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Strother MacMinn

More on the R&T Figoni Cover Car

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The Delahaye was on cover of the February 1949 edition of Road & Track. The photograph was taken in front of the famous Ciros Nightclub. This is the same car which was photographed later that year by Strother MacMinn.

Strother MacMinn photos from the collection of Robert Ames
Courtesy VintageMotorphoto
Text by Jim Sitz

From the VeloceToday archives
Read Behold the Narwal

Strother MacMinn was one of my closest and dearest friends. I met him in 1951. He was a real gay blade and man about town, the Cary Grant of automotive circles.

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Discovering a Bugatti Atlantic

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Young Man With Bugatti We couldn’t identify the young man but the Bugatti is the Atlantic S/N 57374. But only Jim Sitz could come up with a location and date of the photo. Read on.

From the VeloceToday Archives, July 2017

In 1949 Strother MacMinn took these photos of the Bugatti Atlantic/Aérolithe (S/N 57374) when owned by Bob Oliver. The photos were supplied by Dale LaFollette at Vintage Motorphoto and published here with the permission of Bob Ames. Below, comments from Jim Sitz.

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The Real Stories of the Fabled Alfa B.A.T.S

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If you are thinking about spending as much as 20 million (or more) on three used Alfas at tomorrow night’s Sotheby’s Auction, it is advised that you read the following four articles, which provide additional background information about the Scaglione B.A.T.s. From the Archives of VeloceToday, they were published in 2019 but timely and relevant today.

After making a few sketches, working with Ezio Cingolani, who was responsible for fabrication, Franco Scaglione developed a full size model, watched daily by Nuccio Bertone. This is B.A.T. 5

B.A.T. 5: A Stunning Achievement

What are these openings for? One, to strengthen the rather large fin itself, and two, to allow some of the air to escape that was ‘tunneled’ through the extremely inward curved fins on B.A.T. 7.

B.A.T. 7: The Best of the Bunch

Aiming to create more of a GT car and needing a direct connection with Alfa, Scaglione forgot penetration and allowed the use of the new Giulietta grille on B.A.T. 9.

B.A.T. 9d: Ready for the Road

Courtesy Centro Documentazione Storica Alfa Romeo

Scaglione, Strother MacMinn and the B.A.T.s

All three to be auctioned as one lot, tomorrow, October 28 in New York. Click here for RM Sotheby’s Auction Website

B.A.T. 5: A Stunning Achievement

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Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Text by Pete Vack

The display of the three B.A.T. Alfas was held at the Phillips Auction House in Berkeley Square, London and only displayed for four days, November 20-23. Jonathan Sharp attended on a Wednesday afternoon and here is the first of three reports.

The first of the B.A.T.s was perhaps the most celebrated, gaining notice in magazines across the western hemisphere. But was it the first? Rick Carey, writing in VeloceToday, thinks the Packard-Abarth Bertone might have been B.A.T. 1. Nevertheless, B.A.T. 5 was shown first in April of 1953 at Turin. [Read more…] about B.A.T. 5: A Stunning Achievement

B.A.T. 7: The Best of the Bunch

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Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Text by Pete Vack

The display of the three B.A.T. Alfas was held at the Phillips Auction House in Berkeley Square, London and only displayed for four days, November 20-23. Jonathan Sharp attended on a Wednesday afternoon and here is the second of three reports.

Oh, poor B.A.T. 7. It was, in our opinion, the best of the trinity, a refined 5 with an even more dramatic aft that was the quintessence of coachbuilder’s art. Just looking at the various views of those remarkable appendages is awe inspiring. How did they do it?

About a year after it was shown at Turin in the spring of 1955, someone came along cut them off. Those beautiful, inspiring wings. Let’s let the late Strother MacMinn and his cohort Robert Henry Gurr tell us what they thought about the car at the time: (Road & Track, July, 1955, Panel Discussion on Automotive Styling.) [Read more…] about B.A.T. 7: The Best of the Bunch

B.A.T. 9d: Ready for the Road

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Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Text by Pete Vack

The display of the three B.A.T. Alfas was held at the Phillips Auction House in Berkeley Square, London and only displayed for four days, November 20-23. Jonathan Sharp attended on a Wednesday afternoon and here is the third of three reports.

While the BAT 9 (aka BAT 9d) will eternally be tied with the story of Gary Kaberle, it failed to attract a lot of attention when introduced at Turin in the spring of 1955. Press coverage had been high with the BAT 7 of 1954, but by the time the third and definitely less dramatic BAT appeared, it was no longer newsworthy, despite being much more roadworthy. It was not until December 1958 that BAT 9 appeared on the cover of Road & Track, no longer news. The Kaberle story is well known, but we’ll recap it here. [Read more…] about B.A.T. 9d: Ready for the Road

Remembering Strother MacMinn

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Story by Jim Sitz
Photos by Strother MacMinn courtesy Bob Ames and Dale LaFollette

After reading Wallace Wyss’s recent article on the Pasadena Art Center, Jim Sitz thought there should have been a mention of Strother MacMinn, who devoted almost 50 years teaching at the Art Center. But MacMinn was also a sports car fan and photographer, and below we include a portfolio of photos from a very early Carrell Speedway event for our readers to identify. [Read more…] about Remembering Strother MacMinn

Strother MacMinn and the Bugatti Atlantic

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And How! features open and innovative formats for notices, articles and posts.

Young Man With Bugatti
We couldn’t identify the young man but the Bugatti is the Atlantic S/N 57374. But only Jim Sitz could come up with a location and date of the photo. Read on.

In 1949 Strother MacMinn took these photos of the Bugatti Atlantic/Aérolithe (S/N 57374) when owned by Bob Oliver. The photos were supplied by Dale LaFollette at Vintage Motorphoto and published here with the permission of Bob Ames. Below, comments from Jim Sitz. [Read more…] about Strother MacMinn and the Bugatti Atlantic

And How! Strother MacMinn and the Delahaye

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And How! features open and innovative formats for notices, articles and posts.

The Delahaye was on cover of the February 1949 edition of Road & Track. The photograph was taken in front of the famous Ciros Nightclub. This is the same car which was photographed later that year by Strother MacMinn.

Strother MacMinn photos from the collection of Robert Ames
Courtesy VintageMotorphoto
Text by Jim Sitz

Strother MacMinn was one of my closest and dearest friends. I met him in 1951. He was a real gay blade and man about town, the Cary Grant of automotive circles. [Read more…] about And How! Strother MacMinn and the Delahaye

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