VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Alfa’s Pre War Titans, Part II

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Tazio Nuvolari, Peter Greenfield
and two Tipo C Alfa Romeo 8C35s

Color photos by www.rprincephoto.com

By Pete Vack

Read Part I

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Greenfield at Mt Tremblant with Tipo C 8C35 chassis #50015C, the last “C” standing for clone.

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At Monterey, Greenfield brought out the real thing; the ex-Nuvolari, ex-Ruesch, ex-Poore 8C35, chassis #50013.

Peter Greenfield is in the enviable position of owning and racing not one but two pre-war Alfa Romeo Grand Prix cars. Furthermore, chassis 50013 which he acquired from Peter Giddings in 2005, is the only complete, original Tipo 8C35 in the world.
[Read more…] about Alfa’s Pre War Titans, Part II

Belgian Grand Prix

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Hamilton Wins a Nailbitter, No Wait, He Doesn’t!

Grand Prix of Belgium

By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy of Ferrari Media

September 7th 2008

Most drivers have said over the years that Spa is usually their favorite track during the F1 season. There is a tremendous amount of history at this circuit with great battles over the years and the annual discussion on whether or not Eau Rouge could be taken flat out. This years installment had some last minute drama when it started to rain with just a handful of laps to go, and then even more drama after the fact.
[Read more…] about Belgian Grand Prix

Phil Hill, On Record

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Hill with a Peugeot in a R&T ad. Now listen to the recording below.


Below, we give our readers a chance to hear a rare 33 1/3 rpm recording, sent to us on a plasticized square piece of cardboard which measures seven by seven inches. For the record, it is simplistic, it is advertising, and it is not particularly well executed, even for the late 1950s. But it offers us a unique insight into what was then a new world for Americans, that of sports car racing and strange foreign cars with even stranger names. Despite being scripted, it says something about Phil Hill we may not have been able to ascertain elsewhere. Most telling, even though it is obviously a bought and paid for commercial, it is honest, as honest as Phil Hill always was.

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Click on record to listen to Phil Hill.
Note that there is a 20 second
pause at the start.

This rare audio record came our way via Serge Dermanian, a retired Ferrari restorer living in Nice, France. Shortly after publishing an excellent article by Philippe H. Defechereux, which used an ad in which Phil Hill was photographed with a Peugeot 403, we received an email from Dermanian who mentioned that he had a record to go along with the ad. He added that he would be glad to send it along. We hooked up our stereo phonograph, carefully played the ancient audio device for pickup to a digital recorder, and finally converted it to the digitized format for use on a computer.

In addition, on this old, scratchy record, we hear Road & Track Editor John R. Bond, almost a lone voice in the wilderness, who used the magazine’s power and platform to beg Detroit to build cars with good handling, quality, common sense and good gas mileage. There is a message here, then, and now.

Our thanks to Serge Dermanian for finding and sending along this rare recording of the late Phil Hill. Note that there is a 20 second pause before the actual voices are heard, so have patience.

Lynch at the Quail 2008

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We lost one of our finest when World Champion Phil Hill left us on August 28. He was enjoying cars and his many friends and admirers right up until the end. Phil won three races at the old Pebble Beach road course and also won the Pebble Beach Concours twice with cars he restored personally. Here, he poses at The Quail with former Ferrari President, Jean Todt, who managed Ferrari’s racing team during the Schumacher era. Credit: Marcel Massini

Michael T. Lynch reports on this year’s Quail Logde happenings.

The Quail – A Motorsports Gathering has now established itself as the hottest ticket of Monterey Peninsula automobile festival week. The tickets sold out back near the beginning of 2008 in a matter of hours. [Read more…] about Lynch at the Quail 2008

Virgil Exner Jr. Reunited with Diablo

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Virgil Exner, Jr., stands next to the Chrysler Ghia Diablo.

By Brandes Elitch
Color Photos by Brandes Elitch

Most car collectors are familiar with the GM “dream cars” of the 1950’s, the heyday of the Motorama. But not many people are familiar with the Chrysler show cars of the same period, most of which were built in Italy and styled by the famous Virgil Exner.
[Read more…] about Virgil Exner Jr. Reunited with Diablo

Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours on the Avenue

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Michael T. Lynch looks at an August Legend in Progress
Photos by William Edgar

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Ferraris were thick on the ground Monday. Jeff Abramson’s 500 Mondial Pinin Farina roadster was one of the nicest.

The second edition of the Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours on the Avenue again led off the Monterey Peninsula auto festival week concours parade. [Read more…] about Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours on the Avenue

Bugatti Goes Targa

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by Wallace A. Wyss

Wallace Alfred Wyss is a historian recently turned to depicting exotic cars on canvas. A sample can be obtained via email by contacting him at Photojournalistpro@hotmail.com

Allright, already. The Bugatti Veyron was already an over-the-top car; what with more than 1,000 horses, no less than 16 cylinders, four turbos, all-wheel drive, 12 radiators and a wing that would not look out of place on a small airplane. Plus did we mention it goes over 250 mph? [Read more…] about Bugatti Goes Targa

Alfa’s Pre War Titans, Part I

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Rex Mays, Peter Giddings and the Alfa Tipo C 8C35

By Pete Vack

Color photos by www.rprincephoto.com

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Giddings at Mt Tremblant with the Tipo C, 8C35 Grand Prix car.

Given the might of the Mercedes and Auto-Union teams, the Alfa Romeo 8C35 had a brief but reasonably successful two seasons in Europe. Designed to be fitted with either a V12 engine, or an 8 cylinder, the 8C35 used a longer version of the famous Alfa 8C 2.3 engine, running almost concurrently with the initially unreliable V12 (12C36) while it was being developed. In 1936 Tazio Nuvolari drove the 8C35 to great victories at Coppa Ciano and the Hungarian GP.
[Read more…] about Alfa’s Pre War Titans, Part I

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