Coppa Ciano
The Coppa Ciano was an automobile race held in Italy. Referred to as Coppa Montenero or Circuito Montenero, the Coppa Ciano name was in use between 1927 and 1939. During the years following World War I several road circuits were created in Italy; these included the Montenero Circuit at Livorno, which became home for the annual Coppa Montenero from its inauguration in 1921. In the beginning it was only a local affair and the organizers found themselves in financial troubles. In 1923 the event was taken over by the Automobile Club of Italy and the future was secured. In 1927, the Livorno-born politician Costanzo Ciano donated a victory trophy: the Coppa Ciano. At first, this was awarded to the victor in a separate sports car race, run within a week of the Coppa Montenero. In 1929, the Coppa Ciano was merged into the main event and at the same time became the name most used; the driver Emilio Materassi won 4 years in a row 1925-1928 and earned the nickname "King of Montenero". In the 1930s, Italian Hall of Fame driver Tazio Nuvolari won this race five times, more than any other driver.
In his 1936 victory he made his way through the field. This victory was one of the reasons leading to the Italian Grand Prix being held at the Montenero circuit in 1937, instead of the usual venue, Monza; the 1939 race was run to Voiturette regulations and became the last before World War II stopped all racing for many years. In 1947 the 20th and final edition of the Coppa Montenero was run, with 1500 cc unsupercharged cars. At that point, due to Costanzo Ciano's connections with the now abolished Fascist regime, it was no longer called Coppa Ciano. Coppa Acerbo Circuito del Montenero - Coppa Ciano The Golden Era of Grand Prix Racing AIACR European Driver Championships 1931,1932, 1935-1939 Formula One WC and non-championship results The Formula One Archives A forgotten Championship when Nuvolari waved the steering wheel at the crowd
Borgo San Lorenzo
Borgo San Lorenzo is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 20 kilometres northeast of Florence. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 18,085 and an area of 146.1 square kilometres. Borgo San Lorenzo borders the following municipalities: Fiesole, Marradi, Palazzuolo sul Senio, Scarperia e San Piero, Vicchio. Access to the city of Borgo San Lorenzo includes a Trenitalia local rail service from Florence and Faenza. Www.comune.borgo-san-lorenzo.fi.it/
World War I
World War I known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history, it is one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide. On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading to the July Crisis. In response, on 23 July Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia's reply failed to satisfy the Austrians, the two moved to a war footing. A network of interlocking alliances enlarged the crisis from a bilateral issue in the Balkans to one involving most of Europe.
By July 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided into two coalitions: the Triple Entente—consisting of France and Britain—and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Russia felt it necessary to back Serbia and, after Austria-Hungary shelled the Serbian capital of Belgrade on the 28th, partial mobilisation was approved. General Russian mobilisation was announced on the evening of 30 July; when Russia failed to comply, Germany declared war on 1 August in support of Austria-Hungary, with Austria-Hungary following suit on 6th. German strategy for a war on two fronts against France and Russia was to concentrate the bulk of its army in the West to defeat France within four weeks shift forces to the East before Russia could mobilise. On 2 August, Germany demanded free passage through Belgium, an essential element in achieving a quick victory over France; when this was refused, German forces invaded Belgium on 3 August and declared war on France the same day. On 12 August and France declared war on Austria-Hungary.
In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Alliance, opening fronts in the Caucasus and the Sinai Peninsula. The war was fought in and drew upon each power's colonial empire as well, spreading the conflict to Africa and across the globe; the Entente and its allies would become known as the Allied Powers, while the grouping of Austria-Hungary and their allies would become known as the Central Powers. The German advance into France was halted at the Battle of the Marne and by the end of 1914, the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, marked by a long series of trench lines that changed little until 1917. In 1915, Italy opened a front in the Alps. Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915 and Greece joined the Allies in 1917, expanding the war in the Balkans; the United States remained neutral, although by doing nothing to prevent the Allies from procuring American supplies whilst the Allied blockade prevented the Germans from doing the same the U. S. became an important supplier of war material to the Allies.
After the sinking of American merchant ships by German submarines, the revelation that the Germans were trying to incite Mexico to make war on the United States, the U. S. declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Trained American forces would not begin arriving at the front in large numbers until mid-1918, but the American Expeditionary Force would reach some two million troops. Though Serbia was defeated in 1915, Romania joined the Allied Powers in 1916 only to be defeated in 1917, none of the great powers were knocked out of the war until 1918; the 1917 February Revolution in Russia replaced the Tsarist autocracy with the Provisional Government, but continuing discontent at the cost of the war led to the October Revolution, the creation of the Soviet Socialist Republic, the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the new government in March 1918, ending Russia's involvement in the war. This allowed the transfer of large numbers of German troops from the East to the Western Front, resulting in the German March 1918 Offensive.
This offensive was successful, but the Allies rallied and drove the Germans back in their Hundred Days Offensive. Bulgaria was the first Central Power to sign an armistice—the Armistice of Salonica on 29 September 1918. On 30 October, the Ottoman Empire capitulated. On 4 November, the Austro-Hungarian empire agreed to the Armistice of Villa Giusti after being decisively defeated by Italy in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. With its allies defeated, revolution at home, the military no longer willing to fight, Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on 9 November and Germany signed an armistice on 11 November 1918. World War I was a significant turning point in the political, cultural and social climate of the world; the war and its immediate aftermath sparked numerous uprisings. The Big Four (Britain, the United States, It
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol, carbon dioxide, heat. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different styles of wine; these variations result from the complex interactions between the biochemical development of the grape, the reactions involved in fermentation, the terroir, the production process. Many countries enact legal appellations intended to define qualities of wine; these restrict the geographical origin and permitted varieties of grapes, as well as other aspects of wine production. Wines not made from grapes include rice wine and fruit wines such as plum, pomegranate and elderberry. Wine has been produced for thousands of years; the earliest known traces of wine are from Georgia and Sicily although there is evidence of a similar alcoholic drink being consumed earlier in China. The earliest known winery is the 6,100-year-old Areni-1 winery in Armenia. Wine reached the Balkans by 4500 BC and was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece and Rome.
Throughout history, wine has been consumed for its intoxicating effects. Wine has long played an important role in religion. Red wine was associated with blood by the ancient Egyptians and was used by both the Greek cult of Dionysus and the Romans in their Bacchanalia; the earliest archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence for grape wine and viniculture, dating to 6000–5800 BC was found on the territory of modern Georgia. Both archaeological and genetic evidence suggest that the earliest production of wine elsewhere was later having taken place in the Southern Caucasus, or the West Asian region between Eastern Turkey, northern Iran; the earliest evidence of a grape-based fermented drink was found in China, Georgia from 6000 BC, Iran from 5000 BC, Sicily from 4000 BC. The earliest evidence of a wine production facility is the Areni-1 winery in Armenia and is at least 6100 years old. A 2003 report by archaeologists indicates a possibility that grapes were mixed with rice to produce mixed fermented drinks in China in the early years of the seventh millennium BC.
Pottery jars from the Neolithic site of Jiahu, contained traces of tartaric acid and other organic compounds found in wine. However, other fruits indigenous to the region, such as hawthorn, cannot be ruled out. If these drinks, which seem to be the precursors of rice wine, included grapes rather than other fruits, they would have been any of the several dozen indigenous wild species in China, rather than Vitis vinifera, introduced there 6000 years later; the spread of wine culture westwards was most due to the Phoenicians who spread outward from a base of city-states along the Mediterranean coast of what are today Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. The wines of Byblos were exported to Egypt during the Old Kingdom and throughout the Mediterranean. Evidence includes two Phoenician shipwrecks from 750 BC discovered by Robert Ballard, whose cargo of wine was still intact; as the first great traders in wine, the Phoenicians seem to have protected it from oxidation with a layer of olive oil, followed by a seal of pinewood and resin, similar to retsina.
Although the nuragic Sardinians consumed wine before the arrival of the Phoenicians The earliest remains of Apadana Palace in Persepolis dating back to 515 BC include carvings depicting soldiers from Achaemenid Empire subject nations bringing gifts to the Achaemenid king, among them Armenians bringing their famous wine. Literary references to wine are abundant in Homer and others. In ancient Egypt, six of 36 wine amphoras were found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun bearing the name "Kha'y", a royal chief vintner. Five of these amphoras were designated as originating from the king's personal estate, with the sixth from the estate of the royal house of Aten. Traces of wine have been found in central Asian Xinjiang in modern-day China, dating from the second and first millennia BC; the first known mention of grape-based wines in India is from the late 4th-century BC writings of Chanakya, the chief minister of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya. In his writings, Chanakya condemns the use of alcohol while chronicling the emperor and his court's frequent indulgence of a style of wine known as madhu.
The ancient Romans planted vineyards near garrison towns so wine could be produced locally rather than shipped over long distances. Some of these areas are now world-renowned for wine production; the Romans discovered that burning sulfur candles inside empty wine vessels kept them fresh and free from a vinegar smell. In medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church supported wine because the clergy required it for the Mass. Monks in France made wine for years. An old English recipe that survived in various forms until the 19th century calls for refining white wine from bastard—bad or tainted bastardo wine; the English word "wine" comes from the Proto-Germanic *winam, an early borrowing from the Latin vinum, "wine" or " vine", itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European stem *win-o-. The earliest attested terms referring to wine are the Mycenaean Greek me-tu-wo ne-wo, meaning "in" or " of the new wine", wo-no-wa-ti-si, meaning "wine garden", written in Linear B inscriptions. Linear B includes, inter alia, an ideogram for wine
Itala
Itala was a car manufacturer based in Turin, Italy from 1904-1934, started by Matteo Ceirano and five partners in 1903. The Ceirano brothers, Giovanni Battista, Giovanni and Matteo, were influential in the founding of the Italian auto industry, being variously responsible for: Ceirano. T. A. R. / Rapid. P. A.. Giovanni's son Giovanni "Ernesto" was influential, co-founding Ceirano Fabbrica Automobili and Fabrica Anonima Torinese Automobili. In 1888, after eight years apprenticeship at his father's watch-making business, Giovanni Battista started building Welleyes bicycles, so named because English names had more sales appeal. In October 1898 Giovanni Battista and Matteo co-founded Ceirano GB & C and started producing the Welleyes motor car in 1899. In July 1899 the plant and patents were sold to Giovanni Agnelli and produced as the first F. I. A. T.s - the Fiat 4 HP. Giovanni Battista was employed by Fiat as the agent for Italy, but within a year he left to found Fratelli Ceirano & C. which in 1903 became Società Torinese Automobili Rapid building cars badged as'Rapid'.
In 1904 Matteo Ceirano left Ceirano C to create his own brand - Itala. In 1906 Matteo left Itala to found S. P. A. with chief designer, Alberto Ballacco. In 1906 Giovanni founded SCAT in Turin. In 1919 Giovanni and Giovanni "Ernesto" co-founded Ceirano Fabbrica Automobili and in 1922 they took control of Fabrica Anonima Torinese Automobili. Three cars were offered in an 18 hp, a 24 hp and a 50 hp. In 1905 they started making large engined racing cars with a 14.8 Litre 5 cylinder model which won the Coppa Florio and the year after that the Targa Florio. In 1907 a 7,433 cc 35/45 hp model driven by Count Scipione Borghese won the Peking to Paris motor race by three weeks; these sporting successes helped sales the company continued to grow. The company experimented with a range of novel engines such as variable stroke, sleeve valve, "Avalve" rotary types and at the beginning of World War I, offered a wide range of cars. During the war Itala made a loss producing them. After the armistice car production resumed with models based on the pre war cars such as the Tipo 50 25/35 hp and a re-appearance of the Avalve in the 4,426 cc Tipo 55 but financial success eluded the company From 1924 the company was being run under receivership and they appointed Giulio Cesare Cappa from Fiat as general manager.
He produced a new car, the Tipo 61 with 7 cylinder alloy engine, well received but he decided to return to motor sport producing the Tipo 11, a advanced car with front wheel drive, 1050 cc supercharged V12 engine and all round independent suspension but the car never raced. Two Tipo 61s did take part in the 1928 Le Mans 24 hour race winning the 2 litre class; the company was bought by truck maker Officine Metallurgiche di Tortona in 1929 and a few more cars were made up to 1935. The remains of the company was sold to Fiat. A distinctive feature of the pre-World War I 50 hp & 90 hp models was their use of a rotary valve; each valve was mounted alongside, rotating parallel to them. Four ports cast into the valve alternately connected ports to the cylinders through the side of the valve to the inlet and exhaust manifolds at bottom and top of the valves. Leo Villa began his career as a racing mechanic working on these rotary valve engines for the driver Giulio Foresti, he met Malcolm Campbell, when in 1923, Campbell took over the Itala and Ballot concessions in London.
Seeing the publicity potential of racing them at Brooklands, Campbell bought two of Foresti's race-prepared cars. Foresti and Villa delivered them in person from Paris to Campbell's house at Povey Cross. Impressed by Campbell's wealth and ambitions, Villa accepted an offer to become his permanent mechanic. Barzini, Luigi and L P De Castelvecchio. Peking to Paris 100th Anniversary Edition. Demontreville Press Inc, 2007. ISBN 0978956311 Clutton, Cecil; the 1907 & 1908 Racing Italas. Profile Publications. 61. List of Italian companies List of automobile companies founded by the Ceirano brothers
Talbot
Talbot or Clément-Talbot Limited was a London automobile manufacturer founded in 1903. Clément-Talbot's products were named just Talbot from shortly after introduction, but the business remained Clément-Talbot Limited until 1938 when it was renamed Sunbeam-Talbot Limited; the founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot business during the First World War. Soon after the end of the war, Clément-Talbot was brought into a combine named S T D Motors. Shortly afterward, S T D Motors' French products were renamed Talbot instead of Darracq. In the mid-1930s, with the collapse of S T D Motors, Rootes bought the London Talbot factory and Antonio Lago bought the Paris Talbot factory, Lago producing vehicles under the marques Talbot and Talbot-Lago. Rootes renamed Clément-Talbot Limited Sunbeam-Talbot Limited in 1938, stopped using the brand name Talbot in the mid-1950s; the Paris factory closed a few years later.
Ownership of the marque came by a series of takeovers to Peugeot S. A. which revived use of the Talbot name from 1978 until 1994. In December 1919 A Darracq and Company Limited of London with its factory in Suresnes, bought the entire capital of Clément-Talbot and bought Sunbeam and renamed itself S. T. D. Motors Limited; those initials referred to Sunbeam and Darracq. But in the depth of the Great Depression S T D Motors became unable to pay its debts, its subsidiaries managed to find buyers and in 1936 S T D Motors ceased to exist. Clément-Talbot continued to be famous for the design and quality of its products and it remained profitable during the depression. Clément-Talbot was bought by Rootes Group and renamed Sunbeam-Talbot. Sunbeam alone twenty years after that. In 1920 Suresnes products were branded Talbot-Darracq but the word Darracq was dropped in 1922. If exported to England Paris-made Talbots were rebadged Darracq or Talbot-Darracq Dragged down by the 1924 borrowing to pay for the Sunbeam racing programme S T D Motors and Automobiles Talbot France suffered a financial collapse in late 1934.
Following the financial collapse of its parent, S T D Motors, Clément-Talbot remained financially sound with marketable products. Clément-Talbot was bought by Rootes Securities and continued to manufacture the same catalogue of vehicles introducing components from Hillman and Humber cars; as the genuine Talbot parts bins ran dry a modified Hillman Aero Minx was introduced to the production line and given the Talbot brand name. In 1938 this Talbot Ten and its stable mates were badged Sunbeam-Talbot and owner, Clément-Talbot Limited's, name changed to fit. Following the financial collapse of S T D Motors and Paris's Automobiles Talbot Antonio Lago, the Suresnes' manager, arranged a management buyout of the French operation. Antonio Lago involved Talbot in sports car and Grand Prix racing as well as producing high quality luxury cars. In the postwar world of austerity and socialism the French government introduced punitive annual taxation on cars with engines larger than 2.6-litres and Talbot sales were restricted.
Lago continued the Talbot business until 1958. The dormant Talbot marque was sold to Simca. Simca was bought by Chrysler Europe in 1970. PSA Peugeot Citroën acquired the still dormant Talbot marque when it bought Chrysler in 1978. PSA Peugeot Citroën began to use a Talbot badge on former Simca and Chrysler models Chrysler Europe had struggled to make a profit for much of its existence, had relied on government bailouts to ensure its survival. With mounting pressure on its core North American business, the decision was taken by Chrysler's CEO Lee Iacocca to offload the ailing European operations; the French Government persuaded both PSA Peugeot Citroën to bid for the company. In August 1978, PSA purchased Chrysler Europe for a nominal $1, resurrected the Talbot name — using it to re-badge the former Simca and Rootes models. Although PSA took responsibility for Chrysler Europe's considerable debts and liabilities, the move was a strategic one; the Peugeot takeover saw the end of the Rootes' Chrysler Hunter production, but the Simca-designed 1510, Horizon continued as Talbots.
All former Chrysler products registered in Britain after 1 August 1979 bore the Talbot badge. Talbot's UK branch manufactured the Alpine and Horizon at their aging Ryton plant in Coventry after the British developed cars had all been retired – excepting the UK arm's largest revenue source, building CKD kits of the Hillman Hunter to be sent to Iran where they were assembled as the Peykan; the last remaining car produced by the Rootes group, the Chrysler Avenger, remained in production as a Talbot until the end of 1981. The entry-level model in the Talbot range from 1982 onwards would be the Talbot Samba, a three-door hatchback based on the Peugeot 104. In 1981, Peugeot began producing the Talbot Tagora, a boxy four-door saloon marketed as a Ford Granada or Vauxhall Carlton/Opel Rekord rival, but it was not popular in either Britain or France and production ceased in 1983. At the end of 1984, the Alpine hatchback and its related Solara saloon were rebadged Minx and Rapier depending upon specification rather than body shape.
The new names were inherited
