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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

Graham Gauld

Graham Gauld: The Pininfarina Sigma

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The revolutionary Sigma Grand Prix car by Pininfarina and powered by Ferrari. Note the Ferrari mag wheels. (Graham Gauld Archives.)

By Graham Gauld

“Some might feel inclined to remark, perhaps in a chiding tone, that this work has seduced us away from what has been our traditional path. We would certainly rebut such a charge.” Those words were uttered by Sergio Pininfarina when his company surprised everyone at the 1969 Geneva Motor Show by showing a startling one-off grand prix car, the Sigma. [Read more…] about Graham Gauld: The Pininfarina Sigma

The Teo Zeccoli Story

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Zeccoli flat out at Spa in the Alfa Romeo GTA (Photo credit Centro Documentazione Alfa Romeo, Arese, Zeccoli Archives)

Teo Zeccoli interview with Graham Gauld was first published in VeloceToday.com in January, 2013.

Story by Graham Gauld

In the alphabet of the world’s racing drivers, Teodoro Zeccoli comes somewhere near the end. He is a driver we have all heard about, due to his particular exploits with Alfa Romeo, but he is more than just a young Italian who grew up wanting to be a racing driver; Zeccoli was one of the favored test drivers of Carlo Chiti. Apart from being one of Chiti’s principals at Autodelta he was also the test driver for Chiti’s Formula 1 bad-egg, the ATS.

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Graham Gauld: The Tourist Trophy at Ards

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Ards, 1932. Freddie DIxon’s big off.

Story by Graham Gauld
Photos from the collection of Robert McCann

The RAC Tourist Trophy Race is one of the few races that has been in existence for over 100 years and in fact it is the longest running series, having started in 1905.

It was first held on the Isle of Man and the first winner was not only a Scot, John Napier, but he was even driving a Scottish car, an Arrol Johnston built in Glasgow.

One of the great periods in TT history came in the 1930s. As everyone appears to enjoy older photos, I thought that I would come up with a picture story covering some of those events held on the Ards circuit outside Belfast in Northern Ireland, where racing on the public roads was allowed, unlike on the U.K. mainland were open road racing was banned.

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Gianni Agnelli’s Century

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Gianni and his son, Edoardo Agnelli. Photo from Fiat: Twenty More Years by David Beare.

Story by Graham Gauld Photos by Gauld unless otherwise noted

As we near the end of the year, it suddenly struck me that I had read very little about Gianni Agnelli, the charismatic former head of Fiat who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year. He was born on March 12, 1921, in Turin.

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Gauld on the Ecurie Ecosse Tour

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After a thorough rainshower, Alison Beecham was thrilled to see the rainbow’s end.

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

I don’t know about you, but this Covid 19 business has been not only a bit of a bore but also restricting our movements. However, I recently spent two months in the UK – the first visit in two years – and was able to take part in the Ecurie Ecosse Tour which originally started over thirty years ago.

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Juan Fangio and Suixtil

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At Modena in 1957, Juan Manuel Fangio, shows Maserati chief engineer Giulio Alfieri, in jacket shirt and tie, and Swiss journalist Hans Tanner, back to camera, his bandaged wrist. Fangio would bring attention to a line of racing suits from an Argentinean-based company named Suixtil.

Story and photos by Graham Gauld unless otherwise noted

From the VeloceToday Archives May 2017

European motor racing in the years immediately following World War II tended to be a strictly European affair; that is until the arrival of the great Juan Manuel Fangio in 1948. Unlike Europe, where there was a war to contend with, young Fangio learned his motor racing craft in the wild and dangerous racing in Argentina in the 1930s and 1940s.

He proved to be not only a tough competitor but also a winner. Who better to be an ambassador for the Salomon Rudman’s Argentinean-based Suixtil company’s entry into the area of motor racing? Rudman’s enthusiasm for motor racing saw him produce clothing, which would not only be stylish but also comfortable. He took advice from his motor racing friends like Fangio as to design and functionality.

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Sliding into the Archives

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The below image of Paul Wilson’s Alfa 6C 2500 is the first in a slideshow; the directions are to look at the photo, and do one of two things: either click on the arrow at the center of the photo to go to the article itself, or, click on the arrow that appears on the right and left side of the photo. This will bring you to the next story, if right, or previous story, if left arrow is selected. Hence, a slide show, scrolling left and right instead of up and down.

This slide show of fourteen stories clearly demonstrates the excellence, depth and range of stories that appear every week in VeloceToday, authored by top writers and photographers from the U.S., UK, Belgium, Australia, France and Italy. [Read more…] about Sliding into the Archives

Louise Collins, Remembered

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Louise and Peter (Graham Gauld archive, photographer unknown)

By Graham Gauld, comments by Jim Sitz and Collin’s photos courtesy of Chris Price

I was truly saddened to hear of the death of Louise Collins, age 87, on August 18. She was a true character that greatly impressed this 22-year-old when I first met her with her new husband, racing driver Peter Collins, in September 1957.

By a strange coincidence I had actually seen a photograph of “ …actress Louise King” that had been published in Sports Illustrated magazine earlier that year where, in their report of the Sebring race, they had snapped a photo of this fair-haired actress sitting beside one of the cars. I was impressed!

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Resurrection at Cockfosters

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Are you going to Cockfosters?

Story by Graham Gauld

I was locked into an interesting discussion recently on motor sport and racing at the end of WWII in Europe and how soon motor sport had restarted in England. It is easy to forget that motor sport in Europe literally stopped dead in 1939 for the next six years save for a few events in Italy in 1940 whilst World War II was going on. Finally, on May 8, 1945 war in Europe came to an end but continued in the Far East.

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An Unusual Look at the Porsche Museum

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Some lesser known items from the Porsche Museum

By Graham Gauld

We live in an age where we have created almost an obsession about electric powered cars, but the concept is not new. Over one hundred and twenty one years ago at the 1900 Paris Expo the German coachbuilding company Lohner exhibited the Lohner-Porsche Mixed Hybrid. It was a car developed by their 24-year-old engineer Ferdinand Porsche who had joined the company with no particular qualifications as an engineer but who, from an early age, had been fascinated by electricity and electric power.

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Monaco Historics amid the Pandemic

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American David Graus arrived with this Frazer-Nash Targa Florio an ex-factory car.

Story and photos by Graham Gauld

The fact the Automobile Club of Monaco actually ran their Grand Prix Historique last weekend was a brave and expensive effort. The Covid 19 precautions meant that they only allowed a limited number of Monaco residents to fill up some of the places in the otherwise empty stands.

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Gary Laughlin by Graham Gauld

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Gary Laughlin and the famous Maserati test driver Guerino Bertocchi look over the Maserati 3500GT at Modena Autodrome. (Photo Graham Gauld/GPL)

By Graham Gauld

An old friend came to mind just recently when I stumbled upon a photo of someone I met in the old Scuderia Ferrari premises in the Vialle Tento e Trieste in Modena, where Scuderia Ferrari began in the Alfa Romeo days of the 1930s.

Despite the fact the actual manufacturing of Ferrari’s had long since moved to Maranello, Enzo Ferrari still maintained the old premises in the center of town, but not for much longer.

That day was over sixty years ago, in September of 1957, and the man I met was tall, smartly dressed in the “preppy” style of the 1950s, dark blue blazer and flannels. He was open and friendly and introduced himself as Gary Laughlin from Fort Worth, Texas “…..and I’m in oil.”

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