Tag: 20th anniversary

ON THE BLOCK: Rare Lancia Quartet Anchors 20th Annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance

February 17, 2015 / moto+match / 0 Comments

A class of exotic rally cars will defy convention, common wisdom and concours orthodoxy at the 20th anniversary Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance on March 15, 2015.

“Rallying is extraordinarily popular across Europe,” said Bill Warner, Founder and Chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. “Today American motorsport fans are seeing the appeal of rallying. A big part of that is because rally cars are spectacular. They’re the triathletes of motorsport.”

The traditions of rallying date to the dawn of the automobile. Rallies are the direct descendants of the original city-to-city races of the early 20th Century and of long distance open road races like the fabled Mille Miglia.

World Championship rallying requires complex strategic and tactical preparation. Most special stages – the scored “races” against time over closed roads – are done day and night in any weather. The key element in rally strategy is tire selection. Competitors face ice, snow, wet and dry pavement – sometimes no pavement at all – and often all these conditions during the same stage. The length of a traditional World Championship rally stage is 60 kilometers – 37 miles.

The grueling 13-round international World Rally Championship season opens in January with the fabled Monte Carlo Rally and concludes in November in Britain with the RAC – Royal Automobile Club – Rally.

“The Monte Carlo Rally is the most famous rally,” said Warner. “It was first run in 1911, the same year as the inaugural Indy 500.”

A quartet of significant, championship-winning Lancia rally cars from the Jacksonville-based Campion Collection will anchor the 20th anniversary Amelia Concours World Rally Cars class.

The Campion Collection’s 1969 Lancia Fulvia was the progenitor of the 1972 Fulvia that won the Daily Mirror RAC (Royal Automobile Club) Rally, final round of the 1972 International Championship for Manufacturers, ancestor of the World Rally Championship. The elegant Fulvia launched a Lancia rally dynasty that dominated the final decades of the 20th century.

In the early 1970s the hyper-exotic Lancia Stratos, three-time winner of the Monte Carlo Rally and the World Rally Championship, was the first car created specifically to win the World Championship. It was superseded by the supercharged Lancia 037 from the infamous, flame spitting Group B era of the 1980s, the final rear-wheel drive car to win the World Rally Championship. In 1985 Campion’s 037 scored a victorious farewell for the breed winning the 792-mile, 69th Targa Florio rally driven by Dario Cerrato.

Group B cars were banned after the 1986 World Rally Championship, but Lancia introduced the Beta Delta Integrale which became the most successful rally car from the Italian marque. The 037 won an unprecedented six World Rally Manufacturers Championships and scored 46 World Championship victories. The record remains unbeaten. This 1988 Delta Integrale, also from the Campion Collection of Jacksonville, FL, was then exported to Australia and won the 1989 Australian Rally Championship driven by three-time Australian Rally Champion Greg Carr.

Sir Stirling Moss, honoree for the premier Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 1996, returns to reprise his role for the 20th anniversary Amelia Concours celebration. Sir Stirling finished second in the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally, his international rally debut, and won a coveted Coupe des Alpes that summer with a perfect score in the 2057-mile Alpine Rally. Vic Elford, Amelia’s 2012 Honoree, holds the distinction of winning both the Monte Carlo Rally (with a Porsche 911T) and the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona (Porsche 907 prototype) in the same week during 1968!

“Rally cars, like their ancient Grand Prix and Indy 500 ancestors, carry two-person crews,” said Warner. “In a rally, unlike a race, a bad lap can’t be made up because you’re racing against time, not wheel to wheel with other cars. Once a rally stage has begun there are no caution flags, no pit stops. Everything has to be fast and perfect regardless of road conditions, weather, terrain, even local flora and fauna. In a race, sometimes you can out-fox a competitor, but you can’t outwit the second hand of a stopwatch.”

PICK OF THE DAY: 48,000 Mile Volkswagen GTI 20th

June 20, 2014 / moto+match / 0 Comments

Marking 20 years since the U.S. launch of the world’s most successful “hot hatch”—and the one that’s credited with creating the category—Volkswagen of America celebrated the occasion with the GTI 20th Anniversary. Of the 4,200 made, about a quarter were in Imola Yellow, nodding to Ferrari’s Giallo Fly (Black Pearl and Jazz Blue were the other two available colors). Despite its limited production, not much reverie was given to keeping them pure and most eventually ended up glommed among the other MK 4 Golfs that are highly coveted by the tuner set. Some were genuinely elevated to astonishing feats far beyond what anyone would imagine possible from what is essentially a people’s car. Others are nothing short of abominations. Few were left untouched. This is an Imola Yellow 20th that has remained mostly pure, with its turbo-back exhaust the only modification. And that is a good thing. With only 48,000 miles, it gives its next owner the option a more or less blank canvas upon which to either tune or preserve. It is otherwise described as “basically mint” and does appear to be exceptional clean and well cared for. Find it here on Craigslist in Allentown PA for $11,000 or best offer.

PICK OF THE DAY: Unmolested Volkswagen GTI 20th Anniversary

April 18, 2014 / moto+match / 0 Comments

With its introduction at the Frankfurt Auto Show in 1975, the Volkswagen GTI, for all intents and purposes, gave birth to a new automotive segment, thereupon known as Hot Hatch. Today, it remains the one that other marques target and imitate. 2003 marked the 20th anniversary of the GTI’s launch in the US. Coinciding with the Golf MK 4—in many enthusiast’s estimation the finest of the series—the “20th,” along with the Eurpopean-market 25th (337 in the US) and the ultimate MK4, the R32, represents the pinnacle of the GTi. The 20th was not just a cosmetic variation of the standard Mk 4. Indeed it had unique body accents, special badges and a Recaro interior. However in addition to these, it featured a 6-speed gearbox. Only a manual was offered (the superb DSG would not be introduced until the R32 a year later). This. mated with its 180-hp turbocharged motor, gave the car a unique sporting character unlike any GTI that came before it and once again upped the game in the Hot Hatch segment. They were quick, nimble and most of all fun. The motors were also designed to allow for extensive aftermarket performance enhancements. By tuning intake, exhaust, boost, software, etc., more than double the horsepower was possible without significant changes to the stock drivetrain. It was at the time a brilliant piece of marketing (though it was never promoted as such): provide a very good canvas and let the customer dial it in to their liking. Herein also lies the problem. Because they were so easy to modify, modify they did. What remains some 11 years later is a circus of MK 4s that reflect one owner’s tastes without much regard for anyone else’s liking. An unmolested MK 4, much less a 20th, much less a 20th with just over 50K on the clock, is a hot commodity. This one looks particularly cool in its Jazz Blue finish. Find it here at Dean Motor Cars in Houston TX for a very reasonable $10,486.