn’t think of making a tribute to Andy,” Wyss says, “but when I had to change the color a few times on the printing press for my illustration of one car, I thought , why not show the variations? Maybe that’s how Andy thought of it.”

Wyss will award one signed print to the first person who posts a comment below identifying the make and model of the car.

Those who are planning on attending the Concorso Italiano on August 19th should find a booth where Wyss will be displaying the tribute to Andy print, plus a few other design rendering prints in the original designer’s styles along with his regular full color depictions of Italy’s greatest sports cars. Those who won’t make Monterey can find his work on www.albaco.com Also, interested parties can write photojournalistpro@hotmail.com

Winner of last week’s contest

Last week’s winner of a copy of McQueen’s Machines was Barry Morgan, who almost instantly bought several raffle tickets in support of the Waktins Glen IMRRC. Thanks Barry!

This week’s articles
*Oosthoek’s book on sports car racing in the south is reviewed
*What’s in Your Driveway? Alfa 2600 Zagato
*Premium Article Update: See them all!
*Snooze Alert: Grand Prix of Europe

What’s in Your Driveway?: Zagato’s Alfa Romeo 2600

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2600 Alfa Zagato in 1970. Credit VeloceToday.com

By Pete Vack

“It looks like a giant praying mantis about to leap.” Kyle Fleming’s assessment of the Alfa 2600 Zagato, was, if not overly kind, at least somewhat accurate. Zagato was never known to be anything but bold about its designs, and the Zagato was big, bold and eye catching. Fleming, used to dealing in Maseratis and Ferraris, couldn’t quite put the Alfa Zagato into focus. Such was the attraction of Zagato. The Big Z was different, rare and unusual at a time and place when the U.S. was a veritable candy store, full of rare and unusual cars at bargain basement prices.
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Premium Articles Update

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Below is a list of all of our Premium and Freemium features.
Scroll down for links and full description of each article.

To access a Premium article, you must sign up to our Premium Service. However, we also offer several great in depth articles that are Freemium (Free to everyone), as examples of what you’ll get with our Premium Service.
Premium Service articles include:
*Alfa Berlina Series
*OSCA 1600GT Series
*Giovanni Savonuzzi Series

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European Grand Prix

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Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber

By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media

Snooze Fest

Seems like this author took a bit of a beating for an editing oversight that caused Jenson Button fans to cry foul over a win at Montreal when “their” driver won. I’m happy to report that we’ve returned to our regularly scheduled programming and Sebastian Vettel is once again the winner of a grand prix. We’ve only seen this happen six times this year already. Happy?
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