The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
365 California has a Pininfarina body and a 365P engine...enough said? Photo by Booker.
By Wallace Wyss
Enzo Ferrari definitely knew what side of the bread was buttered. Although he had production cars and race cars in production, he realized he would have to make special limited editions for executives and movie stars, because after all, exclusive wasn’t exclusive if there were hundreds of a model made.
[Read more…] about Portfolio 1966 Ferrari 365 California
Betcha didn't think we'd run this photo....
Dear Boss,
I took a little trip up the Coast to Monterey, so as promised, I thought I’d drop a note with a few images. I selected a big ol’Chrysler 300 for the trip, and arrived in my secret low cost no-tell motel in five hours.
On Wednesday I set off for the Embassy Suites and set up my booth at Automobilia, a sort of emporium for the flora and fauna of the automotive world– posters, model cars, clothes, old books (and new books). I was pleased to be in a booth next to Mike Rabin who is famous for making wheel discs He had a great sense of humor, especially considering he had to endure hearing my sales pitch at least 100 times. Finally he got to where he would interrupt my pitch to a new client, saying “It’s getting deeper.”
[Read more…] about Barbarian at the Gate
The Author.
FORZA ITALIAN STYLE
File this under “It had to happen eventually.” In Japan on Dec. 4th there was a convoy of Japanese Ferrari enthusiasts proceeding at an average of 90 mph toward a car event. The track, er, highway, was the Chugoku highway in western Japan. Some ace driver changed lanes and there was a dispute over whose lane it was. The driver spun out and the result was a 14-vehicle pile-up. When the smoke cleared, there were eight Ferraris, two Mercedes and a Lamborghini and a couple lowly Toyotas severely wrinkled. The miracle was that 10 people were taken to hospitals but none were seriously injured.
[Read more…] about Bitsa Number One
Art by Wallace Wyss
By Wallace Wyss
In 1959 Carroll Shelby won the biggest race there was in sports car racing, and that was the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He quit driving shortly after that, and just in time, because a heart condition he had managed to hide from the SCCA medical techs was threatening to take him out if he didn’t quit. He wasn’t worried about what he would do next; he was already was working on a plan to build his own sports car.
Although he was known for winning most of his victories in Ferraris and Maseratis, if you search deep down in the racing records you find that, among the fifty different marques of cars he drove was a Buick-powered special called “Ol’ Yaller”.
Shelby knew that the biggest expense in developing a new car was designing and engineering the chassis, the engine and transmission. If he could find a ready-made chassis that already had an existing engine and transmission, well then the problem was considerably smaller– only clothing it in an appropriately Italian sexy style and promoting it. He had spent too much time in Italy not to know that there were great designers and coachbuilders there. He also knew there was a snob appeal to having a car bodied in Italy. He probably had it in for Enzo Ferrari [according to historian Willem Oosthoek, when Shelby boasted of all his victories in the U.S., an unimpressed Enzo asked him: “But what was your competition?” Ed.]
so he thought why not stick it to the old man by having Ferrari’s own body builder build it?
His first idea was to use the All American Corvette. Hence the Corvette Italia.
[Read more…] about Shelby’s TdF
Made In Italy--under the nose of Enzo Ferrari. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.
By Wallace Wyss
Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Yes, five out of six of the Cobra Daytona coupes, first commissioned in 1964, were bodied in Italy. Which makes them as much Italian-American as, say, the Dual Ghias which were Chryslers bodied in Italy.
[Read more…] about Sidebar: The Italian American Cobra
By Wallace Wyss
Rear photo courtesy Ferrari Media
OK they don’t call it a “shooting brake” but…
At the Geneva Motor Show, Pininfarina introduced the new FF, which they call “the fastest and most versatile four-seater in Ferrari’s history,” and also proclaim it as the brand’s first four-wheel drive model.
Designed by Pininfarina in cooperation with the Ferrari Style Centre, they claim that “the car’s forms and volumes achieve perfect harmony between the car’s sporty spirit and its extraordinary versatility.”
Mike will wear red and black but if you want him to wear a Prancing Horse, well...
By Wallace Wyss
To Sedona in an e-Bay Ferrari
In my experience both here and abroad, the Ferrari world is a sea of pristine well-cared for finely-fettled cars, whose owners seem to hover near them at every car show, dreadfully fearful some interloper will touch their car.
Then there’s my high school friend, Mike, a retiree from the Phoenix area.
His 1979 Ferrari GTB has seen better days. The paint is a bit rough (Mike claims that he had seen worse paint jobs, but they were done with a brush), the leather seats have popped their seams so there’s sponge rubber showing, there’s a piece of fiberglass hanging down somewhere at the back, the engine is dirt covered, the air conditioning compressor is missing, the tires don’t quite fit.
But, to his mind, it’s perfect. Why? Because he drives it. [Read more…] about Ferraris on the Road
Local Boy Makes Good; didn’tcha always want to write that headline? Me too, and we at VeloceToday are very happy to finally use it this week. Mr. Wyss, our own “local boy” who has been writing for VelcoeToday since 2008 may be on the brink of something big.
Of the four in the cover photo, only Shel is still around.
On January 26th, FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME), the commercial and brand extension arm of FremantleMedia, announced that Scott Free Inc. has joined Headline Pictures, Sennet Entertainment and FME on The Drivers, a series based on the high-octane 24 hour motor race in Le Mans during the 1950s/1960s. The series is based upon a book Shelby: The Man The Cars The Legend, written by Wallace A. Wyss and optioned to the famous production team from his publisher, Iconografix. Topny and Ridley Scott(director of the movies Alien and Blade Runner) will be co-producing the drama with Headline Pictures and Sennet Entertainment; FME is funding the project as part of their global drama strategy to develop and package drama series for the international market. [Read more…] about The Drivers TV Series Announced: Local Boy Makes Good
The 540 Aperta is it appeared at Villa d 'Este. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.
By Wallace Wyss
Let’s say you have more money than God and way back you saw an old Italian movie that had a sexy car in it. The movie was by Fellini and the car, as near as anyone can tell, was a special by Fantuzzi, and/or originally installed on a racing chassis. [Read more…] about From the Golden Ferrari 599 Aperta
Winning Delage D86 Roadster. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.
By Wallace Wyss and Brian Winer
French cars, Italian coachbuilders at Pebble Beach.
Wyss: “This is my oil painting of my car, once I switched it from International Harvester Green to Rosso Corsa.” Art by Wallace A. Wyss
By Wallace A. Wyss
Monster though it may be, the C4 Wyss paid $19,000 for is now worth about $150,000.
The man’s wife, an actress who looked Scandinavian, called it “The Monster.”
“You’ve come for the Monster,” she said.
“Yes, I have,” I said, while trying to figure out why she would call one of Pininfarina’s most beautiful Ferraris–the GTC/4– “The Monster.”
I say “most beautiful” but the Italians, with their ever more refined eyes for body shapes (both women and cars) called it “the hunchback with clown lips” because it had an ever so slight rise to the center of the rear deck lid, and up front there was a rubber bumper surround. Neither feature hurt the car’s looks but you know the Italians. They wanted things just right or they would find something to criticize.
I found out later on, once I took the car, it ate money. It wasn’t the cookie monster, but the money monster.
Transformation via a SWB
A Story by Wallace Wyss
In the beginning, Bobbi just wanted to keep Forrester, her one and only husband, happy.
Forrester was an engineer, and even before they were married, Bobbi realized engineers were numbers types, not big on showing emotion. [Read more…] about Bobbi and the Berlinetta