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Palo Verdes Concours, 2013

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Best of Show was this Hispano Suiza towncar. Excellent choice!

By Wallace Wyss

One of the best things about the Palos Verdes Concours, which takes place at the Trump National Golf Club, is that it is on a peninsula that sticks out into the Pacific. The view is to die for–rolling golf greens and limitless ocean.

Not only that, it seems they have a tradition there of honoring obscure French marques. This year, though, the overall theme was “Age of Elegance” with examples of Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Duesenberg, and Dietrich coachwork. Ray Dietrich was a celebrated American designer in the custom coachwork era.

But rest assured there were plenty of Italian and French cars.
[Read more…] about Palo Verdes Concours, 2013

Missed Opportunities: Rita’s Ghia Cadillac

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Art by Wallace Wyss

By Wallace Wyss

This is a story of unrequited love all the way around. It occurred in the early ‘50s. Think film noir, mood lighting, moonlight on the Riviera, that sort of thing.

First, (and good casting for this story I might add) as the female lead was Rita Hayworth, born Margarita Carmen Cansino, to a Spanish Flamenco dancer father and Ziegfield girl mother. She was reportedly an under-age dancer at a Tijuana club when she was discovered by Fox Studios.

She became one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood. Her one-glove strip tease in the movie Gilda put her on the map. Rita was a top movie star and a popular pinup girl during the forties. Her second husband was famed director Orson Wells, who she married in 1943. Her career bloomed during that time, but she lived on the edge, by having a fling around 1948. Not with some ordinary Joe, mind you, but with an Ismaili prince, Aly Kahn.

I had heard about Aly Khan since I was a teenager but back then (you might say “before Wikipedia”) I never actually had been able to figure out what country he was a prince of, primarily because the Ismaili sect of Muslims have no country or territory of their own. Prince Ali Salman Aga Khan, known as Aly Khan, was a son of Sultan Mohammed Shah, Aga Khan III, the head of the Ismaili Muslims. Aly Khan’s son, born in 1957, is the current Sultan Aga Khan IV and worth about $800 million.

Rita was also associated with the Savonuzzi Gilda project. Click here to read story.

[Read more…] about Missed Opportunities: Rita’s Ghia Cadillac

Dana Point Concours d’Elegance

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Ferrari Pinin Farina 212 Export

The Right Stuff...Dana Point attracted the magnificent Ferrari Pinin Farina 212 Inter. It was the second Ferrari to be clothed by Pinin Farina.


By Wallace Wyss
Photographs by Ric Bartholomew

The 31st Dana Point Concours d’Elegance, held on June 23rd, was a success. A good part of that success is due to the selection of the right cars.

What does “right” mean? Well, for instance, I was able to see Ken and Dayle Roath’s 1952 Ferrari Pinin Farina 212 Inter Cabriolet in person. The car is interesting to me because I figure it was one of the first “Gran Touring” Ferraris ever imported to the U.S. There’s a famous picture of it with the New York skyline in back of it. [Read more…] about Dana Point Concours d’Elegance

Interview with Marc Sonnery

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Marc Sonnery (Copyright Haymarket)

Marc Sonnery (Copyright Haymarket)

Marc Sonnery

By Wallace Wyss

[We’ll have a review of the latest book by Marc Sonnery next week]

Marc Sonnery, age 48, half French and half Swedish, is a fit and well-groomed author who is ready to travel the globe in his quest to write about his favorite marque, Maserati. His name was seen in CAVALLINO for ten years, where he wrote about Ferraris, but in the 1990’s he began researching Maseratis and now spends most of his waking hours researching the history of various models. So it is that he recently authored a book on the Maserati models built when Citroen owned Maserati as well as the Citroën SM. I met with him during Sonnery’s California publicity swing and had an opportunity to do a short interview.
[Read more…] about Interview with Marc Sonnery

San Marino Concours: Classy

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Alfa 1750 Quattroruote is one of the best examples of a factory conceived and built replicar.

By Wallace Wyss
Photos by Richard Bartholomew

San Marino is a toney area of town near Pasadena but redolent of gentler times where there are no loud noises and no graffiti; a town that presents a kind of isolated feeling like nearby Santa Anita racetrack which makes you feel like you are back in the 1930s.

[Read more…] about San Marino Concours: Classy

La Ferrari and Other Notables Critiqued

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Wallace Wyss likes to draw. Granted, he’ll never be a Picasso- and the good Lord knows the Editor will never be a Hemingway – so we both do what we can with what we have.

Over the past five years Wyss has sent us a variety of critiques of new designs out of Italy, and a few old ones as well. It’s a lot of fun and he makes some good points along the way.

His latest is below, the new La Ferrari (or whatever they will end up naming it). And below that, we’ve found a gathering of his previous critiques of Ferraris, Alfas, and even Rolls-Royce as they came to us. [Editor]
[Read more…] about La Ferrari and Other Notables Critiqued

Microcosms from Gauld and Wyss

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Gauld recalls his Heinkel days, Wyss finds a Isetta Convertible

By Graham Gauld

I was recently reminded of a very special trip I made to Modena back in 1958. The reminder was the RM Auction held recently which featured the multitude of microcars that Bruce Weiner had collected and showed in his Microcar Museum in Madison, Georgia.

There have been many microcars built in the history of the automobile but in mid-1950s in Europe they became very popular during the Suez Canal Crisis in 1956. [Read more…] about Microcosms from Gauld and Wyss

A Citroën Right Hook

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This 1954 Traction Avant was found in Australia by the late Gary Byrd.

By Wallace Wyss

Picture the scene: it’s pitch dark, you’re down by the Seine on a foggy night. A guy in a trenchcoat lights a cigarette, and in the flare of the flame you see a woman in a full length black coat and red beret aiming a pistol at him…
[Read more…] about A Citroën Right Hook

Pininfarina in the 1960s by Mark Stehrenberger

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Wallace Wyss and the Editor continue to assess Pininfarina’s work through the 1960s via the posters of Mark Stehrenberger. The separation of the works of PF by year and highlighting various models gives us a unique opportunity to look back on the history of the firm and of Italian post-war design through 1970. This week, the sixties, next, the 1970s.

pf-lusso

Wyss: In the ’60s Pininfarina did designs that stand well the test of time. In fact, some think the Ferrari 250 GT Lusso is the most beautiful road Ferrari of all time (if you consider race cars, though, you would have it up against the incomparable P3/4).

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Pinin Farina in the 1950s by Mark Stehrenberger

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Want a print of this poster? Click on the photo.

Artist Mark Stehrenberger is now offering prints of his famous series of Pininfarina posters. Pininfarina in 1950s, the 1960s and the 1970s are all represented by different posters. Below, Wallace Wyss and the Editor dissect the 1950s poster car by car, and comment accordingly.

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Richard Pietruska: Form Follows Fantasy

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Ferrari GTO and another familiar form. Photo courtesy Pietruska.

Interview by Wallace Wyss

RICHARD PIETRUSKA is a professor and an artist living in Venice, CA who has the distinction of having escaped the clutches of the auto industry to become an Internationally known sculptor. Contributor Wallace Wyss saw him at the FCA convention and asked for an update.

WYSS: I notice the patina on that one sculpture. Is that fiberglass, or have you gone to metal?

PIETRUSKA: That’s metal, bronze. The finish is a very unique silver nitrate patina that lends itself to that particular sculpture of the Ferrari 250/599 GTO.
[Read more…] about Richard Pietruska: Form Follows Fantasy

Intermountain Concours d’Elegance-Lehi, Utah 2012

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Ferrari Enzo in the Garden; the scenery at the Intermountain Concours is as spectaular as the cars.

By Wallace Wyss
Images by Booker-All Rights Reserved.

A world class Concours in Utah? There’s potential here!

First of all, there’s the cars. While this writer is not familiar with the classic cars in Utah, and rarely hears of Utah entries at events, he saw an incredible wealth of cars come out of the woodwork at the 2012 Intermountain Concours, representing a strong car culture.

Among them were several million dollar and multi-million dollar cars if you want to take value as one criterion (and the marketplace acknowledges this with big auctions adjoining these events, often on the actual grounds of famous Concours like Pebble Beach). [Read more…] about Intermountain Concours d’Elegance-Lehi, Utah 2012

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