VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Maranello Masterpieces at Road America, 1956

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In the classic June Sprints that’s still run today some seventy years later, Carroll Shelby drove Luigi Chinetti’s 4412CC, 330HP in-line, six-cylinder 121 LM (0558LM) in this SCCA National event on the 4.0-mile road racing course near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Shelby survived the challenges of a host of Ferraris and the three D-Type Jaguars of the Briggs Cunningham racing team. He led all 38 laps of the 152-mile race, setting the fastest race lap, and beating Lou Brero’s D-type across the line by six seconds. 0558LM was raced by the factory with Umberto Maglioli, Phil Hill, and Eugenio Castellotti in 1955 before going to Luigi Chinetti, who provided it to Hill and Shelby to race in 1956. (Caption by Jeff Allison)

Photos by Glen Glendenning
Captions by Jeff Allison and Pete Vack

Bob Birmingham and Glen Glendenning have previously featured the cars at the 1956 June Sprints at Road America, but we purposely left out the large contingent of Ferraris that entered the Sprints that year. We present them herein.

While gathering up the photos for this piece, three points of interest came to our attention:

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The Cygnet and its Swansong

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The luxury Microcar, the Aston Martin Cygnet. ( Photo Gauld)

Story by Graham Gauld

It was fifteen years ago, 2011, when for some strange reason, the Aston Martin board decided it would be a good idea for Aston Martin to change the habit of a lifetime by building a super-mini road car: the Aston Martin Cygnet.

One interpretation for this decision was that as Aston Martin were producing the Supercars of that period. As some of their customers might have large yachts on which they could perch a small car built to the luxury standards of the full-size Aston Martins, the marketing concept had a feasible interpretation.

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Mystery Car: Playing the Numbers

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By the Editor

Here it is, two weeks after we published the above photo with a plea for help as in Who, What, Where and When? There were no fully correct answers, though some responded that it looked like a Ferrari. This has never happened before in the long 25 years of VeloceToday and many mystery contests!

Or, maybe, just maybe, we have actually found a photo of a Ferrari race car that no one can easily identify. In this day of Google and AI, Barchetta and Ferrarichat, that is hard to believe. Just when you thought we knew it all up pops this strangely painted Ferrari.

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We Review “The Ferrari Under The Bed”

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Buy This Book..trust us.

Review by Pete Vack
All photos courtesy Darrell Westfaul

Darrell Westfaul’s telling of his time with his 166 MM Ferrari (0046M) is truly special; mark our words…one of the best books we have ever read on any automotive topic. He describes a life with cars similar to our own experiences, and meets all of the characters along the way, guys that we knew as well, or at least hoped to know. Like many of us, he struggled to keep his treasure, realizing that the cost of admittance is just the tip of the iceberg. To keep it running, he learns to fix and paint and repair and be a mother of invention. Even more, he commits himself to finding out as much as possible about his rare car during his ownership and well beyond. His research goes far beyond the typical chassis histories and becomes as much about the owners as the car itself. It is a wonderful, fulfilling journey that so many of us can relate to. [Read more…] about We Review “The Ferrari Under The Bed”

A Visit to the Mercedes-Benz Museum circa 1962

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The Mercedes-Benz Museum as it was, 1962. Photo copyright Mercedes-Benz Classic and used with permission.

Text by Charley Seavey
Photos by Charley Seavey unless otherwise noted

This article would not have been written without the cooperation, and no small amount of work, on the part of Christian Biederstaedt, Archivist at Mercedes-Benz Classic. He provided all the technical information about the engines, and identified some of the cars that I could not.

Long ago, two young Army guys with three days off loaded up a car with cameras and set forth from Rothwesten, in what was then West Germany, and headed down the Autobahn to visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.

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We Remember Randy Cook

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Author Randy Cook in 750 Monza (0518M) at Concorso Italiano.

By Pete Vack
From our Archives, February 2017

We are saddened by the loss of Bowtie Ferraris author and vintage racer Randy Cook, who passed away on February 16, 2017 after a being diagnosed with cancer.

When I first met Randy, he was carrying a huge, I mean huge, three ring binder bursting with facts and photos of Chevy-engined Ferraris.

He plopped it down in front of me and said, “Well, let’s get to work.”

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Brandes Elitch at the Al Engel Museum

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One of the Ardun heads on the test bed.

Story and photos by Brandes Elitch

In mid-March our local Packard Club chapter hosted a tour of the Al Engel museum, just across the bay from San Francisco.

It was an extraordinary experience. I have been in many car museums in the US and Europe, but I have never seen anything like this. [Read more…] about Brandes Elitch at the Al Engel Museum

Practical Classics at the NEC Birmingham, UK

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Sud Super sorta sums it all up.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

After the perceived glamour of Retromobile Paris, it was time for a trip up the M40 to the NEC in Birmingham for the ‘Practical Classics Magazine’s Classic Car and Restoration Show’, an event that is more boiler suits than Armani suits but just as enjoyable. Unlike other classic car shows such as Retro, at the Practical Classics show the attendees manning the club stands are welding spanners rather than just drinking tea and chatting, while in Paris they sip wine; it is all very hands on and grass roots.

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Special Brew, The Story of the Southern African Formula One and Libre Specials

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By Robert Young
Published in April 2026
ISBN 978-1-918070-02-6
$70 plus shipping
Published by Evro Publishing, Westrow House, Holwell, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5LF, UK
Order Here

Review by Pete Vack

Robert Young has been researching the history of racing in South Africa for years, almost as long as he has known Graham Gauld. Says Gauld, “I have known Rob Young for many years and have always been aware of his plan to record for posterity the racing specials built in South Africa, particularly in the post-World War II years.” [Read more…] about Special Brew, The Story of the Southern African Formula One and Libre Specials

Road America, 1956 June Sprints

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Jim Kimberly in the OSCA coming down the hill into turn five.

Text by Robert Birmingham
Photos by Glen Glendenning

Road America June Sprints, 23-24, 1956

After an exuberant late 1955, an abbreviated time to sit back and smell the roses was shortened even more when the Chicago Region SCCA received approval to hold two race weekends at Road America, the first on June 23 – 24, 1956 and another on September 8 – 9. If that wasn’t ambitious enough, the National Association for Stock Car Racing’s (NASCAR) Grand National Series secured a race date in August. Clearly all involved, Clif Tufte and his extended team, local merchants and SCCA officials, had their winter hours spoken for to assure competing drivers and their respective teams, area merchants and attending fans from across the Midwest and beyond had safe, enjoyable and profitable summer. [Read more…] about Road America, 1956 June Sprints

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