Tag Archives: Revival

Biting The Hand – Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa 59/60 #0774

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After attracting the attention of US Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti in 1957 Dan Gurney found himself at the wheel of a North American Racing Team Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, owned by Chinetti at Le Mans in 1958 and drove the car up to 5th place before handing over to his team mate Bruce Kessler who got caught up in someone elses accident before the car retired. That drive impressed Ferrari sufficiently to earn Dan a drive with the works Ferrari team.

Ferrari 250 TR, Goodwood Revival

For their 1959 Le Mans effort Ferrari built today’s featured Ferrari 250 TR chassis #0774 for Gurney to share with Jean Behra the car managed twice as many laps as Dan’s first attempt but still fell way short of a result.

Next time out Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien drove the car at Goodwood in the TT Race where they also failed to score a result both the 1959 Le Mans and Goodwood TT had been won by Aston Martin in what turned out to be a championship winning season for them.

Ferrari 250 TR, Goodwood Revival

1960 would see a return of fortune for the Ferrari sports car team and chassis #0744 played an important role winning two championship races first Phil Hill and Cliff Alison won the 1000 kms at Buenos Aires and then Olivier Gendebien and Paul Frére won the Le Mans 24 hours scoring Ferrari’s third win in the Endurance Classic and helping Ferrari to their sixth World Sports Car title.

Ferrari 250 TR, Goodwood Revival

Between these successes #0774 was loaned to Chinetti’s NART team for Ritchie Ginther and Chuck Daigh to drive in the Sebring 12 hours but they failed to finish and after Le Mans the car was sold to Eleanor von Neumann who entered it for Phil Hill to drive in the 1960 LA Times Grand Prix at Riverside where he finished 7th overall.

Ferrari 250 TR, Goodwood Revival

In 1963 Tom O’Connor bought the car for his Rose Bud racing team which promptly stripped the motor out and fitted it to their Lotus 19 chassis 952 that featured here on GALPOT a couple of years ago.

Ferrari 250 TR, Goodwood Revival

Under the ownership of Paul Pappalardo #0774 was reunited with it’s original motor in the 1980’s and the car won two class Concours d’Elegance awards at Palm Beach and Pebble Beach in 1993.

Ferrari 250 TR, Goodwood Revival

In a twist of biting the hand that feeds irony Dan Gurney eventually won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967 with co driver AJ Foyt driving for Ferrari’s sworn enemy Ford in a Mk IV.

After 26 years in Paul’s custody ownership of #0774 passed to Hong Kong sourcing and logistics magnate William E ‘Chip’ Connor who kindly took it to the 2012 Gooodwood Revival for the Tribute to Dan Gurney Parade.

Thanks for joining me on this “Biting The Hand” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t for get to come back now !

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Mistaken Identity – Ferrari 290MM #0606

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In April 1956 Luigi Musso was given a brand new Right Hand Drive Ferrari 290 MM chassis #0606 by the factory team to drive in the Giro di Sicilia he did not finish but the next occupants Phil Hill and Maurice Trintignant did win the Swedish Grand Prix, for sports cars, on the cars second appearance in August 1956.

Ferrari, 290 MM, Goodwood Revival

In 1957 the car was variously entered under the Ecurie Francochamps and Equipe Nationale Belge banners with Willy Mairesse winning pole for a 2 hour race held at St Etienne in France and Alain de Changy finishing 4th in Monsanto, Portugal being the cars most notable race performances.

Ferrari, 290 MM, Goodwood Revival

After the car was returned to the factory it was driven by Austrian Gotfried Koechert in August 1958. His best result being 3rd overall and 1st in class in the Großer Bergpreis von Oesterreich, hillclimb at the Gaisbergrennen in Austria.

Ferrari, 290 MM, Goodwood Revival

In September 1959 the car was converted to 250 TR specs with a TR motor and sold to Brazilian Jean Luis Lacerda who appears to have won at least two races at Interlagos and Brasilia with #0606 during 1960.

Late in 1960 ownership of #0606 was transferred to Aguinaldo Goes who scored a second place finish in a 500 km race at Intelagos in Spetember of that year.

In 1962 Fernando Mafra Moriera borrowed the car to make up the numbers for a race at Interlagos with strict instructions to park it at the end of lap 1, unfortunately Fernando who raced under the name Rio Negro did not do as he was asked with fatal consequences as he ended up hitting a eucalyptus tree with the unfamiliar right hand drive and equally unfamiliar central throttle pedal thought to have played a role in the tragedy.

The engine and front of the car was separated from the gear box and the back of the car which remained embedded in the tree.

Ferrari, 290 MM, Goodwood Revival

What remained of the car was given by goes to Camilo Christofaro who used the fuel tank and de Dion rear suspension in a fearsome Corvette engined special called Carrettera 18 in March 1965 Christofaro and Goes drove the car to a 3rd place finish, 1st in class, in a 1600 km race at Interlagos.

The TR motor that had been installed in #0606 when it went to Brazil went into another Brazilian racing car the Furia Ferrari owned by Toni Bianco and later still it replaced a blown up motor in a street Ferrari.

Ferrari, 290 MM, Goodwood Revival

In 1986 Paolo Sebastiani bought some Ferrari parts including part of a type 520 Ferrari 290MM chassis frame from Camilo Christofaro and allegedly mistook them for parts from a type 525 Ferrari 250 TR chassis frame which he thought came from chassis #0726TR which had also been involved in a fatal crash and abandoned in Cuba in 1960.

Sebastiani had Ferrari chassis builder Viccari “guide” him in the construction of a Left Hand Drive type 525 250TR chassis using the salvaged parts he had acquired from Brazil. The car was given a new body by Len Pritchard and sold to John Godfrey who upon further inspection realised that the parts Sebastiani had found in Brazil were actually from the Right Hand Drive #0606 290MM.

The car is seen here at last years Goodwood Revival by Mike Malone.

Thanks for joining me on this “Mistaken Identity” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Four Pot Revisited – Ferrari 860 Monza #0604M

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A couple of years ago Steve Arnaudin sent me a photo of todays featured 1956 Ferrari 860 Monza, chassis #0604, purchased by his father from the Californian photographer and racing driver Carlyle Blackwell. I wrote a blog which summarised the 1956 World Sports Car Championship which is linked here.

Ferrari 860 Monza. Goodwood Revival

Today’s blog will focus on the story of this particular chassis which is seen above with Lord March at the wheel in the Juan Manuel Fangio Celebration parade at the Goodwood Revival in 2011. The car is seen above carrying the same #17 as when Fangio and Eugenio Castellotti drove it to a debut victory in the Sebring 12 Hours Race in March 1956.

Ferrari 860 Monza. Goodwood Revival

#0604M was subsequently sold to Californian John von Neuman and the following month he entered it for Phil Hill to drive at Pebble Beech where he finished second overall and first in class behind Carrol Shelby who was driving 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza #0510M.

Ferrari 860 Monza. Goodwood Revival

John Von Neuman took over the driving duties in #0604M for the rest of the 1956 season and through 1957 until he put Ritchie Ginther in the car at Laguna Secca at the end of 1957 and at Riverside at the beginning of 1958. Ginther scored a class win and 5th overall first time out and 2nd overall at Riverside. Up to that point von Neumans best results had been a couple of 2nd place finishes in ’56

Ferrari 860 Monza. Goodwood Revival

Jerry Barker bought the car for the 1959 season and on every occasion it finished it was either 1st or 2nd driven by Lew Florence, Barker took the wheel at the Maryhill Lops Hillclimb and also won setting a new record.

Ferrari 860 Monza. Goodwood Revival

Charles Caverns was the owner of 0604M in 1960 and he also recorded a win in the Novice Race at Shelton in April 1960 which is the car last recorded contemporary race appearance.

Ferrari 860 Monza. Goodwood Revival

Amongst the owners of #0604M since 1960 was Jean Sage former Sporting Director of the Renault Formula One team from it’s inception in 1977 and eventual, temporary closure, in 1987. Not long before the top photo was taken #0604M was bought by the current owner a DJ by the name of Chris Evans.

Ferrari 860 Monza. Goodwood Revival

At last years Goodwood Revival meeting Danny Sullivan became the fifth Grand Prix driver to sit at the wheel, after Fangio, Castellotti Hill and Ginther, and only Indy 500 winner to race the car powered by a Lampredi designed 4 cylinder motor. He qualified 15th for the Sussex Trophy Race but did not finish.

Thanks for joining me one this ‘Four Pot Revisited’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Ferrari For Hire – Ferrari 750 Monza Scaglietti Spider S1 #0504M

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Today’s featured Ferrari 750 Monza chassis #0504M was purchased new in 1955 by S.A.I.P.A. Srl in Modena Italy in February 1955 and nine days latter it was rented out to Frenchman Michel Poberejsky who entered and won the Agadir Grand Prix for sport cars entered under the pseudonym “Mike Sparken”.

Ferrari 750 Monza, Goodwood Revival

After retiring, having started from pole, from the 1955 British Empire Trophy and then coming second, from pole again in the Easter meeting at Goodwood, Sparken was joined by Marsten Gregory at Le Mans where the pair retired with engine problems. Marsten Gregory then drove #0504M in two races in Portugal and one in Brazil scoring 2 2nd plce finished and a win at the Portuguese Monsanto track.

Ferrari 750 Monza, Goodwood Revival

The last known races for the car were in the United States with Donald Johnson driving to a 3rd and 2nd place finishes at Lawrenceville and Greenwood in 1963, Donaldson is credited with a final race appearance in 1964 at Mid America Raceway where he is believed to have started but his finishing result is unknown. Dudley Cunningham drove the car in the 1969 Mt Equinox Vintage hillclimb where he set a record time.

Ferrari 750 Monza, Goodwood Revival

In 1970’s the car returned to Europe and has been with its current owner Richard Frankel since 2000, #0504M is seen in these photographs competing in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy at the Goodwood Revival meeting last year where it’s owner retired with less than half an hour to go.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ferrari For Hire” edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Tour de France Winner – Ferrari 250 GTO #4153GT

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On June 2nd 1963 Frenchman Pierre Dumay took delivery of a silver Ferrari 250 GTO chassis #4153 and two weeks later it was entered under the Ecurie Francochamps banner in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours for himself and Belgian Léon “Elde” Dernier in which they finished 4th overall and second in class. Dernier means ‘last’ and Léon prefered to race under a pseudonym of the pronunciation of his initials LD. By the following week it appears that ownership of the car had been transferred to Ecurie Francochamps and entered in race for first Dernier and then Dumay at Zolder and Reims where 2nd overall and 3rd in class finishes were recorded respectively.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

The following season it appears that the Marquis Philippe de Montaigu bought #4135 but continued to enter it in numerous events from 1964 through 1965 under the Ecurie Francochamps banner for the likes of; Georges Berger, Lucien Bianchi, Pierre Dumay, “Gauvin”, Gustave Gosselin, “Lagae”, “Lambrecht”, Francis van Lysbeth, Willy Mairesse, Gerard Langlois van Ophem

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

#4153’s biggest win was when Lucian Bianchi and and Georges Berger won the 1964 Tour de France. In 1965 chassis #4153 was entered into the first Marathon de la Route, an 82 hour race held at the Nurburgring that replaced the Liege Rome Liege Rally, but Bianchi, Berger and Jean Blaton failed to finish. Since then the car has remained in Europe with the current German owner acquiring it in 2003.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

Seen at the wheel of chassis #4153GT during a 250 GTO demonstration at last years Goodwood Revival meeting is Daniela Ellerbrock.

Thanks for joining me on this “Tour de France Winner” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for a look at a Lotus tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Fast Cars and Fast Love – Ferrari 250 GTO #4219

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Motor racing is littered with generous patrons but I venture to suggest that her wealth aside none has been quite so extraordinary as the 20 year old heiress from Asheville North Carolina known as Mamie Spears Reynolds.

In early 1963 she went to New York to see Luigi Chinetti with the intention of buying a Ferrari to enter in the Daytona Continental. She ended up buying today’s featured Ferrari 250 GTO chassis #4219 and finding love in the form of Luigi Chinetti’s son Luigi Chinetti Jr whom she married in July 1963.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

Mamie, heir to tobacco and mining fortunes along with the “Hope Diamond” had Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team (NART) enter #4219 into the Daytona Continental for Pedro Rodriguez to drive and he promptly won the race. NART entered the car at the following Sebring 12 Hours for Joakim Bonnier and John Cannon in which they came home 13th overall.

In May 1963 Mamie sold #4219 to Beverly Spencer in California for US $14,000, Beverly entered the car in numerous events through ’63 and ’64 primarily for Frank Crane who’s best results were a 2nd overall at Laguna Seca and a class win at Candlestick Park Raceway.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

At the end of 1964 Spencer sold the car to George Dyer for US $12,166. George had the now white #4219 painted dark blue and kept it until January 1993 when he sold the car to Brandon Wang the present owner for an estimated US$ 3 – 3.5 million.

By October 1965 Mamie and Chinetti jr were not getting on and after a private phone call to J Edgar Hoover she was liberated by “agents” and promptly divorced Chinetti jr and remarried a dog breeder the same day with whom she appears to have settled down for good.

Thanks for joining me on this “Fast Cars and Fast Love” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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BP Green – Ferrari 250 GTO #3767GT

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In July 1962 British racing driver David Piper took delivery of a British Petroleum (BP) Green right hand drive (RHD) Ferrari 250 GTO chassis #3767, Italian registration MO 79460 and raced it in Europe, Africa and the United States before selling it on to Ed Cantrell.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

Pipers best result with the car was an overall win in the Kyalami 9 hours with South African Bruce Johnstone, the following year David shared another Ferrari 250 GTO chassis #4491GT with South African Tony Maggs to win the Kyalami 9 Hours again in 1963.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

Ed Cantrell shared the driving #3767 with former owner Daivd Piper in the 1963 Sebring 12 Hours where they finished 14th overall and 5th in class. The continued to be raced through 1963 until the end of 1964 when Tom Fleming and Ray Heppenstall appear to have been entered to drive #3767 by the North American Racing Team in the Nassau Trophy Race where they finished 14th.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

Ten years later Anthony Bamford acquired the car and it was given the British registration plate 63 GTO which remains legal to this day.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

#3767 is seen here at last years Goodwood Revival meeting where Joe Bamford and Alain de Cadenet, who owned the car prior to selling it to Anthony Bamford in 1974, shared the driving in the RAC TT celebration race in which they were unclassified.

Thanks for joining me on this “BP Green” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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