The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Mathias Doutreleau’s Concours d’Elegance Suisse, held on June 18-19, 2022, will probably be the hottest Concours of the year. By hot I mean 36 Degrees centigrade (96.8 Fahrenheit) hot, and burning sun all day long. More of a laid-back garden party than a formal concours. the event is held annually at the Chateau Coppet located on the shores of Lake Geneva, about a 15-minute train ride from Geneva. [Read more…] about Concours d’Elegance Suisse 2022
Editor’s Choice: Commissioned by Count Antonio Bruno Sterzi, this 1952 Vignale bodied Ferrari 225S is one of only six examples built.
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Popped up to London on Wednesday the 15th June to Savile Row in Mayfair, but not for a suit (I am more Marks and Sparks than Gieves & Hawkes) but for a new car event, ‘The Concours on Savile Row’ brought to us by Hothouse Media and the Pollen Estate. A blooming hot day but a nice setting for a concours.
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
The UK has just celebrated another Jubilee for the Queen. But ten years ago, Jonathan Sharp was also on hand to celebrate a very special event at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed – a motoring tribute to compliment Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee held in 2012. It seemed like an appropriate time to republish the account, Jonathan’s first for VeloceToday.com. Congratulations to both the Queen and Mr. Sharp! [Ed.]
This being Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, the theme chosen for this year’s Cartier “Style et Luxe” display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed was “Transport fit for a Queen”. The display featured cars that were either owned by or used by the Queen or other members of the Royal Family. The display also featured a Royal Train Carriage, children’s electric ride in toy cars and even an aeroplane. The displays, in five classes, were arranged on the grass in front of the stable yard of Goodwood House.
[Read more…] about Royal Cars for the Queen’s Jubilee
The 350HP Sunbeam at speed.
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
“It felt like being hurled into space in a good armchair…” wrote SCH (Sammy) Davis, Bentley Boy and sports editor of The Autocar in his article on driving the 350HP Sunbeam in the 22nd February 1929 edition of the magazine.
On the 17th May 1922, at around 5pm as the weather during the day had been bad, Kenelm Lee Guinness (of KLG spark plug fame), in the V-12, 18 litre 350 HP Sunbeam, descended off the Brooklands banking and onto the Railway Straight to enter the measured mile for the second time. Just over 27 seconds later he had broken the Land Speed Record. His average speed for the measured kilometre was 133.75 mph, for the mile 129.17 mph, and 136.05 for the half mile This was to be the last time that the Land Speed Record was to be broken on a motor racing circuit; the cars had become much too fast, so record breaking switched to beaches and salt lakes.
100 years to the day, we gathered at Brooklands, to celebrate his achievement. [Read more…] about Celebrating a Land Speed Record, 100 Years On
Welcome to Brooklands.
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
When visiting the annual Italian Car day at Brooklands (April 30) you really do need to keep circulating the site, as cars come and go throughout the day. Some stay all day, some for just a few hours, owner’s club groups meet up and picnics get laid out. During lunchtime a group of vehicles selected by the event sponsor Auto Italia Magazine, ranging from Abarth Grand Prix to a Ferrari SF90, took to the adjacent Mercedes Benz World Test track for some demo laps in front of a large crowd that had crossed the river Wey to join them.
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
The following articles contain no production numbers, with one or two exceptions, no chassis numbers, no race histories and no illustrious drivers, bar one. Just photographs of the sort of Italian cars you rarely see this days. Where might one see such an event? Brooklands, for the Italian Car day held on Saturday the 30th April. The right crowd, well they like Italian cars, but there was some crowding.
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
The kindly gentleman looked resplendent in his scarlet coat, the uniform of the Chelsea Pensioners. We were all staring at the new Ferrari. He turned to us and began to speak. “Do you know, I was at the Nurburgring in 1960, when Moss and Dan Gurney were driving the Camoradi Maserati Birdcage?” No, we didn’t know that as it was from out of the blue. But he continued. “Gurney had just handed over to Moss whilst at the same time the whole of the Ferrari team were in the pits refueling. The Ferrari team manager, I forget his name, got into a panic and ordered the cars to resume racing ASAP, one car leaving before refueling from the large fuel urn had been completed. In the next second, whoosh flames everywhere!” We asked him “Did you take any photos at the event”?
1956 Renault 4CV entered by Frederic Fatien, driven by Pierre-Brice Mena, Sopwith Cup for saloon cars of a type that raced up until 1956.
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Did you know, the rear lights of a Porsche 956 are the same as those fitted to a late 1970s Eriba Puck Caravan? No, neither did I, Thanks Gary Axon and Goodwood Radio for that wonderful piece of trivia.
Why am I mentioning Porsche 956s? Well the recent 79th Goodwood Members Meeting included a track demonstration of 956/962s, twenty of them. Also demonstrated/displayed were approximately 20 F1 cars from the V10 era, lead on the track by Bruno Senna in his uncle’s 1990 McLaren Honda MP4/5B, a wonderful sight and an amazing sound. In addition to the demos the program also included 13 races covering a period from prior to WW2 right up until Group 1 saloons from the 1980s.
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
From the VeloceToday Archives, May 2018
In 2016, Jonathan Sharp made an intensive visit to the Schlumpf Museum, and returned with thousands of photos. This week we’ve selected just a few of our favorites taken from the several articles showing the treasures of the Schlumpf. [Read more…] about Twenty Shots From the Schlumpf Collection
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
It is by chance that I am composing this on Saturday the 5th March 2022, 86 years to the day of the first flight of the Supermarine Spitfire. More importantly it is also incredibly sad that I am writing about the Symbol of a Nation that in 1940 was standing alone and fighting an evil regime whilst at this very moment, Ukraine also fights for its freedom.
The Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire, a place I used to know well, announced late in 2021 that it was opening an exhibition, on the 27th December, titled the “evolution of an icon”, and in Britain, other than our beloved Queen, there is no greater icon than a Spitfire.
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Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
The pandemic must have made the curation of the 2021 Freddy March Spirit of Aviation Trophy (held as part of the Goodwood Revival Meeting September 17–19, 2021) much harder, but as usual, the mix of aircraft on display was as eclectic as usual, from bi-planes to bombers, trainers to fighters, from wood and canvas to polished alloy fuselages. [Read more…] about Warbirds at Goodwood
We seem to be riding a wave of wooden bodied skiff classics at VT. Annie Scaldwell’s 1924 Hispano Suiza H6B wears a skiff body by the esteemed Parisian coach builder Ansart & Teisseirie.
Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp
We’ve had a lot of events to cover as the Pandemic subsides, then spikes again. Events are suddenly back on the calendar and one right after another. We covered the Goodwood Festival of Speed (July 8-11) this year but left out the Cartier Style et Luxe Concours, held as part of the Goodwood Festival of Speed.