VeloceToday.com

The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

dino brunori

The Stanga Brothers and Their Cars

By

Story by Dino Brunori
Historic photos are Copyright protected from the Andrea Curami Collection

From the Archives, December 2018

In the years between 1930 and 1960 every Italian car enthusiast had only one dream: racing in the Mille Miglia. And in the years after the war, when the sporting regulations allowed it, one might enter the 1000 mile race with a self-built car derived from or built with Fiat components. They could be rewarded with large sums of money if they won the category with Fiat parts.

This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.
LoginSubscribe

The Cars of Rudolfo Patriarca

By

Story by Dino Brunori

In the Mille Miglia won by Marzotto and his Ferrari in 1950, there was a great victory by one of the small builders – what we today call the Etceterinis. The first car that arrived on Viale Rebuffone in Brescia was not, as usual, one of the most powerful cars which left between five and seven o’clock in the morning, but a little red berlinetta from the 750 sport class.

It was the first time that such a thing happened. [Read more…] about The Cars of Rudolfo Patriarca

Mille Miglia Etceterinis: Fiat 500A Mor & Sca

By

By Dino Brunori

This is the second of a series about Etceterinis on the Mille Miglia

A mystery (solved?)In 2016, during the Milan Autoclassica fair, the Pandolfini auction house auctioned an original MM sportcar based on the Fiat 500A, better known as the Topolino. Such a sportcars were common in the early editions of the race after WW2, with a lot of small artisans making different models. There was not a great deal of information on this peculiar car, apart that it entered the 1950 MM with the crew Boccardi – Schreiber and it did not finish the race. The car was known as the Fiat 500A Mor & Sca, had a Siata head, but who built it was a mystery. An original picture taken on the start line showed the car registered in Brescia, and the two pilots were from Brescia as well. [Read more…] about Mille Miglia Etceterinis: Fiat 500A Mor & Sca

Mille Miglia Etceterinis: The Stanga Brothers

By

Story by Dino Brunori
Historic photos are Copyright protected from the Andrea Curami Collection

This is the first of a series about Etceterinis on the Mille Miglia

In the years between 1930 and 1960 every Italian car enthusiast had only one dream: racing in the Mille Miglia. And in the years after the war, when the sporting regulations allowed it, one might enter the 1000 mile race with a self-built car derived from or built with Fiat components. They could be rewarded with large sums of money if they won the category with Fiat parts. [Read more…] about Mille Miglia Etceterinis: The Stanga Brothers

Three Barn Find Nardis Come to Light

By

By Dino Brunori

A couple of years ago VeloceToday did the book review of my book Enrico Nardi, A fast life and wrote, “Once the book is more widely distributed, more information will no doubt surface.” I’m sure that regular aficionados of VeloceToday are curious to know if something happened in the meantime. The answer is yes, and here are three different stories of recent Nardi barn finds.

In spring 2010, eBay listed an ad showing a BMW 750 twin motorcycle engine with a ND (Nardi Danese) stamping on it with a serial number of 110. A quick across-the-ocean call to John de Boer to cross-check our databases, and we ended up with the same conclusion: this particular engine was originally installed in Nardi chassis number 952/2. This car was purchased by Ferdinando Gatta, the brother-in-law of Gianni Lancia, and had a long racing career in seasons ’52 and ’53 in Italy before being sold in the USA by Tony Pompeo, continuing its career in SCCA races up to the early sixties. 952/2 was still in the States, in the hands of a collector who lives in Florida, and at the time had a Ford engine installed.

Once the owner of 952/2 knew of the BMW engine, it took him only 10 minutes to decide to purchase it to bring back the car to its original condition. This alone was a breakthrough, but the best of the story had still to come.

Barn Find Nardi Danese 750

Recently we had reason to get in touch with the seller of the Nardi Danese BMW engine as listed on eBay. During the conversation, he mentioned that he knew of a person with who had kept a Nardi BMW parked in the garage for the last 50 years with a blown engine. This led us on another chase but several attempts to contact the Nardi owner had no result at all; he did not reply to messages on the phone, to emails, nor would he even open his door when de Boer went to visit him. A dead end, it seemed. [Read more…] about Three Barn Find Nardis Come to Light

Le Mitiche a Bassano, June 21-23, 2013

By

The Riboldi/Sabbadini Fiat 508 Morettini which won first place honors.

Story and photos by Dino Brunori (Author of Enrico Nardi, A Fast Life)

This year the 19th edition of Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano sadly took place without the event founders, Danilo and Renato Calmonte, the brothers who invented the gathering of barchetta in Bassano. Both died last year just a few months apart, and we all missed their presence. But the seed they planted is now a strong tree and this year, 75 friends from all over the world –from Israel to Argentina, from USA to Emirates — came to Italy to make Bassano the capital of sports car enthusiasts for a very special three days in June. The Calmonte brothers can be very proud of what they’ve done. [Read more…] about Le Mitiche a Bassano, June 21-23, 2013

Le Mitiche Loses Their Captain

By

For many of us, Danilo Calmonte is ‘the captain’ of Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano. It is difficult to write ‘was’. Every barchetta aficionado knows about the fantastic event he and his brother Renato created about 20 years ago; participating in Le Mitiche at least once means that one is a real sports car enthusiast.

For the last ten years Danilo was fighting for his life against cancer, but only a few knew it. On February 23, 2012 Danilo lost his battle against lung cancer.

When he was young, Maserati stole his heart. In his collection sits a real jewel, a Maserati A6GCS 1954, the sole Maserati bodied by Scaglietti. Danilo used it regularly, attending all sorts of events, from the Mille Miglia to less known country fairs, always eager to meet people that share the same passion. That passion also brought him to manage his own F3 team in the 1970s, and to finance the career of Miki Biasion, (two time World Rally Champion with Lancia) as he started his profession.

Well, no more phone calls every week to talk about cars, friends, people and what to do for the next Mitiche. I’m gonna miss you, captain. And I’m sure not to be the only one.

Dino Brunori

14th Annual Trofeo Aido September 25, 2011

By

The fourteenth running of this classic charity event in Brescia.

By Charles Schoendorf
Photos by Dino Brunori

Give them umbrellas and it won’t rain. That was the strategy this year at Trofeo Aido. And it worked. Which is nice when most of the cars are open, not to mention the grueling mountain driving!
[Read more…] about 14th Annual Trofeo Aido September 25, 2011

Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano 2011

By

By Chuck Schoendorf and Dino Brunori
Photos by Dino Brunori

If you own an open sports car from the golden era of the great Italian road races like the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio or Coppa d’Oro, you must attend Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano. Come once and you will become a Mitiche addict, and both a certified sports car driver and a certified nut ! A certified driver because of the gruelling, non-stop challenging mountain roads, a certified nut because all the cars are barchettas, meaning open cockpit, and it always rains in the mountains!
[Read more…] about Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano 2011

13th Trofeo Aido, Brescia, Italy

By

Mario Tomasoni in the AMP ALFA MASERATI PRETE leads Oliviero Cargnoni’s HRG Le Mans,

Story by Charles Schoendorf
Photos by Dino Brunori

What do wine, salami and a hip looking reversible Italian vest have in common? Nothing, other than they were the goodies we took away from the Trofeo Aido the last Sunday of September. The vest is now my favorite garb.

Brescia is known for two great vintage car events—one is the Trofeo Aido. The other is the Mille Miglia. But the Trofeo, to its credit, is far less grueling and is run for a very noble cause, as a benefit for the organ donation and research organization in Italy known as AIDO. [Read more…] about 13th Trofeo Aido, Brescia, Italy

Andrea Curami

By

Professor Andrea Curami, surrounded by some of his famous books.

From the archives: A Tribute by Dino Brunori

Last Thursday, June 24th 2010, the author of so many of the books we cherish, Andrea Curami died suddenly of a stroke. He was only 63 years old. Our condolences to his wife Maria Cristina, his daughter Marianna and a beloved nephew, Ginevra.

“Tschao Dino”, “Ciao Andrea”, was a typical beginning of conversations with my late friend Andrea Curami. His way of saying ‘ciao’ had a small inflection of ‘s’ in front of the word and always sounded, well, like Andrea. The first time we met was about fifteen years ago at the Mille Miglia scrutineering in Piazza Vittoria in Brescia. I had heard of the well-known historian but never met him. So it was that I was introduced to a tall man with white hair and a cigar in one hand. For some reason I immediately associated him with Yogi the Bear from the TV cartoon series. I wasn’t the only one. Later I discovered that ‘little bear’ was a nickname often used by his friends.
[Read more…] about Andrea Curami

MENU