The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
By Pete Vack
From the VeloceToday Archives, August, 2016
The last automotive star of the movie The Racers has been found and is now under restoration and being readied for Pebble Beach 2017. The Vignale-bodied 1400 Fiat had a very brief role in the movie. It was difficult for even the hard core among us to determine exactly what make and model it was.
As Found Classic Number Twenty Four
By Pete Vack
The last automotive star of the movie The Racers has been found and is now under restoration and being readied for Pebble Beach 2017. The Vignale-bodied 1400 Fiat had a very brief role in the movie. It was difficult for even the hard core among us to determine exactly what make and model it was. [Read more…] about As Found Classic Number 24: The Racers Fiat Vignale
Car as found at Elkhart Lake. Pure beauty here. But was it Figoni?
As Found Classic Number Twenty-Two
This photo was taken by my father Don Vack on June 18, 1960 at Road America near Elkhart Lake Wisconsin. At a time when American cars could be called many things but rarely beautiful, my father made an effort to show me, and later my brother Greg, that there were in fact cars that were beautiful, stunning, and well-proportioned; most did not hail from Detroit. This Talbot Lago was one of them. For over a half century, we wondered who the coachbuilder was, for lack of other ideas, assumed that it was a Figoni et Falaschi creation. Now, thanks to Peter Larsen, Bruno Martin and current owner Steve Hamilton, we can answer that question.
As Found Classic Number Twenty
Carl Goodwin on a Siata find that needs your help
Somewhere south of the border, a Siata waits for someone.
Of course there was the Gold Plated Cadillac (and Jaguar) but imagine finding this gold plated Alfa 6C2300 Pescara!
As Found Classic Number Nineteen
Dear Pete,
One of my favorite photos to share…my 1934 Alfa Romeo 6C2300 Pescara, S/N 700.610. It was your copy of “High Performance Italian Cars” that I had the good fortune to buy from you, which in turn led me to become a premium subscriber to VeloceToday!
Sincerely,
Robert Piltch
Robert Piltch with his fantastic Rometsch-bodied Alfa Pescara.
The response to the Alfa in search of a chassis was so helpful that our French collector sent another mystery Alfa for our readers to solve. Surely someone in Europe or the U.S. might remember this chop job…who would forget this attempt make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. Here is all we know:
A body in search of a chassis.
A mystery in Italy, France and anywhere there might be an Alfa SZ without its original body. A VeloceToday reader and collector from TrustClassics in Bar le Duc, France, sent these photos of a front and back section of an Alfa SZ.
A period photo of Richard’s Simca 8.Back of photo reads: 1951 Simca 8 Sport, 1100cc, 4 cyl Fiat based Gordini modified engine. Farina Envelope Aluminum body. Restored and owned by T.A. Glendening 1953-1955
Reader Richard Plavetich writes:
When you started the As Found Classics column on VeloceToday, I submitted photos of my Simca 8 Sport I bought a few years ago. (see above). Well, suddenly, the story has become much more interesting! [Read more…] about As Found Classic Number Sixteen
Lancia Astura is the car, but what was the location? Italy? Maybe.
Thanks to Dale Lafollette of VintageMotorphoto for these photos of a Lancia. Clearly it is an Astura, and thanks to Paolo Giusti and Geoffrey Goldberg, we even know some of the history of this particular car. But what we didn’t know was where these photos were taken, by whom, or exactly when or who owned it at the time.
In the mid-1950s, when these photos were taken, the Lancia was apparently in Indiana or at least licensed in that state. Thanks to our astute readers, we now know where this rare Lancia was photographed and thanks to Jim Sitz, the probable owners at the time. [Read more…] about Mystery Solved: As Found Classic Number 13