VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

We Review “The Yanks at Le Mans, 1980-1999”

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The Yanks at Le Mans, Take two. Photo by Christian Vignon

Review by Pete Vack

A Tragic Death and a New Beginning

After completing his landmark three volume “Twice Around the Clock, The Yanks at Le Mans,” covering the years 1923 to 1979, Tim Considine was well into writing and researching Volumes IV and V, creating a history of Le Mans up to the year 1999 when he suddenly died on March 3, 2022. But the last two volumes lay unfinished. While Considine was a one-man band, a writer, historian, publisher, photographer, project manager, interviewer and fact checker, he was gone. Who could possibly replace him and help complete his magnum opus? [Read more…] about We Review “The Yanks at Le Mans, 1980-1999”

Best of Alan Boe: Ferrari s/n 0628 M

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Story and photos by Alan Boe
From the VeloceToday Archives, November 2018

In the mid-1950s Ferrari was deeply immersed in the business of building, selling, and racing an impressive array of sports cars; four, six and twelve cylinder engines were employed in spyders and berlinettas bodied by Touring, Vignale, Scaglietti, and Pinin Farina on chassis of varying wheelbases. The ability to manufacture such an amazing variety of sporting machinery did not seem particularly out of the ordinary…for Ferrari. It was accepted practice then, but it would be impossible today! And none of Ferrari’s competition of the time was ever able to produce anywhere near the range of sports racing cars that Ferrari did.

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Mail from Ernie: Time Spent is a Gift of Time

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From the receptacle that is euphemistically called a ‘mail’ box but now holds only advertisements and bills, out jumps this envelope. Receiving a real letter today is rare enough, one like this is heretofore unknown.

Story by Pete Vack, art by Ernie Nagamatsu

The envelope immediately evokes wonderment, surprise, and smiles and makes risking one’s life to fetch mail from the mailbox near the road worthwhile. It is from vintage racing’s famous ambassador, “Ernie” Nagamatsu and is known as “Mail Art.” We shall let the interested reader Google the subject. Suffice to say Mail Art is a “Pop Art” phenomenon and has been around since the 1960s and is now international in scope.

So, what could possibly be inside? [Read more…] about Mail from Ernie: Time Spent is a Gift of Time

Meeting Sam Caronia

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Could be Cranky Caronia

A note to our readers: Norfolk, Suffolk, Portsmouth and Hampton are all locations in the UK, but also cities in the Tidewater area of Virginia, USA, and the locale of the Sam Caronia chronicles. The U.S. cities were all named by the English settlers who arrived in the colonies beginning in the 1600s.-Ed.

Story by Tom Gonnella

Read Part 1

Over the years, I’ve had three Fiat 850 Spiders, two Moretti Tour du Monde, a Dino 308gt4, a Mercedes SL500, a Ford Escape, a BMW 325xi, and 15 Alfa Romeos dating from 1951 to 2019.

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Salon Prive at Blenheim Palace 2025

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Welcome to judging at Salon Prive.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Blooming typical! After what feels like weeks and weeks of no rain the forecast for the 27th August said rain, but when I pulled back the curtains at 5.30am the sun was shining in Brighton, as it still was 4 hours later when I arrived at Blenheim Palace for this year’s Salon Prive.

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Hot Laps with Phil Hill

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Phil Hill and Dale LaFollette returning to pits in the 1902 D50 Napier.

By Dale LaFollette
Photos from the collection of Dale LaFollette

From the VeloceToday Archives, October, 2019

In 1980 Road & Track scheduled a day at the Portland race track where I worked so Phil Hill could test some vintage cars for articles he would be writing. On the appointed day several important old cars arrived including my favorite, a 1902 D50 Napier Gordon-Bennett racer that had been assembled from parts of the actual winner of the race. At the time the car was owned by the Harrah Collection.

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Sam Caronia, Abarth Dealer Part 1

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Sam Caronia. Obituary photo, photographer unknown

By Pete Vack and Tom Gonnella

Sam Caronia was not famous and more irascible than most. But he was an unforgettable person, the owner of a foreign car repair shop and sometime race driver, who helped and encouraged a younger generation to maintain and race the Italian cars we all loved. And though he died many years ago, he is still remembered.

A Navy Veteran, an Abarth Dealer, a Race Driver

Tom Gonnella, a fellow Ferrari owner and Tidewater, Virginia, resident, worked for Sam as a teenager, and was a long-time friend. Recently Tom sent me his well-written reflections on Sam which provided the basis for a belated biography, and allowed us to make use of an interview I had with Sam in 2014 and never published. I too, had known Sam for many years, and Tom’s recollections mirrored my own.

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Ferrari 212 Export Berlinetta

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Dr Martin Halusa’s very early Ferrari 212 Export Berlinetta at Monaco in 2018.( Photo (Gauld)

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

On a web site such as VeloceToday our stories tend to paint with a broad brush. It is clear, however, our reports on concours-style events always attract attention because through these events we can observe the changes made over the decades in the actual shape of the car, in other words: styling.

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Radiator Mascots: Come Fly with Us

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1907 Renault radiator cap ornament, but not up front, as the radiator was back on the firewall between the engine and the driver’s cockpit.

Story and photos by Charley Seavey

Time was when almost all cars had some representational statuary of some kind on the hood (bonnet) of the car. Some were famous: the Rolls Royce “Spirit of Ecstasy,” and the Jaguar “Leaper” Spirit…is now a tiny vestigial remnant of its former self. The Leaper is no more. Bentley’s Winged B is now a flat representation. The three-pointed star of Mercedes Benz is mostly flat, although there may be a pop-up version. Ornaments on lesser cars rarely attracted attention, although many were quite lovely, and some (Pontiac’s illuminated Chief) were quite clever. While seemingly superfluous I remember using them as a nice way of keeping track of where the off side of the car was in any tight situation.

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Finding a Lost Cisitalia D46 Part 2

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By Pete Vack
Read Part 1

As Sam Caronia and I approached the tomb of what promised to be the long lost Cisitalia D46 (oh, well, there may be more lost D46s, but nevertheless, this one was truly long lost) we wondered if it was really possible that one of the rarest and most treasured Italian race cars ever built had been hidden from sight for over 40 years, and was only one hour from VeloceToday Headquarters?

“Howard Carter and King Tut’s tomb had nothing on us..”

After talking with owner Betty Peters at her home in Suffolk, Virginia, we were led out to a corner of a very large lot. Her grandson Bruce pointed to the shed, and said, “Go, see for yourself.”

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The 74th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

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1965 Bugatti original type 101 chassis and motor, Exner body. The last ‘new’ Bugatti 101 chassis was purchased by Exner, who had Ghia body it per his Revival Car designs, then appeared at the Turin Auto Show in 1965.

Story and photos by Brandes Elitch

When you attend a world class car show, you should expect some drama and excitement. But I am pretty sure that nothing will ever match the excitement when the show cars come through the entrance in back of the Lodge and start to drive on the field at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. You stand there, just a few hundred feet from the Bay, waiting anxiously until about 6:30 when it warms up and sunrise is about to begin, and they start their run.

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Concorso Italiano and The Paddock

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Ed Godshalk in his Cisitalia D46 Monoposto “barn find” condition. Ex-factory team car, 5th place in 1946 Coppa Brezzi race, 1st place 1947 Mt. Ventoux Hill Climb, Ex-Harry Schell. Renowned Cisitalia restorer, Geert Kistermaker is at right.

Story and photos by Brandes Elitch

Looking back, I have to say that some of the best memories are of the original Concours Italiano (later changed to Concorso Italiano).

At the time I was interviewing for a job with a bank in San Francisco, and my interviewers were my friend Joe and his associate, Willem Oosthoek, now perhaps the pre-eminent Maserati expert in the world.

Joe had just bought a very clean and original Maserati 3500 coupe (Willem has one too, of course) and wanted to get started on the restoration. At that time there was an organization called the Maserati Information Exchange (MIE) outside of Seattle, run by Francis Mandarano. Back then, forty years ago, (the event is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year) there were only two events, the races at Laguna Seca, and the Pebble Beach Concours. [Read more…] about Concorso Italiano and The Paddock

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