This November sees the 50th anniversary of the unveiling of the Ferrari 250 LM which to date was the last Ferrari to cross the finishing line first at Le Mans in 1965.
Today’s featured car chassis #8165, the last 250 LM to be built, was sold new to Scuderia Filipentti and entered by them in the 1966 1000kms race at the Nurburgring for Willy Mairesse and Herbert Mueller who finished 9th.
The car was then sold to David Piper and in June 1966 David fitted fiber glass body panels front and rear and painted #8165 BP Green. Subsequently David is known to have driven the car to victories at Brands Hatch, Oulton Park and the 1000kms Paris at Monthlery in 1966 sharing the car with Mike Parkes in the latter.
In 1967 David won at Silverstone and entered the #8165 for Hugh Dibley and Roy Pierpoint for the 1000kms at Brands Hatch where they finished 10th overall and first in class. At Monthlery Richard Attwood and Brian Redman came 6th overall and first in class.
In 1968 Pedro Rodriguez joined Roy Pierpoint in #8165 for the 1000 kms at Brands Hatch where they finished 5th but only 3rd in class. #8165’s last ‘in period’ appearance was in the 1968 Le Mans 24 hours where Piper and Attwood qualified 28th and came through to a seventh place finish.
David Piper is seen driving #8165 in these photo’s in practice for the Whitsun Trophy at the Goodwood Revival a couple of years ago. David finished the race in 27th place.
My thanks to Athanase and Miurasv for clarifying the early ownership of this car over at FerrariChat.com.
Thanks for joining me on this “Fiberglass Body” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !