VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

An English Hillclimb: Pure Joy

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lead

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
From the Archives, November 2016

On the Sunday following the Goodwood Revival rather than taking a rest or perhaps cutting the lawn, my pals and I took a trip just down the road from our respective homes to the Firle Hill Climb Revival, being run for the second year by the Bo Peep Drivers Club.

The first Firle Hill climb took place in 1949, run by the Bentley Drivers Club. The climb was 600 yards in length and quite steep, running up Bo Peep Lane to the top of the Sussex Downs.

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Graham Gauld: Mini Autobiography Part 1

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Graham Gauld with his partner Jane Wallis-Hosken at the Portimao historics in Portugal.

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

It is hard to believe, but by the time you read this it will have been seven months since Jane and I turned in the key to the house, got a lift to the Nice airport and flew to London, leaving behind 27 years’ worth of memories of living in the South of France, in easy driving distance from Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Ventimiglia on the Italian border. Four weeks earlier I had celebrated the 70th anniversary of my first work as a motoring journalist at the age of 17.

Why am I telling you all this? Well Editor Pete Vack thought it would be a good idea to explain how it has been settling down in the country of one’s roots, after being away for close on thirty years. My life, so far, can be split into three parts so let’s start with the first part.

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Speedweeks 1959 Part 4

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By Willem Oosthoek
Photos by Bob Bellows, Benita Lane and J. Frank Harrison(Willem Oosthoek Collection)

And then the final day of racing began, with two events on schedule.

The start of the Memorial Trophy with, from the left, Bob Grossman [Ferrari California] and the AC Bristols of Jim Miller, Bob Keyes and J. Collins leading the field. Grossman would soon take command.

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Never Sell Your Boss a Fiat

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Photo by Mary Decker Vack

Editor’s note: In the mid 1980s, while working under Chris Herwig as an AT&T National Account Engineering Manager for GE and Dupont, I was also writing for several major car magazines, and my stories were accompanied by photos taken by my wife Mary. We also had a lot of cars, mostly Alfas, but more than a few Fiats. We in fact did sell a Fiat Spider to Chris, and there were a few problems, which led us to write this bit of mostly fictional humor for our monthly column in “Car Collector and Car Classics” magazine. Note that in the photo Chris is holding a rather large pipe wrench. He was a very good sport about it all. Chris recently celebrated his 75th birthday, which brought this article to light once again. Happy birthday, boss!

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Museum Enzo Ferrari, Circa 2014

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The Alfa Bimotore is on display in a quiet, beautiful, chapel-like setting.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

From the VeloceToday archives, November 2014

Nestling, as if being protected, in the curve of the new display hall is the original workshop of Enzo Ferrari’s father Alfredo. A long and narrow building lit by many large arch shaped windows. The building was built during the latter half of the 19th century and would not have benefited from electric lighting, hence the many windows. At the far end of the hall, roughly where the “Enzo” is now displayed, was, along with the machine tools that Alfredo used to shape metal, a stable which housed the horses used to draw the sulkies (2 wheeled trotting rig) and carts of the time.

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Nino’s P4 takes your breath away….

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John and Debbie Nino with the 412 P at the Quail where Elitch first saw the car.

By Brandes Elitch
Photos courtesy John Nino

“When it does not exist, design it,” Henry Royce

At Monterey Car Week you would rightfully expect to be surprised and delighted by some of the things you will see, both on the show field and in the streets. After all, between the three major shows (Quail Lodge, Pebble Beach, and the Concorso Italiano), not to mention the Historics at the Laguna Seca racetrack, there will be over a thousand show cars on display, many of them quite fantastic. This year was no exception, an embarrassment of riches, so to speak. It can be quite overwhelming. You have to pace yourself, and from time to time just have a sit down and catch your breath, because some of these experiences can take your breath away. [Read more…] about Nino’s P4 takes your breath away….

Speedweeks 1959 Part 3

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Dissatisfied with his 570S Maserati, Shelby became available for the Birdcage ride. Here Casner is showing him the layout of the land, or rather the cockpit of a car in which Shelby had never sat before.

By Willem Oosthoek
Photos by Bob Bellows and Benita Lane (Willem Oosthoek Collection)

Read Part 1

Read Part 2

Then the action began. After a few days of practice, the first 5-lap preliminary for the Tourist Trophy on November 29th was for under-2-liter GT entries. Johnny Cuevas and his 1.6-liter Carrera Speedster won over Jay Chamberlain’s Lotus Elite. In the 5-lapper for larger GT cars, Stirling Moss in a private Aston Martin DB4GT beat Roy Salvadori’s special-bodied works Austin-Healey 100S. In the 25-lap Tourist Trophy itself Moss dropped out after leading and Cuevas claimed CAMORADI’s first international victory, with Chamberlain second again.

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Classic Santa Fe Concours

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Possibly the most famous car to appear at the Concorso was the Boyle Special that won the Indy 500 in 1939 and 1940. It was a Maserati 8CTF driven by the legendary Wilbur Shaw. As we shall see, some other legends showed up for the event. The car was somewhat reluctant to start but did cooperate to everybody’s great pleasure.

Memories of Cars in Santa Fe, NM. (and elsewhere)

Story and photos by Charley Seavey

Your correspondent lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a long time. One of the great things about Santa Fe is that it is an excellent town in which to be a car geek. The premier attraction while I was living there was the Santa Fe Concorso, held from 2010-2016 on the expansive grounds of the Las Campanas Club and Golf Course.

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Jackie Jouret Recalls Dick Merritt

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Merritt with Ferrari 250 LM Stradale, sn 5995.

Story by Jackie Jouret
Photos courtesy Kendall Merritt and Chris Cooper

For a newcomer to the world of Ferrari, spending a day with Dick Merritt was like sitting at the feet of the master. I’d been named editor of Forza magazine not long before, and I was thrilled to learn about Ferrari history from the man who’d not only started the Ferrari Club of America in 1962 but had imported some of the marque’s most significant cars to the US.

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Bahamas Speedweek 1959 Part 2

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Denise in the OSCA 750S (chassis 763) that ‘Lucky’ Casner acquired from Robert Publicker just before Nassau. No time for a respray in CAMORADI colors. The car was originally owned by Luigi Chinetti.

Story by Willem Oosthoek
Photos by Bob Jackson, Benita Lane and Bob Bellows (Willem Oosthoek Collection)

Read Part 1

Obviously, a number of English marques were present at Nassau. The two 4.7-liter Chevy-powered Listers came from Texas, one owned by Ronnie Hissom, the other by Jimmy Younger. Hissom was a wildcatter in Midland who had bought his car via CSSCI. Sources vary about its chassis number, either BHL18 or the more logical BHL118. Jim Hall owned the first Lister bought via the agency (BHL108) and since Hissom complained why he received a much older car than Jim’s, it was probably BHL18.

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Belgium Celebrates Ferrari’s 75th

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Walking into a Dream…

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Following our visit to the Belgian Interclassics car show where we viewed that Ferrari Celebration, my pal and I decided that we shouldn’t miss the celebration of 75 years of Ferrari, running concurrently at the Autoworld car museum in Brussels, so we needed to take a trip to the Parc du Cinquantenaire, home of the museum, and see the rest of the display. So we popped onto a tram and rattled our way into the city centre.

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