VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

This Offer Can’t Last! Free French Calendar

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Jim Donick, editor of the Vintage Sports Car Club of America’s quarterly magazine, Vintage Sports Car, created a 2021 calendar, “The Automotive Legacy of France.” You’ll love the photos and descriptions of rare French cars, but it also includes important dates in motoring history.

We’ll send one free, including shipping, to every U.S. Domestic reader who subscribes to VeloceToday while supplies last, and they are going faster than a 4CV! Read on for details. [Read more…] about This Offer Can’t Last! Free French Calendar

Coachbuilding on the Alfa 6C 2500 Chassis

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By Paul Wilson
All Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt unless otherwise noted.

In the late 1930s the fastest, most advanced, most beautiful sports car in the world was the Alfa 8C2900B, or “2.9.” So, of course, I wanted one.

This was back in the 1970s, when many great cars were cheap–one of the Bugatti Royales spent time in a junkyard, for example. But not the 2.9s, which dipped only to the price of a nice house. I was driving a rusty Valiant station wagon, bought for $175 when I was married. A 2.9 was laughably out of reach.

My solution, sort of, was to make one.

Not the whole car, just the body. Bodies on the great prewar classics, like the Alfas, Talbot-Lagos, Bugattis, and Delahayes, were mostly built by independent coachbuilders. [Read more…] about Coachbuilding on the Alfa 6C 2500 Chassis

Those Sexy Coupes of a Certain Age

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This Talbot Lago Grand Sport of 1948 is also a Le Mans veteran with no less than five participations from 1949 to 1953. Chantilly 2015

Photos and captions by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Text by the Editor

Hugues Vanhoolandt has traveled the globe, accumulating a great wealth of digital images from a wide variety of shows and events. This week, to accompany Paul Wilson’s Alfa Romeo coupe debut in the pages of VeloceToday, we searched the Vanhoolandt archives to feature those sexy Italian and French creations of a certain age – that age being between 1935 and 1953, give or take a year on either side.

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Bertone’s Z.E.R.

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Photo courtesy Dick Ruzzin

By Dick Ruzzin

In the 1990s I was Director of Design for General Motors of Europe, involved with all design work for GM, exclusive of North America. We had a design contract with Stile Bertone in Turin Italy and did many interesting advanced design projects there, most never revealed to the public. Included was the OPEL MAXX that was a big influence on the Swatch car.

Designers from Opel Design in Germany would spend time in Italy working with the Italians at Stile Bertone. It would be a gross understatement to say that an assignment at Stile Bertone was highly desirable by my designers. [Read more…] about Bertone’s Z.E.R.

Siata Balbo Coupe CS071 Part 1

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Story by Sean Smith

From our Archives, 2017

In Part 1, Sean Smith relates the fascinating life of a Siata that has been in the same family for almost 60 years, a story that begins back in 1952 with a most unlikely car….Ed.

Dr. Julius Eisenstark had an eye for unique cars. In 1952 when everybody else was buying Fords and Chevys, he bought a Hudson.

Not just any Hudson, but a Teaguemobile.

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Milan, Turin and the Automobile, circa 1905

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Isotta Fraschini was Milan’s premier marque, to be enjoyed by the upper class wealthy patrons of the city.

By Aldo Zana

Graham Gauld’s feature about the September 7, 1908 “Targa Bologna” (see Veloce Today) prompted the idea to tell the following short story about a little known historical fact: The early capital city of the Italian automotive industry wasn’t Turin, nor the Motor Valley around Modena, as Maranello entered history about half a century later.

It was Milan.

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Ferrari SF90 In Analyses

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Wallace Wyss art.


By Wallace Wyss

You have to admire Ferrari. They bring out almost half a dozen new models in one year, and constantly cope with the pressure from Lamborghini and McLaren.

Yet they still manage to bring out fresh new designs. Ferrari must have figured out that part of their appeal is not only to have all that tradition going for them, but to constantly introduce new models and be the newest kid on the block. In 2018 they introduced the SF90 Stradale Hardtop, and new for 2021 is the SF90 Stradale Spider convertible with a power-folding hardtop.

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Francois Chevalier and His Art

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Story and photos by Graham Gauld

Above: Somewhat ironic that the iconic statue of Williams in the Bugatti by Francois Chevalier is removed from St. Devote during the race! From the VeloceToday archives, October 2013.

If you should ever be in Monte Carlo, keep a look-out for an almost life-sized bronze statue to “Williams”, or William Grover-Williams to give him his correct name, the winner of the first Monaco Grand Prix in 1929.

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Flight of Fancy

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Story and photos by Dale LaFollette

It was a typical spring day sometime in the mid-1990s, with a light mist in the air as I was on my way to work. We were going to have an Indy Lites test session and I already knew there would be complaints about the weather. As manager of Portland International Raceway (PIR) weather was one thing that I did not manage nor did I make excuses for. It just was.

When I got to the office, one of the Lites drivers, Ray Richter, was on the phone asking about the weather and then asked if he could land his RV4 airplane on the main straight. This was something I had allowed before as the FAA seemed to have no problem with it as long as he stayed below 800 feet. I asked what time he would arrive, after he told me I said I would have everyone on the property alerted to his arrival so there would be no issues.

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Ideal’s not so ideal Ferrari

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And How! features open and innovative formats for notices, articles and posts

Story and model photos by Pete Vack
From the Archives, January 2018

Following our Alan Boe feature on the 166 MM Ferrari 0010 M in the past two editions of VeloceToday, I thought it might be fun to show a very early model Ferrari. It dates from about 1953. And like most old Ferraris, it has an interesting history.

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The Racing Career of Bill Kimberly Part 6

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Le Mans, June 1963. Aston Martin’s project cars during practice, headed by the DP 215 of Phil Hill/Lucien Bianchi. Bill Kimberly is seen next to his #7 DB4GT, internally known as DP 214. (Ed Matsuishi)

By Willem Oosthoek

After a disappointing finish with the Cunningham Jaguar E-type at Sebring in March 1963, Bill Kimberly picked up his corporate job in London again and did not expect to do much racing for the rest of the season, with -perhaps- Le Mans and the Cunningham team being the exception. An unexpected call changed things completely, thanks to one of Bill’s occasional boarders in the London apartment. [Read more…] about The Racing Career of Bill Kimberly Part 6

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