The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Review by Pete Vack
Aldo Zana’s latest book has a fitting title, “The Races of Life”, and uses photographs to examines the period from 1965 to 1970 – a time of change, turmoil and above all danger in both sports prototypes and F1 racing. “Races have not been simply competitions, ” writes Alberto Scuro, President Automotoclub Storico Italiano. “They have always been, and forever remain, the races of life.”
Carroll Shelby in John Edgar’s Ferrari 410S leads Dan Gurney in Frank Arciero’s Ferrari 375 Plus at Palm Springs on April 13, 1958. One of the many photos I shared with the Ferrari Archivist.
Story and Photos by Allen R. Kuhn
From the VeloceToday archives, March, 2022
I would like to start this series of short stories – they are not Galleries as before – by telling a true story about Graham Gauld, and how he saved our skin when we were in Italy/France in 2006 for our seven-week tour of the Continent. The story really began in Maranello, so bear with me….
“Drivers jockey for position at the start of the Sports Car Race up to 1500ccs at Crimond. On the right is well known J.B.G. Campbell in his MGA.”
By David Ross
ODD looking and totally out of place in an event for sports racing cars, the DKW Sonderklasse might have been but could anyone ever have imagined that the driver in the wacky little German two-stroke saloon car would go on to win countless Grand Prix races, two drivers’ world championships and become recognized across the world as one of the finest single seater drivers of all time.
When he arrived at Crimond, the old wartime airfield situated between Peterhead and Fraserburgh where the Aberdeen & District Motor Club ran races for both cars and motorcycles on the same day, Jim Clark didn’t have the slightest inkling that he was about to experience his first race.
Graham Gauld with his partner Jane Wallis-Hosken at the Portimao historics in Portugal.
Story and photos by Graham Gauld
It is hard to believe, but by the time you read this it will have been seven months since Jane and I turned in the key to the house, got a lift to the Nice airport and flew to London, leaving behind 27 years’ worth of memories of living in the South of France, in easy driving distance from Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Ventimiglia on the Italian border. Four weeks earlier I had celebrated the 70th anniversary of my first work as a motoring journalist at the age of 17.
Why am I telling you all this? Well Editor Pete Vack thought it would be a good idea to explain how it has been settling down in the country of one’s roots, after being away for close on thirty years. My life, so far, can be split into three parts so let’s start with the first part.
The Goggomobil Dart photographed in 2007 at Classic Adelaide in Australia. It was running on the event but is a promotional car for the Australian insurance company Shannons.
Story and photos by Graham Gauld
From our Archives, October 2016
We all know about racing drivers who started out running the oddest cars in motor sport events, but I think the guy who really takes the biscuit is the legendary Jim Clark, two-time World Grand Prix Champion and the first British winner of the Indianapolis 500.
It was 1956, and the world had never heard of Jim Clark. He was still the farmer’s son running his Sunbeam Talbot Mark III in the odd rally and gymkhana. That year Europe faced the Suez Crisis when Egypt threatened to close the Suez Canal. This would have put Britain in dire straits when it came to delivering oil from the Middle East, so the British went to war. It was short and a political disaster in many ways but it brought in severe fuel rationing in Britain. As a result, many people turned to Germany where they were producing a new breed of Microcars. The BMW Isetta was the most popular with the Heinkel coming next. But who remembers the Goggomobil?
Carroll Shelby in John Edgar’s Ferrari 410S leads Dan Gurney in Frank Arciero’s Ferrari 375 Plus at Palm Springs on April 13, 1958. One of the many photos I shared with the Ferrari Archivist.
Story and Photos by Allen R. Kuhn
I would like to start this series of short stories – they are not Galleries as before – by telling a true story about Graham Gauld, and how he saved our skin when we were in Italy/France in 2006 for our seven-week tour of the Continent. The story really began in Maranello, so bear with me…. [Read more…] about Allen R. Kuhn: Of Gauld and Ferrari
After a generation had passed, Allen and Carole were suddenly selling the old prints from 1955 to 1965. Photo by Lisa K. Kuhn
Read Part 1 Though my shooting days of sports car racing were over I would keep the negatives; no photographer would ever get rid of his work. I secured an empty Kodak 250 sheet 8×10 Polycontrast III RC F Glossy Paper Box to store the negatives in. I hermetically sealed the box and put it in a secure dry-walled cabinet in my garage for storage. They did not see the glare of an enlarger bulb for the next 35 years.
Story by Allen R. Kuhn
It was on September 20, 1998, that Carole and I went to a vintage sports car race in Tustin, California. This was the first time we had seen sports cars turn their wheels in earnest. I took some 8×10 prints along just in case we saw some of the same cars again. Sure enough, we saw some. I actually (cough, cough) gave a few guys prints. (I always get choked up when I use the “G” word, GAVE). Gave is a NO, NO, Dan Gurney once told me. Carole saw someone who had a booth about a sports car magazine, Vintage Race Car Journal . She wanted me to go and show him my photos. That’s where I met Casey Annis.
Story by Aldo Zana
Herein, Aldo Zana describes the functions of the AISA, (the Italian Association for the History of the Automobile), and discusses the recent conference on Jim Clark. Please consider joining the AISA, open to all serious automobile and motorcyle enthusiasts.
AISA General Description
The AISA (Associazione Italiana per la Storia dell’Automobile – Italian Association for the History of the Automobile) was established 1987 in Milan by a group of prominent Italian enthusiasts and experts of the motoring world, including executives, designers, engineers, university professors, historians and journalists. [Read more…] about AISA Conferences and Monographs
Jim Clark by Graham Gauld
VeloceToday correspondent Graham Gauld has been invited to speak at the Italian National Motor Museum de Gianni Agnelli in Turin on the early life of Jim Clark, scheduled for Saturday, February 16, 2019. Famed Italian journalist Gianni Cancillieri will also talk of his own experiences with Jim followed by questions and answers. The conference is held by the AISA – Italian Association for the History of the Automobile and is free and open to all. [Read more…] about Graham Gauld to Speak at AISA Conference
Story and photos by Sean Smith unless otherwise noted
Sometime form doesn’t follow function.
Sometimes it follows revenge.
In 1962, the diminutive Lotus 23 gave the racing world a kick in the seat of its pants. Making its entrance at the Nürburgring, the 1.5 liter, 100 hp racer with Jim Clark at the wheel left cars with 4 times the horsepower in its rearview mirror. The first lap was run in the rain; by the end of lap one Clark was 27 seconds ahead of Dan Gurney in a Porsche, adding more and more seconds each lap until the track dried.
Story and photos by Sean Smith
When Mitch McCullough was in junior high school, he was reading Autoweek instead of doing his homework. The magazine was covering the international rally scene. Mitch fell in love with the images of A110s sliding around on foreign roads. It was exciting; exotic. He had dreams of one day driving a rally car. That happened in the early 90s when Mitch raced in the California Rally Series as well as the SCCA Pro Rally series.
The car that caught my eye was this monster French Hotchkiss. Photo by Jonathan Sharp.
Story by Graham Gauld
You would think that after spending three and a half days at the Silverstone Classic, I would come up with a host of stories. But this year, I must confess, it was tough. This is not because there were no interesting cars; but I had arranged in advance various meetings with people who had written asking for help with books or articles they are writing, plus the usual problem of getting round the paddock without someone diverting my attention.