Gallery: Vintage Vehicles Visit Vintage Velodrome
011920s-salmson
*By Peter Orosz, Jalopnik* Take a secret 19th century velodrome in the heart of Budapest, a handful of vintage cars and bikes and a group of petrolheads dressed in revival gear to brave the Siberian chill and you've got yourself a perfect afternoon. We went along for the ride on the terrifying banked oval in a 1967 Autobianchi Bianchina. You may be forgiven for never having heard of the [Millenáris Velodrom](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKoK8IMwrBI), a bicycle arena built in 1896 to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the Hungarians streaming across Verecke Pass to colonize the land beyond. I've lived in Budapest 10 years and hadn't heard of it until two weeks ago, and I met many native Budapesters in the days after who were similarly ignorant. [](http://www.jalopnik.com)Perhaps due to its low profile, the velodrome is not an easy place to discover randomly. It also explains its vague sense of abandonment. But the engineering seems solid. After 115 years of battled existence -- where "battled" includes politics, real estate schemes and direct artillery hits during the Siege of Budapest -- the track welcomed a ragtag band of veteran cars and motorcycles on a windswept April day. The event was the launch of this year's [Oldtimer Expo](http://otexpo.hu/index.html), Budapest’s annual veteran show. It isn't senior citizens who are celebrated, but cars. Oldtimer, pronounced as if in English, is a Hungarian term for classic cars 30 years or older. The stars of the show were supposed to be a pair of Bugatti Type 35 race cars from Austria, but they couldn’t make it. No worries though. Events like this are never about history, but visceral joy. And noise. Glorious glorious noise. Nobody could complain about the noise at the Millenáris. __Above:__ The Bugatti-ish blue car is a [Salmson, made in the 1920s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmson) by a French company known for its nine-cylinder water-cooled radial aircraft engines. It made a pretty, easygoing burble of a noise, but was nothing compared to the old motorcycles that followed. Photo: Peter Orosz.
021958-ducati-175
1958 Ducati 175 --------------- Chief among the glorious old motorcycles was a 1958 Ducati 175. The noise it made was such a riot of rumbling, mellifluent beauty that it made me forget my fear of standing next to banked ovals being lapped by speeding motorcycles. I also forgot about the terribly cold wind. All I could do was stand at the bottom of the steep banking and listen, lap after lap after lap, until it retired to the pits. A sad aural vacuum followed. The Ducati 175 of my aural dreams is all hand-hammered bits and pieces of unpainted aluminum and love. It makes you emphathize with motorcycle geeks at once. You can't help but appreciate its beauty, and the sound of what [*The Telegraph* lovingly described](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/2752837/Ducati-175-Sport-Silverstone-Super.html) as its "simple, high-revving, over-square wet-sump unit with a single overhead shaft-driven cam." *Photo: Peter Orosz*
031967-autobianchi-bianchina-panoramica-driven-by-csikos
Csikós Drives 1967 Autobianchi Bianchina Panoramica --------------------------------------------------- The aural vacuum didn't last long. After combating the cold with a double espresso served from a [Piaggio Ape scooter truck](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2011/03/three-wheelin-through-time/?pid=778), I met up with my friend and ex-colleague Zsolt Csikós, the man who once called Tony Crook and [got himself into a Bristol Fighter](http://jalopnik.com/#!5379671/lucky-hungarian-drives-370000-viper+engined-bristol-fighter). Csikós was driving his robin's egg blue 1967 Autobianchi Bianchina Panoramica. Its power is inversely proportional to its long name. The 0.6-liter Fiat engine is good for 22 to 24 horsepower, a big boost over the original Bianchina’s 17. We piled into the car to flip a collective middle finger at physics and power-to-weight ratios: Zsolt, former Jalopnik intern Máté Petrány, my wife Natalie and I. Off we went, Petrány nursing an epic hangover, me facing a terrible fear of banked ovals and my wife clutching her satin collapsible top hat and blue scarf. It was huge, dizzy, hollering fun. By lap two, my trust in physics was restored and my fear of ovals was gone. By lap 10, I was getting the gist of Csikós' precise racing lines. The little Bianchina soldiered on, the air-cooled engine giving each occupant 5.5 horsepower to enjoy. We left the velodrome giggling like schoolchildren, chilled to our bones, racing to the nearest subway stop to hunt for piadinas and flat whites. Csikós (above) is ready to attack the banked oval in the Bianchina. He was the perfect man for the job: He once drove a hot Saab at Talladega Superspeedway for an hour at 150 mph. The spectacular blue-tiled building behind the velodrome is the headquarters of the Geological Institute of Hungary, an Art Nouveau masterpiece designed by the great 19th century architect [Ödön Lechner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96d%C3%B6n_Lechner). *Photo: Peter Orosz*
04citroen-ds
Citroën DS With Photographer Árpád Zirig ---------------------------------------- A surreal sight on the oval is a Citroën DS floating along on its magic carpet hydropneumatic suspension. Hanging out the rear window is photographer and motorcycle poet [Árpád Zirig](http://baowah.blog.hu/). *Photo: Peter Orosz*
05banked-oval
Banked Oval ----------- Photographs do a terrible job showing just how steep a banked oval is. Physics help vehicles handle it with aplomb, but its best not to think about it while up there. *Photo: Peter Orosz*
06vintage-leather-helmets-in-the-1920s-salmson
Vintage Leather Helmets in the 1920s Salmson -------------------------------------------- Drivers made an effort to dress the part, donning vintage leather helmets for the 1920s Salmson. *Photo: Peter Orosz*
07heavy-wool-scarf-on-the-velodrome
Best Equipment: Heavy Wool Scarf -------------------------------- The single most useful piece of equipment for the day? That heavy wool scarf! *Photo: Peter Orosz*
08velorex-three-wheeled-vehicle
Velorex Three-Wheeled Vehicle ----------------------------- This little guy is a [Velorex](http://jalopnik.com/#!5555524/cloth+bodied-three+wheeler-%252B-honda-cbr--huh), a [three-wheeled vehicle](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2011/03/three-wheelin-through-time) with a Jawa [motorcycle](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/motorcycles/) engine and vinyl bodywork. It was designed in Czechoslovakia as a specialized vehicle for the handicapped. There were three of them, and they carried surprising speed through the corners. *Photo: Peter Orosz*
09jawa
Jawa ---- There was a Jawa there too, and the noise it made was second only to the sublime Ducati, punctuated by terrific bangs on downshifts. *Photo: Peter Orosz*
10csikos-driving-his-bianchina
Csikós Drives His Bianchina --------------------------- Csikós drives his Bianchina, while his son Bálint, wearing a Tyrolean hat, contemplates the drop to the bottom. It's easy to learn the physics of corners when your father is the biggest vintage car nut the Carpathian Basin has seen in 1,115 years of Hungarian occupation. *Photo: Peter Orosz* See Also:- [Prop-Driven ‘Rail Zeppelin’ Is Many Kinds of Awesome](http://contextly.com/redirect/?id=8785) - [Three-Wheelin’ Through Time](http://contextly.com/redirect/?id=8786) - [Geneva Motor Show 2011: Beauty, Brawn and the Bizarre](http://contextly.com/redirect/?id=8787) - [We Drive the Electric Rolls-Royce — It’s Amazing](http://contextly.com/redirect/?id=8788) - [Peek Inside a Rolling Mongolian Xanadu | Autopia | Wired.com](http://contextly.com/redirect/?id=8789) - [Driving the Awesome Mercedes 300 SL ‘Gullwing’](http://contextly.com/redirect/?id=8790)
