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tazio nuvolari

Tazio Nuvolari, a Brief Bio

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There have been many authoritative works documenting the extraordinary career of the great Italian race driver Tazio Nuvolari. The word “authentic” was used in this original article submitted by Lorenzo Montagner, who is the curator of the Tazio Nuvolari Museum in Mantua, Italy and could, therefore, be considered an authority on the subject of Tazio Nuvolari.

Lorenzo Montagner writes from the perspective of an Italian enthusiast as well as a scholar. He takes pride in the history and the charm of the area which gave Nuvolari his epithet “The Flying Mantuan.”

– Pete Vack and Peter Darnall

By Lorenzo Montagner, Administrator and custodian of the Tazio Nuvolari Museum
Color photos by Gian Maria Pontiroli

From the VeloceToday Archives, May, 2017

Owned by the Automobile Club di Mantova, the Tazio Nuvolari Museum is situated in Mantua: the city is a small but wonderful peninsula surrounded by three artificial lakes located in the heart of the Po valley (Pianura Padana) between Milan and Venice. Mantua was the home town of the poet Virgil, a territory that blends together water, ground and sky. Under the duchy of the Gonzaga family, between the middle of 1300s and the beginning of 1700s, Mantua hosted renowned artists like Andrea Mantegna, Leon Battista Alberti and Giulio Romano who contributed to the transformation of the town in one of the gems of the Italian Renaissance.

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Italy’s Nicolis Museum

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Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Museo Nicolis, Dell’Auto – Della Tecnica – Della Meccanica

From the Archives, October 2017

Luciano Nicolis was born on the 19th of January 1933, the second of six children. At the age of 14, after school had finished for the day, he would cycle to Mantova to find and collect empty cement sacks discarded by the local stone masons. He would then resell them to the local cement company, sometimes carrying 300 empty sacks on the back of his bicycle.

It is no surprise then to learn Signor Nicolis went on to become a very successful industrialist in the field of paper recycling. Lamacart, the company he founded in 1963, is still a leading player in the recycling field today and remains family owned.

From an early age Luciano was fascinated by all things mechanical and technical, and he had a dream to one day open a museum dedicated to his fascinations. Luciano’s dream came true with opening of the Museo Nicolis in the year 2000. Located just a few minutes’ drive from Verona Airport in Villafranca, the Museo is a modern steel and glass structure housing Luciano’s private collection of 200 cars, 500 cameras, 100 motor bikes, 110 bicycles,100 musical instruments, 100 typewriters , 100 Formula 1 steering wheels, and on the roof of the building, three aircraft. Other than the aircraft most mechanical items still work. The cars are regularly maintained and are driven in many classic rallies and events. [Read more…] about Italy’s Nicolis Museum

Nuvolari Speciale

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From the Archives, January 2018

Text by Peter Darnall and Museum Curator Lorenzo Montagner
Museum photos by Gian Maria Pontiroli

Museum Curator Lorenzo Montagner has previously written a short biography of Tazio Nuvolari which appears after the below article, in which Mr. Montagner and Peter Darnall take us inside the fascinating museum that houses Nuvolari’s treasures.

Museo Tazio Nuvolari is located in Mantua, Italy, a few miles from Castel d’Ario, where Nuvolari was born on November 16, 1892. The Nuvolari Museum is housed in an historic fifteenth century building, which served originally as the Church of the Carmelino. One visitor to the museum commented that the unique setting seemed to enhance the sense of intimacy; in his words, the museum was “much more than a collection of trophies.” [Read more…] about Nuvolari Speciale

Alfa Romeo 8C35 Grand Prix Cars: For the Record

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By Pete Vack
Montage above by Peter Darnall

From the VeloceToday Archives, January 2017

One might wonder why we are so interested in the Alfa 8C35 cars. An old saying goes that history is written by the survivors; and indeed, this is the case for the 8C35. But in addition to being survivors, the various and sundry 8C35s running today are examples of the only Grand Prix car to give the combined Silver Arrows a real run for the money. [Read more…] about Alfa Romeo 8C35 Grand Prix Cars: For the Record

A Visit to The Nicolis Museo

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Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Museo Nicolis, Dell’Auto – Della Tecnica – Della Meccanica

Luciano Nicolis was born on the 19th of January 1933, the second of six children. At the age of 14, after school had finished for the day, he would cycle to Mantova to find and collect empty cement sacks discarded by the local stone masons. He would then resell them to the local cement company, sometimes carrying 300 empty sacks on the back of his bicycle.

It is no surprise then to learn Signor Nicolis went on to become a very successful industrialist in the field of paper recycling. Lamacart, the company he founded in 1963, is still a leading player in the recycling field today and remains family owned.

From an early age Luciano was fascinated by all things mechanical and technical, and he had a dream to one day open a museum dedicated to his fascinations. Luciano’s dream came true with opening of the Museo Nicolis in the year 2000. Located just a few minutes’ drive from Verona Airport in Villafranca, the Museo is a modern steel and glass structure housing Luciano’s private collection of 200 cars, 500 cameras, 100 motor bikes, 110 bicycles,100 musical instruments, 100 typewriters , 100 Formula 1 steering wheels, and on the roof of the building, three aircraft. Other than the aircraft most mechanical items still work. The cars are regularly maintained and are driven in many classic rallies and events.

Luciano died in 2012 but his passion lives on, His daughter Silvia is the president of the museum and the Nicolis family are very involved in the day-to-day running. During our recent visit, Luciano’s sister even served us a cafe Latta in the museum cafe. When asked about his collection Luciano would reply, “We are not the owners of all this, just the safekeepers for the future…”

Open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00

Viale Postumia – Villafranca di Verona (VR) – Italy – T. +39 045 6303289
info@museonicolis.com

Below are a few of the items we had a chance to photograph for our readers. As usual, cars are in alphabetical order.


I was surprised to learn that the coachwork on this 1925 Alfa Romeo RM was by Zagato. The RM used mechanical and chassis parts from the more expensive RL model. Powered by a 4 cylinder engine derived from the 6 cylinder engine of the RL the RM was designed more for the family man than sporting motorist.

Supplied as a rolling chassis to Australia this 1923 Alfa Rome RL Normale is fitted with bodywork by Martin and King coachbuilding of Melbourne Australia.

This Castagna-bodied supercharged Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GTC dates from 1931. The paint applied when restored was mixed with fish scales as would have been the case when the car was first constructed.

Castagna of Milan bodied this 1933 Alfa Rome 8C 2300 (no other info available.)

In 1853 a university teacher by the name of Giovanni Ansaldo returned to Italy after spending time in Northern Europe and decided to form a company to manufacture steam trains and ships. By the middle of WW1, the company Gio Ansaldo & Co decided to go into car production. This example however predates that decision. Built in the company’s workshop in 1906, based on a Peugeot chassis with a monocylinder Peugeot engine, chain drive, and wheels with wooden spokes.

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Tazio Nuvolari

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There have been many authoritative works documenting the extraordinary career of the great Italian race driver Tazio Nuvolari. The word “authentic” was used in this original article submitted by Lorenzo Montagner, who is the curator of the Tazio Nuvolari Museum in Mantua, Italy and could, therefore, be considered an authority on the subject of Tazio Nuvolari. Authentic, indeed.

Lorenzo Montagner writes from the perspective of an Italian enthusiast as well as a scholar. He takes pride in the history and the charm of the area which gave Nuvolari his epithet “The Flying Mantuan.” We chose not to change a single word of his manuscript.

– Pete Vack and Peter Darnall

By Lorenzo Montagner, Administrator and custodian of the Tazio Nuvolari Museum
Color photos by Gian Maria Pontiroli

Owned by the Automobile Club di Mantova, the Tazio Nuvolari Museum is situated in Mantua: the city is a small but wonderful peninsula surrounded by three artificial lakes located in the heart of the Po valley (Pianura Padana) between Milan and Venice. Mantua was the home town of the poet Virgil, a territory that blends together water, ground and sky. Under the duchy of the Gonzaga family, between the middle of 1300s and the beginning of 1700s, Mantua hosted renowned artists like Andrea Mantegna, Leon Battista Alberti and Giulio Romano who contributed to the transformation of the town in one of the gems of the Italian Renaissance. [Read more…] about Tazio Nuvolari

Tazio Nuvolari Meets Gabriele D’Annunzio

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By Peter Darnall
Our thanks to Matteo Rinaldi at the Museo Nuvolari

The AIACR (Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus), which was the governing body controlling Grand Prix racing, issued an innovative ruling which would define racing events beginning with the 1934 season. Known as the 750-kilogram rule, the weight of a race car was limited to 750 kg, less tires, liquids, and driver. Intended to restrict the ever-increasing speed and power of Grand Prix machines, the ruling had quite the opposite effect: German interests, closely followed by Italian efforts produced the fastest and most powerful racing cars the world had ever seen.

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Hans Ruesch and the Alfa Tipo 8C35

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Montage image from photographer Piergiorgio Bardi aka Häaden 2 Como, Italy

Story and Montage by Peter Darnall
Additional photos from the collection of Dale LaFollette

Alfa Romeo Tipo C #50013 . . . The Hans Ruesch Era

The 1936 racing season brought victories for the Tipo C Alfa Romeos against the German Silver Arrows at Penya Rhin, Milan, and Budapest. The new monoposto showed it could compete with the Teutonic rivals—at least on tight winding courses when pushed to the absolute limit by Tazio Nuvolari. Italian hopes were high as the cars lined up for the start of the Coppa Ciano on August 2, 1936. No one could have known at that time, but Nuvolari was about to put on a virtuoso performance which would rank as one of the greatest drives of all time. [Read more…] about Hans Ruesch and the Alfa Tipo 8C35

Alfa Romeo 8C35 Grand Prix Cars

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The Editor Tracks the three 8C35 Alfas
Montage above by Peter Darnall

One might wonder why we are so interested in the Alfa 8C35 cars. An old saying goes that history is written by the survivors; and indeed, this is the case for the 8C35. But in addition to being survivors, the various and sundry 8C35s running today are examples of the only Grand Prix car to give the combined Silver Arrows a real run for the money. Given the might of the Mercedes and Auto-Union teams, the Alfa Romeo 8C35 had a brief but reasonably successful two seasons in Europe. Designed to be fitted with either a V12 engine, or an 8 cylinder, the 8C35 used a longer version of the famous Alfa 8C 2.3 engine, running almost concurrently with the initially unreliable V12 (12C36) while it was being developed. In 1936 Tazio Nuvolari drove the 8C35 to great victories at Coppa Ciano and the Hungarian GP. In our humble opinion, although Vittorio Jano’s V12 (actually designed by Bruno Trevisan) may have led to his downfall in October of 1937, the 8C and 12 C are underrated and much more successful contenders than results might render. And speaking of results, at the bottom of this article we’ve reproduced the Alfa racing results from the years 1935 to 1937 for your perusal.

As VeloceToday is currently publishing a series of short articles that often include these cars, (read A Most Unusual Meeting) we thought this an opportune time to provide a brief history of the 8C35 chassis known today.

Of the six 8C35s listed by Fusi, three can be determined to still exist in some form: [Read more…] about Alfa Romeo 8C35 Grand Prix Cars

Jon Shirley on Kids and the Nuvolari P3

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Interview with Jon Shirley, owner of the Nuvolari P3.


Jon and Mary Shirley at Pebble Beach 2008.
Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.

Jon Shirley developed an interest in cars when he was nine, driving an old truck on a farm. Later when in college, he attended races at Watkins Glen, Thompson and Lime Rock. Naturally he developed an interest in sports cars and racing–one that would last until the present time. [Read more…] about Jon Shirley on Kids and the Nuvolari P3

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