The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Commentary by Pete Vack
What would you do, if given the chance to spend two hours alone, one on one, with a World Champion? What questions would you ask, how would you behave, would you be nervous, how would you prepare, how would you perform? [Read more…] about Chatting with a Champion: What would you ask?
A serious side of Goodwood is the study of historically accurate costumes that reflect the fifties and sixties.
The Girls, the Background, the Cars of Goodwood in that order
Photography by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Ferraris in front of the century old Casa Belvedere on Staten Island.
A new event graces Staten Island
Story and Photos by Robert Neary
Staten Island, New York was blessed with perfect weather for the First Annual Casa Belvedere “Motori D’Italia” car and motorbike show on Saturday September 18th, 2010. [Read more…] about Casa Belvedere First Annual Motori D’Italia Car and Motorbike Show, September 18th, Staten Island
Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Aldo Costa
Alonso successful at night
By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media
Singapore has tried branding itself as the Monaco of the east. I’ll give them credit for creating something special. But, with strict laws and not nearly the same quantity of vulgar, rich Russians, it’s not going to be an exact copy. But what they have managed to do is create a show, and that’s what this sport is all about. [Read more…] about Singapore Grand Prix, Sept. 26, 2010
Disco Volante
By Montague Gammon III
Hard on the brakes at well over the speed limit in the left lane of Route 13 on the Eastern Shore, I spun the wheel of my slightly tatty Plymouth Horizon and screeched into the break in the median strip.
I think I heard curses from the driver of the pickup that had been behind me, as he went on his way after getting his cardio stimulation for the day.
You see, parked in the field across the road was a grey Lancia Aurelia B20 – considered the progenitor of the modern GT car.
OK – not exactly a sports car, but a true classic, meant for sporty driving.
But what would I do with a “project car,’ with no garage on the campus of the boarding school where I worked and lived in Westchester, nor at my parents’ Norfolk apartment?
I was very far from being motivated enough or skilled enough to do the work myself, and surely not solvent enough to pay anyone else.
So I went on my way, and left a car that is worth a huge multiple of that one grand, even if it remains rusted solid 28 years later.
I needed a car I could drive, albeit chosen for fun. So I’m not kicking myself like I do about other missed automotive opportunities. but I do wonder what happened to the B20. I can’t believe it rusted away – I was surely not the only person driving up the Delmarva Peninsula who would recognize it. I have asked about it through online Lancia bulletin boards, but no one has answered me.
I guess the questions of how it came to be there, and where it went, will remain unanswered until the day I die.
By then I may be the last person in the world who remembers the sight of Pininfarina’s finely sculpted form, subtly curved and grey and graceful, standing alone in a flat plowed field, in the farm land of eastern Virginia.
This just in: Vintage 60’s Alfa roller. An email from a reader who found a ’67 Giulia GT on craigslist going to the crusher if someone doesn’t come get it. In the Austin, TX area. Here is the link but act fast: http://austin.craigslist.org/pts/1966417064.html
Last May Roberto Motta reported the history and restoration progress of one of the last Alfa Romeos to race at Indianapolis. (See Article) The shop restoring the ex-Roberto Guerrero race car was still perfecting the engine. It is now completed, and the first run-in of the engine was performed last weekend. Roberto Motta, our now-deaf Correspondent, was there with video camera in hand. As Varsha says, “turn up the volume for the start..” Click pic to see flic.
Concorso Italiano, August 13th 2010.
Amid a stunning collection of beautifully maintained and restored Maseratis at Concorso Italiano, two exceptional Maserati Boras presented by Emile’s Sports Car Performance (Santa Cruz, CA) took First and Second place, in the Bora class of this year’s Maserati Days competition. As a Bora aficionado, Emile restored his’75 U.S. spec Bora back to the original appearance envisioned by the car’s designer, Giorgetto Giugaro. The conversion was flawless and the car took second next to his ’73 Bora. Emile documented the bumper conversion which will appear in an upcoming issue Maserati Club International magazine, Viale Ciro Menotti. Emile can reached at (831) 824-4773; click the photo for the website.
Beauty, interrupted. At its best, pictured here, the Mangusta is a work of art. At its worse...well... Car and photo courtesy Daryl Addams.
Beauty, Interrupted
By Wallace Alfred Wyss
The DeTomaso Mangusta is one of the most beautiful cars ever to come out of Italy. But it does have its problems. [Read more…] about DeTomaso Mangusta, A Critical Look Part I
Peter Greenfield's 8C 35 won the Benny Caiola Memorial Award for Outstanding Competition Car.
NART Ferrari BOS
Story and Photos by Werner Pfister
A Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder won Best of Show at the inaugural concours in Tuckahoe, NY! In fact, the most famous of all 10 NART Spyders showed up at the Westchester Italian Cultural Center’s all Italian car show and walked away with the top award. [Read more…] about Westchester Concours d’Elegance September 19, 2010
Photography by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Some of the best from Belgium
Searching through hundreds of digital images can often be a ponderous task. Not so with those under the file folder tagged “Hugues Vanhoolandt.” [Read more…] about Hugues Vanhoolandt: Open Gallery
This week we present a new contributor to VeloceToday. Michael Catsch is a 63 year-old retired Telecom Marketing specialist from Munich whose hobby has now been allowed the time to blossom. He has written for Oldtimer’s Market and background for the Retro Mille Miglia. An original Ferrari Telaio member, we’ve known him since 2002. See his review of three French Etceterini books in this edition of VeloceToday.
Also scroll down to catch a mysteriously fast Bugatti Veyron, the Italian Grand Prix, a Motto-bodied Lancia, and the Ghia 450SS, all in the pages of VeloceToday.
Simeone Foundation Events: Bugatti Day, John Fitch to be Honored
On September 25th, the Simeone Foundation will celebrate Bugatti with a driving exhibit of two very special Bugattis, a Type 35 in excellent original condition, and the winner of the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1937, the famous T57 “Tank”. Both cars will be demonstrated, but do check the latest information on their website. The Foundation is close to the Philadelphia Airport, easy to find and a wonderful place to see and hear Bugattis, live.
In addition, John Fitch, a great American race driver, car constructor and race track designer, has been selected as the recipient of the third “Spirit of Competition” Award, to be presented Wednesday, October 20th at the annual dinner at the Museum.
John Huggins' 1966 Ghia 450SS.
By Wallace Alfred Wyss
Photos by John Huggins
Long ago, you could go to an Italian carrozzeria and order custom-made bodywork for your Chrysler, or Cadillac or whatever and pay a few thousand bucks and have a car that looked like a million bucks.
[Read more…] about Sugarman’s Express: The Ghia 450SS
August 15th 2010. Hugues Vanhoolandt catches the Bug at Laguna.
By Werner Pfister
Is the new Bugatti fast enough to be at two places at the same time?
On August 15, at the Pebble Beach Concours, Bugatti debuted a new model of their very successful Veyron which had been developed in secret over the past year. [Read more…] about Record Breaking Doppelganger?