Castell´Arquato, 20th - 22nd of June
When one asks owners of classic cars about their favourite
events certainly the main events in Goodwood, Monaco, Le Mans
or the Mille Miglia are most mentioned but surprisingly often also
the small hill climb of Vernasca. To find out what makes this so
special we headed to Castell´Arquato near Piacenza and when
arriving in the small Italian village one could see the atmosphere
that is so refreshing after the huge sponsor dominated events of
the last months. Now for the 19th time the local Historic Car Club
of Piacenza welcomed about 200 cars and their owners on the
only bigger parking lot at the Arda at the bottom of the old town
centre. With hand painted spots for the cars and starting line the
ambience is relaxed and friendly and as most of the drivers are
coming every year it is more like a big family meeting.
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In three un-timed runs on Saturday and Sunday the cars will be
demonstrated to the spectators who are welcome both aside the
road and in the provisional paddocks and the selection of cars
ranges from early pre-war race cars to sports prototypes of the
1970s and several Monoposto as the event is based on the
original hill climb held between 1953 and 1972 as part of the
Italian hill climb championship. Every year features a different
theme and after British cars and the small Etceterini of the
previous editions this year was dedicated to the history of Lancia.
Today Lancia is the luxury brand of the Fiat group and one might
forget that the marque from Turin has some sportive genes
ranging back to the early Lambda Models. The oldest Lancia
dating back to 1908, built just two years after their foundation,
was the Lancia Alpha brought over by Corrado Lopresto, known
for having a very interesting collection of one-offs or special cars.
Sent off at the back of the field he made his way up the hill in
rather gentle speed.
Lancia’s big time came after the war when the Aurelia was
introduced, more than half a dozen of these elegant GT could be
seen in Castell´Arquato. Based on the B20 Lancia went into the
sports car category with some success of the D24 that even won
the Carrera Panamericana, the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio in
1954. Later the D24 was uprated to the final D25 specification
before but the company soon quit sports car racing to get into the
Formula 1 instead. In Vernasca the only surviving D25 could be
seen at one of its rare outings brought along the D50 by the
Lancia Collection. The innovative D50 F1 designed by Vittorio
Jano with the tank between the wheels rather behind the driver to
improve both road holding and aerodynamics gave Juan Manuel
Fangio its fourth Championship after the racing department was
sold by Lancia due to financial problems to Enzo Ferrari who
entered the cars in the 1956 season. Unfortunately the original
D50 struggled with engine problems on the long straight out of
Castell´Arquato even before going up the hill.
Lancia reappeared in motor sports with the legendary Rally cars
like the Fulvia, Stratos, the 037 Group B and later the Delta
Integrale. Rarely so many of them could be seen on one place as
no less than 5 Stratos, 4 037 and numerous HF Integrale
including the works entered Alitalia Stratos and the Martini livery
Beta and S4 Group B were in action that weekend.
But the about 60 Lancia were not the only feature in this year’s
edition as French Le Mans legend Henri Pescarolo was reunited
with his Matra MS11 to demonstrate the V12 engined grand prix
car that was said to be the loudest in the 1968 season. The car
was brought to Vernasca by the Classic Matra team together with
two other cars and the original race transporter.
Several Ferrari and Maserati could be seen as well and especially
Maserati in its centenary will be playing an important role in most
of this year’s events. At Vernasca a sole pre-war Maserati could
be seen with the 8CM, the other GP car, the 250F Aerodinamica
unfortunately never made it up to the hill as it already had engine
problems when warming up on Saturday morning. Four sports
cars could be seen with a duo of A6 GCS/53 Fantuzzi Spiders,
the 150S and a Replica of the 450S based on the engine 4511.
Ferrari featured a duo of Touring Barchettas, one the white 166
MM (0068M), the other the black 340 America (0114A) making a
great couple in front of the Hotel Leon D´Oro. Just next to them
was the Ferrari 250 GT (0829GT) that was born as Series I
Cabriolet before being rebodied after an accident in period by
Scaglietti to the then up-to-date California Spyder design, a 500
TRC and a 250 GT Ellena/Boano low roof (0697GT).
After three very entertaining runs the weekend ended with the
price giving at the Castello in Vernasca overlooking the cars on
the main square. With the absence of timed competition the
organizers honoured the best looking cars in the various
categories giving some repeating competitors a souvenir to this
year’s event before they will be back for next year when the
French cars will be featured.
Report & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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