The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
This fully restored Alfa Romeo 1750 Duetto began its life in South Africa before being imported into the UK via Ireland in 2018.
In a recent article about Italian cars at the London concours, we identified a 1750 Alfa Spider as a Duetto.
This apparently went over like a lead balloon. Reader Ken Carrington had this to say:
VeloceToday’s favourite
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
If you could come up with an International standard Concours event that had a more diverse list of classes than this year’s Cartier Style et Luxe held during the Festival of Speed on June 23rd, I would be surprised.
US team KPAX Racing entered the Huracan #6 which set the fastest lap in practice but was then disqualified due to a technical infringement. Although forced to start from the 30th grid position, the car progressed through the field and took the lead after four hours. But two punctures relegated the #6 Huracan one lap down and the win was beyond reach. Final result was 11th overall.
Story and Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
With sixty six entries, this year’s TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa confirmed its status of world’s premier endurance race for GT cars.
Nine manufacturers entered at least one car in the 2022 edition: Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche. [Read more…] about 24 Hours of Spa: Mercedes-AMG 1st, Ferrari 3rd
From the VeloceToday Archives, May 2014
By Wallace Wyss and staff
In the Beginning there was Bucciali
The main impetus behind the Bucciali marque was Albert ‘Buc’ Bucciali, born in the city of Arras on the France in 1889, and was the second son to the musician and organ builder, Joseph Bucciali, who, most remarkably, was blind from childhood. Both Albert and his brother Angelo learned their father’s craft, and became talented craftsman as well as musicians. In an interview with Griff Borgeson, Albert Bucciali noted that organ building is “a remarkable school for learning the principles of physics and mechanics.”
Marque et modele: Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Touring “Flying Star.” Chassis number 10814341
Story by Brandes Elitch
Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
About thirty years ago, someone gave me a copy of a book titled Touring Superleggera, by Carlo Felice Anderloni. It was published in 1983. I started to go through it and was overwhelmed by the staggering beauty of Mr. Anderloni’s creations. Even though I had been observing automobile design for many years previously, I had never seen anything like this before. At some point, I had to physically put the book down and take a deep breath. I had to revise my conceptions of automotive design.
Forever Young and looking toward the future: The Lamborghini Lp1 800-4
Lamborghini: At the Cutting Edge of Design
By Gautam Sen with Branko Radovinovic and Kaare Byberg
ISBN 978-185443-317-6
784 pages, 2 volumes, hardcover, dustjacket, slipcase
1070 illustrations
U.S. $250
Review by Pete Vack
All photos from the book
Review by Pete Vack
While you and I got old, Lamborghini, under Mimran, Chrysler and Audi, somehow managed to stay forever young. And thank goodness for that. Gautam Sen’s Volume Two of his epic Lamborghini, At the Cutting Edge of Design, leads us into unaccustomed territory, taking us from the Silhouette to the Terzo Millennio, from Mimran to Audi, detailing the models we’ve rarely thought about and introduces us to rare variations we never knew existed. Naturally, we are aware of the supercars and hypercars that were developed by Lamborghini in the 1990s to date. But not by any means too familiar; too many models, too many owners, too much money, too fast and too furious. [Read more…] about Lamborghini: At the Cutting Edge of Design V 2
1926 Miller 91 Front Drive
Story by Geoff Goldberg
Photos by Geoff Goldberg or as noted
Each year, on the weekend just after the 4th of July, a group of unusual cars gathers at the Milwaukee Mile, the country’s oldest oval track, hosting events every year since 1903 (aside from the WWII years). The cars are niche, front-engined Indy track cars from the earliest days of racing up to through the 1960s. Their owners share a healthy respect for speed, elegance in engineering, and an awareness of the history of racing in America.
From the VeloceToday Archives, April 2016
Guy Anderson is a famous exotic car dealer from the South who has identified himself with some of the most exciting cars including Ferrari, Lamborghini and the Cobra. Along the way he has had many adventures, some of which were harrowing at the time but are a good laugh now. He shared one story after being prodded by Wallace Wyss.
Story and Photos by Guy Anderson
This tale begins with the purchase of a pair of Miuras. One was a 1966 P400 that was painted in white with red and blue accents. The slats, eyelashes, rockers, bumpers and grills were painted in either red or blue. It was bizarre to look at, kind of a “beater”. The second car was a pale blue 1969 “S” with the paint being considered flat, not very glossy.
Nigel Mansell and Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 11th Duke of Richmond.
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
One of the privileges granted to accredited and fully insured (see last week’s article) photographers at the Festival of Speed is to be able to access the assembly areas in which the entrants in each group/class are gathered before being sent down to the hill start line. It is in the assembly area that I get my best chance of pointing my camera at some famous drivers and riders old and new.
S.Scott Callan’s website is one of the most unusual and well written we’ve ever encountered. The history is accurate, the photos are fantastic, and he uses a format that allows his work to be elegantly displayed. It is always worth a visit and a long surf. Here is a excerpt from his latest adventure. [Ed.]
Story and Photos by S. Scott Callan
This year at the WeatherTech International Challenge at Road America was quite different. Two Historic Race Circuits (HRC) members had made a special effort to have this year’s focus on Dan Gurney and his Eagles. The Collier brought the Spa winning F1 car. The selection of Indy cars was significant, not only in their exploration of aero effects, but also in their array of engines which were experimentally impressive, ingenious in configuration, and sometimes outright amusing.
From the VeloceToday Archives, 2016
VeloceToday recently completed a two-part book review on the work of Marcello Gandini authored by Gautam Sen. We are also reviewing a book about the De Tomaso Mangusta, by ex-GM designer Dick Ruzzin. In October, author and collector Paul Wilson allowed us to spend some time with his Lamborghini Miura. The three are uniquely qualified, if not over-qualified (read bios at end of the article).
This week we focus on two of outstanding photographers, Jonathan Sharp and Hugues Vanhoolandt. We present two events, the London Concours, reported by der Englander Sharp and the Le Mans Classic by Hugues, who lives in Belgium. But first, we’d like to tell you a bit about how tough it is to be a race photographer in this day and age, and how much we appreciate their work.
For ten years in the analog era, your Editor and his photographer wife covered races and events for a variety of print magazines. We’ve been around the bend at LimeRock, slept in the Bog at the Glen, rode in Bugattis at Pittsburgh, beat the heat at Sebring, froze at Pocono, eaten by insects at Summit Point, morose at Moroso, cultured at Cavallino and chased by bears in New York. So we have some idea of what is involved in covering events for motoring magazines; bad accommodations if any, no food, no chairs, no shade, no money, no glory, no guarantees the photos or story will be published, and editors who would inevitably use the wrong photos. It is hard, tough work with a lot of competition. We retired from such strenuous activities long ago.
It rains in England. Best not to be afraid of a bit of water. At last year’s Silverstone Classic, says Sharp, “By the time I had got back to my hotel I smelt like a wet dog and had run out of dry clothes.” Photo by Jonathan Sharp
So what makes our guys tick? Jonathan Sharp has been taking professional quality photos since 2008 and has contributed to VeloceToday since 2012. “I have always had a love of cars and old aeroplanes but my passion for about the last 20 years has been in making the image, not just a snap of the vehicle/plane, but the overall image background, heads not chopped of, that sort of thing, and, as it is my passion, which has to be followed, and if that means traveling then so be it.
“I love trying to be creative and being around the stuff that interests me. What do I hate? Not being taken seriously. Anybody can take a snap; an image is harder, oh and camera phones, or rather arms holding camera phones that suddenly loom into the frame just as I am about to press the shutter.”
Vanhoolandt’s answer was a different dream. His first event with a camera was the 1991 Spa Ferrari Days. He’s been with VeloceToday since 2007. “To have the opportunity to go to places that have made me dream since my youth, like Le Mans, Monaco, Laguna Seca, enrich my photo collection, the pleasure of traveling to beautiful countries like Italy and California.
“Asking for accreditation is sometimes annoying and to make a good report, you have to be there early, leave late and walk a lot!”
Have you ever tried focusing a digital camera at night? A Ferrari at this year’s Le Mans Classic by Hugues Vanhoolandt.
Our photographers and reporters go to great lengths and physical discomfort to bring you superb texts and photos from events we can’t attend, for one reason or another. They do so without complaint, with speed and efficiency, and a remarkable degree of accuracy given the thousands upon thousands of cars and owners they have correctly identified over the years. They also require, and obtain, press credentials so that they can go where few others dare, in order to get the best shot. Obtaining press credentials, btw, is not easy.
Sharp reminds us that nowadays you need public liability insurance to go track side, usually a minimum £5 Million, sometimes £10 million of cover. “Oh and eyes in the back of your head would help, especially in assembly areas as you could be trying to photograph something at one end when something of equal importance arrives at the other end and you want to get a shot of it/them before it gets parked up, or they get surrounded by lots of people. My step count goes up on event days.” Hugues, for whom English is a second language, says that it is often difficult to write a good story in English, something shared with our Italian friends such as Roberto Motta and Alessandro Gerelli who have also done so much for us in the past.
And today, getting to events is tougher than ever. There has been a pandemic, and events tend to be super spreaders, while many events were suddenly canceled. Post pandemic our intrepid correspondents face hyperinflation, travel disruptions, and now, an unprecedented heat wave.
Yet they still go, and return, and process their photos, and send them to us in a timely fashion. We cannot thank them enough. We hope our readers appreciate their efforts, for we would all be poorer without them and I daresay VeloceToday would not exist.