Bella Italia: Who is the fairest in the Marketplace?

Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but our varied selection of five gorgeous Italians will surely provide something to appeal to just about everyone?

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Lamborghini 400 GT 2+2: Room for four (just) 


The 2+2-seater version of the 400 GT was first shown at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show. The larger, Touring-designed body allowed (just) enough room for those extra two seats, although the wheelbase remained the same. Some 224 examples were built before the model was replaced by the Islero in 1968, and one of those 224 is for sale on Classic Driver.

Buy this Lamborghini 400 GT from the Classic Driver Marketplace >> 

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Siata Daina GS: Barn-find restored 


This charming 1952 Daina Gran Sport, a sports car based on the Fiat 1400, has a barchetta body restored to its original brown. The car lay in storage in California from 1964 – after an unsuccessful attempt to fit a V8 engine – until 2010, when the current owner discovered it and took it to Germany. After a thorough mechanical and cosmetic restoration, the supremely pretty Siata is for sale at the Dorotheum auction on 8 June. 

See this car’s auction listing on Classic Driver >> 

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Bizzarrini 5300 Strada: Thug in a sharp suit 


In stark contrast to the delicate feminine charm of the Siata Daina, a Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada is a macho powerhouse. Essentially a road-going version of a race car (the Iso Grifo A3C), the aluminium-bodied Bizzarrini is brutish and extremely powerful – yet still elegant in true Italian style, the quintessential “thug in a sharp suit”. This 1968 model is for sale at Autoieri in Italy. 

Buy this Bizzarrini 5300 Strada from the Classic Driver Marketplace >> 

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Fiat Barchetta Graziani MM: Handmade in Al 


As cute as they come, this two-seater 1953 Fiat has a handmade aluminium body designed by Antonio Graziani, according to Lutziger Classic Cars in Switzerland, which is offering the car for sale. It’s certainly a car that would arouse the curiosity of Italian car enthusiasts wherever it went. There are many more pictures to view via the link below. 

Buy this Fiat Barchetta Graziani MM from the Classic Driver Marketplace >> 

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Ferrari 599 GTB HGTE: Ex-Nicolas Cage 


This 2007 supercar with its 6.0-litre 612HP V12 engine was delivered new to the actor Nicolas Cage, and what a good choice he made in that it was specified with a manual gearbox. The HGTE (Handling Gran Turiso Evoluzione) option package was fitted by North American Ferrari dealer, Miller Cars of Greenwich, but many of the original (non-HGTE) parts come with the car. Even now, the car boasts just 8,200 miles on the clock. 

This and other Ferrari 599 GTBs can be found in the Classic Driver Marketplace >>

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Text: Classic Driver
Photos: Classic Driver Dealers / Auction Houses

wrc.A ride with the Gods! / Appuyez sur les champignons… à la grecque !

The ultra-compact format of the 2013 Acropolis Rally should ensure a thrilling fight between the front-runners at Volkswagen Motorsport, Citroën-Total Abu Dhabi WRT and Qatar M-Sport WRT. The WRC-2 and J-WRC battles promise to be close, too.

Le format ultra compact du Rallye de l’Acropole 2013 devrait garantir une bataille très intense entre les pilotes Volkswagen Motorsport, Citroën-Total Abu Dhabi WRT et Qatar M-Sport WRT, sans oublier les protagonistes des catégories WRC-2 et J-WRC.

In the space of just 2,642 minutes, from 6:28pm on Friday, May 31, until 2:30pm on Sunday, June 2, crews tackling this year’s Greek round of the WRC will cover 14 stages totalling 306.53km in the northern Peloponnesus and in the hills to the east of the Corinth Canal. The compact event is likely to produce some intense competition, especially since as it begins with a 47.70km stage, followed by a 26.05km night-time test, and concludes with the 30.14km Power Stage.

Volkswagen Motorsport prepared for the season’s sixth clash with a test in Greece earlier this month. Its objective was to work on the Polo R WRC’s set-up and no doubt also its reliability over the event’s notoriously gruelling stages. Jari-Matti Latvala first contested the event exactly 10 years ago in a Ford Focus WRC but his first strong showing was last year when he challenged for victory. His team-mate Sébastien Ogier won it in 2011, driving a Citroën DS3 WRC.

Citroën-Total Abu Dhabi WRT will test in Greece at the beginning of next week. Dani Sordo hasn’t done the Acropolis since 2009 and his best result there is fifth overall. Meanwhile, this year will be Mikko Hirvonen’s 10^th attempt and his record includes five podium finishes (including victory in 2009). In 2005, it was here that he first led a world class rally.

Qatar M-Sport was in Portugal this week to prepare for the Acropolis. Indeed, the Portuguese stages are nearly as rough as their Greek counterparts nowadays. Ford has built up a fine record on the Acropolis, with a score of 13 wins since 1973, although its most recent victory dates back to 2009. That was the year Evgeny Novikov posted his first ever fastest stage time in the WRC, at the age of 18! Mads Ostberg finished just shy of the podium in 2012 when Thierry Neuville crowned his first visit to Greece with sixth place.

The entry features 12 WRC drivers, including Nasser Al-Attiyah and Khalid Al Qassimi who are back after their most recent clash in the Middle East championship’s Jordan Rally (won by Al-Attiyah). The 2013 WRC-2’s pace-setter Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (Ford Fiesta RRC) will face opposition from Poland’s Robert Kubica (Citroën DS3 RRC), as well as form Lorenzo Bertelli and Yurii Protasov who have traded their respective Subaru Imprezas for Ford Fiesta RRCs. The second round of the J-WRC has attracted 10 drivers and their Ford Fiesta R2s will run on GEM Fuel biofuel.

Entre vendredi 31 mai 18h28 et dimanche 2 juin 14h30 - soit environ 2642 minutes - les concurrents du Rallye de l’Acropole vont parcourir 14 spéciales et 306,53 km chronométrés près du canal de Corinthe et dans le Péloponnèse. Un format et un parcours compacts propices aux bagarres intenses, d’autant que le rallye débutera par une spéciale de 47,70 km suivie d’une ES nocturne de 26,05 et se conclura par une Power Stage de 30,14 km.

Les pilotes Volkswagen Motorsport sont allés préparer cette 6^e manche de la saison sur place, en Grèce, mi-mai. L’objectif était de trouver les bons set-up et sans doute de fiabiliser la Polo R WRC pour affronter les pistes helléniques. Jari-Matti Latvala a découvert ce rallye il y a tout juste 10 ans sur une Ford Focus WRC, mais n’y avait guère brillé jusqu’à l’an passé où il luttait pour la victoire. Leader du championnat, Sébastien Ogier a remporté l’épreuve en 2011, sur une Citroën DS3 WRC à l’époque.

Citroën-Total Abu Dhabi WRT sera également sur place en début de semaine prochaine. Dani Sordo n’a plus participé au Rallye de Grèce depuis 2009 et son meilleur résultat est une 5^eplace. Son équipier Mikko Hirvonen prendra son 10^e départ d’Athènes. Il est monté cinq fois sur le podium (victoire en 2009) et en 2005, il avait été en tête d’un rallye mondial pour la 1^ère fois de sa carrière.

Qatar M-Sport a préparé ce rendez-vous au Portugal cette semaine. Il faut dire que les chemins portugais sont devenus aussi cassants que ceux de Grèce. Ford compte un beau palmarès au Rallye de l’Acropole avec 13 victoires depuis 1973, mais n’y a plus triomphé depuis 2009. Cette année-là, Evgeny Novikov y avait signé son premier temps scratch en WRC à 18 ans !  Mads Ostberg a échoué au pied du podium l’an passé et Thierry Neuville a terminé 6^e pour ésa 1^èreparticipation.

Douze WRC devraient être au départ, Gabriel Pozzo étant annoncé forfait. Nasser Al-Attiyah et Khalid Al Qassimi sont de retour aux affaires après leur énième confrontation en championnat du Moyen-Orient, au Rallye de Jordanie (victoire du Qatari). En WRC-2, le leader du championnat Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (Ford Fiesta RRC) pourra se mesurer au Polonais Robert Kubica (Citroën DS3 RRC). Lorenzo Bertelli et Yurii Protasov ont troqué leurs Subaru Impreza contre des Ford Fiesta RRC. Dix pilotes sont engagés en J-WRC pour la 2^e manche de la saison. Leurs Ford Fiesta R2 seront alimentées de bio-carburant GEM Fuel.

Moto Guzzi Nuovo Falcone - Medaza Cycles

The AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building has some pretty big boots to fill. After all, putting the words ‘World Championship’ in your name doesn't let you do anything by half measures. They have to throw a net over the entire custom bike scene in order to live up to the expectations. Sometimes this means they can uncover some real gems, but it also means that they do tend to get their fair share of choppers, ape hangers, and billet. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But this year, they've really taken it to a new level. All the bikes placed in the top three slots are rides we'd be more than happy to have in our garage. And the winner? Well, it's a bike that we'd tear down our old garage for and build a new one just to do it justice. That bike is a Moto Morini single mounted in a one-off frame called ‘Rondine’.

Here's Don Cronin. He runs Medaza Cycles, and is an Italian-loving Irishman who's just been crowned best custom bike builder in the world. “I’ve built all sorts of bikes over the years. Yanks, Brits, Japs – but I’ve always had a soft spot for Italian machines. I adopted the moniker “Medaza Cycles” in 2009 after building Medaza 500 (a Morini based chop) for the AMD championship in Sturgis. If we had a philosophy it would be ‘ingenuity before bought’. A lot of the real creativity happens in the workshop after hours when myself and a few good friends work on each other's bikes as a kind of social thing. The bikes are built for the pleasure of it, and I hope it shows.”

“I’d had the idea for Rondine for a while but Moto Guzzi flat singles are hard to get hold of and are usually too expensive to break up. The Nuovo Falcone is considered the poor relation of the more venerable Falcone, so they’re a bit easier to source. In standard form they’re ugly as sin, but therein lay the challenge! The donor bike for the build (a ‘71 model) turned up as a project, so fit the bill.”

“The engine rebuild included the fitting of a 580cc piston and compression increase, light weight valves with uprated springs, a modified lubrication system, a custom light flywheel, pumper carb, and one-off permanent magnet alternator. Bar the modified V-Rod wheels and the V-rod swing arm used in the girder forks, very few of the bike's parts are off-the-shelf items. The frame, tinware, and most of the other components were engineered in house.”

“I'd like, if I could to a quick shout-out to Harisson Billet U.K. who supplied the brake calipers and S+T Steel in Wichita Falls Texas, who produced the rotors. Many thanks!”

And here's something that put a big smile on our faces. Inexplicably, at the bottom of Don's message to us, and seemingly out of all context, he finished up with these six words. “Do it for the heck of it.” Don, for a man that says “words aren't my normal medium,” we kind of feel that you are selling yourself short. And we can't wait to see what you do next.

 from PIPEBURN

WRC ; Successful shakedown for the Hyundai i20 WRC / Shakedown réussi pour la Hyundai i20 WRC

The Hyundai i20 WRC, which is expected to make its debut on next January’s Rallye Monte-Carlo, was tested for the first time earlier this month in France. It covered 550km.

La Hyundai i20 WRC, qui devrait débuter en course lors du Rallye Monte-Carlo 2014, a effectué ses premiers tests en France mi-mai au cours desquels 550 km ont été parcourus.

Since moving to new premises in Alzenau, Germany, at the beginning of the year, Hyundai Motorsporthas been working hard on the development of the Hyundai i20 WRC which was made in South Korea by engineers at the firm’s facilities in Namyang.

The car turned a wheel for the first time at a three-day, all-asphalt session in France where the objective was to collect as much data as possible, notably concerning the engine.

A busy test programme now awaits Hyundai Motorsport until the end of 2013. As the clock counts down to the 2014 Rallye Monte-Carlo, the team plans to put the newcomer through its paces on all the types of surface it will encounter in the WRC.

Depuis son installation dans de nouveaux locaux à Alzenau (Allemagne) en début d’année, l’équipe Hyundai Motorsport n’a pas chômé pour développer la Hyundai i20 WRC dont la construction avait été effectuée en Corée du Sud par les ingénieurs de centre de Namyang.

L’auto est tombée des chandelles mi-mai pour un Shakedown suivi d’une séance d’essais de trois jours en France, exclusivement sur asphalte. L’objectif était de récolter de nombreuses informations, notamment au niveau de la motorisation, qui seront ensuite analysées par les ingénieurs.

Un programme d’essais intensif va occuper les hommes de Hyundai Motorsport jusqu’à la fin de l’année 2013. Des tests sont prévus sur toutes les surfaces rencontrées par le WRC. Le temps est désormais compté jusqu’au Rallye Monte-Carlo 2014.