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Archives for January 2016
Bugatti and Gordini Racecars at the Schlumpf
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Dear reader,
Last week we brought you Part 1 of cars at the Schlumpf (click here). Below we present just a few of the Bugatti and Gordini race cars at the National Museum at Mulhouse. We have not attempted to identify the Bugattis by chassis number; we have asked for a list of cars and chassis numbers from the Museum but no response yet. Even simple identification is often difficult; for example is the wire wheeled Bugatti below a T35 or T37? We are not sure.
Therefore Mr. Sharp has made use of the placards at the Museum, the official Museum booklet, and the Museum Internet site to try to verify that the identifications in the captions below are as correct as possible. Our staff also checked sources from a variety of Bugatti and Gordini books. In some cases, we are still not sure we are 100% correct. Perhaps readers could help. We would also like to know if readers have had similar experiences.
The situation was no better with the Gordinis. Placards were often incorrect. We used Christian Huet’s landmark book, “Gordini” as well as Roy Smith’s recent work “Amédée Gordini-a true racing legend” to identify the cars by chassis number and type – always a difficult matter at best as Smith will attest to. So enjoy; comments welcome as usual! [Read more…] about Bugatti and Gordini Racecars at the Schlumpf
Ferrari In Art: A Look Inside
Ferrari In Art: A Celebration of the Legend
Art,Text and Design by Paul Chenard
Paul Chenard, Blurb Books
ISBN 9781364577919
Hardcover, 10 x 8, 28 pages, full color art
$68.79 USD plus shipping
Order here
Review by Pete Vack
Click on art to enlarge
Paul Chenard has been around for a long time; his art has been featured in Classic and Sports Car, Motorsport, Octane, and Vintage Motorsport to name-drop just a few. Recently he sent us an email announcing his latest work, which he thought might be of interest to the VeloceToday readership.
He added an image of three Ferrari Sharknoses (pardon the use of a capital letter on Sharknose) in the garage at Spa in 1961. Instead of using red to attract attention, Chenard featured the yellow 156 of Gendebien as the focus of the pen, ink and watercolor painting. In the background brown is used to accentuate a busy scene of tires, trucks, boxes and workers. It is an image that comes to life and adheres itself to the mind’s eye. Send us more, we responded.
[Read more…] about Ferrari In Art: A Look InsideGauld Drives a Rare Aravis Bugatti
By Graham Gauld
I lost a good friend a few years ago, when the 20th Earl of Moray, from one of Scotland’s older noble families, died at the age of 83. Though born in Africa he lived for most of his life at the family’s Scottish estates in Perthshire and Moray. So why am I talking about this man? Well, back in the 1970s when he was still Lord Doune, Douglas John Moray Stuart decided to collect motor cars that fascinated him. The first was a little Citroen but then he went on a buying spree which culminated not only in him building the Doune Motor Museum but creating the Doune Hill Climb in his grounds which even today hosts a round of the British Hill Climb Championship.
Many years ago Douglas asked me to help him trace the history of his cars and I may well come back to the stories behind some of them in a future column. When I heard of his death I was reminded of the fact that he was the first person to let me drive a Bugatti.
The Last of the French Bugattis Reviewed
Bugatti Type 57 – The Last of the French Bugattis
A Veloce classic, reprinted after several years absence!
By Barrie Price
25×20.7cm • 240 pages Over 300 B&W photos
ISBN: 978-1-845848-71-2
£ 45 UK, $75.00 USA
Veloce Publishing, October 2015
Telephone – +44 (0)1305 260068
Facsimile – +44 (0)1305 250479
E-mail – info@veloce.co.uk
Review by Pete Vack
All B&W photos from the book
Last week we reviewed Barrie Price’s book, The Big Bugattis, Type 46 & 50, newly re-published by Veloce Publishing in the UK (no relation).
Like the T46 & 50, this is a must have, and even better, as it focuses on one make and has significantly more pages and more photos. Plus, the T57 is generally regarded as the ultimate example of the line, and so it is well worth an in-depth look at the model. [Read more…] about The Last of the French Bugattis Reviewed
VeloceToday for January 19, 2016
National Automobile Museum in Mulhouse (aka Schlumpf)
Bugattis at the Schlumpf by Jonathan Sharp
I must have first become aware of the Schlumpf collection back in the late 1970s, when stories started to appear in the British daily newspapers following the discovery of a load of old cars that had been hidden in an old woolen mill in Eastern France. From that moment on I had vowed to visit it one day. A family motoring trip to Lido di Jesolo in Northern Italy had brought me to within 30 kms of Mulhouse back in 1984, but the call of the sun, sand and pasta proved to be more popular for the rest of the family than a visit to a dusty old car museum. It was not until October of last year that I was at last able to tick the “Visit the Schlumpf Collection” box on my bucket list.
[Read more…] about National Automobile Museum in Mulhouse (aka Schlumpf)
Italian Car Passion Show Part 2
Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt Click on images to enlarge
Italian Car Passion, Autoworld Museum, Brussels
This week we catch up on rest rest of the cars at the Brussels Autoworld Museum Italian Car Passion show. This show will open until January 31st, so if you are in Europe, it is an impressive display, a special exhibition to “la bella macchina italiana”, featuring some 60 cars ranging from the 50s to this day, representing the most emblematic machines produced by mass manufacturers, renowned coachbuilders or talented craftsmen.
The other day we received an email from one of the organizers, Frank Rameckers, who wrote, “It is always great that visitors appreciated the hard work. For some cars it took me two years to convince the collectors of the cars to lend their car(s) for two months to the museum.”
We told him that the variety and selection was superb, and that he should take the show to New York and LA.
Wouldn’t that be nice? Don’t hold your breath.
Bugatti Type 46 & 50 – The Big Bugattis: A Review
Bugatti Type 46 & 50 – The Big Bugattis
A Veloce classic, reprinted after several years absence!
By Barrie Price
25×20.7cm • 144 pages Over 200 B&W photos
ISBN: 978-1-845848-72-9
£ 37.50 $60.00 USA
Veloce Publishing, October 2015
Telephone – +44 (0)1305 260068
Facsimile – +44 (0)1305 250479
E-mail – info@veloce.co.uk
Review by Pete Vack
All black and white photos from the book
When embarking upon a discussion of Bugattis, even as a book review, one treads carefully. We are not as well informed as many Bugatti enthusiasts and we do not pretend to be experts. It is a remarkably complex field; between the introduction of the T35 in 1924 to the onset of WWII, Bugatti’s tiny factory produced 41 different automobile models, and within that 24 distinct types, with displacements ranging from 1.5 liters to 12.8 liters with four, eight and sixteen cylinders. Not only that, many models overlapped, with production inclusive of several models at the same time.
In addition and relevant here, there are remarkably few books about Bugatti, in particular specific Bugatti models. This makes fact checking difficult.
[Read more…] about Bugatti Type 46 & 50 – The Big Bugattis: A ReviewItalian UFOs and the Stratos Zero
Story and photos by Roberto Motta
The Bertone Stratos Zero, introduced at Turin in 1970, is very different from the car that won three World Rally championships, and is totally different in respect to all its mechanics parts. However, this car provided the inspiration for the later Lancia Stratos Rally.
In the report below, VeloceToday Correspondent Roberto Motta describes the car in detail.
“Stratos”, from “stratosphere” is a name normally associated with an object alien to our environment, with strange links to time and space which surpass the confines and realities of daily life. In other words, something so fantastic it probably could not be real.
In reality, the new Stratos Zero prototype was a high performance car characterized by extreme lines but, as a project of Nuccio Bertone, was a fully functional, driveable car, unlike most of the extreme “concept” cars built for car shows.
VeloceToday for January 12, 2016
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