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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

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FuoriConcorso 2023

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The view from my window! (I wish.)

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

A holiday to Lake Como in late May for an old car enthusiast usually means you plan to attend the concours at Villa d’Este/Villa Erbe, but since 2019 there has been a third event to tempt you. The FuoriConcorso, held on the lake shore on May 20-21, was created by Guglielmo Miani to celebrate automotive culture both old and new. Curated by Andrea Luzardi and now expanded across three Lake Shore Villas, this year’s event celebrated the art of aerodynamics featuring more than 30 cars from the 1920s to today’s hypercars.

Fiat Abarth record car, outside for a change.

[Read more…] about FuoriConcorso 2023

Salon Prive London, 2023

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Details below

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

I doubt if you will ever see a for sale notice on any entrant at the Pebble Beach Concours, but every entrant at Salon Prive London, held again in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea on April 22-23, had one. Agreed it was a much more discreet QR code on a board in front of the car rather than a hand written note blue tacked to the rear screen, but they are for sale never the less.

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London Classic Car Show, February 24-26 2023

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Purposeful from any angle, Alpine A110.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

The last weekend in February offered a lot of choice for those of us in need of an old car fix. Should I go to St Moritz for the ‘ICE’? (Created to enjoy driving, showing and watching exciting motor cars on the frozen lake!) But have you seen the hotel prices? Maybe Stuttgart for RetroClassics? No more direct flights from my local airport! Madrid for Autoclassica? I do not speak Spanish. Race retro in Stoneleigh in Warwickshire? Been there before. Then how about the London Classic Car Show? Ideal, just a train ride away. So it was off to Olympia in Kensington that I headed.

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Italians at Retromobile

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A stunning way to display this 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Berlinetta (#412035) by Touring.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Retromobile, February 3, 2023: If I had a £1 for every time I said WOW! (or words to that effect!) I would have had enough money to pay for the trip. Yes, Retromobile was back to its usual self. The big hitting dealers were back, the Artcurial Auction was jammed with lots on offer, there were tons of spare parts to buy and art to hang on your walls, and lots of visitors, though Friday was not so bad. [Read more…] about Italians at Retromobile

An English Hillclimb: Pure Joy

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lead

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
From the Archives, November 2016

On the Sunday following the Goodwood Revival rather than taking a rest or perhaps cutting the lawn, my pals and I took a trip just down the road from our respective homes to the Firle Hill Climb Revival, being run for the second year by the Bo Peep Drivers Club.

The first Firle Hill climb took place in 1949, run by the Bentley Drivers Club. The climb was 600 yards in length and quite steep, running up Bo Peep Lane to the top of the Sussex Downs.

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Belgium Celebrates Ferrari’s 75th

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Walking into a Dream…

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Following our visit to the Belgian Interclassics car show where we viewed that Ferrari Celebration, my pal and I decided that we shouldn’t miss the celebration of 75 years of Ferrari, running concurrently at the Autoworld car museum in Brussels, so we needed to take a trip to the Parc du Cinquantenaire, home of the museum, and see the rest of the display. So we popped onto a tram and rattled our way into the city centre.

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Italians at the Birmingham NEC Classic

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Star of the Lancia Motor Club stand and voted best car at the show, The Lancia Stratos Zero Concept car which is currently in the UK being lightly recommissioned by Classic Motor Cars (CMC).

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

I had not visited the Classic Motor Show held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham for a few years, and to be honest I had no plans to attend this year. It is far away from my home and often badly lit for photographs, it is huge, and being that it is a UK show, it will contain lots of British cars. If it’s Fords and Vauxhalls you want, then this is your show.

But out of the blue I received a press release from the Lancia Motor Club UK about the show, to be held November 11-13. The center piece of their stand this year was to me the Bertone Lancia Stratos Zero concept car currently in the UK being fettled for the road, so it was straight onto the internet to find a hotel near the show and away I went. Plus the Alfa Club had a showing of AlfaSuds. So were there lots of Fords and Vauxhalls? Of course, plus plenty of Austins and Rovers but I am pleased to say I did manage to find lots of stuff to interest me. Yes, it was big and it was often badly lit and one day was not long enough to see it all!

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St James’s Palace International Concours

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1904 32HP 4 cylinder Mercedes Simplex.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

In previous years, the day before the London to Brighton Veteran car run, (Saturday) has seen a large number of the entrants displayed on the busy Regent Street as part of the Regent Street Motor Show allowing members of the public to view the cars in detail prior to the following days run. This year things were different, with the introduction of a new event ‘The St James’s Palace International Concours’ held on November 5th. Approximately 75 vehicles from the more than 350 entrants for the run were displayed in Marlborough Road next door to St James’s Palace, just off the Mall a few hundred meters from Buckingham Palace.

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RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Run

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Made it! 1899 Wolseley single cylinder 3.5HP two seater Voiturette from the British Motor Museum, 1904 single cylinder 6hp De Dion Bouton two seater of John and Jez Field.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

You may notice from the photos that the weather was not at its best. To say it rained would be an understatement, but as the entrants are not in any way trailer queens the rain did not stop play. Close to 350 ancient cars entered this year’s RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run (6 November) as crews faced one of the wettest trips ever in the famous event’s 126-year history. It wasn’t like this last year, or the year before. In fact, as long as I’ve been covering the event, I can’t recall rain like this. It was torrential.

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Hampton Court Concours Classic Cameo #2

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The FCA Heritage document for Keith Roberts 1949 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport by Touring chassis 915819 states that it was first sold to Elena Petrovsky of Pedaso Marche Italy on the 16th June 1950.

Photos by Jonathan Sharp, September 1-3 2022
Captions by Hampton Concours de Elegance
Add on by Pete Vack

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