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The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts

O.M.

2025 Italian Car Day at the Brooklands Museum

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Modern Fiat 124 Spider Abarths were popular.

Story and photos by Gary Axon

The gridlock traffic and the sight of a stricken and steaming Pantera pushed to the side of the road to cool off in the log jam leading to the historic Brooklands Museum near Weybridge, Surrey could only mean one thing. The traffic chaos caused by the now traditional first Saturday in May annual Italian Car Day being held at Brooklands suggested it was going to be an exceptionally busy event at the significant banked ex-motor racing circuit, the oldest in the world.

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Techno Classica Essen Part 1

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Mille Miglia participant in 1955 and 1956, this Fiat 1100/103 TV was the sports variant of the popular Fiat 1100.

Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

For the 35th time, the Techno Classica show was held in Essen, in the Ruhr Valley, in western Germany. Created in 1989, this show has become over the years the German equivalent of the Retromobile show in Paris or Auto Moto d’Epoca in Italy. Even larger than the Paris show, the Essen show contains fewer exceptional vehicles, with foreign dealers, particularly British ones, being less present. However, there are always interesting discoveries to be made there, and that’s what we’ll see below.

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O.M.’s MM

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An OM 665 on the ramp at the Mille Miglia. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.

By Pete Vack

Note: Black and white photos are from the new book “O.M. The men, the cars, the races” and are typical of the oustanding and rare photographs presented in the book. Click to enlarge and our thanks to Fondazione Negri for permissions.

Purchase Book

A two o’clock in the morning, Giovanni Canestrini was awakened by the sound of someone calling his name. Going to the window, he saw four figures in the courtyard below gesturing to Canestrini to let them in, for it was cold in December in Milan. The four – Count Aymo Maggi, Count Franco Mazzotti, Renzo Castagneto, and Flaminio Monti – wanted to talk, and Canestrini knew about what.

No sooner had he invited the foursome inside than they began the familiar complaint…Brescia needed to regain its place as the center of motorsports, lost to the nearby city of Milan when the new Monza Autodrome was constructed in 1922. And they presented another scenario; Italy’s car manufacturers were no longer building race cars. Bugatti dealer and racer Aymo Maggi well knew that if one wanted to buy a car to race, it seemed the only choice was to buy a T35 from Bugatti. Something needed to be done. If a successful cross-country race were launched, it would encourage the manufacturer to enter, and build Italian cars like the Bugatti. Automotive journalist Canestrini, of course, we help to promote the event. It would be good for the state, the roads, the people, communications, and of course improve the breed.

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Mille Miglia at Brescia with Alessandro Gerelli

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One of our most outstanding long term contributors has been the Milanese Alessandro Gerelli who first came to these pages in 2002 with a story about his experiences at Monza: Monza, a Personal Look.

From then on Gerelli has never stopped filing excellent stories from all over Europe and the U.K, and even the United States. From 2004 on, Alessandro provided the color in blue and red for every single Mille Miglia event, rain or shine.

As we kickoff VeloceToday’s First Ten Years Celebration (yes, it’s been that long), we present the below urls from Gerelli’s coverage of this great event since 2004, and cap it off with the Mille Miglia of 2011.

We thank you again, Mr. Gerelli!
[Read more…] about Mille Miglia at Brescia with Alessandro Gerelli

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