Tag Archives: Whitehead

Giving Up Secrets – Ferrari 750 Monza #0462M

On September 4th 1954 Joe Kelly to took delivery of today’s featured 3 litre / 183 cui 4 cylinder Ferrari 750 Monza chassis #0462M in Dublin, Ireland.

This car was the second of the total 31 750 Monza’s built by the factory and a week after delivery Joe entered the car for himself and Desmond Titterington in Tourist Trophy at Dundrod in Northern Ireland where they retired with gearbox issues.

Ferrari, 750, Monza, Hillsborough, Concours, d'Elegance,

Joe entered the car for Desmond to drive in the Leinster Trophy a week later celebrated his second week of ownership with a win, Mike Hawthorn drove the car for Joe in the Goodwood Trophy and retired with a broken rear axle.

The cars next owner was the Jaguar Car Company who disassembled the car and repaired the damaged rear axle and then put it back together after closely inspecting it to see why it was so much better than the Jaguar C and D types which had been comprehensively thrashed by Ferrari in the 1954 World Sports Car Championship.

Ferrari, 750, Monza, Hillsborough, Concours, d'Elegance,

After giving up it’s secrets to the engineers at Browns Lane in Coventry Peter Whitehead acquired the car and it then went via Jack Brabham to Australia where it was raced by Stan Coffey in 1956 without any success and Norm Crowfoot in April 1959 who recorded a third place finish in a race at Bathurst.

Oliver Steel also raced #0462M in 1959 but retired from his race, in 1963 Geoffrey Davis bought the car and kept it until 1980, by the mid 1980’s it had found it’s way to the USA where it remained until 1998 when it returned to Italy where it stayed until 2012.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing these photograph’s of #0462M taken at Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance earlier this year. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Just Waiting – Ferrari 500/625A/750 #3/2/0482

Wondering around the pits at Silverstone during an HGPCA test day a couple of months ago I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of cars just waiting for their stories to be told, one such was today’s featured Ferrari which was built in 1952 as a 4 cylinder 2 litre / 122 cui Ferrari 500 chassis #3 for the Formula 2 season which was also designated as the World Drivers Championship Formula.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

This car is said to have raced alongside the sister chassis #005 raced by Alberto Ascari to two consecutive World Drivers Championships, though I have yet to discover who drove it or the results it achieved.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

In 1954 new Formula One regulations were adopted for the World Drivers Championship mandating 2.5 litre / 152 cui motors and when Ferrari ran into problems with it’s intended ‘Squalo’ 553 challenger they converted some of the old Formula 2 cars to “625” specification with larger 2.5 litre / 152 cui 4 cylinder motor. This particular car then became a 625 with the chassis number 2.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

With no progress on the Squalo and later 555 Super Squalo designs Ferrari updated this car further to 625A spec for the start of the 1955 season with a more aerodynamic tail, the chassis was lengthened by just under two inches, the additional length being inserted by cutting the chassis just ahead of the cockpit and the suspension was revised with coil springs replacing the transverse leaf spring at the front.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

The cars first race of the 1955 World Drivers Championship season was in Argentina, which lent it’s initial to the 625 designation. Two 625A’s were entered and they finished second and third behind reigning champion Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes Benz. Unusually the two 625A’s were each driven by three drivers coming in second were Gonzalez, Farina and Trintignant and third were Maglioli who shared with Trintignant and Farina !

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

The next race was at Monaco where Maurice Trintignant qualified today’s featured car 9th behind a pair of Mercedes Benz cars, three Lancia D50’s and three Maserati’s. During the race Trintignant, for whom everything outside racing was ‘just waiting’, guided his car to an unlikely victory as those ahead retired with mechanical issues while the Lancia driven by Ascari famously fell into the water which he survived only to be killed four days later testing a Ferrari sports car at Monza.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

The 1955 Monaco victory was the first World Drivers Championship event to be won by a Frenchman since it’s inception in 1950, the first to be one on Englebert Tyres and Ferrari’s only victory in the 1955 Championship season. At the end of the year the car was fitted with a 4 cylinder 3 litre / 183 cui Ferrari 750 sportscar motor and sold to British wool merchant and amateur racer Peter Whitehead, with Peters old customer chassis number #0482 to compete in the unrestricted Formula Libre races being held in New Zealand in 1956. Peter won both the Lady Wigram Trophy and the Southland Road Race, note some sources incorrectly point to this car being driven by Peter Whitehead to two victories in New Zealand in 1957, by then he was actually drove and won both races with in a Ferrari Super Squallo 555 fitted with an 3.4 litre 860 Monza sports car motor.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

Late in 1956 Froilan Gonzales bought the car and took it to Argentina where it appears to have remained until it resurfaced in the United States in the 1990’s. Current owner Alexander Boswell bought the car in 1999 and found the three chassis numbers which confirmed the cars identity and history welded one atop the other.

Mr Boswell had the car restored to the same 3 litre / 183 cui 625A/750 #0482 specification as it was when supplied to Peter Whitehead by Ferrari for his New Zealand adventure.

Thanks for joining me for this “Just Waiting” 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’s First F1 Design – Ferrari 125 F2 Spec #0114

In 1948 Ferrari built his first dedicated 125 F1 Grand Prix cars known to conform with the set of rules known as formula one and entered three of them into the 1948 Italian Grand Prix, held at Valentino Park on the 5th of September. Frenchman Raymond Sommer brought his 125 F1 home in third place. The Ferrari 125 WAS NOT however the first Ferrari ever to be entered in a race run to formula one regulations.

Ferrari 125, Donington Museum

The 125 F1 shared it’s 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui super charged V12 engine design, by Giocchino Colombo, with earlier successful Ferrari sports cars including the 166 series and the 125S series.

 Ferrari 125, Donington Museum

This particular chassis thought to have been built in 1949 for the factory racing team, appears to have been successfully raced with a normally aspirated 2 litre / 122 cui Colombo V12 to conform to the second tier Formula Two regulations in 1951 by Englishman Peter Whitehead in Europe and Australasia.

Ferrari 125, Donington Museum

During the late 1950’s this chassis had a Chevy V8 installed which was replaced by a remanufactured 2 litre V12 when Tom Wheatcroft had it restored in the 1970’s for his Donington Collection where these photographs were taken.

The 125 F1 was not a great success against the older Alfa Romeo’s, which led Ferrari to build his next formula one cars with larger unsupercharged engines with which one of his cars would win Ferrari’s first championship formula one race in 1951.

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

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