Walking through Turin I stumbled on a car show

Dallarax19

Dallarax19

Builder -Dallara Replica
Now and again I get to visit cool places for my profession. This trip I visited Pininfarina


In this location the wind tunnel is active but the old development center and factory are in a state of decay (the new is in Cambiano)



My visit coincided with a Turin Holiday so I took the opportunity to walk around the city as much as I could in a day. I don't know the name of the area I was walking through but there was a small car show in the Plaza. Here are the pics:




















This cracked me up, the interior of the X was just a mess







Some random car pics, this Ferrari was just parked in the middle of the street. Parking was around the corner but for this guy he just put on his flashers.


Some cars in the "hood"


I particularly like this one



I also visited Germany and did my normal round of activities. I have an ongoing challenge with the engineers in our European office and we do track events. This time only two of us could go but we went to the Arena of Speed

http://www.arena-of-speed.com/de/infos/kartbahn.html








Still quite a bit to knock off to run with the fast guys but not too bad for a track I had never run before. I had the third fastest lap time out of our group of 10-12 guys with 0.015 seconds between me an the top guys time :eek:mg: I had two interesting comments, the first was from a local guy, the second fastest lap time guy and I kept trading off places. He said to me " It it good to see there is an American that can race" I took that as a compliment :D. The second comment was from the track manager that handed out the time sheets and called me over and said "you are fast but most impressive is you are very consistent" :).

The final evening of the trip I met up with Ulix again and I got his debrief on his new engine build; we always reflect on Xweb posts too. One thing we both commented on is how fantastic Steve C's ultimate SOHC write up is. I hope Ulix will post his story of his engine build because it is crazy great.
 
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Just wonderful. Thank you for sharing!! I scrolled down your photo's with great anticipation of what would be next. Love the "hood" shots!! Please share your thoughts on the city itself.
 
Interesting

Brian,

Do you think that was someone's personal collection on display? Seems like there is "one of everything" and typically you get a few of each.

Thanks for the pictures. :)
 
I did not see much so I can't say alot

The city was cool but where I was it was a bit of a concrete jungle. I saw only a limited a part of the city around my hotel so I can't really give a fair assessment. Where I was business wise it was the same. Most of the area was covered with graffiti. The guys I was with saw all the churches they could find but I was looking for architecture and generally trying to understand logistics of how the city was laid out. I did not see many families with young kids. It was like one giant mall or club. It was interesting around my hotel because I kept asking "where are all the fat people?" Everyone looked like they were ready to party and they did. It seemed to come alive about 8:30pm. I loved the outdoor cafes and bars. One thing that really threw me was there were several young guys that would ask for money on the street but they were dressed ready to hit the club. Driving was OK but I found it less stressful to just commute by taxi. If I ever go back I would definitely research it because I know I did not even scratch the surface. If I was 25yrs old again I certainly would recommend it because there was so much nightlife. Here are some random pics











 
I could not find anyone that looked to be the owner of the cars

There was a truck there that indicated there was some sort of organization and a few folks with some sort of uniform but the one person I approached to inquire about it kind of ignored me. I suppose it is because I don't speak Italian. I can tell you the X1/9 was driven there on the open road. If you look closely at the pics you will see it was covered with bugs especially on the front bumper. All the other cars were spotless.
 
Real cool, Brian!

I might be going on a supplier visit soon to Torino as well, and if I do - I hope to plan ahead and check out events/carshows/museums, etc..

Nice shots! What did you take them with?
 
Galaxy S7

Phone cam but I almost never remembered to wipe off the fingerprints over the lense so some of the pics are hazy. If you find some cool places then let me know. I asked about an automotive museum but I was told there is one that was "quite far away".
 
we visited

this time last year when we toured through Italy ...... even picked up a set of awesome seat covers :)
 
Watch it Kevin! I know someone near and dear to us...

owned one before his "Trailer Queen" and probably wishes he had it back!

As to your question... I think they have survived because they remained parked under cover most of the time as their owners were too embarrassed to drive them... but that's just a guess.
 
HEY! My X is "chocolate brown"! Unfortunately the car in the pix is in considerably better shape than mine. And the whole care is the same color. I want to paint it "Chairo Verde".
 
I love that area of Torino

I have been to Torino 4 times over the years, although I would not consider myself to be any kind of expert.
The area where the classic Italian cars were on display is the Piazza Vittorio Veneto and in the background of Dallarax19's photo with the huge "Martini" banner you can see the church that was used in the wedding scene of the original Italian Job movie. You may recall that the Mini's drove down the steps of the church right past the shocked wedding guests!
In the river just in front of the church is the weir that was driven across by the Mini's and a police Alfa.
There are other locations like this that you can check out, including the round, dome shaped building that the Minis drove up onto, which is actually a velodrome.
In my opinion, the gathering of Fiats and other Italian cars may have been organised by the Fiat Register of Italy who have their club rooms a short walk away fro there just south of Piazza Castello off Via Roma.
Any Fiat enthusiast heading to Torino should try to get an introduction from their local Fiat importer (not the dealers) and arrange a Fiat Factory visit. I did this in 2010 for a party of 8 and we were shown through the main Mirafiori factory on Corso Giovanni Agnelli, were bussed across town to the original Fiat Factory on Corso Dante Alighieri which is now the Factory museum called Centro Storico Fiat. I have visited here 3 times now and the display of cars changes slightly each time. Also at this facility is a research library containing heaps of historical technical information. They also took us to lunch at their restaurant in the Mirafiori Motor Village dealership and finally a visit to the Abarth Factory.
In 2013 I took 2 other guys with me to do the same thing, but on the day of the visit the Fiat Factory was not operating so they took us over to the Maserati Factory at Grugliasco instead (the old Bertone works), as well as Centro Storico, Abarth and a nice lunch of course!
In 2013 we visited the newly refurbished National Automobile Museum which is simply the best car museum I have ever seen. Well worth the visit. This museum is down near the river and it is only a walk of a few blocks from the Lingotto building, a factory opened by Fiat in 1919 which has a test track on the roof. If you stay at the NH Lingotto Hotel within the actual building, you can ask for the key to the roof and go up for a walk around the old test track as it is used as a jogging track by hotel guests.
Other attractions of Torino include the city's symbol, the Mole Antonelliana which was built to be a synagogue but never used as such. It now houses a cinematic museum and has a wonderful glass lift that will take you up to the top of the dome for fantastic views over the city.
Torino is also famous for its chocolate, but I reckon it's worth a visit purely because it is NOT a tourist city. It is a "working" city filled with normal everyday Italians. Public transport is worth using too.
Zona Traffico Limitato’s
Last bit of advice from me is that if you are going to be driving in Torino, or anywhere in Italy, you need to know about ZTL’s. These are a worry. They are defined areas, usually in the most congested part of a town where only certain authorized cars are allowed. If you stray into one of these zones, you will be photographed and a huge fine will result. The trouble is that you get no prior warning if one of these zones is imminent. For more info on these zones I suggest using Google.
 
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