Ducktailing it to the Targa

[Nige]

Was just going to ask what the end result looked like, always difficult to visualise on screen. Looks great and what an amazing adventure you guys have had.

[DustyM]

Great story Guys, and great pictures to keep the memories alive, though I don't expect you'll forget it in a hurry.

[210bhp]

Thank you both.

Nige, your work was brilliant and I am over the moon with the result. Now that I am able to post the details up and publicly thank you for your digital layout of the sticker and James's fantastic ageing and printing I will make a donation to the charity. You might like to know that I gave a sticker to the Sicilian owner of the (winner?) of the Giro, a light ivory 68E, which was also a Floridia delivered 911 and of course to Armando Floridia himself. Both seemed thrilled with them.

Armando chatted away as we poured over the history papers (photocopies) of my car. I was very keen to ask him if he had had my RS painted when new. The car was invoiced from the factory on June 1st 1973 (we landed on Sicilian soil on June 1st 2016, quite a coincidence) in chartreuse. The delivery date from the dealership to the first owner was November that year and sold to the second Palermo owner in January 1974. Andrea had phoned the second owner on my behalf about 9 years ago and spoke to his sister who confirmed that she only knew the car as black. Armando confirmed he had never sold a black RS so it would appear the first owner had it repainted somewhere between nov 73 and jan 74. There was always a rumour (when I bought the car) that it had been returned to the factory for repaint by the dealer so I think this can now be discounted. This rumour probably came about because it was repainted so early in its life.

The paperwork seemed to suggest that the first three Sicilian owners were all women (from what I could make out) and I always wondered about that. Andrea's phone conversation 9 years ago with the second owner started with "it was really my brothers car" so I always assumed this was all a tax dodge or similar. Armando didn't really shed any light onto this so I will just have to put it down to Sicilian culture.

Suddenly there was an exclamation from Armando as he looked more closely at the slightly blurred photocopy. "The second owner was not a woman, here, look, it was my good friend Alfonso Merendino".
Sure enough, I could now see the name. Alfonso had owned the RS for a short time as the second owner. "He was also a racing driver and he won the last Targa Florio in 1977, the year after me". It was a pretty gobsmacking moment as I had looked at that photocopy a million times and never seen the (very blurred) name. So maybe it was Alfonso who had it painted black in readiness to sell it on. Who knows, but it at least filled in another piece of history.

It took a moment for all that to sink in. I think it was James who said, " so your RS was sold by the driver who won the penultimate Targa and owned by the driver who won the very last Targa" . Blimey.

We chatted a little while longer and Armando kindly invited me back to Sicily in 2017 for the Targa celebration event but soon it was time for him to go. We shook hands and he was gone.

I was a bit in a daze. I'd had a great day. Way way more exciting than I'd ever imagined.

Regards
Mike

[johnM]

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

[210bhp]

Thanks John. It truly was an extraordinary day.

Before we headed for the return ferry to Genoa I had chance to take a couple of photos of the car outside the first couple of owners addresses. The first was a bit hairy as it meant parking in a bus lane the wrong way round down a one way street, and it was busy with buses!

There were a few things I thought about on the return ferry.

1. Driving our cars is what it's all about
2. Sharing a road trip with good friends is even more what it's all about
3. Research the history of your car, you never know what will turn up
4. Put Sicily on your list of places to visit. The place is stunning especially in the hills of the Madonie circuit and the town of Cefalu. I know I only scratched the surface but it is so beautiful I will go back. I can't recommend it enough.

That night on the ferry I slept like a baby.....

Regards
Mike

[Lightweight_911]

A wonderful story Mike - certainly makes me want to visit Sicily (I've driven down to southern Italy but never been to Sicily).

[Goodwood]

I've really enjoyed the thread this Summer and would highly recommend that any fan of the Targa tries to source a copy of Ten Days in Sicily; its my favourite book on the Targa and maybe my favourite motorsport book in my collection (sorry about the low res scan, the picture quality in the book, both b&w and colour, is excellent), regards Gavin

[bjmullan]

Outside the address of owner #1

[bjmullan]

Owner #2

[hot66]

Good or bad timing ? But the new Sicillian route book from curves is just been released

http://www.delius-klasing.de/buecher/CU ... chvertrieb

[23e Heure]

Nice one, James: Pre-ordered that, it will provide plenty of flashbacks

[dean1057]

Great write up Mike in CP and in this thread, must add Sicily to the bucket list!
Love the passion that people go to following the history of a car.

[23e Heure]

So as you have deduced, Mike and I agreed to play tag team to take this thread to its conclusion. He would do most of the writing, and - together with Brendon - I would add the photos.

After the surreal meeting with Armando Floridia in Palermo, it was time to saddle up for home.

Here is our route back:




Our ferry left Palermo on the Monday evening, and landed in Genoa on Tuesday evening. It was a balmy evening when we landed, and we had 180 miles to cover before bed.
Starting at sea level we traversed the Italian plains, then climbed up into the Alps, through the Mont Blanc tunnel, to overnight in a ski lodge with dramatic views of the highest peak in Europe.

It was sunny when we left, and Johnny took the wheel:



But as we started our climb, we could see crackling electrical storms on the horizon. Huge ones. Perhaps the biggest looking storms we'd ever seen.

Now some say that storms can - at their most violent - generate temporal vortexes.
You may have heard stories of people in Texas being scooped up by tornadoes, and being found months or even years later. And when questioned they say no time had passed for them.
The tornado must have torn a hole in the universe. Yeah, right: I always dismissed these stories as fanciful poppycock.

Until now, that is... Idly flicking through an old Motor Sport last night I came upon this Letter From Europe.
For those not familiar with these, they were written by motoring journo legend Jenks (DSJ) for Motor Sport Magazine (mostly) in the 60s and 70s, relaying tales of his experiences on the road, travelling between race venues.
In this one, Jenks describes his drive home from the 1968 Targa. Read it carefully... could the meteorological chaos really have caused DDKers to have been spotted on the road in another time/dimension?





Hey Brendon, do you have some nice shots of the storms?.

[sladey]

Ha! I was taking all that in until the names appeared

[210bhp]

Brilliant!

Regards
Mike