Tag Archives: Export

Tailor’s Superleggera – Ferrari 212 Export Touring Berlinetta #0088E

In 1913 Domenico Caraceni the father of Italian tailoring founded the bespoke made to measure tailors bearing his name that by the 1930’s expanded to include ateliers in Rome, Milan and Paris and would later count Italian, Greek and British Royalty along with Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli, shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and Hollywood actors including Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant among it’s clientele.

Domenico named his son after his brother Augusto who opened the Paris atelier and by the time he grew up Dr Augusto Caraceni had acquired a taste for racing the products of Enzo Ferrari, who was ofcourse another Caraceni customer.

Ferrari 212 Export Touring Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic, Press Day,

Today’s featured car was the seventh Ferrari 212 Export chassis, of a total 27, to be built the frame being completed on 26th January 1951.

Walter Seghedoni and foreman Amos Franchini oversaw the completion of the rear axle assembley on February 14th and the race tuned engine with triple Weber carburetors on February the 16th.

Ferrari 212 Export Touring Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic, Press Day,

#0088E was the first 212 Export chassis, of a total 4, to receive a Superlegerra Berlinetta body by Touring.

A certificate of origin was issued on the 23rd of February and the next day the car was test driven at the factory.

Ferrari 212 Export Touring Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic, Press Day,

After the car was distributed to dealer Mambretti Sonzogni in Rome it was sold to Dr Augusto Caraceni on 20th April 1951.

In September 1951 Dr Augusto competed with this car on the Stella Alpina Hillclimb where he finished 5th overall and 2nd in class this was his only known competition at the wheel of #0088E.

Ferrari 212 Export Touring Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic, Press Day,

In 1952 Dr Augusto appears to have sold #0088E to Conte Antonio Naselli in order to make way for a more powerful Ferrari 225 Export which he drove in the 1952 Mille Miglia.

Conte Naselli is believed to have driven #0088E on the Giro di Sicilia and Stella Alpina Hillclimb in 1952 though there are no records available to confirm his results. Note the louvered window vents which Touring were using three years later on the body for an 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint 2 which I looked at some years ago.

Ferrari 212 Export Touring Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic, Press Day,

It is believed the Conte had #0088E painted Amaranto as it appears today post a restoration in 2008.

After passing through seven more owners hands in Italy the car was acquired in 1963 by Lowell Musick an employee of the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach California.

Ferrari 212 Export Touring Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic, Press Day,

Mr Musick entrusted the mechanical upkeep of #0088E to Charles Betz of Orange, California, a renowned Ferrari enthusiast and owner of many of early Ferrari’s.

While #0088E was in Mr Betz care his business partner Fred Peters took a shine to the car and eventually purchased it from Mr Musick and stored in a controlled state until 2008 when the restoration mentioned earlier commenced.

Ferrari 212 Export Touring Berlinetta, Silverstone Classic, Press Day,

Over a period of six years Steve Beckman’s Metalworks in Costa Mesa took care of the bodywork, Bob Wallace took care of the original 2.5 litre Colombo V12, Cork Adams took care of the wheels, South Bay Chrome looked after the bright work, MoMa the original instrumentation, Pete Engel installed a new period correct naturale lastico upholstery and Charles Betz oversaw the reassembly with a non original slip differential that was fitted to improve safety.

The bills for the above came to an estimated US$600,000 which was recouped in January 2014 when the car was sold for US$3.19 million including buyers premium at Bonhams’ Scottsdale auction to New Haven CT Pemier Classic Car dealer Dennis P. Nicotra of New Haven, CT.

After showing #0088E at Pebble Beach last year, where it was awarded third in class, the car was registered in the UK on the 14th of October presumably in the name of it’s new owner Austrian Martin Halusa.

Five days after these photo’s were taken at the Silverstone Classic Press day Mr Halusa competed on the Tour Auto with Nicola von Donhoff in the co drivers seat of 0088E.

Thanks for joining me on this “Tailor’s Superlegerra” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me for a bus man’s holiday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Ferrari Concours Highlights – Goodwood Festival Of Speed

There were enough Ferrari’s present on the lawn at Goodwood House during the Festival of House for another short run of Ferrari Friday blogs, here is a preview of what is to come in future weeks.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

From 1952 above is a Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale cabriolet that was erroneously labelled as having belonged to British Actor David Niven and incorrectly labelled as a short wheel base 1952 Ferrari 212 Export with a Cabriolet body by Vignale.

Ferrari 212 Vignale Coupé, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

One year later Vignale built this Coupé on the longer Inter chassis #0267EU and displayed it at the Turin Auto Show before selling is to Jean-Louis Lafourcade in France.

Ferrari 250 GT Zagato, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Surprisingly Zagato only built bodies for six Ferrari’s during the 1950’s, I believe the 1957 250GT seen above was originally fitted with a Ellena Coupé body until 1989 when Zagato were commissioned to fit a the Double Bubble body seen above.

Ferrari 500 Superfast, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The 1965 Ferrari 500 Superfast chassis s/n 6659SF above was purchased by property tycoon Sir Eric Merton Miller in 1966, 11 years later he committed suicide after being served with four writs seeking restitution of funds he had allegedly misappropriated.

Ferrari 330GT Vignale Shooting Brake, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

When Desy the original owner of the 1965 Ferrari 330GT seen above sold the car back to Chinetti Motors in New York in 1967 Luigi’s son Coco and commercial artist Bob Peak came up with the idea for Vignale to fit the car with this unique Shooting Brake body, subsequently it was taken to the 50th Annual Turin Motor Show and currently belongs to Singer Jay Kay.

Ferrari P4/5 By Pininfarina, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Finally James Glickenhaus’s unique Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina has already been featured on this blog, but seeing it in the flesh myself for the first time confirmed it was probably well worth every cent of the $4,000,000 (USD Four Million) it cost the lucky owner.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ferrari Concours Highlights” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another Formula Junior racer. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Racin’ ‘n’ Climbin’ – Ferrari 212 Export Touring Barchetta

In 1951 Ferrari produced two 212 models the Grand Touring Inter with either a 150 or a 165 hp and the competition orientated Export with 170 hp from it’s high compression V12 which was mounted on a shorter chassis than the Inter.

212 Export Touring Barchetta, Danville Concours d'Elegance

The 212 Export was quick right out of the box, Vittorio Marzotto and Paolo Fontana won the 1951 Giro di Sicilia in chassis #0086E while “Pagnibon” and Alfred Barraquet led home a 212 Export 1,2,3 finish in the 1951 Tour de France. Among 212 Export winners in the States were Phil Hill, who won at Torrey Pines in 1952 driving chassis #0078E and Ernie McAfee at Palm Springs in 1953, driving chassis #0092E with a coupé body by Vignale.

Kirk Douglas drove a specially rebodied 212 Export chassis #0102 to a fictitious victory in the the 1955 film “The Racers“.

212 Export Touring Barchetta, Danville Concours d'Elegance

Chassis #0158ED, seen here at the Danville Concours d’Elegance dinner, was supplied new to Luigi Bordonaro di Chiaramonte of Palermo, Italy for the 1952 season. He used it to good effect scoring at least 7 overall wins in both race and hillclimb competition between 1952 and 1955.

Swiss driver Edouard Margairaz continued to compete with the car until 1956 when he came 1st in class at the Verbois hillclimb.

212 Export Touring Barchetta, Danville Concours d'Elegance

In all 28 212 Export models were built and chassis #0158 is thought to be the last of the seven built with Barchetta bodywork by Carrozzeria Touring in Milan.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing todays photographs from Danville Concours d’Elegance.

Thanks for joining me on this “Racin”n’ Climbin'” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a multipurpose open wheel racer from Lotus. Don’t forget to come back now !

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