Tag Archives: 250 GT

The Pack Team – Ferrari 250 GT LWB Interim #1519GT

In 1950 5 Swiss MG TC owners, Jean Cottin, Richard Crot, Willy Ducrey, Jaques Jonneret and Edmond Tocchio in Geneva founded Ecurie La Meute, The Pack Team, because the MG Car Club Switzerland did not meet their sporting ambitions.

Nine years later Ferrari produced seven 250 GT LWB Interim models using 250 GT Long Wheel Base chassis as used in the 250 GT LWB Berlinetta and LWB California Spider models but with a Pinin Farina body featuring a rear 1/4 light window.

Ferrari 250 GT LWB Interim, Pappalardo, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Today’s featured car, chassis #1519GT, seen at Goodwood earlier this year with owner P Paul Pappalardo at the wheel is the fifth of the seven Interims to be built.

#1519GT was originally sold to Ecurie La Meute member Jean-Pierre Schild who entered the car with co driver Roger de Lageneste in the 1959 Tour d’France in which they finished 3rd.

Ferrari 250 GT LWB Interim, Pappalardo, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Jean Pierre is known to have driven the car on one further occasion the 1959 Coupes du Salon at Montlhéry which he won beating the much smaller Lotus Eleven of Bob Hicks.

In May 1960 new owner Dean McCarthy entered the car for the SCCA National Cumberland race but was disqualified, undeterred Dean went to Watkins Glen the following month and won the SCCA sanctioned Glen Classic.

Ferrari 250 GT LWB Interim, Pappalardo, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

During the remainder of the 1960 season Dean recorded two 2n place finishes at Thompson and Montgomery before retiring from the Haybale Governor’s Cup at Montgomery with a damaged car.

Ferrari 250 GT LWB Interim, Pappalardo, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The last known event for 1519GT was the 13th Annual Grand Prix Watkins Glen at the end of 1960 where Dean drove the repaired car to a seventh place overall and class victory.

Since then the car spent some time without either engine or gearbox but the original engine and gearbox was reunited with the car when it underwent a two year restoration by Ferrari Clasiche which was completed earlier this year.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Pack Team” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow I’ll be looking at the Flash Special 500 Formula 3 car. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Ojeda City Winner – Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta #1035GT

77 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinettas were built from 1956 to 1959 in four series. To make things interesting Carrozzeria Scaglietti built the model with; no louvres in the C panel, 1 louvre in the C panel, 3 louvres in the C panel or 14 louvres in the C panel across the four series.

Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic

To keep things simple the 250 GT Berlinetta is also known as the Long Wheelbase Berlinetta (LWB) and Tour de France (TdF), an event for motor vehicles won by 250 GT LWB’s from 1956 to 1959.

Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic

Today’s featured 1958 1 louvre model, seen at Silverstone Classic, appears to be chassis #1035GT with which Cuban sugar baron Alfonso Gomez-Mena and a co driver known only as Meyer competed on the 1958 Tour de France.

Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic

The pair did not finish the event but Alfonso is known to have competed in at least 6 further events with the car.

Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic

In March 1959 Alfonso shared #1035GT with fellow Cuban Juan Montalvo in the Sebring 12 Hours where they finished 20th overall and 2nd in class. The pair shared the same chassis the following month in the 1000km race at Daytona were classified 12th though their engine expired before the finish.

Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic

Alfonso then took the car to Cuba where he finished second in the 1959 4 hour Almar race, 2nd in the 1960 Havanna GT race and finally 11th in the 1960 Cuban Grand Prix.

Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic

Racingsportscars.com also shows results for a 1959 race in Venezuela called the Ojeda City Grand Prix, no precise date is given for the event but Alfonso is credited as the winner beating the only other known contestants Venezuelan’s Lino Fayen and Ettore Chimeri who were also both driving Ferrari 250 GTs though the order in which the latter finished is also unknown.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ojeda City Winner” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Ginetta. Don’t forget to come back now !

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A Season At Cannes – Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder #3195GT

Sharing the same short wheel base (SWB) chassis as the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta first seen in 1959, a 280 hp version of the Ferrari 250 V12 motor and disc brakes the first of 54 or possibly 55 250 GT SWB California Spyders was shown to the public by Scaglietti at the 1960 Geneva motor show.

In 1962 the 32nd SWB California Spyder #3195GT painted green with a black interior was delivered to Jan de Vroom. de Vroom was a young man from Dutch Indonesia who was one of two men vying for the attentions of the much older Margaret de Cuevas.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder, Concours on the Avenue, Carmel by the Sea

Born Margret Strong in New York de Cuevas’s grandfather was oil billionaire John D Rockefeller.

Of the two men competing for Margret de Cuevas, de Vroom is painted as a roguish subterranean adventurer who walked on the wild side leading the increasingly eccentric Margret into a “pit of vipers” characterised as “male and uninterested in women”.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder, Concours on the Avenue, Carmel by the Sea

Margret set de Vroom up in the business of importing Italian glass and lamps, it is believed that having raced a variety of Ferrari’s from 1956 to 1958 which included making an appearance at Le Mans, de Vroom may have been one of a number of backers of US Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team (NART).

#3195GT is said to have been purchased for “a season at Cannes” and later in the 1960’s it was imported to the USA. During the 1970’s after a change in ownership the car was reported as having a dark blue with tan interior and later again as painted red.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder, Concours on the Avenue, Carmel by the Sea

de Vroom met an unpleasant end at the hands of a thug who demanded money. He was found with his throat cut and multiple stab wounds by a house guest in 1973, a crime for which the perpetrators were convicted and imprisoned. This left the way open to Margret’s other suitor to move in and marry her when she was eighty and allegedly relieve her of most of her remaining wealth.

Since the 1990’s #3195GT has been a regular on the Concours circuit with Robert Baker being awarded a first in class at the 1994 International Ferrari Concours at Monterey and I believe current owner Larry Carter took home another class award from the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing these photo’s taken at the 2012 Concours on the Avenue at Carmel by the Sea and to Jerry Entin, Willem Oosthoek, Richard ‘Vitesse2’ Armstrong, Arjan de Roos and Rob Semmeling at The Nostalgia Forum for their help with Jan de Vroom’s story.

Thanks for joining me on this “A Season At Cannes” 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 Friday – San Marino Motor Classic

For the final visit to this years San Marino Motor Classic today’s featured marque is, unsurprisingly Ferrari.

Ferrari 250 GT PF Coupé Speciale, San Marino Motor Classic

Oldest of the Ferrari’s in this years show and winner of the
Art Center College of Design Award, was this Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina Coupé Speciale. Built in 1956 with a 410 Superamerica body the car was delivered new to a descendent of FIAT’s Agnelli family who coincidentally was also member of the FIAT boardroom.

Ferrari 250 GT PF Cabriolet S2, San Marino Motor Classic

Looking at the entry list which names only the entrant, marque and date and other resources it appears the vehicle above is a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina Cabriolet Series 2.

Ferrari 250 GT Coupe PF, San Marino Motor Classic

I’m much less certain as to the identity of the vehicle above it’s definitely one of 351 Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina Coupé’s. The combination of repeater light, absence of optional bonnet scoop and drivers side only door mirror lead me to believe this particular vehicle may have been built for a US Serviceman from Chicago who kept the car for 16 years.

Ferrari 250 GT/L, San Marino Motor Classic

Winner of the Pasadena Humane Society Award was the 1964 Ferrari 250 GT/L belonging to Alan & Wendy Hart, a car originally delivered to a customer in Belgium.

Ferrari 365 GTS/4, San Marino Motor Classic

There were only 122 Ferrari 365 GTS/4’s built but I have not been able to link the owner of this 1973 example on the entry list to any particular chassis of the many with yellow bodies and Borrani wheels.

Ferrari F40, San Marino Motor Classic

It will also take a historian far more capable than me to tell you which of the 1,315 F40’s, like the 1990 example above, this is.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton and Paul McNabb for sharing their photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ferrari Friday” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some details from last month’s Avenue Drivers Club meeting. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Moka Express – Ferrari 250 GT SWB Competizione #1905

In 1933 inventor Luigi De Ponti patented his design for an aluminium stove top coffee maker known as the Moka Pot for Alfonso Bialetti who sold 70,000 of them locally in Italy up until the start of ’39-’45 war.

In 1946 Alfonso’s son Renato took over the business and focused it’s attention entirely on manufacturing and marketing the Moka Express so that by 2001 over 220 million units had been sold.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB Competizione, Concours on the Avenue, Carmel by the Sea,

In 1960 Renato paid 5.5 million Lira for today’s featured Ferrari 250 GT SWB Competizione chassis #1608 which was delivered appropriately enough for someone involved in the coffee industry painted white with a black interior.

Chassis #1905 has no known in period competition history and it was sold to it’s fifth owner RM’s Scottsdale auction in January 2013 for US$18.14 million including buyers premium.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing today’s photograph which was taken at Concours on the Avenue in Carmel by the Sea in 2011.

Thanks for joining me on this “Moka Express” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I be looking at a cabriolet built by Bertone. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Almost A Complete Set Of Tools – Ferrari 250 GT Lusso #5143

A couple of years ago I looked at Tim Lewis’s ’64 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso taking part on Tour Britannia, today’s featured ’63 example, seen at the Classic Motor Show, NEC Birmingham, chassis #5143 has been prepared to Concours d’Elegance standard.

Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

#5143 was originally sold through official dealer Autofficina Vari in Rome to a customer at the end of 1963, by the 1970’s #5143 had found it’s way to the UK where well known collector Anthony Bamford was one of it’s owners.

Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

There after the car went back to Europe through Belgium to Germany where a refurbishment was undertaken by official Ferrari dealer Peter Rosenmaier in Germany.

Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

After a period in storage #5193 received a body off 4 year restoration which included sending the body to the best body restoration specialist, the motor to the best motor rebuilders and so forth resulting in a car finished to the highest Concours d’Elegance standards.

Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

Once the restoration was complete the German owner sold the car at R&M Auctions at MAranello in May 2008 for just over 1 million US$ including buyers premium.

Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

Amongst the items the new owner acquired with the car were a spare set of original Marchal headlights, the original handbook, two Lusso brochures, a framed Pininfarina Lusso advert, a first edition copy of Kurt H. Miska’s book The Berlinetta Lusso and an almost complete set of original tools.

Thanks for joining me on this “Almost Complete Set Of Tools” 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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Giordanengo Replica TR – Ferrari 250 GT #0611GT

Sitting on the Coy’s stand at the Autosport International show a couple of months ago was this eye catching Ferrari, the car appears to be part of the Coys showroom stock and acted as eye candy for the Coy’s stand despite not being entered into the auction.

Ferrari 250 GT, Coys, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

This particular 1956 Ferrari chassis #0611GT started out as the 53rd Boano low roof coupé bodied 250GT of a total of 88 built, a left hand drive model originally sold new to Mario Machiarelli of Genova, Italy.

Ferrari 250 GT, Coys, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

By 1988 a Mr Robert Fehlmann, whom I believe once raced a rare, if not unique,Ghia Supersonic bodied Conrero and ran a garage business in Altenhaus Switzerland, owned #0611GT.

Ferrari 250 GT, Coys, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Fehlmann had the Boano body on #0611GT replaced by highly respected restoration specialist Giovanni Giordanengo of Cuneo Italy with a likeness of a Le Mans winning 250 Testa Rossa Scaglietti pontoon body with right hand drive.

Ferrari 250 GT, Coys, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

It is believed of the 33 original 250TR’s, which can fetch upwards of $10 million, as many as 46 exist today some unsurprisingly with disputed identities.

Ferrari 250 GT, Coys, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Sources I have seen suggest a car like #0611GT featured today would have cost around #150,000 to build excluding the cost of the donor car.

Ferrari 250 GT, Coys, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

In 1990 #0611GT was bought by Peter Heuberger of Oberramsern in Switzerland.

Ferrari 250 GT, Coys, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Peter is known to have driven the car at classic events at the Nurburgring and Montreux up until at least 2002.

Ferrari 250 GT, Coys, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

It is unlikely that this car will handle or perform anything like as well as a well maintained original 250TR which it imitates, but at less than 1/50th of the cost of an original it will probably turn just as many heads.

Thanks for joining me on this “Giordanengo Replica TR” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a Liege Trials Car. Don’t forget to come back now !

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