Venturi | Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Seven entries in the 27 car field for the 6 Hours of Silverstone on Easter Sunday were GT2 spec Ferrari 458 Italias, 3 of which were running in the LMGTE Pro class and the remainder in the LMGTE Am class, here is a quick overview of how they fared.

Fastest of all seven was the AF Corse entered #51 driven by Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander which secured class pole position, but could not keep pace with the Porsche RSRs during the race when the conditions turned damp and were completely outclassed when the track was completely soaked. Gianmaria and Toni eventually finished 4th in class, 10th overall, behind the two works RSRs and an Aston Martin Vantage V8.

AF Corse team mates Davide Rigon and James Calado driving the #71 Italia followed the # 51 home in 11th place overall.

RAM racing were making there WEC debut, with entries in the LMGTE Pro and Am classes having run a GT2 spec Italia to win the European Le Mans series in their first full season of competition last year. 2013 ELMS drivers co champion Matt Griffith was paired with Alvaro Parente in the Pro #52 Italia seen above and they came home 12th overall and 6th in class.

Pole in the LMGTE Am class was also won by AF Corse with Stephen Wyatt, Michele Rugolo and Sam Bird at the wheel of the #81 Italia. However they could not keep pace with the Aston Martin Vantage V8s during the race and so finished 3rd in class 17th overall.

The RAM racing LMGTE Am entry was driven by 2013 ELMS drivers co Champion Johnny Mowlem, Mark Patterson and Ben Collins who finished 19th overall and 5th in class.

The second AF Corse LMGTE AM entry was driven by Luis Perez-Companc, Marco Cioci, Mirko Venturi it finished 20th last of the cars still running at the end.

The races only ‘recorded’ retirement was filed by 2013 LMGTE Am debutants and champions 8 Star Motorsports who’s #90 Italia was driven by Vicente Potolicchio, Gianluca Roda, Paolo Ruberti. After attracting three penalties for speeding in the pit lane, due to a faulty rev limiter, a drive shaft broke just over half way through the race and the #90 recorded 118 laps. For some as yet unknown reason none of the six other unclassified finishers that were not running at the finish of the race bothered to officially retire.

My thanks to Victor R0 at the Racing Comments forum for enlightening me as to some of the anomalies of retiring from an endurance race.

Thanks for joining me on this “2014 WEC LMGTE Ferraris” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Enzo Ferrari was a man who believed that to remain competitive he needed to start with a good car and then continually seek to improve it’s performance with modifications.

The Ferrari 166/206, following the footsteps of the Ferrari Dino 196S and it’s similarly Dino V6 powered Formula siblings the front engined ‘246’ and rear engined Shark Nose ‘Dino 156‘, perfectly exemplifies his Enzo’s continual modification philosophy.

The original Dino 166/P specification of chassis #0834 seen, in these photo’s at Silverstone Classic last year, was built around a new 185hp variant of the Dino V6 with twin overhead cam shafts per bank, quad cam, and twin plug ignition and a capacity of 1592 cc / 97.2 cui.

The original body was a closed coupé style, similar to that of a bigger V12 powered Ferrari P2 and can be seen on this link.

Despite it’s good handling, in this form the car driven by Giancarlo Baghetti and Giampiero Biscaldi retired from the 1965 1000 kms at Monza after one lap with engine failure, then Lorenzo Bandini drove it to victory at the Vallelunga GP.

However the 166/P’s biggest success against much stronger opposition was at the 1965 Nürburgring 1000 kms where Bandini and Nino Vaccarella came home 4th behind two Ferrari P/2’s and a Porsche 904/8 all with larger motors. This performance was thought so unlikely the events scruitineers had the motor stripped to confirm it’s capacity.

At the 1965 Le Mans 24 hours Baghetti and Mario Casoni only lasted 21 minutes before it retired with a broken valve.

Two months after Le Mans chassis #0834 was upgraded to 206 S/P specification with a 218hp 1986 cc / 121.2 cui Dino V6 motor and a low cut open top Spyder body, which can be seen on this link.

Ludovico Scarfiotti used the car in this form to win the European Hillclimb championship setting new course records in all of the remaining 1965 championship rounds.

In 1967 the car appeared in the Targa Florio with a third, 206 S, body configuration, similar to the one seen in today’s photographs, where it finished 4th with Jonathan Williams and Vittorio Venturi at the wheel.

Two years later Leandro Terra and Turillo Barbuscia drove #0834 still in 2 litre / 122 cui spec to a 25th place finish in the 1969 Targa Florio.

#0834 is currently owned by Harry Leventis who shares the driving with Gregor Fisken on a regular basis in the The Italian Historic Car Cup.

There is an interesting observation about the “Dino 206” cars by the highly esteemed journalist Doug Nye on this link, makes one wonder what Ing. Forghieri may have come up with on a good day !

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

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Venturi

2014 WEC LMGTE Ferraris – Ferrari 458 Italia GT2s

Dino Evolution – Ferrari 166/206 #0834