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ferrari art

Ferrari Art, Concept Cars and Facebook

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Story by Pete Vack
Images by Richard Bartholomew

My first reaction was a huge, shit-eating grin, chuckles, and guffaws. There was a photo of a Dino 246GT embossed with all sorts of geegaws and looking totally weird. Then, a Ferrari PF 250GT, now featuring a chopped top and outside exhausts. To cap it off, my favorite Ferrari of all time, the 166 barchetta (little boat), was turned into a jacuzzi. “Ferrari at Spa”, said the artist. It was as if the ghosts of Dean Jeffries, von Dutch, and George Barris had gone berserk and inhabited the computer of Rick Bartholomew. [Read more…] about Ferrari Art, Concept Cars and Facebook

Ferrari Exhibition London: Under the Skin

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Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

I suppose it is a sign of times that we are living but it does sadden me to read that to arouse the interest of the general public in an exhibition to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Ferrari, the second paragraph of the press release has to state that the exhibition displays Ferraris with a value of around £140 million. To me, and probably to most of you reading this, a Ferrari has nothing to do with perceived market value. To me it’s art, design, passion, history, triumph and tragedy, La Dolce Vita. We hope that Value does not come into it.

Anyway, wherever your bank is, if you happen to find yourself in London between now and April, I suggest you take a trip to Kensington to the Design Museum to catch their exhibition “Ferrari under the Skin.” [Read more…] about Ferrari Exhibition London: Under the Skin

Ferrari In Art: A Look Inside

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VeloceToday_Ferrari in Art cover_570

Ferrari In Art: A Celebration of the Legend
Art,Text and Design by Paul Chenard
Paul Chenard, Blurb Books
ISBN 9781364577919
Hardcover, 10 x 8, 28 pages, full color art
$68.79 USD plus shipping
Order here

Review by Pete Vack
Click on art to enlarge

Paul Chenard has been around for a long time; his art has been featured in Classic and Sports Car, Motorsport, Octane, and Vintage Motorsport to name-drop just a few. Recently he sent us an email announcing his latest work, which he thought might be of interest to the VeloceToday readership.

He added an image of three Ferrari Sharknoses (pardon the use of a capital letter on Sharknose) in the garage at Spa in 1961. Instead of using red to attract attention, Chenard featured the yellow 156 of Gendebien as the focus of the pen, ink and watercolor painting. In the background brown is used to accentuate a busy scene of tires, trucks, boxes and workers. It is an image that comes to life and adheres itself to the mind’s eye. Send us more, we responded.

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Belgian driver Olivier Gendebien’s yellow Ferrari “Sharknose” receiving its number before the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix.
Pencil, pen&ink and watercolours on 12″x 9″ (30.4cm x 22.8cm) watercolour paper.
© Paul Chenard

[Read more…] about Ferrari In Art: A Look Inside

The Detailed World of Alessandro Gerelli

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Alessandro Gerelli as seen by Simone Rossetto in Murano glass.

Alessandro Gerelli as seen by Simone Rossetto in Murano glass.

By Pete Vack
Photography by Alessandro Gerelli

Alessandro Gerelli: 140 articles, 3000 photos and 14 years with VeloceToday

In the summer of 1967, September 8th, to be exact, a 19 year-old college student by the name of Alessandro Gerelli was lucky enough to have obtained a pit pass to the Italian Grand Prix. Like today, pit passes were extremely difficult to obtain. But Gerelli was determined. He would not listen to the sound of Amon’s Ferrari from far behind the fences; he wanted desperately to be where the action was. In what must have been a passionately good letter, he wrote to the organizers and asked them if a student could obtain a pit pass. He would do no damage, he wrote, wouldn’t create problems, and maybe if he could just get a pass for the official test day, he could then take some photos. “The process worked,” says Alessandro, “and a very kind lady from the Monza organization called me, and said she had been touched by my letter.” The young Gerelli went to the Monza practice on Friday with a pit pass. He had to access a certain gate and mention the name of the lady who responded to his letter. “The miracle had been done,” recalled Gerelli.

ferr-monza-67-350
His patience and fortitude resulted in catching a rare photo of Enzo Ferrari in the pits. Ferrari rarely attended races, even at Monza. Gerelli knew that Ferrari would often show up during practice for the Grand Prix so it was not a surprise. “But of course he was Ferrari and in any case the opportunity to see him and to take a picture of him was something exceptional for a young Ferrari lover like me,” said Gerelli. [Read more…] about The Detailed World of Alessandro Gerelli

Pfister and the Yellow Crayola Ferrari

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“The Yellow Crayola Ferrari Enzo” was the last and one of the best articles submitted to VeloceToday by Werner Pfister, who died in March, 2013 after a battle with cancer. His story about a Crayon Ferrari crafted by a renowned artist for a Children’s hospital reminded us of Werner’s keen eye for an interesting story as well as his generosity and kindness.

Inset, Werner Pfister by Stanley Cohen.

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Breck Rothage Art Kickstarter Begins

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This one is literally hot off the press. It is another Kickstarter campaign (last week Roy Spencer’s MotorBinder Kickstarter more than met its goals so that project will become a reality). For the next 30 days, there will be another project campaign to raise money for the publication of a Portfolio Collection featuring the artistry of Breck Rothage.
[Read more…] about Breck Rothage Art Kickstarter Begins

Ferrari and Cobra Art by Wyss at Automobilia

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By Brian Winer

There are many automotive fine art painters, most of whom cover the board on marques, depicting first one and then another, as whim dictates. Wallace Wyss, a relative newcomer to the field (his first painting was done in 2007) has intentionally focused on only two makes—Ferrari and the cars of Carroll Shelby, which includes Cobras and GT40s. Wyss will have a booth at Automobilia in Monterey. The booth will be open August 14 and 15th, 2012 from 10 a.m. to the early evening. The location is the Ballroom of the Embassy Suites hotel, located on US 1, just north of 68.
[Read more…] about Ferrari and Cobra Art by Wyss at Automobilia

Driving the Ferrari GTO

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Aside from the videos (which you don't want to miss) there are few still shots of Mitchell actually driving his GTO. But here is Tom Price enjoying his GTO in 2009. Photo by Richard Prince.

By Stephen Mitchell

Seen in the context of its time, there was nothing quite like the GTO.

When entering the cockpit, I never got used to the fact that the pedals were so close. I’m 5’10″ and my knees were splayed around the steering wheel in an effort to fit into the car. Anyone who has ever made this complaint about a Lusso (which I also owned at the time) or GTE never sat in a GTO! This lack of legroom was probably a result of the rearward placement of the engine for better weight distribution. The bulkhead behind the seat limited aft seat travel, so there was no way to adjust for comfort. I always had it in mind to have the pedals moved forward, but never did. You adapt to the GTO, it doesn’t adapt to you. I’ve heard similar remarks made about the Old Man.

Headroom was fine and the seat was comfortably wide. One of my favorite things about the car was the position of the gear lever in relation to the steering wheel. Visually, that marvelous aluminum gear knob looked as though it would be too high for comfort. One is accustomed to having to reach down for the lever to shift. With the GTO, the knob was only inches away from the wheel, so shifts could be made very quickly with a short lateral move of the hand. In front of you, the tachometer had a telltale that would move to…and remain at…the highest revs attained. I never exceeded 7500 rpm.

GTO shift lever and knob was more than prominent but well placed. This is the interior of chassis 4399 as photographed by Hugues Vanhoolandt.

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Renedezvous Redux? Reflections on Claude Lelouch

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Would it be possible to recreate Claude Lelouch's legendary film 'Rendezvous'? Director Stephen Mitchell would use a new Italia.. Original art, 'Rendezvous with 458 Italia' for VeloceToday by Chad Glass.

By Stephen Mitchell
Artwork by Chad Glass
French Translation follows English text

When Stephen Mitchell was recently introduced to VeloceToday by Wallace Wyss, he told us a bit about himself, mentioning Ferrari, film making, and Paris. We added this up and asked him his thoughts on, of course, Claude Lelouch’s film ‘Rendezvous’. Bingo!! We pressed the right button.

Mitchell was born and raised to have a Hollywood career–literally. A native of Los Angeles, he studied sound, cinematography and editing with department heads from CBS Cinema Center in Studio City, California where Steve McQueen had his Solar Productions. Working as an extra and in small speaking parts in Hollywood films, he practically lived on the set of the television series Mission: Impossible as a family friend directed many of the show’s episodes. Obviously a film career was in the making, but instead of Hollywood, Mitchell’s film career began in France. “I went to Paris because I saw a film by Claude Lelouch—“A Man and a Woman”. It showed me exactly the kind of film I wanted to be making and it wasn’t happening in Hollywood.” We’ll let Mitchell take it from here…

While my interest in films was already well established, strangely enough my passion for cars took root while I was recovering from a head-on collision on the Ventura Freeway. I wasn’t expected to live through the first night but, in the end, my father and I both survived. I read one Road & Track magazine after another, learning and becoming excited about Ferraris, Formula One and the incredible collection of personalities that populated those worlds. It was family friend and mentor Paul Stanley, the director who issued a standing invitation to visit the sets he worked on, who told me I should see A Man and a Woman. (1966) It had impressed him and he figured I would like it, too. That was an understatement. [Read more…] about Renedezvous Redux? Reflections on Claude Lelouch

Ferrari Art

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I don't know who did the original Pininfarina Dino road car prototype drawing, maybe Pietro Brovarone? Of course, the first production 206GT road car had quite a few differences, but this was probably done after the Plexiglas- nosed four headlamp prototype. I like to find references to the designs early in the game so you can see how the designs developed.

By Brian Winer

Wallace A. Wyss is known to most sports car folks as a writer and author (with ten car history books to his credit), but in 2007 he re-discovered a long dormant talent for putting a brush to canvas and has since painted over 50 portraits of Ferraris. Brian Winer, Boston-born free lance writer and art connoisseur, interviewed Wyss to ask him what fascinates him so much about the prancing horse.
[Read more…] about Ferrari Art

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