The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
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From the archives May 19,2015
Hugues Vanhoolandt
Belgian Hugues Vanhoolandt has been image-making for VeloceToday since 2007, and covered every major event from Monterey to Monaco. Below, he has gathered up 27 photos of what we call Etceterinis and a Formula Junior or two. [Read more…] about Etceterini File: Hugues Vanhoolandt
Ermini 357 Sport: Mille Miglia 2010, San Quirico
Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Click to enlarge
From the archives May 19,2015
Hugues Vanhoolandt
Belgian Hugues Vanhoolandt has been image-making for VeloceToday since 2007, and covered every major event from Monterey to Monaco. Below, he has gathered up 27 photos of what we call Etceterinis.
The term Etceterini may require some explanation. According to Andrea Curami in the indispensable La Sport e i suoi Artigiani (1937-1965), (The Sport and Its Artisans), there were at least 84 different constructors of small displacement racing cars to compete in the Italian National Championship races. There were many more that were simply listed as Fiat Specials, both in the 750 and 1100 cc classes. Etcetera, from which the word Etceterini is derived, means ‘and so on’ or ‘and the like’. Tacking on the ‘ini’ was a stroke of linguistic brilliance; not only were most of the artisan cars built from Fiat components and therefore somewhat like, all but seven of the 84 constructors had names that ended in a vowel such as “Stanguellini”; hence the ‘ini’. So fitting is the moniker that to try to categorize the cars by any other means seems hopeless. We believe the term was first used by an American enthusiast in California in the late 1980s. For more on this, read “The Essential Etceterini.”
In alphabetical order, with the event and year, Vanhoolandt’s Etceterinis:
Alfa Maserati Prete: Museo Mille Miglia, Brescia, 2011
Autocorse Gilco Panhard 750 Sport: Mille Miglia 2010, Urbino
Bandini 750 Siluro barchetta: Villa d\’Este 2013
Bandini 750 Sport saponetta: Museo Mille Miglia, Brescia, 2011
De Sanctis Formula Junior: RM Auction Monaco 2010
Ermini 1100 Sport: Mile Miglia 2011, Pieve Santo Stefano
Ermini sport siluro, Mille Miglia 2010, Brescia
Faccioli Formule Junior: Goodwood Revival 2010, Bonhams Sale
Giannini 750 Sport: Mille Miglia 2010, Urbino
Giaur Champion 750 (Motto): Villa Erba, Cernobbio, 2010
Gilco Fiat 1100: Mille Miglia 2011, Brescia
Monaci 8C Bimotore: Mille Miglia 2007, Buonconvento
Moretti 750: Rétromobile, Paris, 2012
Moretti 750 Grand Sport: Villa d\’Este 2012
Morettini Fiat 508 S: Mille Miglia 2011, Barberino di Mugello
Nardi Danese 1500 Sport: Mille Miglia 2007, Buonconvento
Nardi Danese Alfa Romeo: Rétromobile, Paris, 2010
Nardi-Danese 750 Boby Sport: Techno Classica Essen 2014
Patriarca 750 Sport: Mille Miglia 2010, Brescia
Stanga 750 Sport: Mille Miglia 2010, Urbino
Stanga 750 Sport: Mille Miglia 2007, Brescia
Stanguellini 1100 Bialbero Sport: Gooding Auction Monterey, 2010
Stanguellini 1100 Sport: Mille Miglia 2011, Brescia
Stanguellini Barchetta: Essen Motor Show, 2007
Taraschi Formule Junior: Monterey Reunion Laguna Seca, 2008
Taraschi-Fiat: Goodwood Revival, 2012
Jack and Cliff Reuter in Bandini #358 at the 2010 Amelia Island Concours
By Pete Vack and Cliff Reuter
Photos courtesy Cliff Reuter
VeloceToday has been publishing articles weekly since 2001, but Cliff Reuter’s excellent site, Etceterini.com, is almost as old. “I started my first web site cliffreuter.com in 2002 as a way to connect with friends around the world (before Facebook) and then in 2005 launched Etceterini.com”, said Cliff.
In 2006, Cliff and VeloceToday shared a unique experience we found the ex-Clair “Sonny” Reuter Bandini. VeloceToday did the story and Cliff and his father Jack (no relation to Clair Reuter) rescued the car and it is now being restored. A few years later in 2010, Cliff helped organize an Etceterini show at Amelia Island Concours, and with Sportscardigest.com, we ran a series of articles and a contest for the favorite Etceterini entry at Amelia.
Etceterini.com has turned out to be the ‘go to’ site for anyone interested in SCCA racing in the 1950s and 60s. “I started my SCCA results pages in 2006 after we purchased the ex-Sandy MacArthur 1951 Bandini Siluro Motto Crosley Mercury Devin. We knew some of the history of the car but wanted to know more. I searched the Internet for 1950s SCCA results and was VERY disappointed with what I found – almost nothing. I then began going through my Father’s boxes of 1950s-60s race photos, car magazines, racing memorabilia, SCCA race programs and these yielded some very enlightening information!”
While Cliff’s site focuses on Etceterinis, all cars are included, particularly Ferraris. “I’m constantly buying and adding to this collection of American sports car racing history so keep checking back (and refreshing)! Also, PLEASE help me grow these pages by sending YOUR scans of SCCA race results, programs and articles,” said Cliff.
Jack Reuter, left, with his 330 GTO Ferrari and at right, Dick Merritt.
Cliff’s background is as interesting as his site. He is originally from St. Louis Missouri, and his mother is from Liverpool, UK. Father Jack is from St. Louis and was a passionate car enthusiast from early on. Growing up, Cliff says he “played a lot of tennis and shared my dad’s love of European cars.”
Dino Brunori is the author of “Nardi, a Fast Life“, and has often contributed articles to VeloceToday. He is one of the leading experts in Italian sports cars and owns one of the two remaining Roselli Colli Sport road versions. After he read last week’s article on the Roselli Colli, he added his considerable knowledge of how the car came to be, and why so many think it is a Cisitalia. Here is his report. [Ed.]
By Dino Brunori
Hi Pete, the article is very good. The funny thing is that both of you and the readers were right for opposite reasons. Plus, the real story is even more tantalizing.
The car is a Fiat Roselli with body built by Carrozzeria Colli.
Let me do a short recap of the story of Colli and the other actors named in the article for your readers because there are some mistakes. [Read more…] about Tony Pompeo, Cisitalia, and the Colli Roselli Fiat
By Dino Brunori
A couple of years ago VeloceToday did the book review of my book Enrico Nardi, A fast life and wrote, “Once the book is more widely distributed, more information will no doubt surface.” I’m sure that regular aficionados of VeloceToday are curious to know if something happened in the meantime. The answer is yes, and here are three different stories of recent Nardi barn finds.
In spring 2010, eBay listed an ad showing a BMW 750 twin motorcycle engine with a ND (Nardi Danese) stamping on it with a serial number of 110. A quick across-the-ocean call to John de Boer to cross-check our databases, and we ended up with the same conclusion: this particular engine was originally installed in Nardi chassis number 952/2. This car was purchased by Ferdinando Gatta, the brother-in-law of Gianni Lancia, and had a long racing career in seasons ’52 and ’53 in Italy before being sold in the USA by Tony Pompeo, continuing its career in SCCA races up to the early sixties. 952/2 was still in the States, in the hands of a collector who lives in Florida, and at the time had a Ford engine installed.
Once the owner of 952/2 knew of the BMW engine, it took him only 10 minutes to decide to purchase it to bring back the car to its original condition. This alone was a breakthrough, but the best of the story had still to come.
Barn Find Nardi Danese 750
Recently we had reason to get in touch with the seller of the Nardi Danese BMW engine as listed on eBay. During the conversation, he mentioned that he knew of a person with who had kept a Nardi BMW parked in the garage for the last 50 years with a blown engine. This led us on another chase but several attempts to contact the Nardi owner had no result at all; he did not reply to messages on the phone, to emails, nor would he even open his door when de Boer went to visit him. A dead end, it seemed. [Read more…] about Three Barn Find Nardis Come to Light
By Roberto Motta
Photos courtesty of Roberto Motta, Dino Brunori and Alessandro Nassiri © Archivio Museo Scienza
As we have seen, (Read Nardi at Le Mans Part I) despite the early retirement of his car in 1954, Damonte was still eager to compete with a Nardi at Le Mans. At some point in 1954, the engineer-architect, pilot and aircraft enthusiast Carlo Mollino was taken by the lines of Damonte Le Mans OSCA. Mollino had been hired by Damonte to redesign his personal apartment and the two shared an interest in cars. Using a photo of the OSCA as it appeared in a magazine, Mollino began to sketch out an idea for an aerodynamic body that would not cover a racing car chassis, but instead, a chassis would be constructed to conform to the streamlined body. Mollino became part of a new project to create a new car for the 1955 Le Mans. It would become known as the DaMolNar (Damonte/Mollino/Nardi Bisiluro.)
Mollino first designed a car with an aerodynamic nose, no radiator, modeling it like a thin airfoil and then began to add essential elements. The final design was a totally asymmetric car, consisting of two separate nacelles.* The left side contained the engine and transmission; the right side was dedicated and designed for a driver of small stature (less than 5 foot 7 inches).
Drawings by Carlo Mollino were surprisingly close to the finished Bisiluro.
For our readers: This is a review of last year’s Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano.
For information about the 2011 event which will take place from 16 to 19 June and is open to 100 sport cars:
Click here for the Bassano website.
Click here for direct contact withe the organizers.
For information about renting a classic sportscar for the 2011 event, please contact the editor at pete@velocetoday.com.
A wonderland of Italian toys surrounds the Nardi of Dino Brunori, number 72.
Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano 2010, 17 – 20 June
By Dino Brunori and Chuck Schoendorf
Photo by Brunori unless otherwise noted.
When Italian journalist and race driver Count Giovanni Lurani coined the nickname “barchetta” after seeing the new Touring-bodied 166 Ferrari Spider, I’m sure he didn’t have in mind Bassano 2010.
[Read more…] about Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano 2010
The Moretti Barchetta 750 cc of Michael Schwartz is one of the ten final entrants eligible for the most popular Etceterini prize. Vote from the below entrants.
Here are the final entries for the Amelia class of Etceterinis. All have been featured in the past few weeks in VeloceToday.
The entries are numbered 1-10 and the photos are below. Please send us your choice by number or exact description.
Send your vote to me at pete@velocetoday.com before March 8th 2010. The most popular Etceterini will be announced in the March 10th edition of VeloceToday and the owner of the winning Etceterini will be awarded a copy of “Nardi, A fast life”, by Dino Brunori. The book will be presented by Cliff Reuter of etceterini.com, who was the driving force behind the creation of this new class at Amelia.
[Read more…] about Now, Vote for Your Favorite Etceterini
Books
What is surprising is that there are so many books about Etceterinis. While most books on the subject are in Italian, but today, with Google Translator, just type in the text you wish to read and it will translate, instantly and accurately enough for general purposes. Increasingly, more are being printed in both English and Italian, or one can find English text copies about.
We list here only the books we-being Cliff Reuter, Stu Schaller and myself– have on our shelves. There are many others to be found and we hope you will let us know what they are and a bit about them. We have limited the choices to those books which directly address the subject; books on coachbuilders or special bodied Fiats will be covered at another time.
“La Sport e I suoi artigiani 1937-1965” is the one absolutely essential book for anyone who is interested in Etceterinis. Published in 2002, it is the bible, an encyclopedia of virtually every single small displacement Italian car built for the Italian national classes in the post war era. It is complete, fascinating, full of photos, in alphabetical order, well indexed, but all in Italian. You can read a review of the book from 2002, here.
[Read more…] about Etceterini Books
Websites and Links
There is a growing amount of information on the Net, and we are just scratching the surface here. Say or type the favored word into Google or Bing and they will appear.
Below are some of our favorites along with some good things found in our very own pages, compiled from our archives. But no where is there more information in one spot than at Etecterini.com. Almost singlehandedly Cliff Reuter has turned his site into a veritable Wikipedia for Ecteterinis. You’ll spend hours just cruising through the vast amounts of material Cliff has accumulated and organized and don’t miss the SCCA results and programs: Etceterini.com.
[Read more…] about Etceterini Internet Sources
Big wheels keep on turnin’
By Pete Vack
I have in my hands a Nardi steering wheel. It is 380 mm, or 14.9 inches in diameter. The material for the rim is mahogany and the wheel itself is 4mm aluminum. There is a black inlay on the front side of the brown mahogany wood rim. The hub is slightly dished, 40mm 1.6 inches in depth, and the spokes are embossed with a cross hatch pattern similar to the wheels made for the Ferrari GTO in 1961-2. [Read more…] about Nardi Today