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A Bugatti Cylinder Block Repair
Working with iron and a cautionary taleSeveral years ago, I went through a Type 40 Bugatti engine that had had a hard life. Its recent days hadn’t been made any easier by the chap that took it apart, using a dead blow hammer to break free the joint between the cylinder block and the crankcase. Not a crazy idea, to use…
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Three Bugattis and a Peugeot
Two Type 57s, a Type 50, and a Nardi PeugeotSeptember 20, 2013: Every day at Phil Reilly & Co was something special, some days more so than others. This day was probably just another average one, though a search of the archive contains over 600 photos from that month in 2013, so it could go either way. Two of these cars were included in…
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A Trio of Alfa Romeo Straight Eights
Preserving pre-war supercars for future generations of enthusiastsJune 24, 2008: The shop on Paradise Drive was one of the few places in America where you might find more than one pre-war Alfa Romeo supercar on the same day. Phil Reilly & Co was a specialist in the cars Vittorio Janos designed for Alfa and in today’s image we see the 8C 2900B…
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Too Damn Hot
A Maserati A6 GCS in the California HeatIt is murderously hot here in the Sacramento river valley. This is all I have for you today, a little bit of Maserati content. Stay cool, friends.
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A Cisitalia and an Alfa TZ2
The talented crew at Phil Reilly's and a few projects of the dayJune 17, 2009: Today’s image, a Cisitalia D46 in front of an Alfa TZ2, with tons of talent all around at Phil Reilly & Co. This image features a large chunk of the top talent that was in place on Paradise Drive in 2009, and strikes me as appropriate timing, because I’m currently finishing up…
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The Alfa Romeo TZ2 Restoration
Two years in the life of a team of craftsmenAugust 12, 2009: The Alfa Romeo TZ2 restoration was finished on this day, a few days after my 40th birthday. This team portrait includes, from left to right, Tom Smith, Ivan Zaremba, me, Chuck Mathewson and Rolly Boorman. Others worked to complete this project too; I think Phil Reilly & Co had around 12 or…
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Two Hispanos, a Bugatti and a U-16 Miller Walk into a Bar…
The Setup for a Bad Joke, or Another Day in Paradise?May 25, 2012: A typical day at Phil Reilly & Co, on Paradise Drive in Corte Madera, California. The variety of projects under way at any given point in time was remarkable, with this snapshot in time featuring four pre-war powerplants and a hint of the future in the back, the roll hoops of two…
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A Busy March in Norcal
Pre-war Alfa Brakes to BMW M12/14 TurbosIt is a beautiful sunny spring day outside here in northern California, and I need to get out there. So far in 2024, I’ve worked in the shop five days a week and been chained to the computer most weekends. Here’s a few images from the past couple of months… The Alfa Romeo 2500 SS…
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A Post-war Jaguar, a Brass-era Isotta-Fraschini and a Pre-war Bugatti
June 2, 2010: Man, what a place to work. I remember when I first got the job, I couldn’t really get my head around the way that the guys working there were used to it. The types of cars that came in and out, day after day, they were like rock stars. Top level celebs.…
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Bugatti Blocks Balderdash!
Concealing a Row of Hardware for Art's SakeEttore Bugatti came from a family of artists, though he was not himself formally trained as one. He apprenticed at a bicycle manufacturer and began making cars without any engineering education. There are many remarkable artistic details that resulted from this unconventional origin story. One example of Bugatti’s eye for detail are the lovely polished…