Take a chassis, an engine that is the same one for everyone, a front clutch gearbox and no electronic control, and low costs too: you have just created the MitJet Italian Series! This is a category that gives young talented drivers and gentlemen drivers alike the chance to showcase their skills during the different stages of the Campionato Italiano Velocità Turismo that, this year too, stopped by Monza. Baume & Mercier is not only the Shelby Cobra and the limited edition Clifton, but it is much more than that.
It is the partner of the series and the Clifton Club is the new collection designed by the brand that combines the concepts of accessible sports and of healthy competition. These two concepts perfectly summarize the idea that led the brand to revolutionize the Clifton and extract a new soul out of it; an idea that was majestically described by Alain Zimmermann during our interview that took place two months ago.
Horbiter® has told you everything about the Clifton Club already, and you can discover its versions, details and main idea on here and on here too. On the second link, you will also find my opinion combined with Zimmermann’s point of view (he is the very person, who came up with this collection in the first place).
On this occasion, however, everything is different; we are in Monza (the Mecca in the world of car racing), the car circuit where, for two days, we followed the achievements of the Giudici Team.
It is a historic name in the world of car racing and so is the team’s main driver, the young Claudio Giudice who competed for two days in a row and overcame a break-down that happened on Saturday with a victory on Sunday that brought him back into the championship.
The Giudici are a family of motoring aficionados and passionate collectors, and their son Claudio Giudice (the different last name is not a mistake but it is rather his own choice), wore the Clifton Club around his wrist throughout the race and we enjoyed taking a few shots of him in different situations; while his mechanics were busy preparing the car for the race, when he entered the circuit for practice, up to the moment when Claudio hugged his dad after the above-mentioned victory.
His style and passion remind us of the atmosphere of the racings from the 70s, when you used to sit in the box and wait for your car to get serviced and get ready for the racing and when all this new technology that has made the major competitions extremely boring still didn’t exist.
If we were to make a comparison with the world of motor-biking, it seemed to me that, for a moment, I was back to that atmosphere of the 2-stroke 500 motorbikes with their stench of burnt oil that made those races absolutely unique.
Claudio competed wearing a Clifton Club with an orange NATO strap and a pin buckle; a combination that still makes the smartest NATO strap (made of rubber), the most summery and original on the market, it is also the only one, where the brand’s logo is clearly engraved on the pin buckle, the same way it is engraved on the pin buckle of the leather strap.
My suggestion is that you enjoy the video summary of those two days to fully experience the emotions of that weekend; I think that I am not exaggerating when I say that that experience will be 100 times better than what words could convey and this is the most emotional sports video that we have released so far. If you are a fan of engines and you like the Clifton Club, it’s a breath-taking video that you really have to watch.
(Photo credit: Horbiter®)
Gaetano C @Horbiter®
