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Talking about the industrial situation after the Second World War, Prof. Grandi investigates the small workshops which, starting from mass-produced cars, brought to life extraordinary examples of craftsmanship in design and aerodynamic experimentation. Among all these, worthy of note was the coachbuilder Meteor, from Varese, which, as its very name involuntarily foresaw, crossed Italian car history as quickly as a meteorite, leaving absolutely impressive creations in its wake. Drawings courtesy of Massimo Grandi When we are charmed by a vintage car, we often forget to consider the context in which it was created. We may place it in a given season of history, but we rarely consider the social conditions, professional qualities and trades which, at certain times in history, led to the special and unrepeatable development of art, technique and manufacturing skill. So, in Italy in the period between the two world wars, and thereafter from the second half of the 1940s, above all in Turin, Lombardy and Emilia, the professional talents in the world of both two and four wheels had spread and consolidated, in the field of both engineering and bodywork. This widespread savoir-faire developed around the large factories in Turin and Milan, but not only. Around the big names like Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati and the newborn Ferrari, as well as the big coachbuilders like Touring Superleggera, Farina, Pininfarina, Bertone, Vignale and Ghia – to name but a few – an authentic constellation of secondary activities had formed, true industrial and craft-level spin-offs. Spin-offs, as well as a fabric of small businesses, in the vast majority of cases linked to the competition car world, which after the Second World War developed rapidly and gained more and more popularity. But while the period after the war was difficult for the large companies that had suffered severe damage during the war, for the small manufacturers it was even tougher. For most small businesses, building a complete car, as Ferrari succeeded in doing with its sci-fi 12-cylinder engine, was an impossible feat. The only possibility was to develop cars starting from what the industry made available, using both the engine and often also the chassis. A few companies had started to build engine components, cylinder blocks and heads, as in the case of Stanguellini, or actual engines in the case of Ermini from Florence. We should recall that in the second half of the 1940s, depending on what was available on the market, the most common and interesting models for the small manufacturers and coachbuilders to develop were based on the Fiat 508, 1100 and 500 and the Lancia Aprilia. In this brightly-coloured constellation of engineering and bodywork enthusiasts, hundreds of cars were built, almost always single pieces, and always linked to the competitive sports world. Often it was the drivers or the ‘gentlemen drivers’ who asked for racing cars to be built, and the same car always ended up destroyed or reconverted. This meant that many of the creative cars built by these small workshops didn’t survive until today, and so we can only enjoy them through old archives and photographs. And this is why here I would like for a moment to leave the world of the big cars, those renowned and well-studied models, seeking to discover some cars known only by a very few enthusiasts with in-depth knowledge of the car culture. I would like to do this because, in design terms, these cars are often real gems, and this is why they deserve attention and appreciation. I will start this overview with a very special car, made by a small coachbuilder in the mid-40s: the Fiat 1100 Coupé Meteor. Meteor was founded in 1945 in Varese, in Via Bellavista 4, by Vittorio Bosdati, but was immediately taken over by the driver Dario Dal Monte Casoni. Dal Monte Casoni aimed to make one-off cars, intended especially for racing. Locally there was plenty of skilled labour, particularly panel beaters. But the company lasted only a few years, closing in early 1949, and focused in particular on special cars based on Fiat 500, Fiat 1100 and Lancia Aprilia engineering. The interesting aspect of this production lies mainly in the bodywork design. Dal Monte Casoni constantly strived for maximum aerodynamic efficiency, based intuitively on its basic principles, starting from the theoretical shape of the so-called “elongated drop”. On paper, the “elongated drop” is the shape of a solid suspended in a fluid with a Cx of zero. The practical problem is that the ratio between width and length of this particular shape makes it impossible to be faithfully applied to a car, which would end up being overly long. But based on this arrangement, Del Monte Casoni achieved some truly extreme solutions, without much attention to the distribution of volumes or interior comfort. His Fiat 1100 Coupé is an emblematic example of this. Its drop shape in fact has a very long tail, which could appear extremely unbalanced compared to the overall volume. The passenger compartment is reduced to a minimum, almost as if it was a record-breaking aerodynamic single-seater. If we compare the shape and size with that of the basic 1100 sedan, of which it kept the 2420 mm wheelbase, we can immediately understand the formal revolution. The driver and passenger sit in an extremely small, sacrificed space, practically on the chassis of the car which is extremely low, only slightly above the bonnet. As we said, an extreme solution, with apparently unbalanced proportions. I say apparently, because in my modest opinion, this car, considering that it was built essentially for competition purposes (Dal Monte Casoni raced this car at the Campo dei Fiori in Varese, for example), has its very own formal beauty. The clean, elongated lines, drawn over a longitudinal “thick wing” section, the small roof with a pronounced V-shaped windscreen, the very long tapered tail that ends in the wheel casing, give it is very own elegant line. The very modern front is reduced to the minimum, with a large, trapezoidal radiator air intake that is simply “cut in” with no frame, made of a metallic mesh accompanied by two square headlights, also cut into the bodywork without any decoration. One interesting feature of the aesthetics is the wide dihedral angle running centrally and longitudinally along the whole car, which was normally used by the panel beater to check the symmetries of the body. The end result is positive and highly expressive. On the other hand, if we look at the geometries of the front and rear main lines, we can see that even in the empirical creation of the design, some of the criteria used for the composition are far from random. With this coupé, which I would prefer to call a “Racing Berlinetta”, I think we are looking at a small design masterpiece. In addition to the considerations of its appearance, we must also recognise its efficient aerodynamic performance, as, without any changes to the engineering, the car could reach speeds of 145 km/h compared to the 110 of the original car. The convertible versions, again made on the Fiat 1100 and Lancia Aprilia base, as we can see in the bottom drawing of the Fiat version, repropose exactly the same volumes yet, beyond the competition dimension, are less able to cope with the clear imbalance. Even the front appears more dated and conventional for its time. In any event, the convertibles also express their own personality, but without reaching the height of our berlinetta. In its very short life, in addition to these two cars Meteor also made some pure sports cars, also using the chassis of the Fiat 1100, Fiat 500 or 750, developed by engineers of the calibre of Nando Tajana. There is also an interesting model based on the Lancia Aprilia, a notchback racing berlinetta, the appearance of which I have tried to recreate here, based on old archive photos of the body during the construction works. Also in this case, we can see a rather long tail which, like the previous convertible, is perhaps rather out of proportion in its overall shape, dictated solely by an attempt to assure aerodynamic function. To end, in addition to these sports creations, in 1949 Meteor also worked on a road car, a convertible made on a Fiat 1100 base. A demi ponton design which, in my opinion, is not particularly interesting, but in any case I felt was worth mentioning to offer an overall picture of the production of this coachbuilder. A story which, as its name seems unintentionally to recall, passed like a meteorite through Italian car history, leaving us however with a tiny gem like the Fiat 1100 coupé, bearing witness to a passion, an art and a skill that remind us of this extraordinary season in a distant past. -- Massimo Grandi, architect and designer, previously director of the Car Design laboratory at the Design Campus of the Department of Architecture at the University of Florence. Member of the ASI Culture Commission. Among his published works: “La forma della memoria: il progetto della Ferrari Alaspessa”, “Car design workshop”, “Dreaming American Cars”, “Ferrari 550 Alaspessa: dall’idea al progetto”, “Quando le disegnava il vento”, “Il paradigma Scaglione”, “La più veloce: breve storia dei record mondiali di velocità su strada” (with others). Sources: F. Maurizi: Archivio vetture sport A. Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani

Emilia Romagna is an ancient land of motors. Engineer Luigi Marmiroli traces back the historical and cultural reasons underlying the tradition and passion that has made this Northern Italian region unique for over a century. Pictures courtesy of Luigi Marmiroli Archive “Speed” was born in Emilia Romagna. Renowned worldwide as the Motor Valley, it lies on the Po River Plain in Northern Italy. Modena, AKA the Land of Motors, is its moral capital: here in late May every year, the Motor Valley Fest is held. The whole area is bursting with a huge passion for car and motorbike racing, for supercars and high-performing engines. No other region in the world has such a large number of top-range car manufacturers, international racing circuits, famous museums and private collections, as well as research centres, universities and schools that focus on this topic. On top of this, especially in the recent past, the motoring culture has really spread everywhere. In small towns and villages, rudimentary testing workshops were set up without any particular engineering knowledge. Here, people worked on engines of all kinds, their sole objective being to increase vehicle performance, within or without the limits of the law. In this respect, I have come up with my own personal theory to explain how this area is so filled with mechanical and motoring culture. The first reason: as said, Emilia Romagna is a very flat region, and rich in rivers it was ideal for the development of a flourishing farming community over the centuries. Consequently, it was bound to become a land of conquest. In 600 B.C. it was invaded by the Etruscans from the south-east; thereafter came the Celts and Gauls from Northern Europe. Then the Roman Empire took over, in turn conquered in 450 A.D. by the Huns, nomadic warriors from Northern Siberia. Then, two hundred years later came the Longobards from Northern Germany. This melting pot left the local people with a DNA that combines the creativity and passion typical of southern peoples with the rationality and determination of the peoples from the north. And the Emilian supercars are the happy marriage of these characteristics. The second reason: this flat, fertile land was ideal for the transition from ox- and horse-towed agricultural equipment to mechanical traction and the first rudimentary steam-powered tractors. And in this “primordial soup”, two enlightened visionaries came up with some fast sports and racing cars. In 1914, Alfieri Maserati founded “Società Anonima Officine Maserati” in Bologna, later moving to Modena. In 1929, Enzo Ferrari founded Scuderia Ferrari, with the initials “S.F.” in the symbol. The company became S.E.F.A.C, and this year is celebrating its 75th anniversary. In 1963, Lamborghini shifted its production straight from tractors to supercars. This vintage postcard rather naively illustrates the bond between the world of sports and racing cars and the city of Modena. Alongside the city’s Cathedral and Ghirlandina Tower are its typical food products, zampone and Lambrusco, and of course car racing competitions. In the Cathedral, a UNESCO world heritage site and an authentic age-old gallery of “marble images”, we can admire panels portraying the wheat harvest, grape pressing and even a mechanical workshop. As Enzo Ferrari liked to say, “You can’t describe emotion, you can only live it”. In Emilia Romagna, the 7 top-class car and motorbike manufacturers, the 5 international race tracks, 12 major museums and over 20 private collections open to the public tickle that thrilling desire for speed that only “speedholics” understand. And, after all these motoring experiences, I don’t think there’s anything better than sitting down to enjoy the over 40 typical PDO food and wine specialities that underline this region’s second nickname: Food Valley. To close, a photo of me, taken during an annual Motorvalley Fest: some car bodies, shaped by hand by the skilled local craftsmen, are on display in an ancient church. We could almost say that in this region, speed and supercars are a real … religion!

The history of Intermeccanica is that of the last five years of Scaglione’s work. Professor Grandi takes a look back over the events and the models he worked on, and the unlucky adventure with Frank Reisner that would lead him sadly to withdraw prematurely from the car design scene. Drawings courtesy of Massimo Grandi Frank Reisner was a Canadian citizen of Hungarian origins, a chemical engineer, but a car fanatic and above all a skilled business and public relations expert. In 1959 he came to Italy, and opened a company in Turin, Intermeccanica, a branch of the Canadian NEEC (North East Engineering Company) which also belonged to Reisner. In 1960, at the Grand Prix in Monaco, Reisner met a Californian engineer who had designed a “European style” GT with a Buick 3500 cc engine. Reisner began to produce the bodywork at Intermeccanica in Turin. It was 1962, and the car was the Apollo GT. But the car, designed by Ron Plescia, wasn’t particularly attractive, it appeared rather unbalanced, and a bit rough-and-ready because it had no back window. And so, Reisner got in touch with the firm Scaglione in Turin, to have them review the Apollo and make it more attractive. Scaglione accepted the appointment, and with a few but intelligent touches created a fast-back coupé with typically European, indeed Italian, lines, given the similarity with the Ferrari Gran Turismo of the time: the car was later manufactured by Motor Cars of Oakland in California, in 3500 GT and 5000 GT versions, with a 4-speed manual or 3-speed automatic gearbox. The car soon became all the rage, and was very popular among the Hollywood stars. Between 1961 and 1965 a total of 88 were built: 76 coupés, 11 convertibles and the 2+2 prototype. The start of the relationship between Scaglione and Reisner was therefore quite simple: a restyling job, but which was further developed and consolidated with the Griffith story. Here too, it was a case of a wealthy American who wanted to produce his own special car. His name was Jack Griffith, a Ford dealer and importer of British cars to the USA. He convinced the UK TVR to mount a US engine, the Ford 289, on their Grantura. And so the Grantura-Griffith came about, sold in the States with the name Griffith 200. After that came the Griffith 400, after which the contract with TVR fell apart, but Griffith wanted to continue to produce a Griffith 600, with a Ford engine, designed by Robert Cumberford, and Reisner was contracted to build the bodies at Intermeccanica. Once again, Reisner called in Scaglione to review the style, but especially to work on the construction design of the Griffith 600. So at this point, Scaglione was called in not only to offer his stylistic contribution but was also in charge of the construction design of a product. Here, we should underline that Scaglione was never directly involved with Intermeccanica, he was always an outsider, but their work together was certainly consolidated when , in 1966, Griffith went bankrupt and Intermeccanica was left with 100 unused bodies, and Reisner managed to get engines from Ford and gearboxes from Mustang, and set up the company “Intermeccanica di F. Reisner”, marketing what was to all extents an Italian car, the Torino, later renamed Intermeccanica Italia. Intermeccanica Italia coupé (1968) The Intermeccanica Italia, originally born with the name Intermeccanica Torino, which was later changed as the name Torino had already been deposited by Ford, substantially kept the features of Robert “Bob” Cumberford’s Griffith 600. Scaglione redesigned the front of the Italia, eliminating the long front bumpers and replacing them with two elegant bumpers, framing an oval air duct bearing the Intermeccanica Raging Bull logo in the centre, which bend round and continue along the sides. Along the sides, right after the front wheel arches, are two rectangular air ducts. The end result of this restyling was an elegant car, highly reminiscent of the Italian gran turismo models like those of Ferrari, with dynamic and aggressive lines, and in fact in both the berlinetta and convertible versions, despite the limited mechanical qualities compared to those of the GT from Maranello, were quite a commercial success, with around 500 sold. Again in 1968, a convertible version was launched. This version requires no additional comments, as from the beltline downwards, the car was identical to the coupé, but in any case it is worth describing. The design of the soft-top version was particularly upgraded; in other words, it gave its best and indeed in aesthetic terms, if not in terms of performance, it would not have lost face compared to the 1966 Ferrari 365 California cabriolet Pininfarina. But what was most important was that at last Intermeccanica had its own model for mass production, and even if only technically speaking, Scaglione was a part of this process. And so by 1968 Scaglione worked full time for Intermeccanica, giving an identity to the “Italia”, designing the “Murena” and the “Italia IMX”, a development on the basic competition model. Intermeccanica Italia IMX - Berlinetta competition prototype (1969) The Italia IMX was a development on the basic competition model. In this case, the design was all the work of Scaglione, and in fact once again we can see the clearly aerodynamic applications that were typical of his designs. The car was designed and built for racing, but was also based on the Italian gran turismo style of its peers Ferrari 275 GTB and Maserati Mistral, for example. This is the case of the carefully designed, luxury leather-lined interiors. The outer lines are the strictly sporting lines of a coupé, but it would be more correct to define it a two-volume fastback as the angle between the rear window and the roof is much less than 30°, so aggressive and dynamic. The side and upper profiles have rounded, fluid main lines, however characterised by numerous aerodynamic slots, including the NACA ducts on the bonnet and the openings on the side immediately before the front door frame, to vent the engine compartment. Other aerodynamic extras include the two front anti-lift spoilers and two small stabilizer fins at the top of the rear mudguards. All this along with a K-tail modelled at the top into a kind of fin to create greater pressure on the rear axle at high speed. The front is low, with no bumpers and a large, wide upturned trapeze-shaped air duct opening between the two inset headlights with no glass cover, set into the mudguards, each with a pair of lights both set into a shaped panel. Completing the front are the triangular spoilers. The roof is low and relatively flat, extending practically to the tail, including the rear window which, opening compass-style also acts as a rear door. The Italia IMX is therefore not only a beautiful example of an Italian gran turismo, but also bears witness to Scaglione’s design evolution in the early 1970s, which went on to become representative of his design for the Indra. With its clever aerodynamics and powerful engine - a V-shaped 8-cylinder cm³ (Ford), with 310 HP - reached 100 km/h in 6 seconds and 240 km/hour top speed. Intermeccanica Indra cabriolet and coupé (1970) Between the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was an authentic formal car design revolution on the international scene. From sinuous, rounded shapes, car design shifted suddenly to lean, square shapes at all levels and in all segments of car production. At the 1972 Paris motor show, Ferrari presented the Pininfarina 365 GT4 2+2, with its very square shape, which, in the Bertone Dino 308 GT4, presented in Paris in 1973, was developed and enhanced further. But we could also mention the 1970 De Tomaso Pantera, the Fiat 130 and X1/9, the Lamborghini Urraco, the concept Lancia Stratos HF Zero and the Gandini Lancia Stratos, to name but a few. This new language spread from compact to gran turismo cars, rooting itself radically in the culture and taste of Italy and beyond in the 1970s. As Scaglione was never really a “stylist”, he never paid attention to passing trends but rather the theoretical and experimental evolution of aerodynamics, but the weight and anchoring of these new styles also played out well in his hands. So, in this context, Scaglione too sought to experiment in his own way, exploring the new language based on the use of straight prisms, wedges and sharp angles. The result of the lexical hybriding can clearly be seen in his Indra convertible project. Even in the side view of this car we can see this new design imprint. Simply observe how the front and rear lines of the mudguards are modelled, with extremely tense lines and sharp corners, the straight beltline between the base of the windscreen and the tail, the tail itself cut into a prism shape at the top, the front with the narrow front, like the section of a bullet. Then, if we look at it the front three-quarters, this language is even clearer, with a flat, wide bonnet and two front retracting headlights, the front cut straight and enriched with two thin, straight bumpers. Then the complex volume is interesting as it meets the central fairing, a longitudinal curved wedge, along with the volume of the mudguard and the side of the car. Of course, looking closely, the Scaglione’s hand and personality emerge distinctively in this new language. The aerodynamic research, seeking the fluid shape that guides and accompanies the air flows creating as little turbulence as possible, led Scaglione to introduce and maintain a model that was also based on widely radiating main lines. This is all clear when we look at the front of the car: simply see the curve starting from the edge of the front end which then develops in a parabola to design the lower profile of the front leading edge. Scaglione’s skilled hand makes opposing geometries agree, with a unique balance and harmonious synthesis. As regards the coupé, in fact to be able to be mass produced, this is based completely on the same car body as the convertible, simply adding a fixed, rigid roof in place of the canvas one. If anything, we should say that the perfectly prismatic design of the roof perhaps accentuates the squarer image of the car compared to the spider. Intermeccanica Indra - Coupé fastback 2+2 (1972) The Intermeccanica Indra Coupé fastback 2+2 was presented at the 1972 Geneva Motor Show, and despite the unquestionable stylistic qualities of its design, only a few cars were made because Opel never gave the support that was hoped, nor that of its European sales network. The Indra coupé fastback is a further development of the Indra coupé. This time, the roof is no longer simply rigid but is an integral part of the car design. To create a little more space inside with two (small) rear seats, the rood is extended, ending virtually on the dihedral rear coupling. The three volumes of the Indra Coupé here become a fluid and perfectly balanced two-volume, maintaining the car body of the previous coupé and spider beneath the beltline. From a three-quarters view, it reminds us of another 1971 coupé fast back 2+2, the Ferrari 365 GTC/4, even though in purely stylistic terms, Scaglione's design is more balanced and harmonious than Pininfarina’s creation which, for the record, nicknamed the “Gobbone”, didn’t have such great commercial success, with just 508 models produced. The main lines we see in a side view are substantially those of the spider, but here they integrate perfectly with those of the rood, in this nervous weave of straight and curved lines, rotation solids and straight prisms. The ratio between the two volumes that create the whole car body is perfectly balanced. The image is one of a powerful, aggressive and yet elegant and substantially restrained car. The front is very beautiful, and absolutely new to Scaglione’s formal language, while maintaining the typical elements of his design, such as the very low front, the lack of mudguards, the “clean”, profiled front coupling Even the headlights retract into the body, as seen in other previous models: the Fiat-Abarth coupé 215 A and 216 B, the Lamborghini 350 GTV or the Titania Veltro. But all these typical elements are interpreted here in an absolutely new expressive manner. The whole front is projected forwards and curved downwards, but transversely, the fairing and bonnet, almost as if marking a counterpoint, have a slightly curved profile, marked almost imperceptibly by a central ribbing, which then runs upwards to softly meet the supper corners of the mudguards: an authentic symphony of curves. (FIG 13) Finally, it is extremely interesting to observed the complex plastic modelling. Simply observe the mudguard profile and the overlapping vanishing points generated by their solids. Perhaps the weakest part of this car, in my opinion, is the rear. Compared to the rich and complex modelling of the sides and front, it appears substantially “poor”. Consisting of a rear window and the baggage compartment, designed on a single plane which then folds, like the previous models, into a dihedral shaped corner of the rear coupling. In this case, probably, the need to maintain the whole car body identical beneath the beltline and maximise the internal space, forced the designer, having to model a single rear volume within set limits, to make this inevitable simplification. In any event, apart from this partial shortcoming in the rear, the Indra 2+2, along with the two other versions, remains a beautiful Italian gran turismo, marking the development of Scaglione’s design heading into the 1970s. This was the last of Franco Scaglione’s creations, and nothing more came after this. The professional career of this major designer ended suddenly and dramatically. In 1972 Scaglione was only 56, and his flair and undisputed skill could have brought us many other designs. His huge contribution to the birth, development and international success of Italian design would undoubtedly have been even greater than what he left us in any case. All in all, his particular, complex and intriguing approach to design, his inimitable creative synthesis, in other words his paradigm, remain in car history as a fundamental testimonial to Italian genius and excellence. -- Massimo Grandi, architect and designer, previously director of the Car Design laboratory at the Design Campus of the Department of Architecture at the University of Florence. Member of the ASI Culture Commission. Among his published works: “La forma della memoria: il progetto della Ferrari Alaspessa”, “Car design workshop”, “Dreaming American Cars”, “Ferrari 550 Alaspessa: dall’idea al progetto”, “Quando le disegnava il vento”, “Il paradigma Scaglione”, “La più veloce: breve storia dei record mondiali di velocità su strada” (with others). The drawings and part of the text were taken from “Il paradigma Scaglione” by M. Grandi, Libreria ASI, Turin 2016.

“You can’t make a racehorse out of a pig. But if you work hard enough at it you can make a mighty fast pig” Bob Akin Find this car listed on the brand new SpeedHolics Marketplace, featuring a curated selection of sales, auctions and restorations of the world’s rarest, most sought-after vehicles. Link to the Markeplace Along the eastern shore of the Hudson River, less than fifty kilometers from New York City lie the historic villages of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, originally a Dutch settlement. You may well have heard of the area before – it was made famous by Washington Irving’s gothic short story, published in 1820, and even more so by Tim Burton’s 1999 movie starring Johnny Depp. Fiction aside, Sleepy Hollow has had its fair share of real life famous residents. Names like Carnegie, Chrysler, and Rockfeller have called this place home. So too did the powerful Akin family, a lesser known but equally fascinating lot. Though their story originates and blossoms through the industrial sector, one of its number made his name behind the wheel of racing cars. The Akin Family, The Hudson Wire Company & An Introduction To Racing Bob Akin was born in 1936 and raised right here in Sleepy Hollow. At the turn of the 20th century, Bob’s grandfather Robert had co-founded the Hudson Wire Company, which over the next century would grow to dominate the global aircraft and aerospace wiring market. Simply put, young Bob didn’t have to worry much about money. By no means was he spoiled though. He joined the family company after his studies, and served as President from 1974 until 1995. But like many people who are raised in comfort, Bob sought discomfort, risk, and thrill in other pursuits. He found his own particular adrenaline fix through speed. Initially, he developed a penchant for powerboats and dragsters, then pivoted to road racing by the end of the 50s. In those few short years however, Akin made quite the impression. He got his SCCA national racing license in 1959 and, aided by family money, hired the legendary racer John Fitch as his coach. He learned fast under Fitch’s tutelage, and in his third ever race at Bridgehampton, he drove an Alfa Veloce Spyder to victory. It was a short-lived love affair at first thought. By 1961, an ambition to grow the Hudson Wire Company took over, and racing was put on the shelf. Akin’s Return To The Track: Sebring, Le Mans & The Porsche 935 By the early 1970s, The Hudson Wire Company, now led by Bob Akin, was generating enormous amounts of wealth. For all his success in industry however, there was a dormant thirst for adrenaline within him. In 1973, a racing driver Sam Posey, a personal friend of Bob’s, invited him to drive his Mercedes-Benz 300SL at the annual Vintage Sports Car Club of America event at Lime Rock. Akin’s love for the track was reignited there and then, the very next month racing at classic car events in a Lotus 11, then a Cooper Monaco. Vintage races wouldn’t prove to be quite enough for Bob however. Photo: Bob Akin Photo: Hal Crocker Looking to step up his level of competition, Akin bought a Porsche RSR in 1978, taking to the track in the 12 Hours of Sebring, with a test run at Daytona for good measure beforehand. Now hooked on racing completely, Akin grew more and more hungry to improve. In his view however, the standard Porsche just didn’t quite fit the bill. Step forward, the 1982 Porsche 935 L1. Porsche was no longer building the 935 nor customizing them for racing, so Akin recruited his own team to take his 935 to the next level. From Canepa.com “Bob Akin knew if he wanted to win, he would have to come up with something totally radical for the 1982 season. Akin commissioned Chuck Gaa of Gaaco to design and build a "Super GTP 935". To improve aerodynamics and increase the straight-line speed of the new car a Lola T600 GTP nose was used. A new purpose built monocoque bonded aluminum chassis was constructed combining the best of the new GTP technology with the proven power and reliability of the Porsche 935 mechanicals. According to the rules, the windshield and roof section of a standard Porsche 930 still had to be used. To improve airflow even further the entire roof structure was tilted to put the windshield at a better angle. Due to its complexity and unique design, the car was delivered late after the season had already begun. It made its first appearance at Lime Rock in May, which served as a test for Le Mans. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June the car’s design came into its own and showed tremendous straight-line speed down the famous Mulsanne Straight. Unfortunately Akin and co-drivers David Cowart and Kemper Miller only lasted two hours before a malfunction with the reserve gas tank sidelined the car. While misfortune was experienced on the track, the unique 935 L1 at least gave the racing world a glimpse of its immense capabilities. Over the course of the next year, the team continued developing the car, returning to the US for the IMSA campaign. Akin and co-driver Hurley Haywards took fourth place at Mid-Ohio, then seventh at Road Atlanta, this time with Akin and Derek Bell, before seeing out its racing days at the Pocono 500 in late 1982. While Akin continued to race, to a fair degree of success, his one-of-a-kind 935 was retired. It took pride of place in Akin’s workshop and barely moved until 1999 – 27 years later. It was bought by French-Canadian restorer Jacques Rivard, of Rivard Compétition fame. Rivard fully restored the vehicle, with its engine and transmission rebuilt by G&S Autworks. According to Canepa, it’s known today as one of the greatest 935 vintage racers in the world – competing in the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. Bob Akin: A Glowing Career And A Bitter End How we wish we could say that Akin saw out his later years in peace and good health. But it’s the things we love the most that can truly damage us. The motor racing world knows this as well, if not better, than any else. Though Akin retired the 935, he was still hungry for honors at Le Mans and Sebring. Joining Burn Motorsport in 1984, he finished fourth at Le Mans in a Warsteiner Porsche 956B, then drove to victory at Sebring in 1986 in a Porsche 962, overcoming multiple wheel losses during the race. So the story goes, teammate Jo Gartner crossed the finish line on three wheels. Seven years later, in 2002, Akin met his end after a racetrack crash in a 1988 Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo, which he was test driving ahead of the Walter Mitty Challenge for historic cars at Road Atlanta. The ZX-Turbo took out a barrier and crashed into the trees beyond, bursting into flame after impact. Photo: Phil Stott Motorsport Akin was rescued from the wreckage and rushed to a nearby hospital by helicopter with a broken neck, leg, shoulder, and arm, as well as severe burns. He passed away just a few days later. The Akin Legacy Fortunately, Bob Akin’s memory is kept alive to this very day by the Bob Akin Memorial Sports Award which was established by the Road Racing Drivers Club (RRDC) in 2003. The award is exclusively reserved for drivers, both amateur and professional, who can couple “speed with style”, just as Akin did so well. Its recipients include Sam Posey and John Fitch, as well as Rob Dyson. As well as the Memorial Sports Award in his name, the racing world can take some comfort from the fact that his unique Porsche lives on, and is as good as new. Actually, it’s better than that. About The 1982 Porsche 935 Bon Akin L1 Specifications from Canepa.com: STOCK NUMBER: 2796 VIN: 935-L1 ENGINE: FLAT 6 TURBO TRANSMISSION: 4 SPEED MANUAL DRIVETRAIN: RWD MILEAGE: N/A EXTERIOR COLOR: RED INTERIOR COLOR: BLACK INTERIOR SURFACE: CLOTH ENGINE SIZE: 3.2 liter POWER RATING: 800+ horsepower BODY MATERIAL: Bonded Aluminum Monocoque with Fiberglass Body WEIGHT: 2324 lbs (1054,149 Kg) SUSPENSION: Coil-over MacPherson strut - front, coil-over trailing arm - rear TIRES: 23.5 x 10.5 - 16 front, 27 x 14 - 16 rear DIMENSIONS: 78" wide, 190.5" long Race History: 5/31/82 Coca-Cola 400 Lime Rock 23rd Bob Akin #5 6/20/82 24 Hours of Le Mans DNF Akin, Cowart, Miller #76 8/22/82 Road America 500 miles 33rd Akin, Bell #5 9/5/82 Mid-Ohio 6 Hours 4th Akin, Haywood #5 9/12/82 Road Atlanta 500 km 7th Akin, Bell #5 9/26/82 Pocono 500 miles 39th Akin, Bell #5 Photo courtesy of Canepa SpeedHolics has not been paid to write about this product or brand, nor will we profit from any purchases you may make through the links in this article. We’re a fully independent website. We simply choose to write about products and brands that appeal to our passions, and hopefully to yours too.

This 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, is one of just 90 factory-built 550 Spyders ever made. Now for sale by A&S. Photo and video courtesy of Auxietre & Schmidt Photo by Stephan Bauer Photography SpeedHolics has not been paid to write about this product or brand, nor will we profit from any purchases you may make through the links in this article. We’re a fully independent website. We simply choose to write about products and brands that appeal to our passions, and hopefully to yours too.

Back in April, Girardo & Co. made the 1962 Ferrari GTE 250 2+2 Polizia (chassis 3999) available for sale. It's the only one left of its kind, and with a thrilling history of high speed chases and a legendary driver, we thought we’d regale you with this unique machine’s incredible life... Rome, Italy, 1960s. It’s well beyond midnight in the eternal city. The shadowy sidewalks illuminated only by the dim glow of sodium streetlights. The bars and restaurants are long closed, and the only people left on the streets are the beggars, the night prowlers, the vagrants, the cops and the robbers. While Rome sleeps above the surface, the criminal underbelly is hard at work -- robbing, looting, trafficking, dealing, extorting, racketeering, and well, racing. The way they see it, they can outrun just about every cop in the city, and are happy to get into high octane car chases, comfortable that they’d escape. But there's one they truly fear: Armando Spatafora. The reason? His 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 Polizia. Cops & robbers Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the criminal underworld of Rome was able to get away scott free with just about whatever they pleased. If they weren’t one step ahead of the police mentally, they were one speed ahead of them on the streets. The police force’s Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 Saloon was a mighty machine, but it couldn’t keep up with the criminals’. So, when Armando Spatafora was charged with the task of catching Rome’s high-speed criminals, he remarked that without a Ferrari, his work would be fruitless. And so a Ferrari was provided. In 1963, he and three other Roman police officers were sent to the Ferrari’s racecourse in Maranello. Spatafora took to the car with ease, making light of the 3.0 Litre, V12 engine and a top speed well north of 250 km/h. After his initiation at Maranello, Spatafora was guided to the Ferrari factory and presented with his brand new police car -- the 250 GTE 2+2, chassis number 3999. It was finished in black, with tan leather interior, and the distinctive Squadra Mobile livery. Chassis number 3999 was actually one of a pair of Ferrari 250 GTEs secured by the police, but alas, after just a few weeks of service, it became a one of a kind. Its sister met a fiery end in the line of duty, and so over the next 6 years, Spatafora was the last sheriff standing. Between ‘63 and ‘68, Spatafora’s skill and daring behind the wheel of the sleek, powerful Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 Polizia made him one of the city’s most feared policemen. Often on night patrol, his high speed chases with reckless criminals became the stuff of legend. Indeed, the few criminals who did manage to escape the glare of the Ferrari’s flashing blue light in those years became cult heroes in their own underworld. The 250 GTE wasn’t only used to protect the public by stopping crime, mind you -- it was also used to save lives directly. In its final year of police service, when emergency blood deliveries were required in Naples, the car was used to make the 200 km journey for Naples. Why? Well, no ambulance we’ve ever heard of could get from Rome to Naples in under an hour! A new era, a reunion, a record During its active years, the car regularly went back to Maranello for servicing to keep it in peak condition, so when it sold in 1972 as part of an army-surplus auction, she was still as good as new, despite her escapades with Armando Spatafora. The buyer was a man by the name of Alberto Cappelli. Eager to preserve the great heritage of the car, he kept it in its original form. He and his sons showcased it at rallies and tours all over Europe for the next 40 years. To this day, it’s the only privately owned car in Italy allowed to drive with a siren, emergency light and police livery. Incredibly, the retired Spatafora was able to meet his old motor again in 1984. It was at the Coppa delle Dolomiti, and the people were keen to see the legendary pair dovetail once more. Spatafora took the wheel, and turned back time. The audience watched on in awe as the old man and the old machine set the second fastest time of the entire race. The museum years When the Museum of Police Vehicles opened in Rome at the turn of the 21st century, the now legendary 250 GTE 2+2 Polizia took pride of place. In fact, the chief of police himself drove it all the way from its home in Rimini. But it hasn’t just sat in the museum to gather dust. It’s been showcased often at festivals, car shows, rallies, and special events, including Ferrari’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1997. It even made a special “guest” appearance at the book launch of Il Poliziotto con la Ferrari, the biography of Armando Spatafora, written by daughter Carmen. The present day La Ferrari returned to private ownership just 5 years ago, in 2015, and made a proud appearance at the famed Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance the following year. And now, she awaits her next adventure. Her next owner will receive more than just a car. They’ll own original build sheets, archived police documentation, FIVA identity card as well as an ASI certificate of homologation. If that’s not enough, she comes with a collection of period photographs of the car and its fabled first owner, Armando Spatafora. And the condition? Well, Ferrari Classiche inspected and certified it in 2014, confirming she’s totally original. For the quality of the car, the originality, the sheer uniqueness, or maybe just for the back story, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 Polizia is a genuine piece of history. We can dream about it all day long, but one things for sure, we don't think we can afford it quite yet. Photo courtesy of Girardo & Co. SpeedHolics has not been paid to write about this product or brand, nor will we profit from any purchases you may make through the links in this article. We’re a fully independent website. We simply choose to write about products and brands that appeal to our passions, and hopefully to yours too.

Photo by Tim Scott - Scott Photo Co. (IG: @scottphotoco) THE TRIP TO WILDWOOD, NJ Thursday, June 8th, 2017 awoke to glorious sunshine and I was beyond excited about the trip to Wildwood in the hot rods. Mr. Carter Cook had arrived, introductions were made, and Dick DeLuna’s Salinas Special was loaded into the trailer for Carter to drive at The Race of Gentlemen. I made the trip down in Jon’s coupe so that I could get shots of Ken’s car. When you see a Rolling Bones car you immediately know that it is a Rolling Bones car. They look fast and mean, and I was honestly expecting it to be a very long day of super loud engine noise and kidney testing jolts, especially on the New Jersey highways. Now, I’m not going to say that riding in the hot rods was a Cadillac-like ride, but the cars were so well built and engineered that I very quickly forgot that I was in a one-of-a-kind car built using technology that was over seven decades old and instead could completely just enjoy the fact that we were cruising down the interstate at 80-90 miles an hour. Ken had recommended that I wear ear plugs, not for the engine noise, but for the wind noise as these cars are strictly air-conditioned by Mother Nature. It is amazing to be cruising down the highway in hot rods that you’ve seen and have only dreamed about riding in. The look on people’s faces as we drove by varied from scowls to very enthusiastic thumbs-up and everything in between. The enthusiastic reactions far outnumbered the scowls, and I was really wondering how many accidents had been caused by some idiot trying to drive while using his phone to get a photo or video to put on his social media feed. With a stop for gas and a stop for lunch and by the time my adrenaline had come down to more human levels we were pulling in to Wildwood, NJ. THE RACE OF GENTLEMEN Suffice it to say that the Race of Gentlemen is a story in itself but I’ll share a bit of what it was like hanging out with the crew during the three days of TROG so you can get a small sense of what it was like. In a word, family. Now this isn’t a 1950’s TV version of a warm and cuddly family. It’s a slightly dysfunctional, don’t-make-me-pull-this-car over kind of family. The kind of family that has great debates, differing points of view and shows its love and acceptance by giving you a hard time kind of family. It’s great to have an opinion but you better be able to back it up kind of family. The kind of family that takes the good times and the bad and makes the best while all the time making memories that last a lifetime kind of family. It was an honor to be a part of this small family for the few days I was there. The days were pretty much meet for breakfast to start the sh!t talking followed by heading down to the beach to be a part of the race. Lining up in the Rolling Bones cars in the line heading to the beach for the races felt kind of like hot rod royalty. The evenings were always entertaining as the crew and other friends of the Bones gathered to make the nightly pilgrimage to whatever restaurant was chosen for the evening’s sustenance and vocal recollections of the day. There were four Rolling Bones cars and drivers at The Race of Gentlemen for the event: Ken Schmidt and his three window 1933 Ford coupe “591”; Jon Suckling and his and his 193; Ford “The 232 Roadster”; Carter Cook who was driving Mr. Dick DeLuna’s 1934 Ford “606c Salinas Special”; Drew Garban who was driving the Rolling Bones 1932 “575” while his car is being built. While Jon, Carter and Drew made as many runs down the sand on day one as possible Ken took one for the team and stayed in the spectator area to meet the fans and sell copies of the Rolling Bones book the Book of GOW. There were huge smiles all around, racers and spectators alike, and the sights and sounds of vintage racing had me smiling like a crazy man all day long. Day two of TROG was a big one for the Rolling Bones as Ken was tasked with setting up and running the bracket races. To say that the people racing at TROG were competitive would be an understatement. To make a long story short the Rolling Bones cars made a beautiful showing of themselves ultimately with Carter driving Mr. DeLuna’s coupe to win in the V8 class. It was a glorious day all around. ROLLING BACK TO NEW YORK I can’t speak for everyone else but after three days of racing, heat, sun and sand I was exhausted. Knowing that we still had the ride back to the Barn was just icing on the cake on a week that I had looked forward to for a long time. For the trip back I rode with Ken so that I could get some shots of Jon’s car as we travelled north. One thing I can say about Ken, he LOVES this stuff. When we were on the New Jersey turnpike every time we would come through the toll booth you knew that on the other side, he was going to hit that gas pedal hard and let that Y-Block powered piece of art show you just what it was built for. Each time I would look over and see Ken with a grin on his normally very controlled face as his inner 19-year-old self-celebrated the joys of wheels, steel and speed. So, what do I remember most from this adventure? That’s a tough question and I’m sure that the answer will vary as time passes. Spending time with the guys that call themselves the Rolling Bones was a pleasure. People like this are what this world needs more of. People with skills, talent and a point of view that they live for. While they are well known for what they do they haven’t fallen into the traps of “success” but remain welcoming, honest and true to themselves. To the other members of the Rolling Bones family, the people lucky enough to own a Rolling Bones built hot rod and the others of us that also love this stuff as much as they do that have been welcomed into the clan, thank you all for your kindness, your warm welcome and the memories that I’ll have for a lifetime.

The challenge of the clock, fighting against it to the last hundredth of a second, isn’t just a part of pure speed races. There is a different kind of speed that lovers of historic (and sometimes even modern) cars feel just as intensely when they are in the pursuit of a perfect of a zero-penalty pass. Great concentration, maniacal preparation for every aspect of the competition, and a lot, A LOT, of adrenaline. Concentration above all Concentration, rigorous preparation for the race and adrenaline make up the cocktail from which the final performance arises. Extended at times over several days, over 1,000 kilometers traveled on roads of all kinds, day and night, with any and all climates, and sometimes over 100 chronometric measurements. Those moments are made unforgettable by that challenge of the stopwatch, the pressure switch, or the recorded hourly average measured against which we race. Yet in this challenge we are not alone -- the role of the navigator is fundamental -- they who literally guide the driver and share their emotions moment by moment, second by second. A challenge against yourself Classic regularity rallying is really an amazing challenge, first of all against yourself and your “internal clock”, and then against your opponents. A challenge brought to extreme complications, but also enjoyment, by the car driven. Is it a supercar, or a fascinating classic, or even a "pre-war" model? Two completely different ways of dealing with penalties measured to the hundredth of a second. With super cars that are often so low as to make it impossible to see the signs that tell of the pressure switches presence, or pre-war cars that are often a whole different kind of challenge to handle, so slow are their responses to your touch and will. After our first victory in the 2011 Mille Miglia, obtained in a pre-war 1933 Aston Martin Le Mans, I’ve always raced alongside Stefania, my wife. We have faced races on all continents, with different cars and different regulations every time, but always with the pleasure of accepting the challenge of time, even when, especially abroad, we’re emboldened by the need to drive as “sportily” as possible to stay within the set times. Tuning with the car When winning or losing a race is a matter of two or three hundredths of a second, perfect tuning and knowledge of the car becomes essential. In time trials, it is necessary to know exactly where the front axle is, even without seeing it, since the times are measured on the center of the front wheel, and it is essential to know how to predict how the accelerator and brake will respond in every situation, to stay high in the final rankings, test checkpoint after test checkpoint, kilometer after kilometer. As in the tests where average run time is the metric, speed is often fundamental in order to stay within the set times, managed wisely, especially in very winding stretches of road. The passage times, in fact, are measured precisely in the most difficult points and only a few pilots are able to respect, with absolute precision, the deadlines imposed. Concentration Concentration in those crucial, pinnacle moments of the race is very high. Even a minimal distraction, almost imperceptible, is enough to ruin the result and the entire event. In the most important moments of the race, even regularity rallies, you wait to be seized by those tremors in the legs that announce the arrival of the total adrenaline rush -- the flow state. The key role of the navigator I mentioned the co-dependence between driver and navigator: it is of fundamental importance, as is the harmony that comes from having lived through many races together and having overcome the countless unforeseen events that materialize during a race -- as a pair, as a team. The navigator has the difficult role of managing times and simultaneously imparting driving instructions by interpreting the Road Book, all the while reading stopwatches and odometers. The navigator also has a key role in managing the route outside the timed trials, ensuring that the crew shows up at the time control points at the right moments, as dictated by the race organization. Considering all the unexpected events and the stop times, refueling and refreshments, it’s a daunting and precision-demanding task. All things told, the navigator plays a major role in the final result. This is what regularity rallying is -- a passionate team work carried out in absolute harmony, especially in difficult moments, by both members of the crew, combined with driving on often new routes against other competitors, with the added privilege of driving a 'classic car’. Altogether, a way of offering unlimited emotions and adrenaline with no filter.

Experimentation is the distinguishing feature of the visionary Tuscan designer’s career. Among all his works, two particular projects focus specifically on aerodynamic research, two record cars born between the Fifties and Sixties: the 1956 Fiat-Abarth 750 Record and the 1963 Stanguellini-Guzzi Colibrì Drawings courtesy of Massimo Grandi When we talk of record cars, our thoughts turn instantly to a formal repertoire linked closely to that essential purpose of pure speed, just like aircraft, where everything is based on efficiency and nothing is expressed in its aesthetic dimension. But when the research into this efficiency reaches the highest levels of synthesis between form and function, when function, or rather functionality, reaches the limits of perfection, form is also expressed in all its coherent beauty. Talking in terms of aesthetics, how can we not admire the beauty, for example, of a 1943 Lockheed L-049 Constellation, the four-engine plane with a triple tail which is still considered today by specialised literature as one of the most elegant planes ever made: the sinuous main lines of the fuselage were designed to optimise aerodynamic penetration, but ended up representing one of the most characteristic elements of the plane, creating a simple yet sophisticated appearance with an elegant profile reminiscent of a grey heron in flight. These forms were not intentionally designed to be “aesthetic”, there was no research into beauty, but they were rather merely the response to technical specifications, created by adopting solutions based on the mathematical principles of aerodynamics. This is therefore a form of “mathematical beauty”, the aesthetics of “pure function”. In other words, when the shape reaches these levels of synthesis, it creates coherent beauty that is far from self-referential, super-structural or superfluous. And these considerations must also be applied to the world of cars designed to beat land speed records. Like aircraft, beyond the technical components such as the engine, chassis etc., the aerodynamic function of the external shape, the body, and therefore the design, is of fundamental importance. In car history, some designers have based their approach to design on aerodynamic research, the element used to build and define the form of their creations. To name but a few of the most important: Edmund Rumpler, Paul Jaray, Bell Geddes, Hans Ledwinka, Jean Andreau, Reinard Koenig, Ervin Komenda, Malcom Sayer, Giovanni Savonuzzi and Franco Scaglione. Throughout his intense yet unfortunately relatively short career, Franco Scaglione made aerodynamic research one of the pillars of his work. One particular example is his experimentation with Bertone on the BAT 5, 7 and 9 (respectively in 1953, 1954 and 1955). Among all his works, however, two in particular focused specifically on aerodynamics, and I refer to two record cars: the 1956 Fiat-Abarth 750 Record and the 1963 Stanguellini-Guzzi Colibrì. Fiat-Abarth 750 Record - In eleven years, between 1956 and 1966, the Abarth won a total of 113 international records on the Monza circuit, including 6 World Championships, with 11 different cars. Six of these were streamliners, designed and built specifically to beat track speed records. The first of these six was built in 1956, on a Fiat 600 chassis, adapted and fitted with a Fiat-Abarth 750 engine, and was designed specially to draw the attention of both the public and engineers to the skills of Abarth in developing Fiat-based models. Bertone was tasked with designing this special car. In this car, Scaglione’s creative flair and passion for aerodynamic science could be expressed to their full potential, as Abarth’s underlying objective was to reach the maximum possible speed with a specific engine power. A single-seater, its length-to-width ratio was optimal. Moreover, used only on the track, it was freed of all the possible regulatory constraints of a road car. The overall inspiration to similar German pre-war cars, for example the 1937 Auto Union Rekordwagen Type C, is clear, but the general solutions applied came strictly from the baggage and linguistic repertoire of Scaglione’s previous experiments on the BATs, starting from the large rear fin. With its polished aluminium body, the prototype presented at the Turin Motor Show in 1956 expresses all the harmonious elegance of the forms of Scaglione’s design work. In the first track tests, however, Abarth made substantial modifications to the design, shortening the tail, lowering the mudguard profile and perforating the fin to reduce the air pressure on the central fairing. For all this, the Fiat-Abarth 750 remains an example of the expressive power of a harmonious composition of pure beauty around an object of cold, objective determination to become a record car, superseded only by the subsequent 1963 Stanguellini-Guzzi “Colibrì”. Stanguellini-Guzzi Colibrì - This car, built on a chassis designed by Stanguellini and produced by the company "Gransport" in Modena, was initially supposed to be fitted with a Moto Guzzi "8C" 500 cm³ engine, which had been shelved a few years earlier when Moto Guzzi withdrew from world motorcycle racing. However, the costs of developing such a complex engine for a car, and the more advantageous advertising of the smaller engine, therefore led to the use of the single-cylinder, twin-shaft, air-cooled 248 cm³ racing engine developed by the motorcycle company from Mandello del Lario for the record attempt. We are therefore talking about an essential “machine” intended for pure speed performance. The displacement and the power output of just 29 HP are very small for a four-wheel vehicle, so everything was influenced by the lightness of the car and its aerodynamic profile. Scaglione’s studies and applications in the aerodynamics field have already been underlined, but here the essential technical and mechanical features blend marvellously with an equally essential and synthetic design, a sublimation of the form which adapts like a clinging veil placed delicately over the skeleton of the car, on the wheels, the driver’s cab, like Stefano Maderno’s marble veils covering St. Cecilia, which shape and outline the body beneath. They bring to mind the extraordinary forms of another record car, but which never had the chance to get on the track, the 1939 Mercedes T80. When we talk of aerodynamic profile, we must not simply refer to the profile of a car, but also its ability to penetrate the air, creating as little disturbance as possible for the streamlines moving along the surface of the body. The most aerodynamic shape is the elongated drop, and here this is taken to its most precise dimension, entirely in the roof, cut off at the rear to overcome the excessive length demanded by its proportions, in the fairing. Then, to increase the stability and load on the driving axle, the rear of the fairing was squashed to minimise the turbulence generated by the K-tail, almost taking on the shape of an authentic downforce spoiler. To understand the size of this perfect synthesis between aerodynamic research and shape modelling even better, we should think only of the 1956 Guzzi Nibbio II. The forms of the Guzzi Nibbio are undoubtedly aerodynamically functional, and the speed records bear witness to this, but they still bear the signs of the classic, compact wing profile of the 1940s/50s, even if “enhanced” by the long, shaped rear tails/spoilers. If we compare the main lines of the two cars, we can see how the Colibrì has a completely different architecture, more similar for example to the 1960 BlueBird Proteus CN7. Today we would call the design minimalist and strictly functional, but precisely because of these essential forms and succession of curves and sinuous lines it seems to evoke the language of bio-design. The Colibrì has a “natural” shape, drawn only by the wind, yet it is moulded to levels of disconcerting harmony and beauty. The careful profiling and structural lightness of the "Colibrì” helped the drivers Angelo Poggio and Pietro Campanella to win 6 world class middle-distance records on 9 October 1963, on the high-speed track on the Monza circuit. -- Massimo Grandi, architect and designer, previously director of the Car Design laboratory at the Design Campus of the Department of Architecture at the University of Florence. Member of the ASI Culture Commission. Among his published works: “La forma della memoria: il progetto della Ferrari Alaspessa”, “Car design workshop”, “Dreaming American Cars”, “Ferrari 550 Alaspessa: dall’idea al progetto”, “Quando le disegnava il vento”, “Il paradigma Scaglione”, “La più veloce: breve storia dei record mondiali di velocità su strada” (with others). Some of the drawings in this article were taken from the following publications: M. Grandi - “Quando le disegnava il vento”, ASI libreria, Turin 2012 M. Grandi - “Il paradigma Scaglione”, ASI libreria, Turin 2016 G. Genta, M. Grandi, L. Morello - “La più veloce”, ASI libreria, Turin 2017

The current owner Mario Renato was forced to wait for a long time to truly call the 1971 Montreal “his”, but as his story proves, anticipation makes the heart grow fonder. Photo by Fabio Fiorentino (IG: @fast_fabio) - English version by Sean Campbel Mario Renato’s uncle bought this model (Chassis number AR 1425490) in 2001 from a dealership in Turin, with the car only having one previous owner, but this is where the saga begins. Despite paying in advance for the change of ownership paperwork, the particulars were never completed at the time. Alas, Mario’s uncle never took the car further than the garage. Renato’s uncle grew disillusioned over time, as five years after purchase, still the ownership hadn’t been changed. Tired of the whole affair, he’d decided to sell it, but in order to do so, he requested Renato’s help. The case was brought to an agency in Rome, who promised to register the vehicle and its ownership properly, then sell it on. Alas, yet more setbacks arose around CDPs and annotations in the vehicle registration documents, and they were never able to complete any deal. Throughout this time, Renato grew more than just fond of the car. He was already a passionate Alfista, but had always refrained from buying one – certain that the restoration needed would be trouble than it was worth. But this Montreal was a different story. He’d come to know the car inside out, and recognized a health in it that not many of its kind had. Sure, it would need plenty of work, but it was free of rust or any other decay, and had all original parts. To put it simple, this Montreal would scrub up nicely. In May 2010, Renato’s uncle finally became the car’s official owner, 9 years after buying it. A seemingly endless series of paperwork between the PRA and the DMV eventually got the deal over the line. Still keen to sell, the uncle found the perfect buyer within his own family – Mario Renato. So began a long and meticulous search for expert restorers, mechanics, bodyworkers, and interior specialists. This car deserved the very best, and it got it. In 2013, it was dispatched to a specialist in Modena’s fabled Motor Valley – Terra dei Motori. A fitting place for the resurrection of a legendary car. It took two years, but as of 2015, 14 long years after it first entered his family, the completely restored, rejuvenated, resplendent ‘71 Montreal was back where it belonged – in the possession of Mario Renato, with all original parts and that mighty eight cylinder engine intact. Was it worth the effort? Worth the wait? Worth the pain? Just take a look and try to say no. 1971 Alfa Romeo Montreal Chassis number: AR 1425490 Color Code: Green AR223 Engine number: AR00564 * 00740 Production date: October 26, 1971 Date of first sale: February 22, 1972 in Como. R.I.A.R. order number: 1415 Registration A.S.I. Type A group 3 order number 43169.

One of Berlin's most renowned photo-art galleries hosts a virtual exhibition entitled Speed. Featuring rare and famous photographic works on the theme of Motor racing, F1 and racing culture, the exhibition showcases over 40 works from the past 100 years, with contributions from 23 eminent artists. Photos courtesy of CAMERA WORK Gallery This story started out as one thing, and quickly became something else. That’s one of the coolest things about digging up and writing stories for a living—the element of surprise. When a member of the SpeedHolics team caught wind of the »Speed« exhibit, hosted by Berlin based photography gallery CAMERA WORKS, we were (obviously) drawn to the cars. That’s what we’re about here after all. But after taking the online tour of their virtual gallery, I'm impressed by more than just the striking art collection. I'm blown away by the entire concept and execution of the virtual exhibition. Picture this: I’m sitting in a café in Cape Town, telling my colleagues in Italy and Switzerland about a gallery tour I’d just done in Berlin. This is much more than just a chance to look at some cool images by leading artists, it’s a full 3-D rendering of the gallery and the works themselves. I couldn’t encourage you enough to click through and take a walk through the two floors of the beautiful Berlin gallery. But how’s the exhibition itself? In a word — brilliant. The main themes are motor racing and Formula 1, speed, and racing lifestyle. The exhibition features more than 40 photographic works from over 100 years of history by 23 artists. Included on the credits are photographers such as Anton Corbijn, Patrick Demarchelier, David Drebin, Brian Duffy, David LaChapelle, Jim Rakete, Herb Ritts, Martin Schoeller, Ellen von Unwerth, and Albert Watson. A really good exhibition should make us feel something. It can even make us question ourselves a little. That’s what the »Speed« exhibition does. You see, I realized while “strolling” around the empty gallery that we classic motoring lovers sometimes take our passion a little too… seriously. There’s a juxtaposition of moods on show in »Speed« that shines a bright light on this. Yes, there are the serious, brooding headshots of Niki Lauda, Lewis Hamilton et al, as well as an affecting blurred image of Michael Schumacher, stood trackside with his head bowed, decked out in Marlboro emblazoned Rosso Corsa. But just around the corner there’s a shirtless David Coulthard posing suggestively, a collection of pop culture shots featuring Mick Jagger & a leopard, Naomi Campbell, Robert Redford, and Pamela Anderson. There’s even comic actor Jason Segal straddling a tiny scooter, cigarette dangling from his lips, a garish children’s doll riding pillion. In »Speed«, the uber-competitive meets the voguish meets the absurd. In this way, the curation takes us into the heart of what motoring culture really is, or is at least made to be. Sure, there’s a passion for greatness, for high performance, for breaking records, and for crushing the competition. But rolled out across cultures and away from the racetrack, there’s a sexiness, or a desire to be sexy, which runs through our relationship with cars and engines. But there’s no attempt to embarrass us here. If anything, »Speed« gives us the opportunity to have a little laugh at ourselves as motoring culture lovers, as well as the celebrities. All the while, it opens up a window through which we can stop and really admire the greats of racing, as well as those watchful observers who captured those moments and those personalities. See it for yourself here. After being so impressed by the »Speed« virtual exhibition, we just had to reach out to Alexander Golya to tell us more about CAMERA WORK. Here’s how our conversation went: SpeedHolics: Tell us a bit about CAMERA WORK Alexander Golya: CAMERA WORK Gallery was founded in 1997, and is situated in City West in central Berlin. We specialize in classic and contemporary photographic master works. We have had more than 150 exhibitions so far and today rank among the world’s leading galleries for photographic art. SH: Could you describe the Gallery to someone who has never been there? Tell us about the aesthetic of the space and the type of photo art you “typically” display. AG: CAMERA WORK Gallery is based in a 130-year-old building that once was a humble shed. With high ceilings, two floors, five exhibition rooms and more than 200 square meters of exhibition space, the gallery combines a sublime atmosphere with an elegant, high-quality interior. The gallery’s aim is two-fold: to give art collectors a unique experience in seeing art, and to give artists the opportunity to exhibit masterworks in a space that has multiple curating options. We can show classic masterworks and contemporary art at the same time. Exhibitions like Richard Avedon, Peter Lindbergh, Irving Penn, Herb Ritts, Patrick Demarchelier, or Albert Watson underline the classic feelin. Meanwhile, contemporary photographic artists like Christian Tagliavini, Martin Schoeller, David Yarrow, Eugenio Recuenco, and David Drebin can create a modern atmosphere. This gives us different options on how to present their works. SH: When did you open the Virtual Gallery, and why did you do it? Was it Covid-19 related or did it already exist? AG: It was actually a coincidence that the CAMERA WORK Virtual Gallery launched in the time of the pandemic! Since we operate worldwide with collectors on all continents, it’s been a long term aim to create a special virtual gallery that gives our clients the CAMERA WORK Gallery experience wherever they are. It provides our collectors and art-interested users a great option to explore our artists and their works in an innovative way. As we had a clear understanding and goal of how our virtual gallery should be, we couldn’t make any compromises. For that reason it took several years to bring our virtual gallery to perfection. SH: Am I right to assume that the virtual gallery is a rendering of the real life, physical gallery? If so, how did you go about creating it virtually? AG: That’s exactly right. The Virtual Gallery is a 1:1 virtual exhibition space of CAMERA WORK Gallery. You can navigate the rooms as if you were there. All colors, patterns, and even the floors are shaped as they are at the physical space. With such a unique gallery space in Berlin, we wanted to transfer this experience to the virtual world. It took several months of work and energy to create this experience, but it turned out to be an incomparable virtual gallery in the art world. SH: Being honest, do you feel that visitors miss out on anything by visiting online rather than in person? AG: Obviously, there are aspects of art that you can’t experience online. The paper, the history of the artwork, the smell, and even the complete color palette of an artwork can only be explored in real life. However, CAMERA WORK Virtual Gallery provides the best opportunity to experience art online. We can curate individual exhibitions for particular collectors. If there is a collector who is looking for a work by Martin Schoeller, for example, we can curate a complete and individual Martin Schoeller exhibition for him in a short space of time. Thus we can focus on his/her personal wishes. Another advantage is that you anonymously can visit CAMERA WORK in our CAMERA WORK Virtual Gallery. This discretion is important for many prominent collectors. SH: And what do they gain from visiting online rather than in person. AG: As well as those mentioned above, CAMERA WORK Virtual Gallery also provides another advantage: With a changing art world – going more into online and becoming faster – CAMERA WORK Virtual Gallery gives us the option to curate and establish exhibitions quickly. If there is an artist who is creating new works, we can set up an exhibition within a few days. In addition, we can add multimedia, videos, acoustic interviews, and objects, that gives users another dimension in discovering art. SH: Finally, where can our readers find the CAMERA WORK Virtual Gallery? AG: Right here: camerawork.de/en/virtualgallery/ »Speed«, the virtual art exhibit, ends on May 28, 2021. If you’re reading this article after this date, you can still contact CAMERA WORK Gallery to enquire about any of the works on show.

Early years 2000 was a busy period at Alfa Romeo's Centro Stile, its in-house design department. Not so much for the work load which was normal but because of many organizational changes which involved the entire Fiat Auto group, or, should we say Fiat-General Motors after the March 2000 alliance. Those mergers are always made in the name of efficiency and efficiency means cost-reductions achieved by synergies. Photo Courtesy of Italdesign and Stellantis Archives Synergy means reduction of the number of project and production related activities to the absolute minimum. In this way the development and production costs can, at least in theory, be spread over much larger number of the final products. The Marques, with all their peculiar characteristics acquired in time become mere Brands. There is no more any intrinsic character left in each brand cars as they all share the same components with others within the Group. There is only one “platform” for each size or market category. Same with engines, transmission, brakes, suspension, HVAC and all the components. The only “brand-characterization” is possible through styling and fine-tuning of shared components. The old, historical Italian brands like Lancia and Alfa Romeo have already went through this process when they were “absorbed” by Fiat in 1969 and 1986 respectively. At the time it seemed big and drastic changes and limitations because both makes had their own, established methods of working and their products had clear and distinctive characteristics. But at least in those years all the players were from the same northern Italy industrial area, with similar if not the same history and culture. There were differences but at least everybody knew each other pretty well. This time we were talking about merging not only with many car makes, all with their history and characteristics but also with different nationalities from different continents... That means not only different working methods but different cultures, different languages, even different time zones. At our Centro Stile all the current projects in different state of advancement had been suspended and radically reconsidered in view of the new realities. The old, well known synergies assumed a whole new meaning, we no longer had to share platforms and components with Fiat and Lancia but with a number of totally new brands like Opel, Vauxhall, Saab in Europe as well as Holden in Australia and, obviously, all the American brands of GM. General Motors has been one of the pioneers if not the inventor of employing synergies between numerous brands making part of their group so for us the main problem or at least a novelty was not so much the number of new platforms and components but a totally new way of project management. First of all their reference grid, a basic tool, necessary for spatial orientation within the project had different origin from the one we were used to. They were also using different CAD systems which meant changing hardware and software and learn to use it. All this long and apparently superfluous introduction is necessary to explain in what state of stress and often confusion all our project and design departments were in the early years 2000. All our current projects suffered big delays as they had to be reformulated on new platforms with all relative complications. Strangely enough the only project relatively immune to those complications was the concept Sportività Evoluta or Evolved Sportiness because it was already heavily based on the synergies with the Ferrari Maserati group which wasn't directly involved in the Fiat GM merger. Initially there were some attempts to consider the GM's Chevrolet Corvette platform as it was similar in typology of the vehicle and its dimensions but, fortunately, the “Italian” solution has been confirmed. All this peculiar and often confusing situation had resulted in a strange situation in which most attention and internal resources of our Centro Stile were focused on the secondary and decidedly a fun-project of the concept sports car. Apart from the usual restyling projects which for obvious reasons continued with the “old” system, this concept, thanks to its Ferrari Maserati based platform, was the only new car project that followed the usual and familiar all-Italian procedures. It was the mainstream, future range models like Alfa 156, 166 and 147 projects that suffered from all the changes, lack of clear decisions, accumulating delays. It was in this hectic times that we were all surprised with a new Alfa Romeo concept presented during the March 2002 Geneva Auto Show by Italdesign, the Brera. For many of us at Centro Stile it was perceived as a threat as it was clearly positioned as an alternative to our Sportività Evoluta concept. It had exactly the same, Ferrari Maserati based platform, drivetrain and general dimensions. There were no doubts for us that Giugiaro must have received detailed informations about the characteristics of our concept car project which was going on for quite some time already... Maybe somebody in the Fiat head quarters was becoming impatient and wanted to prove that it was perfectly possible to conclude a concept like this in a very short time? Anyway all the comments at Centro Stile Alfa Romeo about the new Brera concept were of “political” nature and generally negative. Personally, for me Brera was a surprise but in a different way. I was one of very few at Centro Stile not constantly involved in the Sportività Evoluta concept project and I was not particularly convinced it was evolving in the best way, in fact I clearly preferred the alternative scheme of a light, compact central engine sports car in the Tipo 33 Stradale spirit. Therefore, in a certain way, I wasn't emotionally involved in the dispute and I was looking at the Brera concept from a purely aesthetic point of view. And I must say I liked it from the first moment. It wasn't the overwhelming kind of liking, the one that amazes you at first but then gradually and inexorably fades away with time. I liked its general proportions, its non banal disposition of volumes and its simplicity and purity of lines. It was one of those designs that grows on you, that doesn't shout but gently invites a second look, then third... until you realize that the more you look at it the more you like it. It is a perfect example of what can safely be described as timeless design. I limit myself to analyzing only the exterior design aspects because I regard the interiors of both concept and the later production cars as non particularly interesting. I remember I started to gather images and dimensional data of Brera, it wasn't easy as internet wasn't very diffused yet and anyway it seemed it didn't have the press coverage it deserved. The image I liked most was a photo of the partial, work-in-progress stage of the classic Italian “figurino” of Brera on the drawing table of Giorgetto Giugiaro. It was a typical Italian School method of car design. This first, usually 1:10 scale “figurino” or a set of all views or, more precisely, orthogonal projections is subsequently completed with sections to become “piano di forma”, a true and complete 2D definition of the 3D object. This piano di forma serves to build a physical model of the future car. It is the same method I now teach the future designers at the Automotive Design master course at Polytechnic of Milan. I said I was gathering drawings and photos of Brera because, when it suddenly disappeared from Auto Shows, I decided to make myself a scale model of it. I guarantee you there is no better way to study a car's form than making a scale model of it, especially without a complete documentation because you have to recreate it yourself based only on photos and some partial dimensional data. I mentioned before that at some point Brera disappeared from public view, if I remember well, with an improbable excuse of having suffered a damage in transport... I was puzzled because any damage can be repaired and an independent design studio like Italdesign wouldn't easily give up on publicity generated from showing a concept car like that at different occasions for at least a couple of years. Initially somebody at Centro Stile was gladly convinced that this uncomfortable contender of our Sportività Evoluta had lost the contest and our proposal, named in the meantime 8c Competizione, was progressing safely and undisturbed... That was until we discovered that Italdesign was working hard on a totally new family of cars based on the new GM-Europe platform and based on the design of the Brera, that would eventually substitute both Alfa 156 and 166 cars... Here finally was the logical explanation of the “sacrifice” of the Brera concept car. Every automotive designer knows it is relatively easy to design a flashy sports car on a classic “thoroughbred” chassis with huge wheels, long low hood and a strictly two seat accommodation with barely any practical luggage compartment. The situation changes drastically when somebody asks you to apply the same design on a bulky front-wheel-drive, five passenger car with a full size boot. Or even worse when they ask you to make a two door, 2+2 coupe, as much as possible similar to the concept and even with the same name Brera, BUT... with the same long front overhang and relatively short and tall engine hood of the FWD sedan car... In this case the comparison is even more merciless. That's why they decided to hide the perfectly proportioned Brera concept car, to avoid any, certainly inconvenient confrontations... Anyway, in the Brera concept and in the subsequent 939 production project Giugiaro proved once again his professionalism. The Alfa 159 sedan and station wagon design granted these otherwise bulky cars with that unique Italian flair and made them resist very well the passage of time. The difficult, Machiavellian decision to suppress the Brera concept car in order to make everybody forget its thoroughbred proportions and accept the relatively compromised ones of the production car of the same name worked perfectly, both Brera coupe and its cabrio version were and still are very good looking sporty cars with undeniable Italian flavor. Only when you have a very rare occasion of seeing again the original Brera concept car, you realize the substantial difference in the proportions between it and the production car. We all know the production Brera is based on a totally different chassis architecture and that, as all the series production cars, it represents a compromise. And knowing the circumstances, it is a damned good compromise.