Photos by Chris Martin
Cick on images to enlarge
A few of the participants of the recent Bugatti Rally as seen by Chris Martin.
Mike Preston, Louise Treutlein on King’s Type 35
[Read more…] about Cars of the Great Australian Bugatti Rally
The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
By pete
Photos by Chris Martin
Cick on images to enlarge
A few of the participants of the recent Bugatti Rally as seen by Chris Martin.
Mike Preston, Louise Treutlein on King’s Type 35
[Read more…] about Cars of the Great Australian Bugatti Rally
By pete
Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
Click on photos to enlarge
Read about the Bugattis at Members Meeting
To the uninitiated it must have seemed strange to call a new race meeting the 72nd Members meeting, held on March 29-30 2014.
This was not technically a new event, but a revival of older and very well established event. Years ago, the members meetings at Goodwood were run for members of the British Automobile Racing club. The first Members Meeting took place on the 18th September 1948. The 71st Members meeting (they were more than annual) was the final race meeting held at the Goodwood Motor Circuit on the 2nd July 1966, just before the circuit’s closure. These meetings attracted many a future top driver as well as the more down to earth club racers and were as popular for the members for the social side as to the racing itself. [Read more…] about 72nd Members Meeting at Goodwood
By pete
VeloceToday Select Number One:
Cuban Grand Prix, 1957
by David Seielstad
$25 Ads for Everything and Everyone*
Fiat 1100 S Mille Miglia model. Produced by an Italian firm, INCAP in 1948. The model is 14 cm in length. It is very rare, never seen before and is in like-new condition and comes with the original box. Click on the small photo to see the car and box. Contact info@du-commerce.nl
Style Auto Quarterly – Architettura della Carrozzeria: compete set, issues 1 though 37, published 1962 to 1978, condition varies from good to excellent, thousands of insider photos, tech drawings, renderings, design studies from manufacturer’s and coachbuilder’s files: click pic to see all contents. $US1200. plus shipping. Contact:rmdiver@gmail.com
*ONE TIME ads ($25 USD) for anyone who has something to sell, to giveaway, or to holler about. Ad will be placed above the fold. Contact vack@cox.net .
Our Features This Week
By pete
By Henrik Schou-Nielsen (and staff)
Danish architect Henrik Schou-Nielsen tells us the fascinating story of a famous racing Bugatti that seemed to have disappeared over the years, only to be found at long last hiding under a striking art deco styled roadster. The discovery resulted in a 10 year project that skilfully preserved two very different Bugattis, one of which turned out to be the Grand Prix Bugatti raced by Anne-Cécile Itier in the 1930s. We’ll let Schou-Nielsen take it from here.
By pete
By Gijsbert-Paul Berk
In Part 1 of his look at Panhard’s remarkable Louis Bionier, Gijsbert-Paul Berk described how Bionier designed the Panoramic and Dynamic Panhards in the 1930s. In Part 2, we learn how the post-war Dyna X was developed.
Was the Panhard Dyna an automotive cuckoo’s egg?
There are some mysteries concerning the origin of the postwar Panhard Dyna.Was it designed by Jean-Albert Grégoire (as some French experts claim on Wikipedia) or by the duo Louis Delagarde, Louis Bionier at Panhard & Levassor? The story of the gestation of this interesting car was extensively described in the review by Peter Vack of the book ‘Panhard, the flat twin cars 1945-1967’ by David Beare on VeloceToday of 8 August 2013 but if you want to refresh your memory we must take you back to the prewar years. [Read more…] about Louis Bionier, French Designer, Part 2
By pete
By Pete Vack
To some eyes, the Alfa Romeo Sprint Speciale (1957-1966) was a great looking piece of automotive art. Yet, so radical, so sweeping was the scope of the design, to this day there may not be a consensus. Is it a work of rolling art or is it a bloated caricature of a space age nightmare? What was the original intent? Did the SS live up to expectations?
The best laid plans… [Read more…] about Alfa Sprint Speciale Reconsidered
By pete
By Toly Arutunoff
I have previously related the tale of my first Appia Zagato. You’re gonna think I’m mildly nuts but just as George Starch can’t remember what he did with his Zagato, I can’t remember what happened to mine! I’ve seen it advertised a few years ago in Hemmings as ‘Toly Arutunoff’s car’ but I never checked on it. [Read more…] about Arutunoff and the Appia Zagato Part 2
By pete
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Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Speciale
Instruction Book. Dated 5/63, Publication 890. This booklet of 19 pages focuses on the Sprint Speciale 1600 and accompanied the normal 1600 instruction book. This is an original book, with slight water mark damage on many of the 18 pages and covers. No rips or tears, complete and in good condition.
Sorry everyone, this is sold already!
Finally. history of the 1963 – 1968 USRRC series. 438 pages of race stories, full results, course maps & records and more detail in a 9″ x 12″ hardback book with deluxe box. 500 color & b/w photos of Chaparral, Cobra, Lola, Lotus, McKee, McLaren, and drivers, on the track and in the pits. Superb layout includes program covers and Index.
Available from Autobooks/Aerobooks, or direct from the author at: grimeheel.blogspot.com
Scarab: Race long of the all American Specials 1957-1965 Photos by Dave Friedman. This book contains the signatures of Lance Reventlow and Chuck Daigh! Preston Lerner’s definite story of the Reventlow Scarab project and the F1 adventures, published in 1991. 176 pages. 450 Euro. Click pic for more photos. Contact info@du-commerce.nl
I would like to offer a complete set of Automobile Quarterly for sale. Slip covers and indexes included. No library is complete without this set. A set sold at Bonhams last year for $3,500.00. I am asking $2,400.00 USD.
David W Hewitt, contact m33n3@rcn.com Click pic for large images.
*ONE TIME ads ($25 USD) for anyone who has something to sell, to giveaway, or to holler about. Ad will be placed above the fold. Contact vack@cox.net .
Our Features This Week
By pete
Story and photos by Graham Gauld
Just over a month ago, I was at Retromobile in Paris and a friend of mine suggested I try similar thing, the Avignon Motor Festival in that well-known city famous for its bridge. So last Friday we drove to Avignon to take a look. [Read more…] about Graham Gauld at Avignon
By pete
Who is Louis Bionier? Gijsbert-Paul Berk explains the great French engineer
It is well known that Panhard et Levassor, founded in 1886, was one of the French pioneers as manufacturers of automobiles. Panhard et Levassor constructed their first ‘motorcar’ in 1891. Many are familiar with the names of the great designers that shaped the coachwork of French automobiles in the years before and just after WWII. Still, it would not be surprising if only a few can place Louis Bionier and his work. [Read more…] about Louis Bionier, French Designer Part 1
By pete
The Storm before the Thunder
The United States Road Racing Championship, thankfully USRRC for short, was an amazing era that put an end to one epoch and played midwife to the next. For six years, from 1963 to 1968, the then-revolutionary professional SCCA series provided excellent racing and wonderful memories (as well as rock and roll songs and some not too bad grade B movies with notable stars).
The new series exploded with a huge noise which announced in no uncertain terms the dominance of the American V8. Ferraris and Maseratis would no longer rule the big bore classes, primarily because they weren’t big enough; nothing would succeed like cubic inches in this brave new world where over two liters meant unlimited displacements.
It was not just the massive influx of cubic inches but the rear engine revolution, a field in which Maserati and Ferrari were not exactly making great strides.
By pete
By Toly Arutunoff
In 1964 it seemed like I needed a companion in the garage for my Lancia Flaminia Zagato. The previous year, after our good finishes in the Targa Florio, Nurburgring 1000km, and Spa 500km, the factory offered me a straight swap for my car and one of the GTS Appia Zagatos, guaranteed for 117 mph. I turned the offer down, but later I saw an ad for an Appia Zagato in Rhode Island for $900. I heard it call my name and before I knew it we were on our way east from our lair in Oklahoma. [Read more…] about Arutunoff and the Appia