VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Sue Dixon and the Barn Find Alfa

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We recently learned that Sue Dixon passed away on February 20 of this year. With our sincere condolences to her friends and family, we republish the below story written by Sue Dixon and Keith Goring in 2013. It was part two of a three part series on the life of this Alfa Sprint.

The Alfa According to Sue Dixon

[Around 1977, the Editor found an Alfa Veloce in an old barn in Tidewater Virginia, and called Alfas Unlimited in Connecticut to ask if they wanted it. Sue Dixon picks up the story as they trade a Lancia for the Barn Find Alfa. -Ed.]

We had met Pete Vack in the mid-seventies when he and a bunch of his buddies were part of an informal car club in the Virginia Beach area. They had bought the leftovers of an old Alfa dealership and advertised the parts in Hemmings, as it was about the only places to sell anything sportscar related in those days.

We met Kyle Fleming, Bill Jones, John Sheally, and several others down there who managed to do stuff with cars, even though there were no major tracks close by. It was surprising how many Alfas, Lancias, Ferraris and other interesting cars could be found in Tidewater, no doubt because of all the military people who had brought cars over from Europe for next to nothing. [Read more…] about Sue Dixon and the Barn Find Alfa

Building BAT Better Part 3

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Story and photos (except as noted) by Paul Wilson

When designing and building my BAT, I started with the front fenders. I liked BAT 7’s fender profile, but not the enclosed wheels. So, what would it look like with full wheel openings? Starting with a photo of the original, I got to work with Photoshop. The result was an improvement, I thought, but a bit bland. A BAT should be radical. How about borrowing the Lotus Mark 9’s sweeping line, with an air exit behind the wheel for brake cooling?

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The Magician of Rue Ettore Bugatti

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The plaque outside the workshop.

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

The village of Carpentras lies in northern Provence ten miles from Avignon and close to the river Gard that flows below that city’s famous bridge. It is like many French Provencal villages, with a history going back centuries. As a market town it was even visited by the Greeks and the Phoenicians and is famous for its sheep and honey. But there is one citizen there who is well known to Bugatti enthusiasts: Laurent Rondoni.

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8C Story Continues: Alfa 2.3 SN 2311229 Part 2

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Al Coppel’s wife Liz looks upon 2311229 in the early 1950s. (Joe Breeze Collection)

By Simon Moore

Read Part 1

We can now move on to the fate of Tom Bamford’s V8 engined car. I received the following email out of the blue on 25 March 2001: “Simon: My name is Lucas McCain, my father Chuck McCain and I recently acquired a very odd car. When we purchased the car, we were told by the previous owner that he was led to believe that the car could be dated as a circa 1937 Alfa Romeo; upon close examination, we discovered the chassis number on the side of the right frame rail, number 2311229.

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Bob Temple Photos, Indy 1950

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Story by Pete Vack
Photos by Bob Temple courtesy Dale LaFollette (Vintage Motorphoto)

From the VeloceToday Archives, November 2017

Reading and reviewing Aldo Zana’s book, “Monzanapolis,” I was reminded that Dale La Follette had previously sent along some photos taken at Indy in 1950 by Bob Temple. It seems that now is a good time to present these photos, which are not only excellent as were all of Temple’s photos, but many were taken during practice or qualifying and are of cars that did not make the race including a one-off Auto-Union-like mid-engine car reportedly finance by Howard Hughes.

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Building BAT Better Part 2

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By Paul Wilson

Enclosed wheels, fins, and teardrop shapes, the defining elements of the BATs, were the height of fashion in the early ‘50s. Even then, all were controversial, and no other cars took them to such extremes. We need to look at this design environment to appreciate how the BATs expressed their times.

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Kuhn at Paramount Ranch Part 2

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Now here is a real American Hot Rod. It’s one of the greatest “Ford T-Buckets” to ever thunder around a corner. The 1924 “Bucket” got into Duffy’s hands from one Jay Chamberlain, a noted Lotus sports car driver and dealer, who got the parts from Emil Diedt. It was originally intended for short-track racing in 1950. Duffy put all the parts together, and they spelled “Eliminator” car number 184. The number 184 was to honor his Air Force Company Number. So was born what would become a true Legend, at least in Brock Yates’ mind.

Story and photos by Allen R. Kuhn

You might wonder why we {Pete} chose this particular image to lead off the Drivers Section of my Paramount Ranch report? Duffy (Frank) Livingstone has his own legacy with motorized vehicles, being the Godfather to the “Go Kart.” I would like to start this out by paying tribute to someone who is on everyone’s favorite list, Brock “Cannonball” Yates. Brock had a special affinity for Livingstone’s creation called the “Eliminator.” RIP Brock.

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The 8C Story Continues: Alfa 8C2300 SN 2311229

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The story of 8C2300 SN 2311229. Photo by Jim Sitz

Simon Moore has allowed VeloceToday to publish a chapter from his latest opus, The 8C Story Continues, for your consideration. And a great one it is at that, as 2.3 2311229 spent most of its life lost in America, and finding the history involved the talents of Jim Sitz and the late Michael Lynch, both heavy contributors to our humble journal. Allow us to begin with what little information there was about 2311229 in the original book, “The Legendary 2.3.”  Simon, along with the late Gordon Barrett, realized that the only possible contender for this chassis number was a very unusual (in that the body had a completely hidden soft top when folded down) 2.3 that appeared in the May 1951 issue of Road & Track, where there were photos of the car with two different license plates, one being a British tag. The story was written by Henry Steele, who described having to drive the car from Missouri to California in 1938. It was then raced postwar in California with a V8 Mercury installed – and then with a locally made body powered by a Cadillac V8. And that’s about all Simon could report in 2000 when “The Legendary 2.3″ was published. The car appeared to be lost to the ages. Twenty-two years elapsed since then and the full story was finally revealed in his latest book, per below.-Ed.

By Simon Moore

It is difficult to know how to structure this chapter so I am going to write it chronologically which means investigating how a British registered 8C2300 with a CD plate on it wound up in the Midwest in the USA before the war. Then I will go on to who arranged for that drive described in the May 1951 issue of Road & Track, whereby the car arrived in California, before the amazing discovery of the Cadillac engine special since the book was published. Current owner Paul Gregory and I have spent hours trying to work out the history and this is our informed conclusion.

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And How!

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Peter Collins on his winning way in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July 1958. Photo: Grand Prix Library/Graham Gauld

Peter Collins Celebration begins June 10 in Worcester, UK

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the death of British racing driver Peter Collins in an accident during the 1958 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

Collins was at the peak of his racing career and was a member of the Scuderia Ferrari team alongside his great friend Mike Hawthorn who was to go on to become Britain’s first Formula 1 Grand Prix World Champion. He was killed just two weeks after his famous victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone that year. [Read more…] about And How!

Building BAT Better Part 1

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Story by Paul Wilson

I’ve decided to build an Alfa BAT. Yes, I know it’s a crazy idea. The Men in White Coats, always worried about my sanity, will come for me if they find out. I hope they don’t read VeloceToday.

We’re all familiar with BAT 5, BAT 7, and BAT 9, experimental cars built on Alfa 1900 chassis in the ‘50s. Of course they were presented as studies in aerodynamics; the air flow theme dominates the designs. But this was just an excuse for making the wildest, most extravagant sculpture ever put on four wheels. It’s their function as expressive forms, not their drag reduction features, that gives them their status today.

Everybody agrees that they’re exciting, original, and eye-catching. But are they beautiful?

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Simon Moore Mini Bio Part 2

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Story by Simon Moore

Read Part 1

I got married in 1976 and spent the next two years living and working in Holland. I even wrote a story about the ex-Prince Bernard 8C2900B in a Dutch magazine for editor Wim Oude Weernink. Soon after returning to London, I managed to acquire the rolling chassis of an 8C2900A Alfa Romeo that was lying in a field in Washington state.

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