From the VeloceToday Archives, April 2017
Jackie Jouret Visits the Hellenic Motor Museum
The Hellenic Motor Museum: An Athenian treasure trove of Italian cars from the ’60s and ’70s
Story and photos by Jackie Jouret
Athens is a city of museums, with some 80 institutions devoted to the art, archaeology, history and culture of ancient and modern Greece. Some are must-visit destinations on any trip to Athens, like the Acropolis Museum and the National Archaeology Museum, but all of us eventually need a break from marble statuary.
Maserati’s First Indianapolis Entry
Baconin Borzacchini with the V4 Maserati: note the exhaust system for one of the two 8 cylinder engines. (Courtesy Donald Davidson Indianapolis Speedway)
Story by Graham Gauld
Everyone knows about the Ferraris or Ferrari-engined cars that have raced at Indianapolis but the history of Maserati at Indianapolis goes back far longer.
It all started in 1930, just four years after Maserati had produced their first racing car when not one, but two Maseratis raced at that year’s Indianapolis 500. One of them was a normal 26B Grand Prix car, but the second car was a new model known as the V4, of which only two were built and only one, chassis 4001, as a racing car.
FuoriConcorso 2023
The view from my window! (I wish.)
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
A holiday to Lake Como in late May for an old car enthusiast usually means you plan to attend the concours at Villa d’Este/Villa Erbe, but since 2019 there has been a third event to tempt you. The FuoriConcorso, held on the lake shore on May 20-21, was created by Guglielmo Miani to celebrate automotive culture both old and new. Curated by Andrea Luzardi and now expanded across three Lake Shore Villas, this year’s event celebrated the art of aerodynamics featuring more than 30 cars from the 1920s to today’s hypercars.
Fiat Abarth record car, outside for a change.
A Lancia Dealership in the Netherlands, 1966
Below, unpublished photos of a successful Lancia dealership in the 1960s and early 70s.
By Lucas van Dobben
From the VeloceToday Archives, April, 2017
The pictures taken are in the showroom of the Marel Lancia Importers circa 1966-68. Below the photos are series of advertisements I kept from the Marel Lancia dealership. In the first photo, a happy couple take delivery of a new Lancia Flaminia convertible by Touring. The rest are self-explanatory.
Gauld on the Ecurie Ecosse Tour, 2023
Some of the Tour cars outside Ardross Castle where the TV Series “The Traitors” was filmed.
Story and photos by Graham Gauld
Scotland has been famous for producing some great racing drivers but one must not forget the most successful Scottish racing team, Ecurie Ecosse.
This small private team surprised everyone back in 1956 when they were allowed to enter one Jaguar D-type for the famous Le Mans 24 Hour Race and won it outright ahead of the much more fancied factory teams of Ferrari, Maserati, Aston Martin, Porsche and even the Jaguar team. Then they went back the following year and finished first and second at Le Mans to add to their glory.
Vanhoolandt at the Spa Classic, 2023
When it comes to GTs, Ferrari has been a key player during this period, first with the F430 GTC, here a 2008 example.
Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Spa Classic was organized for the first time in 2011 by Patrick Peter and his team, on the model of the Le Mans Classic. The eleventh edition of Spa Classic was held this year, only interrupted for two years due to the Covid pandemic. The success with the public was undeniable.
Pininfarina vs Cadillac Part 4
The GM Tech Center
In this article we will make a strategic and technical comparison of the design efforts of Pininfarina and the Cadillac Studio. I will try my best to be completely impartial in my assessment of their actions.
By Dick Ruzzin
Photos courtesy GM Design Archives
The Cadillac Allante as designed by Pininfarina should have been considered as a design influence for their 1992 Eldorado design proposal. However, the Eldorado presented to Cadillac Division looked nothing like the Allante. The Allante was the most expensive Cadillac at that time but it was quickly determined that the hoped for “Italian Design” cachet was not important to the American luxury car customer. [Read more…] about Pininfarina vs Cadillac Part 4
Royal Ferraris of Belgium
Story and Photos of 0488 AM by Alan Boe
From the VeloceToday Archives, October 2018
Three Kings met, with historic results: King Leopold requested it, Enzo Ferrari built it, Pinin Farina styled it.
Royalty and expensive motor cars just seem to go together. You know the types…Park Ward Rolls-Royces, Grosser Mercedes, and stretched limousines of various manufacture. They’re a normal part of any royal retinue. And why not? We’ve come to expect it.
The Quail Motorcycle Gathering, 2023
Bert: “…but, is the shadow really black ENOUGH?”
Nigel: “Oh, I see what you mean – there’s a sort of greyishness to it…”
Morton: “And, of course the main part, the LARGEST part, has the greenish tinge of the turf to consider: Zoysia – Fescue…?”
Herbert to Thorndyke (Standing): “Vincent who?”
Our caption winner is Rick Hayden who wins a year’s subscription to VeloceToday!
Story and photos by Brandes Elitch
If you were seriously interested, really interested, in motorcycle history and design, where would you like to go if time and money were not an issue? There were over 2500 bike manufacturers since 1900 and of course you would like to see many of them.
Most collectors, restorers and historians would mention the famous Isle of Man TT, held in late May/early June. I suspect this would be first on most peoples’ lists.
Pininfarina vs Cadillac Part 3
Cadillac Studio made an early presentation to Cadillac management showing that the added length by Cadillac Engineering was still not enough to arrive at a proportion that would result in a good design for the Seville and Eldorado. The proposed extensions added rear seating space and luggage capacity that also resulted in lower aerodynamic drag that improved fuel economy, higher than the shorter 1986 Seville. A more design enhancing and functional package was the result of the additional length. The proposed extensions, shown on the left side front and rear, added more rear seating space and luggage capacity. The longer car also resulted in significantly lower aerodynamic drag resulting in improved fuel economy, helping to make the 1992 Seville higher in fuel economy than the shorter 1986 Seville. The new more design enhancing and functional package was the result of the additional length to be added front and rear as seen on the left side of the clay model.
By Dick Ruzzin
Photos courtesy GM Design Archives
Cadillac Studio had won the battle with Pininfarina for the Eldorado design, but earlier, when the production release dates came for both the Eldorado and the Seville, we had missed them, which was a financial disaster for the Corporation. There is an enormous stream of work to design and engineer the full line of GM products so when one program gets out of phase from a timing standpoint the pre-production development process suffers delays that are very costly. [Read more…] about Pininfarina vs Cadillac Part 3
A Tribute to Giotto Bizzarrini
Giotto Bizzarrini passed away on May 13 2023 at the age of 96. This article originally appeared in VeloceToday on December 17, 2008
By Wallace A. Wyss
Bizzarrini Strada and America photos courtesy Funktionauto
Lead photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt
If ever I had a defining moment it was when I was a young lad. Not a defining moment of the caliber of those little girls in Mexico who saw the Virgin Mary, but it was defining enough that it changed my focus in life.
I was college-age, and in a library looking for books on poetry when I opened a magazine called Autosport and lo and behold there was a story on an odd Italian car called an Iso Grifo A3C. That car later became the basis for what was the Bizzarrini Strada.