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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Driving the Napier-Railton

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Of course I drive a car. What makes you think I don’t drive a car?’ Copyright Stan Mott.

The Brooklands Museum Director, Allan Winn, takes us on a spin with the Napier W12-engined Railton, the car which conquered Brooklands for all time. We think you’ll find his words more informative and interesting than the videos, found at the end of the article. Our thanks to both for these exclusive stories Also, thanks to Paul Stewart, Brooklands Museum Marketing and PR Manager, and VeloceToday’s Jonathan Sharp

From our Archives, November 2013

Driving Impressions by Allan Winn, Brooklands Museum Director

First off, the Napier-Railton is an enormously powerful, iconic machine. However, the overwhelming impression you have from driving it on a regular basis is how benign and user-friendly it is. That’s not to say it is an easy car to start or drive, but it is an extraordinary, well-behaved machine.

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Paul Wilson’s 6C 2500 Dream Gets Real

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The Alfa 2500 Freccia d’Oro. Nice chassis, so so body. Cutaway is the art of Giovanni Cavara.

Story and photos by Paul Wilson

Read Part 1

My dream of building a roadster body on an Alfa 6C2500 took a startling turn, from something absurdly impractical to an idea that might be possible. I was talking to a collector who was restoring a unique 6C for Pebble Beach, when he casually mentioned that he had a parts car. [Read more…] about Paul Wilson’s 6C 2500 Dream Gets Real

Dick Merritt, Remembered

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The Man, the Book

Dick Merritt passed away last week at the age of 90. We extend our condolences to his wife Elisabeth, his son Kendall and daughter-in-law Ruth and granddaughter Riley. While there are many sides to Dick Merritt and even more stories, it seemed fitting to republish the below article at this time.

By Pete Vack

By the mid 1960s, many used Ferraris were falling apart, found in cheap suburban tract housing behind chainlink fences, the Vignale or Ghia bodywork hidden by tarps, dogwatched by a mutt on a rope. Most were in America; Illinois, California, New York, Long Island, Boston, and military ports like Long Beach, Norfolk, Jacksonville, San Diego, although old Ferraris could and would be found in Europe, South America, and Australia.

They were usually in the hands of well-meaning, somewhat knowledgeable foreign car enthusiasts who knew what they had but did not have the time, energy or money to properly restore their treasure. Many were young, but saddled with family responsibilities that precluded investing any grand sum into fixing a car whose value was at the very best purely speculative.

Once such young man was Richard F. Merritt, who had worked at Ford, GM and selling Volkswagens part time, and who realized that the Ferrari would be the next Bugatti. Over the years, Merritt would buy and sell 48 of the most desirable Ferraris ever built, but his main claim to fame would come as the co-author (with Warren Fitzgerald) of the landmark Ferrari, the Sports and Grand Turismo Cars. If any one book made the marque, it was this one, hereafter to be referred to as “F&M” for Fitzgerald and Merritt.

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National Museum Part 3

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Actor, wit, car nut and raconteur Peter Ustinov once owned this 1928 Supercharged Mercedes 36/220 S Type. One of only 146 examples built of this very successful Ferdinand Porsche-designed vehicle which has recently been restored by the Museum. This model was one of the first to appear after the amalgamation of Daimler and Benz in 1926.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

From the VeloceToday Archives, 2017

This is the third part of Jonathan Sharp’s visit to the National Museum at Beaulieu. There is just so much at the Museum to see; we have just scratched the surface and there is much more waiting for the museum visitor.

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Wilson’s Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Roadster

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By Paul Wilson

I enjoyed my Alfa 6C2500 project so much that finishing it creates a problem: what next? Without a major dream to focus my thoughts on, I knew I would feel aimless and lost. So a few years ago I began to consider the possibilities.

With the coupe almost done, a roadster simply had to be built, a feat to be accomplished because it wasn’t there.

[Read more…] about Wilson’s Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Roadster

National Motor Museum Part 1

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Come on in, we are going to show you the neatest Museum in all of the UK.

Come on in, we are going to show you the neatest Museum in all of the British Isles.

Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp

It’s funny; I have driven, and flown hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles to visit various car museums, shows and race meetings around the world, and yet I had not visited the National Motor Museum (also known as the Beaulieu) less than two hours west of my home on England South Coast, for nearly 20 years.

The

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The National Motor Museum Part 2

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This 1903 single cylinder De Dion Bouton is still a regular entrant in the annual London to Brighton Veteran car run. The car was purchased by the Montagu family from a tenant on their estate in 1913 and was one of the five original cars that launched the Montagu Motor Museum in 1952 when the cars were displayed in the entrance hall of the family home.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

From the Archive, January 2017

In Part 1 we mentioned that we would discuss the founder of the National Motor Museum, Lord Montagu. Here then, Jonathan Sharp does so as a prefix to Part 2 of the National Museum articles which will cover cars from A-L. Part 3 will show cars from M-Z and motorcycles. Part 4 will deal with the Land Speed Record Cars at the Museum. Ed.

Let’s get the elephant in the corner out of the room. In 1953 Edward, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, together with two other gentlemen, was convicted of the then crime of a homosexual act with two other consenting adults, who turned Queen’s evidence. Lord Montagu served 8 months in prison. Such was the public’s disquiet as what was perceived to be the unfair victimization of a public figure and the criminality of sexual acts between consenting adults, that a public inquiry was finally set up which ultimately led to the law on homosexuality being reformed. Ok that’s out of the way.

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Gary Laughlin by Graham Gauld

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Gary Laughlin and the famous Maserati test driver Guerino Bertocchi look over the Maserati 3500GT at Modena Autodrome. (Photo Graham Gauld/GPL)

By Graham Gauld

An old friend came to mind just recently when I stumbled upon a photo of someone I met in the old Scuderia Ferrari premises in the Vialle Tento e Trieste in Modena, where Scuderia Ferrari began in the Alfa Romeo days of the 1930s.

Despite the fact the actual manufacturing of Ferrari’s had long since moved to Maranello, Enzo Ferrari still maintained the old premises in the center of town, but not for much longer.

That day was over sixty years ago, in September of 1957, and the man I met was tall, smartly dressed in the “preppy” style of the 1950s, dark blue blazer and flannels. He was open and friendly and introduced himself as Gary Laughlin from Fort Worth, Texas “…..and I’m in oil.”

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The Laughlin-Shelby Scaglietti Corvette

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From the Archives, December 2011

By Wallace Wyss

In 1959 Carroll Shelby won the biggest race there was in sports car racing, and that was the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He quit driving shortly after that, and just in time, because a heart condition he had managed to hide from the SCCA medical techs was threatening to take him out if he didn’t quit. He wasn’t worried about what he would do next; he was already was working on a plan to build his own sports car.

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Bugatti Before the Cars

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The Mullin Automotive Museum entry includes a dramatic portico, made up of dozens of tinted windshields on an iron frame that would make Gustave Eiffel proud.

From the Archives, April, 2010

Larry Crane takes us on an exclusive tour of the furniture of Carlo Bugatti.
Photos by author except as noted.

Peter Mullin is a gifted artist, at least equal to his talents as a businessman. In spite of his new museum’s name, he wants the public home of his collections to be seen as an art museum, celebrating the art of the first half of the Twentieth Century with a focus on the decorative arts movement universally known as “Art Deco.” [Read more…] about Bugatti Before the Cars

Vintage Aircraft at the Goodwood Revival, 2019

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This week we take a bit of a break from our four wheeled friends to allow Jonathan Sharp to show you a few photos from his other passion, vintage aircraft, or as he insists on calling them, aeroplanes. They were part of the Goodwood Revival after, all, so fair game. Besides, we greatly enjoyed it! Ed.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

OK, so what is the Freddy March Spirit of Aviation?

It is a concours for aeroplanes built up to 1966. A Pebble Beach for aeroplanes. It was first run in 2007 and now is a key element in the annual Goodwood Revival event. These photos are from the 2019 concours.

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