Ducktailing it to the Targa

[Lightweight_911]

Fiat 500 van from early '50's ...

[Winston Teague]

This thing was patina-tastic, and made a fantastic noise:

the blue one is a C6 Amilcar of 1926 or 1927, though if a works car it may be a CO. The red one is a Maserati 8c or 26m, prob a 3 litre, but could be 2600, 2300, or even 1100. 1931 or 32? Both cars deserves engine shots! W

[Dyno Soar]

Awesome pictures... makes me feel that I need to get out more.

Thanks for taking the time.

[23e Heure]

the blue one is a C6 Amilcar of 1926 or 1927, though if a works car it may be a CO. The red one is a Maserati 8c or 26m, prob a 3 litre, but could be 2600, 2300, or even 1100. 1931 or 32? Both cars deserves engine shots! W

Good skills

The blue car is exactly as you say, a 1926 Amilcar C6.

And the Maserati is a 1928 Tipo 26.
A well known and campaigned car, it is owned (and driven by) by Heinz Hofer.
As a young man in the 60s, Heinz was a Swiss ski champion.
Who went on to work as Penske's Can-Am and then F1 team manager (he got the job after working as Roger Penske's ski instructor in Colorado!)
Interesting fella, with lots of stories, Heinz told me that the Tipo 26 has a 3 litre engine in it... If that is correct, then I'm not certain the engine is correct for the car(?)...

Despite trying, we were not able to catch the owner of either car with their engine covers lifted at any point during the event

[23e Heure]

Saturday afternoon was 2 long stages on fast, deserted sweepers, heading north west.

We resumed our rhythm of slow, slow, quick, quick, slow allowing Johnny to snap a variety of slower cars.

All the photos in this specific post are Johnny's: no sharing these please



This was my favourite car on the event. (Andy: should be easy for you, this one)



Ex Carrera Panamericana:






In the heat, we were jealous of later pork with air con:



Campaigned by two sun dried Italian women:



Not just sleek, but highly competitive also:

[23e Heure]

And once again we finished the day in a postcard location.



For many of the far flung towns we passed through during the event, life is generally pretty slow. Having the Giro come to town is an excuse to have a party.



Smiling people everywhere, asking questions about the car, the Giro, how fast you went.




Quite a surprise at every stop was the number of locally owned classics brought out for the occasion.
It feels like somehow the love of old cars is in the locals' blood. Nostalgic memories of when once a year the Targa brought speed, noise and glamour to this quiet island?

The owner of this 72 T introduced himself when we parked up. He's owned it since the late 70s. Dalmatian blue?



With some great patina to the light tan seats and door cards, this vinyl is for Rich (abzadams) to zoom in on.





The Sicilian passion for oldtimers is both prevalent and regional: many of the major towns still have their own individual classic car club.
Should I have enamel badges made up for the few of us here in the Peckham Porsche Club?:

[Lightweight_911]

This was my favourite car on the event. (Andy: should be easy for you, this one)

That's a lovely Lancia Appia Zagato - circa '60/'61 ...

[23e Heure]

After another cool drink, we made the transfer stage back to our Enna hotel.

This time dinner was from the sea.



We were invited to sit at a table of Sicilian drivers, one of them being Pietro, the driver of the yellow T2. No doubt fuelled by the local grape, he and I struck up an instant bonhomie.

On the first night stage, Johnny and I had gawked at their yellow bus, as it passed us at full revs, on the wrong side of the road, overtaking flashing Palermo traffic and disappearing into the distance.
Tonight he revealed that he'd been invited to run in the Giro only days before the event, had not looked at the rules,and had started out under the belief that this was to be a full on, first person past the post event!

This guy also has an orange 914/6, left to him by his father in law, and laid up in a Marsala underground car park for years...

(Johnny's photo)

[23e Heure]

There was a light rain through Saturday night. It had stopped by 7am, but for most of the morning the roads would be greasy as it dried off.

(Johnny's photo)



(Johnny's photo)



(Johnny's photo)

[23e Heure]

We headed north east and up into the hills, to join the long version of the circuit - the Grande Circuito Madonie.




This layout was used 1906 to 1911, was 92 miles long and had over 2000 corners, mixed with countless climbs and descents.



By late morning we were to join the circuit and complete its second half, following it all the way to finish the event about 2pm at the pits area before Cerda.

(Johnny's photo):


We had 150 minutes to do it. Half the circuit is about 1000 corners, so we'd need to average a corner every 8 seconds then!? How many gear changes and brake pushes:shock:



(Johnny's photo):

[23e Heure]

We made a hairpin descent down to the sea. Cefalu is a tourist town, which boasts a cathedral built by the Normans.



The cobbled streets are narrow, and led us down to the town's short beach:





We stopped and I found some guy called Gianni Gelato shaking up the scene with his wardrobe choices:

[210bhp]

That looks like Cefalu James. That's where the gorgeous parking attendant was so I will never forget it now!

Regards
Mike

[23e Heure]

I'm glad her memory brought you to attention !

[abzadams]

With some great patina to the light tan seats and door cards, this vinyl is for Rich (abzadams) to zoom in on.

Yep, some nice vinylage going on there.

Looks a great trip, catch up soon to talk about the next one!

[mrg3.6]

What a great event - shame I couldn't squeeze anything more than the Targa this year......but there's always next year?

Martin
Singapore