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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Graham Gauld

Graham Gauld “I Knew Them When”…Nardi

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The mystery BMW Special. Note the two hoods, the front holding the engine and the top one holding the spare wheel.

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

Last week I talked about the car that truly stopped the show at Retromobile, the Ferrari 335S, so now I will go from the sublime to the ridiculous.

A tale of two? Nardis

I happened by the stand of Christophe Pund who runs La Galerie Des Damiers and has a habit of digging up remarkable cars that no one has ever heard of. This year he went better and put on show a car he told me he had found as a wreck – and by the time of Retromobile it was little more than that – but did not know exactly what it was. I mention it because some reader in Italy may remember something about it and be able to help out.
Fundamentally it is a two-seater sports car with a lightweight body and powered by a 750cc BMW motorcycle engine mounted in its own compartment at the front of the car. There is a second hood under which is the spare wheel so the driver sits in one of two sketchy seats holding what appears to be a Nardi steering wheel. [Read more…] about Graham Gauld “I Knew Them When”…Nardi

Gauld Drives a Rare Aravis Bugatti

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By Graham Gauld

I lost a good friend a few years ago, when the 20th Earl of Moray, from one of Scotland’s older noble families, died at the age of 83. Though born in Africa he lived for most of his life at the family’s Scottish estates in Perthshire and Moray. So why am I talking about this man? Well, back in the 1970s when he was still Lord Doune, Douglas John Moray Stuart decided to collect motor cars that fascinated him. The first was a little Citroen but then he went on a buying spree which culminated not only in him building the Doune Motor Museum but creating the Doune Hill Climb in his grounds which even today hosts a round of the British Hill Climb Championship.

Many years ago Douglas asked me to help him trace the history of his cars and I may well come back to the stories behind some of them in a future column. When I heard of his death I was reminded of the fact that he was the first person to let me drive a Bugatti.

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Farewell, Maria Teresa de Filippis

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Maria-Teresa de Filippis and her fellow Maserati driver Luigi Villoresi at a GPDC event.

Maria-Teresa de Filippis and her fellow Maserati driver Luigi Villoresi enjoy themselves at a GPDC event.

By Graham Gauld

*Photographs provided by the collection of Maria-Teresa de Filippis

Farewell Maria-Teresa
After being involved with automobile racing for over sixty years one often feels inured to the passing of older drivers who you saw in action many years ago. However, Saturday last week was particularly difficult day as I was told the sad news that Maria-Teresa de Filippis had died. Theo Huschek, Maria-Teresa’s husband of fifty years, gave me the news.

The actual announcement came not as a surprise. Maria-Teresa had been suffering from a debilitating illness for a few years, but up until about a year ago you would never have known it. Just two months ago she celebrated her 89th birthday which was an achievement in itself, but her health went downhill sharply in the past weeks.

Maria-Teresa de Filippis started racing in Italy in 1948 after her brothers joked with her about becoming a racing driver. She entered her Fiat 500 Topolino in a hill climb and immediately won her class. She felt this would happen. She told me that a year before she had visited a fortune teller who told her that she would win a motor race and so it came to pass.

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Graham Gauld Remembers Griff Borgeson

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By Graham Gauld

I think if you do not have someone to look up to and respect, there is no incentive to improve. When it came to motoring journalism there were a handful of people I respected and one of the first to become a hero was American writer and historian Griffith Borgeson.

When I bought my first motor racing book in 1951, it was one of the soft cover booklets produced by Fawcett in the U.S.A. It was about Hot Rods and written by Griffith Borgeson and Eugene Jaderquist. Perhaps it was his depth of knowledge or his command of English that turned my head, but I was a fan for many years and eventually met him here in the South of France.

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Graham Gauld, Edinburgh and Nostalgia

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British Grand Prix support race 1964. Jackie Stewart at the wheel of the Ecurie Ecosse Tojeiro-Ford gets some last minute advice from Jim Clark with eventual race winner Hugh Dibley at left.

Recalling the early days: British Grand Prix support race 1964, Jackie Stewart at the wheel of the Ecurie Ecosse Tojeiro-Ford gets some last minute advice from Jim Clark with eventual race winner Hugh Dibley at left. At Holyrood House, 2015, Jackie Stewart was the guest of honor.

Story and Photos by Graham Gauld

A visit back to my hometown of Edinburgh always brings back a series of memories from the days when David Murray first started the successful Ecurie Ecosse team, to the early racing days of Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Dario Franchitti. [Read more…] about Graham Gauld, Edinburgh and Nostalgia

Robert Manzon Remembered

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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

Gauld: Diamond Earrings and Rusty Camaros

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Victor Powell, the owner of Volusia Speedway, with young up and coming Steve Shuman who was a race winner that night.


By Graham Gauld

There are times when I sit back and wonder what motor racing is all about. Is it really multi million pound deals and diamond ear-rings? To me, motor racing is basically a bunch of like-minded lads racing against each other with their cars. What level you choose to race in really doesn’t matter; it is the fun and spirit of taking part and challenging each other that matters.

By pure chance I was filing some negatives from the early 1980s and came across some that I took at one of the most unlikely and fascinating race meetings I have ever attended. [Read more…] about Gauld: Diamond Earrings and Rusty Camaros

Gauld at Hampton Court

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The Frazer Nash High Speed at Hampton Court that finished 3rd at Le Mans in 1949.

Story by Graham Gauld

Perhaps the title d’Elegance does not hit an exciting cord: static cars, polished, primped and lined up but there are some of them that are fascinating not only because of the quality of the cars but of the variety. Obviously classics like Pebble Beach and Villa D’Este come to mind but it is time to add a third one, the Concours of Elegance, held at London’s Hampton Court Palace a week ago. (Note the British use of the word “of” rather than the French “de”.) [Read more…] about Gauld at Hampton Court

Gauld Remembers Bjorn Waldegard (1943-2014)

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Bjorn at the start of a special stage on the Swedish rally 1969.

Story and Photos by Graham Gauld

It always comes as a shock when you hear of the death of a friend, but the death of Swedish champion rally driver Bjorn Waldegard really hit home. I have known Bjorn for the past forty-five years and met up with him at various rallies in Europe and particularly in his native Sweden.

Bjorn was the typical tall blond Swede who didn’t say very much, but put him in a car and he really could make it sing. For most of his rallying life he was involved with the Porsche and Volkswagen importers to Sweden and it was in Volkswagens and Porsches that he is best known. [Read more…] about Gauld Remembers Bjorn Waldegard (1943-2014)

Finotto, Facetti and the Ferrari Carma

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Photographed around 1996, the Carma FF is in almost concours condition.



Story and photos by Graham Gauld

Has anyone seen the Carma FF lately?

Recently Martino Finotto died of cancer at the age of 80. He was a Milanese gentleman driver, his family fortune stemming from their pharmaceutical company. Finotto was the man behind various racing ventures with his business partner and racing driver Carlo Facetti. Together they ran Achille Motors in Milan where Facetti was in charge. [Read more…] about Finotto, Facetti and the Ferrari Carma

Gauld: French Barn Finds and German V8s

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The Balsa V8 as found in the shed. But where did the V8 come from?

This is a great example of why Graham is Gauld. About 25 years ago, while organizing a road test in Paris, he chats with a Hotel Manager at de Gaulle Airport who suddenly talks Gauld into going out the countryside to see an old barn full of old cars. And of course, a story ensues.[Ed.]

By Graham Gauld

As regular readers will know I keep discovering cars and racing people in the most unlikely places. For example, back in the late 1980s I organized a press road test for Fiat UK and based it at one of the airport hotels at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. In the lull before the journalists arrived the manager of the hotel, knowing my interest in old cars, suggested we go and see a farming friend of his who had some old cars. [Read more…] about Gauld: French Barn Finds and German V8s

Gauld on the 250F, Ecurie Ecosse Tour

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Frank Stippler slides the ex-Temple Buell 250F Maserati (2533) through the kink before the swimming pool at Monaco.



Story and photos by Graham Gauld

250F Complications

Some weeks have passed since the Monaco Historic event but as it always triggers off various memories. Please forgive me for commenting on another couple of cars that took part this year. One was the Maserati 250F Picolo owned by Jos Koster and raced by German driver Frank Stippler. [Read more…] about Gauld on the 250F, Ecurie Ecosse Tour

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