In 1965 and 1966 Ferrari built a number of competition versions of the highly praised 275 GTB road car all using motors of the same type as found in the Ferrari 250 LM sports racer.

The last run of twelve competition 275’s known at the 275 GTB/C was built in 1966 and featuring aluminium bodies made of such a thin gauge it was reinforced with glass fiber, if you lean on this car you will almost certainly put a permanent dent in the body work.

Due to what appears to be a clerical error by someone at Ferrari the 275 GTB/C was mandated to run with only three carburetors, because someone at Maranello forgot to tell the FIA that a six carburetor option of the standard 275 GTB was available. This happened before the introduction of the 275 GTB/4 which featured six carburetors as standard.

Even with this oversight a 275 GTB/C entered by Maranello Concessionaires and driven by Piers Courage and Roy Pike won its class at Le Mans in 1966 covering 310 laps and coming home 8th overall behind the three all conquering Ford GT40 Mk II’s and a fleet of four Porsche 906’s.

Today’s featured car chassis #9079 was the penultimate of the 12 GTB/C’s built in 1966 and it made it’s public debut at Le Mans in 1967 where it was entered for Swiss drivers Dieter Spoerry and Rico Steinemann by Scuderia Filipinetti. Dieter and Rico came in 11th and first in class covering 317 laps, 71 less than the overall winning Ford Mark IV.

Scuderia Filipinetti entered #9079 for Jaques Rey and Claude Haldi to drive at Le Mans in 1968 but the car retired after completing 78 laps as the consequence of an accident.

The following year Jacques shared the car twice with Edgar Berney they came home 14th overall in the Spa 1000kms, 1st class. At Le Mans, where #9079 became the only 275GTB/C to start the race three times, the engine needed an oil top up after 39 laps which was against the regulations and so the car was disqualified.

By the end of 1969 #9079 went to the USA where it remained up until the 1980’s. In 1985 the fragile body, but not the tyres, melted in a workshop fire while in Los Angeles. By 1988 the car had been restored in Italy and sold on to Japan. Current owner Ross Warburton has owned this chassis since 2000.

Thanks for joining me on today’s “Do Not Lean On This Car” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at an brutally noisy Aston Martin. Don’t forget to come back now !