Rosso Bianco Collection

Just imagine owning these cars…. what a collection he had!

 

I see what people mean when they say the cars were a bit rough.
Check the rear tyre combo on the BB 512……

 

You mean the 512 BB LM.

Marcel Massini

 

Kaus also had some cars on display that did not belong to him, including a red Daytona #16385 that belonged to Mr. S. at the time.

Marcel Massini

 

I, for one, am usually saddened by seeing large "collections" or hoards, because in most cases, cars in them don't get driven/used often enough or much, if at all.

 

I do

 

parking those cars was the best thing to happen to them. it left them with their orig parts, cond and body work etc.

 

For the small story
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It's in Aschaffenburg Germany, or at least it was in the mid 90's when I saw it. Most impressive.

 

With Peter Kaus driving!

 

Correct - but the absolute majority was his!

 

Yes it WAS. It‘s a sad story behind this collection, which was torn apart and the cars sold individually many years ago. I am glad, that I visited the collection which was on display inside the buildings of a former textile factory, twice. The first time immediately after the museum opened in 1987 and a second time in 1991.

Best Regards
Martin

 

Jeezus! You're killin' me with these sights!! Very nice to see. thank you for posting.

 

In 1991 I went over to produce a show on the collection for American cable TV. Had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Peter as we flew into Frankfurt. I believe it was Paul Frère who suggested I visit and gave me Peter's number. Paul had also provided an introduction to Artioli so we could shoot the first TV magazine story on the EB110 and the factory in Campogalliano.

Spending time with Peter was a real eye opener to collecting coming out of the 1980s. We were walking through the collection, and were in the 50s sports racing gallery. He was continuing our dinner conversation of the previous evening about how cars were being ruined in the States through over restoration, their history being wiped away. He stopped and leaned over the front of his Lancia D24 and pointed to a rock chip in the nose, "Why would you remove this dent that Fangio put there at the Carrera?"

"Why indeed?" I replied in complete agreement, rather lamely, because by this time I was completely stunned by scope of what I was seeing, and would have to capture.

At the time there were very few Ferrari, mainly Maserati, Alfas, and Lancias with of course just about everything else that ever raced at LeMans and had been pushed to the back of many a garage, obsolete and worthless in the Seventies when he bought them for a song. The 250 Zagato pictured was part of his Zagato collection, then the largest in private hands.

There are so many stories from the days spent there, but save to say, the understated taste of that old textile factory and the out-sized significance of the collection it contained was like waking up in a Christmas dream.

 

Scott: This is pretty minor stuff, but I believe the Lancia Peter owned was a D23. There are only three surviving D24's and two are in Italy and one in the U.S. To my knowledge, no original D24 has ever been owned in Germany. The two Italian cars have always been in Italy and the U.S. car has been in Argentina, Italy and Spain before coming to the States.

 

I do appreciate the courtesy of your introduction to the correction, as you are absolutely correct that Peter's car was the D23. Though the substance of his preservationist philosophy most certainly stands, even though the reference could have been to the inimitable Giovanni Bracco.

Thanks!

 

Sorry for being slightly off topic - in 1989/90 I was working as a young guy at Conrero in Italy. They had a D24 and I was told that it was an original car. See picture of car with a very young me inside. At that time I did not investigate but then I always wondered about it. Does anybody have info on this car?

Thanks
Christopher
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The D24 of Count Vittorio Zanon. One of two original Lancia D24. The other is in the Biscaretti di Ruffia Museum.

 

Giotto - thanks a lot!

 

Christopher, Giotto and Scott: First I need to correct myself. The car at the Lancia museum is the D25. There are TWO surviving D24's, the Turin Museum car and the Count Zanon car (0005), now in the United States. Also, four D24 replicas exist. These were built in the late 1980s-early 1990s and are beautifully done using original surviving drivetrain components.