The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Guy Moerenhout’s Abarth Works Museum is a must for any Italian car enthusiast. Get there before January 7 while the Italian French Affair is still on display.
Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
In addition to the remarkable collection of Abarths at
Mike Sparken would end up with this 1938 Alfa Berlinetta, but he would not have it for long…
By Graham Gauld
Photos by Graham Gauld unless otherwise noted
First published by VeloceToday in 2012. We have learned how Mike Sparken came into motor racing, his exploits with his very special Aston Martin DB3 and his Ferrari Monza, and how he had retired from racing after the British Grand Prix of 1955, where he drove a Gordini into seventh place. But what he did after he retired from racing would make him famous throughout the world…
Throughout his racing career, and later into his time with the Grand Prix Drivers Club, he met up with another well-known private entrant of the time who was born and spent his early life in Brazil and then moved to Paris; Hernano da Silva Ramos. [Read more…] about Mike Sparken Part 2 by Graham Gauld
By Roy Smith, historical images copyright Bob Dance
From the VeloceToday Archives, April, 2012
Our lead photo is of the Gordini Transporter Recreation, based on a Laffly chassis and it is actually a race car transporter, not a support truck. Sadly, the original vehicle, based on a Lancia 3RO 6.8 liter, no longer exists as we are given to understand, though many stories abound.
We thought it might be interesting to recall some of the highlights or maybe lowlights of one of the most recognisable racing car support vehicles to grace the paddocks of Europe’s racing circuits in the 1950s.
I was great a fan of Bugattis. This was one of the reasons why I designed this Coupé de Ville body for a Type 57 chassis. Of course I was inspired by the prewar designs of Jean Bugatti but tried to give the car a more modern appearance. I used the horse- shoe symbol not only as a fake radiator for the cooling intake but also as headlight covers. I did send a photocopy of these drawings to Monsieur Pierre Marco, then the Managing Director of Bugatti. However I never got a reply. [Note that the headlight arrangement bore a striking resemblance to the last Saoutchik to be produced, the Pegaso SIII. Ed.]
By Gijsbert-Paul Berk
Photos and drawings courtesy Author unless otherwise noted
From the Archives, November 2014
As related in Part 1, I wanted to work as am automotive designer, and became very interested in Bugattis. In fact I had the chance to restore such a car. In 1949 one of my friends discovered in the port of Rotterdam a Bugatti type 40 roadster with a Bordino type or boat tail factory body.
We asked Gijsbert-Paul Berk to tell us about his visits to Saoutchik and Franay in the early 1950s, as mentioned in Peter Larsen’s three volume book on Saoutchik. One question led to another and soon we had a very interesting article about a very special man.
From the Archives, November 2014
Story by Gijsbert-Paul Berk
Thank goodness for Sir Peter Ustinov. The versatile British actor was known to many car buffs of previous generations, even those with little theatrical interests, thanks to his hilarious Riverside recording of the Gibraltar Grand Prix and other records. However only intimates were aware that Ustinov himself was a lifelong car enthusiast with a penchant for classic automobiles and sports cars. [Read more…] about A Past Recalled: Gijsbert-Paul Berk
Photos and text by Graham Gauld
I made my usual trip to Avignon last week (March 22-24) for the Avignon Motor Festival, which is similar to Retromobile in Paris, but even more eclectic with a group of buildings and open-air stands selling everything from rusty bits of unremarkable French cars to books, car models, and machinery.
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Where the cars are
What, even more from Retro? This is part 2 of Sharp’s Retro, covering Fiats to Renaults. While it seems like overkill, Retro is big enough for the like of four or five great correspondents and photographers, including the amazing Jonathan Sharp from the U.K, the magical Hugues Vanhoolandt from Belgium, the dean of all motoring correspondents Graham Gauld, who lives in France, and the evergreen ever-present Italian Alessandro Gerelli. It is where the Italians and French cars meet in glorious abundance.
And so, we do cover it well. It is almost like being there, minus the usually dismal weather. Enjoy!
–Pete Vack, Editor
1928 Bugatti Type 35A; 8 cylinders, 1991cm, 95cv, 190 km/h. This car was equipped with mudguards and headlights as a two-seater sport version. It belonged to Elisabeth Junek who raced Bugattis in the Targa Florio.
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Dear reader,
Last week we brought you Part 1 of cars at the Schlumpf (click here). Below we present just a few of the Bugatti and Gordini race cars at the National Museum at Mulhouse. We have not attempted to identify the Bugattis by chassis number; we have asked for a list of cars and chassis numbers from the Museum but no response yet. Even simple identification is often difficult; for example is the wire wheeled Bugatti below a T35 or T37? We are not sure.
Therefore Mr. Sharp has made use of the placards at the Museum, the official Museum booklet, and the Museum Internet site to try to verify that the identifications in the captions below are as correct as possible. Our staff also checked sources from a variety of Bugatti and Gordini books. In some cases, we are still not sure we are 100% correct. Perhaps readers could help. We would also like to know if readers have had similar experiences.
The situation was no better with the Gordinis. Placards were often incorrect. We used Christian Huet’s landmark book, “Gordini” as well as Roy Smith’s recent work “Amédée Gordini-a true racing legend” to identify the cars by chassis number and type – always a difficult matter at best as Smith will attest to. So enjoy; comments welcome as usual! [Read more…] about Bugatti and Gordini Racecars at the Schlumpf
Jean Pierre Wimillie’s winning Bugatti T50-50B on display at the Cité de l’Automobile.
By Clyde Berryman
The big day, September 9, came at last. It had a distinctly patriotic theme about it to commemorate the participants and their sacrifices during the war. A crowd of over 200,000 was on hand to watch. [Read more…] about Bois de Boulogne, September 9, 1945 Racing Begins
Robert Manzon in Rosier’s Ferrari 625 Grand Prix car in the 1954 British Grand Prix running ahead of Horace Gould’s Maserati 250F. Manzon retired with a cracked cylinder block.
By Graham Gauld
He was the last living driver to compete in the first World Championship Grand Prix for Formula 1 cars back in 1950 but now he is gone. Robert Manzon was perhaps not the best known Grand Prix driver but he was a much greater racing talent than his results would suggest.
Robert Manzon aged 95 up in the hills behind Cuneo smiling as usual.
Robert was French and born into a family that could trace their origins to Italy. Small, compact, tough and yet highly amusing Manzo was quite a character.
As Pete has mentioned elsewhere he started out racing with one of those wonderful little Cisitalia D46s that created quite a stir when they were produced. However, the Cisi did not turn out to be as successful as they might have been, at a time when there was a dearth of new racing cars coming along, particularly ones ideal for drivers coming into racing.
[Read more…] about Robert Manzon Remembered
Review by Pete Vack
Photos from the book
Robert Manzon passed away on January 20 at the age of 97, but not before leaving us with an interesting biography written by Pierre Fouquet-Hatevilain. We review it today while remembering this fine driver.
Publisher: Drivers, 2005
Language: French and English
ISBN-10: 2952049173
ISBN-13: 978-2952049177
Product Dimensions: 0.4 x 8.3 x 10.7 inches
“My ten years of motor racing have been ten years of happiness to me. Not only did I live my passion to the full but thanks to it, I discovered the world and mixed with extraordinary people….there were many retirements but I was lucky enough never to be seriously injured in my accidents. I was able to conclude this adventure with beautiful victories. Yes, it really was pure happiness!”
So Robert Manzon wrote in 2004, while looking back at his life behind the wheel between 1946 and 1956, years of both the golden age of racing and yet the deadliest. Robert Manzon may not have been a top flight driver, but many say he would have won far more victories if he had a more reliable drive.
A photo from 1933 shows the family garage; Robert Manzon is second from right.
Like many of the drivers of the era, Manzon was born into the auto trade. His grandmother had migrated from Italy to Marseille, France and began a family and a business; her sons became garage proprietors. Born in 1917, Manzon grew up working in the family garage, did his stint in the service before the fall of France in 1940. After the war, the family garage was successful enough to allow Robert to raise the money to buy a Simca 8, and following that a new Cisitalia D46. Due to the war he got a late start, often joking that his two children, racing baby Bugattis, began racing before he did. He shared a love of racing, a mechanic’s background, and an Italian heritage with Amédée Gordini. The two met in 1946, and it was the beginning of a long and interesting relationship.
Manzon with his new Cisitalia at Nimes on June 1, 1947. It was his first race with the Cisi and he placed third. Impressive.
I was great a fan of Bugattis. This was one of the reasons why I designed this Coupé de Ville body for a Type 57 chassis. Of course I was inspired by the prewar designs of Jean Bugatti but tried to give the car a more modern appearance. I used the horse- shoe symbol not only as a fake radiator for the cooling intake but also as headlight covers. I did send a photocopy of these drawings to Monsieur Pierre Marco, then the Managing Director of Bugatti. However I never got a reply. Note that the headlight arrangement bore a striking resemblance to the last Saoutchik to be produced, the Pegaso SIII. Ed.
By Gijsbert-Paul Berk
Photos and drawings courtesy Author unless otherwise noted
Off to Paris with Portfolio
As related in Part 1, I wanted to work as am automotive designer, and became very interested in Bugattis. In fact I had the chance to restore such a car. In 1949 one of my friends discovered in the port of Rotterdam a Bugatti type 40 roadster with a Bordino type or boat tail factory body.
The car was used there as a tractor to move freight cars and in a deplorable state. But we bought it and together restored it. A 1928 four-cylinder Chevrolet machine of just over 2 liters had replaced the original 1500 cc engine. Because it functioned very well in the car and we could not find nor afford a comparable Bugatti unit we retained it. But the chassis and body were renewed bolt for bolt. It took us several months.
This did nothing to diminish my desire to become an automotive designer. Having had no luck with local coachbuilders in the Netherlands, I was at a loss until a friend of the family remembered that he knew John (Johan) Sijthoff, scion of a printing and publishing family and – more important in my case – a shareholder and director with Carrosserie Saoutchik in Paris. He organized an introduction for me. [Read more…] about Gijsbert-Paul Berk Remembers: To Paris With Portfolio