The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
McLaren parts. Silverstone, British GP, 1971. The car, driven by Peter Gethin, DNF when the engine blew. A rare instance of the Cosworth-Ford engine failing.
Story and photos by Charley Seavey
Many years ago, getting near the pits and/or paddock was much easier. Earlier I’ve recounted my story about getting into the pits at
Does this book answer the question of who was greater, Hill or Andretti?
Review by Pete Vack
From the VeloceToday Archives
Clyde Berryman needs no introduction here, but then again maybe so. For it appears that Clyde is not only a model and diorama maker but a statistician as well. (Click to see the Berryman Dioramas) His first statistical rating project was a record of National College Football (he is also a football fan) which was so good it was included in the annual NCAA College Football Record Book. He loves statistics, loves to analyze results with all existing information, and loves Grand Prix racing. So, he invented his own system to rate Formula 1 drivers from 1950 to 2019, and attempts to answer that age old question, was it the driver, or was it the car? [Read more…] about Was Fangio Really the Greatest?
1922/30 Austin Maggot.
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
I had not visited an event at the Prescott Hill climb since 2016 so I decided it was time for another visit on August 5-6. The event, the VSCC (Vintage Sports-Car Club) speed championship round 5 ‘Vintage Prescott.’ So has the place changed over the years? Not that I could tell, it is still a lovely setting in the heart of the countryside and in the quieter moments it is possible to hear the distant sound of a steam whistle from the nearby Heritage steam railway above the sounds of the birds.
Bugattis enjoy a rare moment of sun. David Hand’s 1925 T39 sits next to the 1924 Brescia T13 of Charles Knill-Jones.
By Jonathan Sharp
From the VeloceToday Archives, 2012
The Cotswolds: bucolic golden-hued thatched cottages, rolling farm land, wheat fields swaying in a warm summer breeze, antique shops, old English country inns selling fine English ales. All this and more, for it is also the home of the Bugatti Owners Club of Great Britain and the famous Prescott Hill climb.
Story and photos by S. Scott Callan
We were sitting at Gene’s dining room table discussing Jim Clark’s heroic drive at Watkins Glen in the 1963 US GP. Clark’s car wouldn’t fire on the line at the start, then it came alive and so did his drive from the back. Finishing third. He had driven out to the Glen to see Clark race.
Yep, Gene was a real Clark guy. Lotus too of course. All my derogatory Chapman, “Don’t take that bolt for a ride!” comments, quoted to me by Stirling Moss, had no effect. His ownership of a perfect Lotus Cortina in the day had sealed his enthusiasm. Or was it fate?” [Read more…] about Scott Callan and the Model A
The original 2.1 liter Ferrari Dino on its debut at the Modena Autodrome a few weeks after Andrea Fraschetti’s death. Graham Gauld photo
By Graham Gauld
When it comes to words and books, no marque in motoring history has been over-written and over-published than Ferrari. Through the years it has led to some weird publications, such as the book that featured only the different ways in which Ferrari race cars were numbered. Not the actual numbers, you understand, but the graphic style of numbering on the side of the cars. Esoteric, you bet!
And yet there are still many stories to be told, and one of them concerns a young engineer and designer who was with Ferrari for less than two years before he was killed testing a Ferrari Dino prototype at the Modena Autodrome in 1957. What made this poignant for me was that he died just three weeks before I arrived in Modena for the first time and from that day little or nothing has been written about him. His name was Andrea Fraschetti.
By Pete Vack
Ninety-five-year-old Frank Shaffer recently placed third in the Fools Rush in Rally in Central Virginia, navigating in the same 1958 Mercedes Benz 190 sedan that he had purchased in Germany when new, and currently owned by Mercedes enthusiast and driver in the event, Chip Hughes.
Now if that’s not a record, it’s close to it. And if not a record, then a damn good story in any case. And if not a good story, then at least an inspiration for the rest of us. Here’s how it happened. [Read more…] about World’s Oldest Rally Navigator
Entered by Ferrari Classiche, a 1966 330 GT 2 plus 2
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
As mentioned in my previous reports, after completing all the necessary requirements in the press room at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, my first port of call is to try to capture the entrants in the Cartier Style et Luxe concours before they get buried in a sea of people. As in previous years the classes were a diverse and eclectic mix covering everything from early cyclecars to Low Riders and GT1 Homologation specials. The weather on Friday was not so good and as you know Saturday was cancelled, but I managed to grab a few extra shots on Sunday once the sun had come out.
Hurricane
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
If you have been with us for the past few years and have read my ramblings you are probably already aware of my love for old cars and historic racing. Well I have also inherited my father’s love of old aeroplanes, so the Goodwood Revival each year is a double whammy for me. Not just fantastic and rare old racing cars, but fantastic and rare old aeroplanes courtesy of the annual Freddy March Spirit of Aviation Concours for Aeroplanes built before 1966 held as part of the Revival meeting. [Read more…] about Classic Aircraft at Goodwood
The essential Joe Marchetti.
By Burt Levy
The huge annual “International Challenge” vintage race at Road America is one of the must-do events on the vintage calendar—and I was privileged to be there, sometimes on the sidelines, sometimes covering it for magazines and judging in the concours and sometimes right in the thick of the on-track action as the event became what it is today. It all started for me back in the early 1980s, when my longed-for “racing career” was going exactly nowhere. I’d begun racing in 1971 in a series—maybe more like a plague?—of self-wrenched, under-funded, nickel-rocket and borderline lethal Triumph TR3s that rarely finished a race. Then I met Joe Marchetti. [Read more…] about Joe Marchetti by Burt Levy
