Tag Archives: 212

Pull Up Two The Bumpers – Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Coupé #0257EU

At the end of 1952 Vignale started producing it’s definitive 2 bumper coupé bodies designed by Giovanni Michelotti for the 116 mph Ferrari 212 Inter.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Coupé, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

It is believed no more than six of these twin bumper 212 Inters were produced from a total of 26 Vignale bodied 212 Inters and that today’s featured #0257EU was the first chassis to be so futuristically equipped,

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Coupé, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

This particular car was initially sold in 1953 to a Turin dealer called Fontanella who exhibited it at the Concorso d’Eleganza San Remo the following year.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Coupé, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Later in 1954 Luigi Chinetti sold #0257EU to paper product tycoon Robert C. Wilke of Milwaukee who was president of Leader Card Inc who would become a well known sponsor of Indy cars.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Coupé, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The cars engine block is believed to have been replaced twice, first due to a crack that developed and secondly after a mechanic who over torqued the heads causing the studs to be pulled from the second block.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Coupé, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The car resided in the United States until 1979 when it was acquired by a Belgian who kept it until 2006 when it returned to the United States.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Coupé, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

In 2009 Michael Green in Texas bought #0257EU and the original engine block from John Hadjuk in Indiana whom he entrusted with the mechanical restoration of the car while Gassman Automotive in Waynesboro Virginia took care of the rest.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Coupé, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Mr Green sold the car for just over US$1.7 million including buyers premium at Scottsdale in January 2014 and it is my understanding that the car, seen at Goodwood Festival of Speed in July this year, is being offered for sale again by Tom Hartley Jnr £POA.

Thanks for joining me on this “Pull Up Two The Bumpers” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Chevron. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Swapped Identities – Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet #0227EL (#0255EU)

In 1952 British born Paris based clothing tailor John McFadden ordered a new left hand drive Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

For reasons that are not at all clear it appears Ferrari attempted to deliver a right hand drive example of the same model, #0227EL which John refused to accept.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

To rectify the problem Ferrari changed, restamped, the chassis number of today’s featured left hand drive (LHD) Ferrari 212 inter Vignale Cabriolet from #0255EU to #0227EL and at the same time changed the chassis number of the original from #0227EL to #0255EU.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

Today’s featured car #0227EL(0255EU) was the only LHD example 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet of the total of four built, when it was delivered it carried black bumpers that were chromed by David G. Seibert in Atlanta during his period of ownership between 1978 and 1980.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

#0227EL (#0255EU) features a unique single rear seat on the passenger side which allows anyone traveling on it to put their feet behind the drivers seat.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

Now for some myth busting, no evidence has ever been seen in the public domain that this car was ever owned by suave British actor David Niven; as was claimed by the blurb pertaining to this car at Goodwood Festival of Speed and elsewhere on the internet.

Nor is this car a short wheel base Vignale Export Cabriolet model as clearly incorrectly labelled at Goodwood, only 2 such cars were built, chassis #0106E and #0110E, and neither of them is known to have belonged to David Niven either.

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

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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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Rosselini’s Racer – Ferrari 212 Inter Pininfarina Cabriolet #0235EU

Today’s featured Ferrari 212 Inter Pininfarina Cabriolet was built built primarily as a road car in 1952 it is one of only two 4 seat 212 Inter’s with a Pininfarina Cabriolet body and of the other 77 212 Inters Abbot’s of Farnham fitted 1 cabriolet body and Vignale 4 more.

Ferrari 212 Inter Pf Convertible, The Quail,

The early ownership of this car appears to involve either Californian building contractor Tony Parravano and or Italian film maker Roberto Rosselini. In August 1953 Rosselini entered #0235EU in the 1000kms (600 mile) race for sports cars at the Nurburgring, Rosselini was entered to drive but did not show up, his place was taken by Dutch journalist, with competition experience, Maurice Gatsonides who partnered Riccardo Vignolo.

Maurice is quoted as having said of his ride “I was to have the most magnificent car of the whole field, as this Ferrari was bodied by Pininfarina and carried a four seat drophead coupe with graceful lines, a sure winner at any Concours d’ Elegance”.

In this linked photo the street 212 Inter Cabriolet sticks out like a sore thumb twixt the race prepared #7 Lancia D20 and the #56 Jaguar C-type.

Of the three cars in the photo that finished the race the #1 Ferrari 375MM #0286AM, far left, driven by world Champions Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina won, the three Lancia’s #5, #6, and #7 all retired with today’s featured #0235EU coming through to finish ninth, eleven spots ahead of the #56 C type driven by Belgians Kasimir Olislaegers and Charles de Keerle.

In 1954 the car was sold and ended up in the USA, in the 1970’s the motor and 4 speed transmission were removed and replaced with a cheaper to maintain Chevrolet V8 and 3 speed Muncie transmission.

All the correct bits and pieces were traced in the 1990’s and #0235EU reappeared fully restored for the first time last year.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing today’s featured photo taken at The Quail a few weeks ago.

Thanks for joining me on this “Rosellini’s Racer” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Zagato bodied Aston Martin. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Nothing Better – Ferrari 250MM Pininfarina Berlinetta #0353 MM (0239 EU)

After beating Phil Hill on the second stage of the 1952 Carrera Panamerica Mexican hot shot Efrian Ruiz Echeverria skidded of the road while in 10th place overall on the third, of five, stage of the race in his Ferrari 212 Inter Berlinetta chassis #0239 EU.

Ferrari 250 MM, Goodwood Festival of Speed

He sent the car back to Ferrari for repairs and while it was there Efrian asked if the factory would build him a Ferrari 250MM like the one used by Giovanni Bracco which had proved to be the fastest car in the 1952 Carrera Panamerica field although transmission failure 300 miles from the finish handed a 1-2 victory to the Mercedes Benz Team.

Ferrari 250 MM, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Ferrari were happy to oblige going so far as swapping the identity from Efrian’s old 212 Inter #0239EU to that of the new 250MM chassis #0353MM at the owners request so that import duty would not have to be paid on the new car.

Ferrari 250 MM, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The 1953 Panamerica entry list included five works Lancia’s with Juan Manuel Fangio in the lead car and five non works Ferrari’s. Fangio led a 1/2/3 finish for the Lancia Team and Efrian came in as first privateer in 7th place. A result that remains the best for any Mexican driver in the original series of Carrera Panamerica races run from 1950 to 1954.

Ferrari 250 MM, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Thanks to William (WDH74) at The Nostalgia Forum I have found out what the meaning of the legend “Como 123 no hay dos” which appears to be a sponsors strap line on the bonnet of the car. “No hay dos” translates to “nothing better” from Mexican in this case nothing better than products from sponsor Industrias 1-2-3 owned by Santiago Ontanon who’s products include vegetable cooking oil and laundry detergent.

Ferrari 250 MM, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The 1953 Carrera Panamerica was #0353 MM (0239 EU)’s only in period competitive outing, the car passed through various hands and 3 restorations later the car is seen above at Goodwood Festival of Speed where it was entered by Nick Mason for his wife Annette to drive.

Ferrari 250 MM, Goodwood Festival of Speed

My thanks to WDH74, Arjan de Roos, Doug Nye, Regazzoni and Tmeranda at The Nostalgia Forum for lessons in Mexican and Mexican house hold product marketing.

Thanks for joining me on this “Nothing Better” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Lotus rally car project. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Running In At 116 mph – Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale

As we saw last week the 1951 Ferrari 212 came in two flavours Export for sports car racing and Inter as daily driver. Today’s featured 212 Inter with body work by Vignale is one of the long wheel base road cars.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale, Danville Concours d'Elegance

Of the 82 212 Inters built 37 of them had Vignale bodies while Touring and Ghia were amongst others to build bodies for this model.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale, Danville Concours d'Elegance

The British magazine tested the first production 212 Inter in 1950 recording rest to 60 mph in 10.5 seconds reaching 100 mph in 22.5 seconds and a top speed of 116 mph. The magazine noted that they were asked to keep to a 6,500 rpm limit as the engine had not been fully run in.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale, Danville Concours d'Elegance

Of course just because a Ferrari is designated primarily as a road car there is nothing to stop owners entering them for races, Centro Deportivo Italiano bought two 212 Inters, chassis #0161 EL and 0171 EL and entered them in to the fearsome 1951 Carrera Panamericana in Mexico for Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi in the #9 and Pierro Taruffi and Luigi Chinetti in the #34 respectively. The Centro Deportivo Italiano scored a 1-2 finish with Taruffi/Chinetti leading home Ascari/Villoresi by over eight minuets.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photo’s taken at Danville Concours d’Elegance.

Thanks for joining me on this “Running In At 116 mph” edition of “Gettin’ a li’ psycho on tyres” I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another innovative formula one car from Colin Chapman. Don’t forget to come back now !

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