The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Theodore Athanasiadis & Sabe Hatami, 1986 Ferrari Testarossa, Zagame Tour, Beaumont
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
South Australia’s summer weather usually arrives anytime after October but this year was running late. Spring rain had kept the country in the Adelaide hills green and the forecast for the three-day tarmac rally was patchy. Not that this mattered to the crews and spectators.
Tyrrell P34 Cosworth, Tony Quinn, Wakefield Street exit
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
8-9 March 2025
March is festival month in South Australia across the state with performing and visual arts, music, dance, magic, acrobatics and more in full swing. And at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival in the parklands east of the city you would have seen and heard all of these, with wheels on.
Since 2014, a 1.6km section of the original circuit of the 1985-95 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix has joined in the festivities. On Friday afternoon many city workers stayed in town to watch the police-escorted ‘Peak Hour of Power’ as it left Victoria Park in the parklands east of the city. With the Formula 1 cars leading, they made their way through the central business district to Gouger Street’s cafe strip. Cars, drivers and teams filled the street display, the restaurants and cafes were overflowing and the public had their weekend appetite whetted with the close-up spectacle.
Lamborghini Revuelto, Peter Crombie-Brown, McLaren 750S, Chris Muelengraaf, Wakefield Street
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
Everything from Formula 1 to a Toyota minibus was on the street circuit for the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival earlier this month. Le Mans racers, real (and not so real) Lamborghinis, Ferraris young and older, a Maserati and the second-built Brabham BT62 shared track time with heritage Alfas and Lolas.
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They are historians, authors, editors, photographers, columnists, journalists, judges, drivers, restorers, artisans, collectors and constructors. They hail from the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Germany, France, Belgium and Italy. Here are the names of thirty-three whose contributions made the year 2024 one to remember.
Jeff Allison, Gary Axon, Giles Chapman, Bob Cullinan, Rodney Diggens, Joseph Duray, Brandes Elitch, Graham Gauld, Greg Glassner, Bob Harrington, Joe Hurwich, Stefan Ivanov, Vince Johnson, Jackie Jouret, Allen R. Kuhn, Dale LaFollette, James Lanoway, Frederic Levaux, Bernard Linck, Roberto Motta, Herb Miska, Chris Nugent, Willem Oosthoek, Paul Sable, Charley Seavey, Jonathan Sharp, Jim Sitz, Roy Smith, Sean Smith, Pete Vack, Hugues Vanhoolandt, Paul Wilson, Robert Young
Mike Lowe & Kerry Chevis, Fiat Abarth Berlina Corsa 1000, Stafford Hillclimb
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
The last month of spring in the South Australian state capital saw road racing in full swing.
Over three days the Shannons Adelaide Rally brought together entrants in road-registered touring and sports cars in the surrounding hills, alongside competitors in dedicated rally vehicles for almost 150 kilometres (93mi) of special stages on closed roads to die for. [Read more…] about Shannons Adelaide Rally, 8-10 November 2024
1929 Bugatti Type 44 engine showing oil filter housing above water pump.
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
Barossa Vintage Collingrove Hillclimb, 6 October 2024 Spring in South Australia’s wine country sees the vines in leaf and the Barossa Valley hills at their finest. Vintage at the wineries is still a long way off but the long weekend in October brings a different vintage to the SA Sporting Car Club’s hillclimb track at Mount McKenzie near Angaston. Celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, the world’s second oldest continually-running veteran car club’s Collingrove meeting echoed to the sounds of last century’s classic and sports cars and motorcycles as they raced the clock to the top.
Phillip Lewis 1969 Ferrari 206SP (R), Trevor Bassett Ferrari Daytona Group 4 (R)
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
Now well into its fourth decade, the Victorian Historic Racing Register’s Phillip Island Classic saw drivers and teams out in force, enjoying four very warm days on southern Australia’s sweeping 5km circuit. The track, resurfaced last year in time for the national Superbike Championships a month ago, and using 60% recycled asphalt, promised new lap records against the possibility of increased tyre wear.
Lachlan Cox & Sam Martin, 1970 Ford Escort Mk 1, Dean Cook & Sean Bennett, 1971 Ford Escort twin cam, Challenge, Gouger Street
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
Perfect South Australian spring weather greeted teams, officials and spectators for the 2023 Shannons Adelaide Rally. As last year, the capital was already in motorsport mode with preparations for the following weekend’s V8 Supercars races on the city’s street circuit. The rally cars had more room to move, heading out each day to closed road stages in the surrounding hills. [Read more…] about Shannons Adelaide Rally, 17-19 November 2023
Rob Harcourt, Lancia Meadows, turn 4.
Story and photos by Vince Johnson
Perfect spring weather greeted competitors and spectators in the Barossa Valley for the Sporting Car Club of South Australia’s annual historic hillclimb at Mount McKenzie on October 2, 2022. As well as the Group J and K entries from the twenties and thirties there were classes for Air Cooled, Invited Post-War, Special Interest and Come & Run vehicles. The bikes were back again, arranged into Pre-War and Post-War classes.
Brodie Bishop’s Fiat 501 turns 100 next year but certainly doesn’t look it. It was shipped from Italy to Adelaide Motors in 1923 as a right hand drive rolling chassis and bodied as a four-door tourer nearby at Mile End by Horwood Bagshaw. Brodie Bishop and Daniel Clarke have a go.
Photos and captions by Vince Johnson
Additional text by VeloceToday Staff
Vince Johnson did a brief on this remarkable Fiat photographed at the Barossa Vintage Collingrove Hillclimb in South Australia October 2. It is enthusiastically invigorating to see such a nice old Fiat in use, particularly when the car was purchased by Brodie Bishop when he was only 15, and he then embarked upon a restoration which was finished some 10 years later. Brodie is still only 29! This prompted us to find out more about this now rare Fiat model and add a bit to Vince’s excellent captions. [Read more…] about A Look at a Rare Fiat from Down Under
1971 Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV Geoffrey Burgess, 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA Corsa, Steven Byrnes
Story and Photos by Vince Johnson
After last year’s restrictions, spectators were back at the Victorian Historic Racing Register’s Phillip Island Classic, held on the sweeping circuit south of Melbourne. The perfect weather and long weekend holiday also saw over 400 entries, but shipping issues meant they were an all-Australian affair, although several overseas drivers had made the journey down to the sun.
Thursday was for free practice, the extra track time valuable to those who had missed last year’s competitor-only meeting. On Friday morning further practice and qualifying was followed by the first of the Regularity events and racing categories. [Read more…] about Phillip Island Classic, Australia, 11-13 March
Buratto 1988 Lancia Delta Integrale stage 9 Windy Point
Story and Photos by Vince Johnson
Normally there’s just one Shannons Adelaide Rally in South Australia each year. As we all know, last year was far from normal, but it did have a silver lining. It meant that this year there were two. The 2020 Rally was held earlier, in March (see VT April 12, 2021), and the ‘real’ 2021 Rally just last month.