The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
The Simeone Foundation Museum
The Spirit of Competition
By Frederick A. Simeone, MD.
Preface by Mario Andretti
Photograph by Michael Furman
Coachbuilt Press, 2009, $185
Hardbound, 13 x 9.5 inches
Copies can be ordered from www.simeonemuseum.org
“The Spirit of Competition” will make its official debut to the public at The Quail on August 14th. Coachbuilt Press will have copies for sale in their booth there as well as at Pebble Beach on Sunday.
Book Review by Pete Vack
By David Seibert
Photos by Bruce B. Miller
Facebook/MySpace: bruce@forza.cc – wtiger
(Mont Tremblant, PQ, Canada, July 27) A small field and a wet race track don’t sound like the ingredients for a fun weekend, but Shell Historics drivers at Mont Tremblant faced just those conditions last weekend–and yet it was a really enjoyable event. The small field removed some of the usual pressures, and the weather allowed drivers more time to relax and talk with other drivers and enthusiasts, making for a low key, fun weekend.
[Read more…] about Shell Ferrari Historics at Mt. Tremblant
Thinking about buying a new illustrated book on racing or your favorite car? Soon, in fact now, you can easily view the entire book online at no cost. Here’s one on Porsche.
By Pete Vack
There is a lot of buzz going on these days about the free economy–those services and products offered via the Internet for free. For example, Google is free. WikiPedia is free. Social networks like My Space and Twitter are free. Winding Road is free.
[Read more…] about Great Books for Free Online
On Friday, August 14th, 2009, VeloceToday columnist Larry Crane will award the VeloceToday La Dolce Vita Trophy for “The car with the most advanced production engineering for its era”. It will be open to any vehicle entered at the La Dolce Vita event. The criteria are:
Advanced suspension and drivetrain designs.
Advanced engineering in engine design, materials, layout and placement.
Advanced coachwork and interior which compliments the advance mechanical elements of the design.
If two or more vehicles of the same model are both eligible, the award will be given to the best restored car. Larry Crane will be the sole judge and jury.
We will have many more details about the award in next week’s VeloceToday.
If you would like to exhibit your car at this event, or if you feel your company can benefit from exposure at La Dolce Vita Automobili at Black Horse, contact Cindy@carprusa.com or 480 277-1864.
Exclusive interview by Pete Vack
Ever since “that other Italian car show” at Monterey was announced, people have asked: Are you crazy or what? Why another Italian car event? Why on the Peninsula? Why on Friday? How will it be different from Concorso? Do you think it will succeed?
Finally, the truth can be told.
Event founder Kerry McMullen.
After six successful years running the largest Maserati parts supply and technical support network in the world and Maserati Club International, Kerry McMullen embarked upon the creation of La Dolce Vita. His partner is Jerry Kaye, who for the past 15 years has been co-organizer of Le Belle Macchine d’ Italia.
For this interview, our questions were answered by Kerry McMullen.
What was the original reason to create another event on the Monterey Peninsula?
The Monterey Car Week has become something unique and very special. It is huge for the Italian car owner and enthusiast. At Concorso Italiano, we looked forward to a relaxing day on the grass with fellow owners we may only see once a year. When it was announced this iconic event would take place on the tarmac of the municipal airport, it created quite a stir. We had come to expect Friday on the beautiful greens of a golf course, the ideal backdrop for displaying these wonderful cars.
Then suddenly, that was gone.
[Read more…] about The Truth About La Dolce Vita
The first Grand Prix Alfa Romeo and the father of all modern Alfas.
The Great Ancestor Part II
Alfa Romeo P2, 1925-1930
By Nicholas Lancaster
Who is Nicholas Lancaster? Author of a new history of Brooklands for Shire Books, Nicholas Lancaster (UK) has been interested in motor racing history since the age of twelve. Recently he has contributed several articles on Alfa Romeo history to the AROC (UK) Magazine and has written two articles on Alfas for VeloceToday in the past.
Color Photography by Roberto Motta and thanks to the Automobilismo Storico Alfa Romeo Centro Documentazione (Arese, Milano).
The 1925 season began at the end of June with the Grand Prix of Europe, held that year at Spa. The only opposition came from Delage. The V12 engined cars were now fitted with superchargers and fully competitive. There were changes on the driver front as well. Ascari and Campari remained with Alfa Romeo, but Wagner had joined Delage alongside Divo and Benoist.
[Read more…] about Alfa Romeo P2 Part II
Hot Flash: Schumacher to Replace Massa
Michael Schumacher will be replacing the injured Felipe Massa at the European Grand Prix in Valencia. Ferrari confirmed the decision on Wednesday evening.
Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, and Mark Webber
by Erik C. Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media
The Formula One season so far seemed to be a shuffle of the teams at the top of the leader board. Brawn GP came out of the ashes of the old Honda effort to mop up the competition. Red Bull Racing played a strong second fiddle; German fans felt they had their next-generation boy wonder in Sebastian Vettel; and, the legions of tifosi were scared that Ferrari had decided on benchmarking their performance to the efforts of the Scuderia in the late 80s and early 90s. This weekend’s results showed more consistency with the pecking order being restored to last year’s table.
The major incident of the weekend was Filipe Massa’s incident when he was hit in the head by an errant spring from Rubens Barichello’s Brawn GP in qualifying. As of 12:17 GMT today, according to a report on Autosport.com, Massa’s doctor, Dino Altmann, said that Massa will be able to race again.
“I have no doubt Felipe will race again,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport. [Read more…] about Hungarian Grand Prix
Italian journalist Roberto Motta photographed the P2 on display at the Alfa Romeo Museum for this article.
The Great Ancestor Part I
Alfa Romeo P2, 1923-1924
History by Nicholas Lancaster
Who is Nicholas Lancaster? Author of a new history of Brooklands for Shire Books, Nicholas Lancaster (UK) has been interested in motor racing history since the age of twelve. Recently he has contributed several articles on Alfa Romeo history to the AROC (UK) Magazine and has written two articles on Alfas for VeloceToday in the past.
Color Photography by Roberto Motta
Prior to 1924 Alfa Romeo had made two attempts at entering Grand Prix racing, but both had proved abortive. In 1914 a car was built for the Grand Prix of France but wasn’t ready in time for the race at Lyons. In 1923 a second attempt, with a car designed by Giuseppe Merosi, was thwarted by the death of test driver Ugo Sivocci in practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
[Read more…] about Alfa Romeo P2 Part I
Charlie Shalvoy, 1926 Bugatti T-39A s/n 4810.
Great in 2008, even better in 2009
By Wallace Wyss
To many enthusiasts on the West Coast, August means only one thin–Monterey car week. It has different titles, related to some specific events but the once weekend-only event has now mushroomed into a full week of activities, and even more if you count the pre-race event the weekend before which receives no publicity.
[Read more…] about A Guide to the Monterey Historics 2009
Citroen DS and ID Essential Buyer’s Guide
The Essential Buyer’s Guide: Citroen DS and ID, All models from 1966 to 1975. By Rudy A. Heilig. Published by Veloce Publishing Ltd. 33 Trinity Street Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1TT, England. Telephone 01 305 260068 ISBN 978-1-84584-138-6
Click here to Purchase
Review by Pete Vack
Like the Citroen 2CV, the D series cars are one of France’s marvels of differentiation, unless of course you are French and living in France. Then the are merely a part of the culture, although now receding into the distant past.
Introduced in 1955, these unusual cars continued to be produced until 1975 after 1,330,775 models were built. Rudy Heilig’s guide covers only the 783,863 Series 2 cars, produced from late 1965 to 1975.
[Read more…] about Book Review: Citroen DS/ID Buyer’s Guide
“And here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into…”
A tale of intrigue from the 1990s
By Wallace Alfred Wyss
Back in the 1960s, when mid-engined was becoming all the rage, Giorgetto Giugiaro, then a designer at Ghia, penned such a car for Iso Rivolta.
Not that Iso, a car builder making sports cars with Chevrolet and Ford V8s, wanted the car. The owner of Iso, Renzo Rivolta, liked front-engined cars. He had no intention of making a mid-engined car.
But his two top engineers, Dallara and Bizzarrini, did like mid-engined cars and hoped they would talk Renzo into it once he was knocked over by its beauty. It used styling elements from the Iso Fidia, a four seat, front-engined car that Giugiaro had already designed. But Rivolta said “no” in a way they could understand and Alejandro de Tomaso, at the time owner of Ghia Carrozzeria, picked up the design himself to use as a Ghia show car. He put it on a backbone chassis he had designed for a race car he was building with Carroll Shelby until Der Snakemeister dropped out of the project.
The car, if it was really styled by Gandini, will not be remembered as much as his Countach and other Lamborghinis.
The result was the mid-engined Mangusta, which soon went into production. While the 302-cu. in. Ford powered version that came to the US was anemic compared to the car’s potent looks, the car is still revered for its purity of design. Few production cars look so much like the prototype.
Flash forwards a few decades to 1996. De Tomaso rolls out the Bigua prototype, a front-engined car using more than a little Ford Mustang input including the engine and transmission. The chassis was a box section steel chassis and the suspension independent all the way around.
Independent rear suspension and a steel box section chassis made the Qvale handle.
The designer credited is Marcello Gandini, famous in Italy for doing the Miura (although Giugiaro hints he designed that at Bertone) the Countach, and many other Lamborghinis.
It is a blunt car, somewhat reminiscent in general shape of the Trumph TR7/TR8 and its only claim to uniqueness is a unique top that rolls up out of a well, similar to the top in a roll top desk.
The best thing about the DeTomaso/Qvale Mangusta is that you can obtain engine parts at any auto parts store in America–a similar advantage by those who own Jenson Interceptors, Isos, and Monteverdis.
The engine was a 4.6 liter Ford V8 a quad cam version also used in the Mustang Cobra. It was a lot more powerful, at 320 hp than the 230-hp the 302 used in the original mid-engined US spec Mangusta. (Another source lists the Ford 4-cam as having only 305 hp.) The Mustang engine had 314 ft-lbs. of torque. Transmission choices were a Borg Warner 5-speed manual or a computer controlled 4-speed automatic. Gas mileage was 17 mpg in the city and as high as 28 mpg on the highway.