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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Aldo Zana

Meeting Elly Beinhorn

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Elly Beinhorn, 29, in the pilot seat of her Messerschmit Me-108 Taifun, code D-IMXA. With this she flew, among others, to Capetown and back together with husband Bernd Rosemeyer, who was due to drive in the early 1937 South African races. The Taifun was then the top of European touring planes. Can you image flying from Berlin above the whole length of Africa and back single-engined and navigating with the compass only? Elly Beinhorn was a master of that, and in the meantime she gave flying lessons to Bernd.

It was Jonathan Sharp’s photo of the Me-108 in last week’s VeloceToday that prompted long time reader and contributor Aldo Zana to send us this compelling and revealing 2003 interview with Elly Beinhorn, answering the question “Who was Elly Beinhorn?” Thanks to Jonathan for his interest in aeroplanes and to Aldo for this interview- Ed.


By Aldo Zana
Photos from author’s collection

She sits at a coffee table, opposite the door. White shirt and a black skirt. Her snow white hair perfectly trimmed and combed. Bernd, her son, enters first: “Hello, Mom. How do you feel, today? Good? Good, for we’ve visitors.”

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1:12 Model: 1927 Fiat Type 806

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Story, color photos and model by Aldo Zana

From the VeloceToday Archives, August, 2019

It is quite unusual that a particular model car exhibits so many unique values: the only three-dimensional image of a racing car 1) built in a single unit, 2) raced only once, and 3) then destroyed for good.

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Monaco Grand Prix, 1968 in Color

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The beauty that didn’t fly: the Eagle 1G Weslake by Dan Gurney. He qualified 16th and last, 1.32.9, and lasted 9 laps only in the race.

Story and photos by Aldo Zana

If you are suffering from Grand Prix abstinence you might be interested in remembering the Monaco F1 Grand Prix from so many decades ago, now akin to a fictional tale of times bygone. It was May 1968 when France and, later, the whole of Europe, were on the verge of profound social, economic, and cultural changes: students in Paris had started what went into the history books as “La revolte de mai”, the May revolution. The whole country was either on strike or shut down.

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Monaco Grand Prix, 1968 in Black and White

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Pedro Rodriguez, BRM P133, on the final straight iduring his 15th lap of the race. Note how “light” the car appears on the tires. It was a hint of things to come; read on!

By Aldo Zana

We present Aldo Zana’s black and white photography from Monaco 1968.

The Race

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AISA Conferences and Monographs

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Story by Aldo Zana

Herein, Aldo Zana describes the functions of the AISA, (the Italian Association for the History of the Automobile), and discusses the recent conference on Jim Clark. Please consider joining the AISA, open to all serious automobile and motorcyle enthusiasts.

AISA General Description

The AISA (Associazione Italiana per la Storia dell’Automobile – Italian Association for the History of the Automobile) was established 1987 in Milan by a group of prominent Italian enthusiasts and experts of the motoring world, including executives, designers, engineers, university professors, historians and journalists. [Read more…] about AISA Conferences and Monographs

Fahr(T)raum Museum in Austria

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Text and photos by Aldo Zana

Salzburg, Austria, is a town immersed in music and culture, permeated with old Europe’s spirit. The Northeastern environs, the Salzkammergut, the beauty of gentle hills, perfectly cared-for meadows and yards, small villages dominated by church clock towers topped with onion-shaped domes and romantic lakes like the Mattsee are magically nostalgic.

True to the understatement of its founding family and the Austrian low-key approach to past glories, a new car museum opened on the Mattsee shore, focused on Austro Daimler and Steyr cars. [Read more…] about Fahr(T)raum Museum in Austria

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