by Bernard Martin

by Bernard Martin

Pittsburgh, PA - The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (PVGP) is proud to announce that Ferrari and N.A.R.T. - North American Racing Team, will be honored as Marque of the Year at the 2023 event. The two entities have a rich and fascinating history inextricably intertwined to  Pennsylvania, and their association has led to some of the most memorable moments in the world of motorsports.

Ferrari, one of the most iconic and successful brands in motorsports, has been a timeless symbol of speed, power, and passion. Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the company, began his career as a test driver for a small car company in Milan and later worked for Alfa Romeo as a racing driver and team manager. In 1929, he established the Scuderia Ferrari racing team to support and develop race driver talent, which quickly became one of the most successful teams in the sport.

After dissolving Scuderia Ferrari in 1937, Enzo Ferrari founded Auto Avio Costruzioni, which produced the first Ferrari-badged car in 1947. Ferrari quickly established itself as a dominant force in the world of racing, winning numerous races and championships in Formula One and other international motorsports events.

​Luigi Chinetti Sr. played a significant role in Ferrari's early success in America. He was appointed as the official importer of Ferrari cars to the United States in the late 1940s, and his passion for the brand and belief in the potential of American drivers and teams led him to establish the North American Racing Team (NART) in 1958.

Begun in 1983, the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Motorsport Festival features two weekends of racing action. The first weekend is the PVGP Historics at Pitt Race on July 14-16 2023.

The second weekend, July 22-23, 2023, is racing on a 2.33-mile road course set on the streets of Schenley Park.  Between the race weekends there are car shows, parties, car shows road rallies, and more.

The PVGP is a volunteer driven 501 (c) (3) non- profit organization with a mission to provide residential care, treatment and support for people with autism and intellectual/developmental disabilities. Since 1983, $6.4 million has been donated locally to Autism-Pittsburgh and Merakey Allegheny Valley School.

Each year the Cortile selects a marque or model to highlight for the annual event based upon factors such as historical significance, unique local interest, brand resurgence, etc.

The Macchina of Ferrari have been selected as our 2023 Proiettore Macchina! ​

This Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy was founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as Auto Avio Costruzioni.  

Enzo was not initially interested in producing road cars when he formed Scuderia Ferrari in 1929, with headquarters in Modena. Scuderia Ferrari literally means "Ferrari Stable" and is usually used to mean "Team Ferrari." Ferrari bought, prepared, and fielded Alfa Romeo racing cars for gentleman drivers, functioning as the racing division of Alfa Romeo.

In 1933, Alfa Romeo withdrew its in-house racing team and Scuderia Ferrari took over as its works team: the Scuderia received Alfa's Grand Prix cars of the latest specifications and fielded many famous drivers such as Tazio Nuvolari and Achille Varzi. 

In 1938, Alfa Romeo again brought its racing operation in-house, forming Alfa Corse in Milan and hired Enzo Ferrari as manager of the new racing department; thereby disbanding the Scuderia Ferrari.  In September 1939, Ferrari left Alfa Romeo under the provision he would not use the Ferrari name in association with races or racing cars for at least four years.  

A few days later he founded Auto Avio Costruzioni, with headquarters in the facilities of the old Scuderia Ferrari.  The new company produced machine tools and aircraft accessories. In 1940, Ferrari produced a racing car – the Tipo 815, based on a Fiat platform. It was the first Ferrari car and debuted at the 1940 Mille Miglia, but due to World War II it saw little competition. In 1943, the Ferrari factory moved to Maranello, where it has remained ever since. The factory was bombed by the Allies and subsequently rebuilt including works for road car production.

The first Ferrari-badged car was the 1947 125 S, powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine; Enzo Ferrari reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund Scuderia Ferrari.  The Scuderia Ferrari name was resurrected to denote the factory racing cars and distinguish them from those fielded by customer teams.

Since the company's beginnings, Ferrari has been involved in motorsport, competing in a range of categories including Formula One and sports car racing. Scuderia Ferrari has participated in several classes of motorsport, though it is currently only officially involved in Formula One. It is the only team to have competed in the Formula One World Championship continuously since its inception in 1950.  

In 1949, Luigi Chinetti drove a 166 M to Ferrari's first win in motorsport at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ferrari went on to dominate the early years of the World Sportscar Championship which was created in 1953, winning the title seven out of its first nine years.

Chinetti had emigrated to the United States during World War II. He drove in 12 consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans races, taking three outright wins there and taking two more at the Spa 24 Hours race. Chinetti created the NART, the North American Racing Team, which successfully ran privateer Ferraris in sports car and Formula One races. For many years he was the exclusive American importer of Ferrari automobiles to the United States.
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by Bernard Martin

PITTSBURGH, PA - Joining us this summer at the Cortile is Ivan Ruiz, The Car Nut, who will be speaking during our Saturday Luncheon about the history of Maserati.

I met Ivan several years ago but didn't truly get a full understanding of the depth and breadth of his knowledge until he was conducting a tour at the Hilton Head Concours d' Elegance of some iconic Italian cars.  Ivan will be flying in to join us from Sweden where he is doing a presentation at the 40th anniversary of the Maserati International Rally.

Ivan has been collecting, restoring, and selling vintage European cars for over 35 years.  His initial interest was the Jaguar e-types, of which he’s owned over 100 over the years and later Italian cars, mainly Maseratis. His first Maserati was a 1965 Sebring which was a barn find and he restored the car himself, including the paint.

Ivan graduated as an Electrical Engineer from Cornell University and then spent 30 years working at IBM. He used his IT skills to create www.thecarnut.com, a website which caters primarily to Maserati owners and restorers looking for photos and documents for these cars. Over the years he scanned many sales brochures, owner’s manuals and technical documents have been scanned and are now available on his website.

Ivan is a frequent attendee and judge at many Concours D’Elegance where his cars are driven and not trailered.  “A car stops being a car when it is trailered from one place to another”. 

He feels that if his car cannot be driven to an event, the car does not deserve to attend.

“My wife and I enjoy taking our cars on long drives, of course you are never quite sure if it will make it, but that is part of the excitement!”
 
"Classic cars are more than just about a nice automobile; it is also a lifestyle. Car people tend to be very friendly, and we enjoy the social aspects of the hobby just as much as the driving."

Ivan's collecting and restoring vintage cars has led to ownership over the years of an Iso Grifo, Alfa Montreal, Alfa Sprint Speciale, Lancia Aurelia, Lancia Flaminia Touring spider, Ghia 450SS, Fiat Dino, Maserati Vignale spyder prototype, Citroen SM, and many others.

Ivan's focus is on Italian and British cars from the 1950's through the 1970's. Ivan particularly specializes in Maseratis and Jaguar e-types but he enjoys trying different cars.  Check out his website to see the cars he currently owns and make sure to also click on "personal cars" page while you are there.

Be sure to register for this summers Cortile where we honor Maserati as our 2022 Proietorre Macchina

Pittsburgh, PA. - Jason Moka has been named as the new Chief Judge of the Cortile Cup at the Cortile Italian Car Show that is held each July during the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. 
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Jason Moka has been in the automotive industry for over 10 years in sales management and marketing. He is the Marketing Director for the Rohrich Automotive Group and is the creator of the Bentley Auto Show that benefits the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Charities.  Founded in 2019, the Annual Car Show has been hosted by Jason and his  team at Pittsburgh Bentley and Maserati of Pittsburgh in Wexford, PA. This fabulous event marks the end of the PVGP Summer Car Show events. 

In addition to his creation of the show at Rohrich, Jason has been an avid supporter of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix and the Cortile for more than a decade .  Being an enthusiast himself, Jason had the itch to travel to other shows and venture into the world of judging.  He is now a member of several auto clubs in the area and is active in planning events for the PVGP.  According to Jason, "I'm honored to now be entrusted to be the Chief Judge for the Cortile at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix."  Jason's personal collection includes a 1994 Ferrari 349 Spider, a 1989 Lamborghini Countach and a 1998 Mercedes SL600 Sport. 

The inception of the Cortile Cup started in 2011 at the recommendation of Steve Barney.  Steve was a Senior Judge at the Hilton Head Concours and suggested to Wayne Long that an award for the best cars at the Cortile would add excitement to the event. Wayne Long, the owner of Mid-Atlantic Sports Cars put together awards for the Cortile Cup that summer and has done so every year since.

According to Wayne, "After starting the Cortile Cup nearly ten years ago it seemed like is was good time to pass the baton to a new steward of the event. Jason Moka and Maserati of Pittsburgh will be taking the award program forward and I feel it is in very good hands!" 

"Jason has been taking a more active role over the past few years in both recruiting cars and providing ideas and insights as well as promoting the Cortile to a larger audience.  He's helped raise the bar for the exceptional level of cars that have been on our display field these past few years. He's the next generation of leadership within our car community and I can't think of a better person to take the reigns and add to the Provenance of the event that Wayne and his group of judges set down the foundation." said Bernard Martin, the Founder and Managing Director of the Cortile.

The “Cortile Cup” is awarded to the most significant or exciting Italian car on display during Saturday’s viewing. In addition to the Cortile Cup Overall Winner award, awards are given for the best-in-class for the following marques: Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Fiat, Maserati, Lamborghini,  and an Italian specialty car.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PITTSBURGH, PA - The Cortile Italian Car Show is excited to announce that  Maserati has been selected as our 2022 Proiettore Macchina.  

Founded in December of 1914 Alfieri, Ettore and Ernesto Maserati opened  a car workshop at in Bologna, Italy called  “Società Anonima Officine Alfieri Maserati.  It took until 1926 when their first car there first car all original car, the Tip 26, proudly bora the soon-to-be-famous Trident logo. Oops! Did We say Bora? We may be getting ahead of ourselves, so it's best we save some of the more detailed history for a future article!

But it's important to note that in  May of 1939, Maserati was the first Italian car to celebrate a win at the Indianapolis 500 with driver Wilbur Shaw at the wheel of the 8CTF “Boyle Special” at an average speed of 115.035 mph!

​This will be the first time that we've celebrated Maserati as our Proiettore Macchina.  We've been in contact with a number of owners of significant cars over the past decade and we have finally reached a point where we thought we could attract some significant cars with some very nice provenance.  Please plan on joining use for the 2022 Cortile Italian Car Show!

by Bernard Martin

We are very pleased to announce that Kate Gundlach, who was recently named Grand Marshall for the 2021 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, will be joining us at the Cortile as a Cortile Cup  judge.  Kate will also be the keynote speaker at the Cortile during lunch. She will talk about growing up in motorsports in Pittsburgh and what she does now in her job as ​Performance Engineer at Arrow McLaren SP in the NTT IndyCar Series.

“I grew up with motorcycle racing,” Gundlach said. “I’ve been around it longer than I can remember. I fell in love with car racing, though, when I joined the University of Pittsburgh’s Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) team.

That love for racing sparked her to pursue a future in the sport.

​“I wanted to get into auto racing, but I didn’t know where to start,” she said. “My Dad knew Danny Yanda from his track time at BeaveRun.  He introduced me to Danny who gave me John Walko’s card, I took it straight back to my dorm room and gave him a call”.

“I had her start the next day,” said John Walko, of John Walko Racing, “We where in growth mode at that point. We where running three F2000 cars, two Formula Enterprise cars, a club program with Formula Continental and a Formula Ford and a two car Pro Mazda effort. It was a lot of balls in the air and she kept it running. People in motorsport are hard to find like that. It’s not a regular job. You are constantly working to a deadline.  It’s never, ‘We’re not going to make that race’. It takes a special person. Kate is all of that.”

“When I started there, I worked upstairs in the loft, with a cardboard box as a desk,” Gundlach recalls. “That was one of my earliest lessons about racing at the professional level; you have to be willing to start at the very bottom and do whatever needs doing. Over the course of my time with them I learned not only about racing, but also about working with a team, working with data systems, writing contracts, doing budgets, creating sponsor proposals and a dozen other things. I was definitely thrown into the deep end, and loved every minute of it.”

In 2009 Gundlach joined Star Mazda as Quality Control Engineer and in 2012 joined HMV Racing as the Data and Electronics Engineer for Simona De Silvestro.  That created a rare pairing of female driver and female engineer in Indy Car.

According to Bobby Rahal, “Kate was always a very sharp young lady.  We hired her at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for a few years and now we compete with her, but that’s always the case with racing”

In 2018, Gundlach, along with Danielle Shepherd, became the first women to win an Indycar Series championship from the engineering stand, working with Scott Dixon from Chip Ganassi Racing. 

​Now, entering her second year with Arrow McLaren SP as a Performance Engineer, Gundlach is continuing her success with driver Pato O’Ward.  She's completing against her old teammate Scott Dixon and Alex Palou both at Chip Ganassi Racing.  Pato and Alex are in close competition for the points leader in the Indycar series, with her former teammate from John Walko Racing, Graham Rahal, not too far behind.

Please give Kate a big welcome back to the 'burgh!

by Bernard Martin

Dave Shindle has been kind enough to create a Facebook Group just for Lancia Owners coming  to the Cortile this July.  Check out the group AT THIS LINK. 

Plans are coming together very nicely for the the first post-pandemic show! We have not featured Lancia since the very very first Cortile back in 2009.  We've been looking forward to it since then! 

Walt Spak, who was one of the founders of the Cortile has suggested that he could gather some wonderful Lancia's for that very first year and he stunned everyone with the classic's that showed up including an amazing B-24 Aurelia Spider!

Registration is open now, but remember it closes on July 9, so tell your friends to registers soon!

We've made arrangements for you to stay at one of two places.

Just be sure to mention that your are booking under the PITTSBURGH VINTAGE GRAND PRIX!
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Mansions on Fifth - This is an amazing facility jus cover the hill from Schenley Park. There are a limited number of rooms available in these two classic mansions. There is a very large private parking lot that you will want to make sure you take some photos of your car there!
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Doubletree Hilton in Cranberry Twp.  - This was the host hotel for the Alfa Romeo Owners Club Convention in 2019. It's a beautiful facility with an big indoor atrium featuring a bar and restaurant.  It's about a 30 minute drive form Schenley Park but in one of the fastest growing communities in the region.  Plenty of restaurants and night life are close by. 

BY Bernard Martin

A few years ago we invited some Maserati powered Citroën to be on display at the Cortile.  It was a very nice compliment to the far end of our field and showcased some really wonderful design.  After much discussion we've decided to make the invitation more permanent by welcoming all French Cars to a unique show area within the Cortile.

All French manufacturers cars including Alpine, Bugatti, Citroën, Peugeot and Renault are invited, to not only showcase their cars on the Cortile Showfield, but also to join us in lunch and all of the other private festivities at the Cortile.

If you now a French Marque, click the button below to register!

Careful inspection is important when buying a classic car. You may want to use an inspection service. Or if you want to do it yourself, here are a few things to consider:

• Clear title: Check if the car is registered to the seller, or not registered at all. Fees and penalties can add up if you need to research previous ownership and apply for a new title.
• VIN: Make sure the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on the title matches the official VIN tag on the car. If they don’t match, it's possible the vehicle may have been in a serious accident, the title is counterfeit or the vehicle was stolen. VIN numbers were first standardized for U.S. automobiles manufactured in 1981. The length and character types used for the VIN on older vehicles will vary depending on the manufacturer.
• Interior: Original is best. Check if the seats, upholstery, badges, radio, dashboard, and emblems are damaged, or not factory original. Finding and replacing these things can really add up.
• Exterior: Try to examine the car in natural daylight. Look for the condition of the paint, obvious dents, and panels that are misaligned or mismatched. Further inspection may reveal signs of major welding which could point to significant structural repairs.
• Rust damage: A little can be expected but, if complete sections of floorboards or body panels are rusted or show signs of repair or replacement, be cautious. If a professional did not do the repairs correctly, there's a good chance the rust could return.
• Test drive: If the car is running and safe and legal to drive, take it out for a spin. It's a good opportunity to check for any serious problems. Listen for anything out of the ordinary, such as noises, squeaks, and clunks. If it feels loose going around corners or over bumps, there may be costly suspension problems.