The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Again, where the legend began… in 1873, Amédée Bollée built the first vehicle with mechanical and steam traction capable of carrying twelve passengers. In October 1875, Bollée completed the Le Mans-Paris journey in 18 hours but received 75 fines from the police!
Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
We continue with our Retro coverage and highlight some of the many interesting and significant French classics.
Robert Balfour 1909 Stanley Steamer Model Z 9 passenger Mountain Wagon
By Vince Johnson
Photos by Vince Johnson unless othewise marked
It’s been sixty-seven years since the first cars went up the hill at Collingrove in the wine country north-east of the state capital. They’ve been doing it ever since and it doesn’t look like slowing down anytime soon. Not even when the morning is wet, cool and windy.
David Beaumont with his 15 year-old grand-daughter Emelda in the 1929 Amilcar Surbaisse.
Words by Doug Gordon
Photos by Roger Foster, Doug Gordon & Vince Johnson
The weather forecast for the southern coast and Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia for the weekend of September 27, 28 & 29 was fine. Cool, but sunny with very little chance of rain. So what? You might well ask. These three days were set aside for the third running of the now familiar Tour de Fleurieu Rally for vintage and pre-war cars of French origin, very few of which are fitted with any form of roof or weather protection.
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
Lead image: Richard Creasy, 1985cc Amilcar
Barossa Vintage Collingrove Hillclimb, South Australia, 7 October 2018 The oldies were back (the cars, not the drivers) in the wine country north-east of Adelaide for the Sporting Car Club of South Australia’s annual vintage hillclimb near Angaston. Entries had come from across the continent and while most took less than a minute to get to the top, the narrow track is challenging and there’s little room for error.
Story and Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
For the 30th consecutive year, Techno-Classica continued to set records, despite the fact that another event, Retro Classics in Stuttgart, was organized at the same time and only 400 kilometers from Essen.
If the classic car market has calmed down after the hype of recent years, at shows like Techno-Classica, there is always the same amount of classic cars, if not more. And the prizes remain strong for the quality cars.
In fact, one of the world’s leading auction house, RM Sotheby’s, has announced that it will organize a spectacular auction during next year’s Techno-Classica, bringing this event to another dimension.
But before that, let’s have a look to a small selection of what was on show this year. [Read more…] about Techno-Classica Essen, Germany 2018