Tag Archives: Chinetti

Pedro y Ricardo – Ferrari 250GT SWB Berlinetta Compitizione #3005GT

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In 1961 Luigi Chinetti ordered today’s Ferrari 250GT SWB Berlinetta Compitizione chassis #3005GT and entered it in the Paris 1000kms race held at Montlhéry for the Mexican brothers Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez to drive.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione, Goodwood Revival

The results of qualifying are not known however the result was an emphatic win for the Mexican’s by thirty seconds over the 250 GT SWB of Willy Mairesse and Lucien Bianchi, infact the first five cars to finish the race were all 250 GT SWB’s including chassis #2729GT driven by Pierre Dumas and Jo Schlesser which featured last weeks Ferrari Friday blog.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Ricardo Rodriguez was also credited with fastest lap at Montlhéry, having impressed Enzo Ferrari a couple of weeks earlier at Monza with a front row qualifying spot Ricardo was given a works contract for 1962 and continued to impress despite being just 20 years old with a string of good results including a win in the 1962 Targa Florio sports car race where he co drove a Ferrari 246SP with Olivier Gendebien and Willy Mairesse. Tragically Ricardo was killed in practice of the 1962 non Championship Mexican Grand Prix driving a Lotus for Rob Walker after Ferrari had declined to enter the race.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Older brother Pedro was equally talented particularly in the rain and behind the wheel of big sports cars like the Gulf Porsche 917, Pedro won two Grand Prix first in the 1967 South African GP where he drove a Cooper Maserati and the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix where he drove a BRM P153, recording a record average speed for any Grand Prix at the time of 149 mph. Like his brother Ricardo Pedro died at the wheel in 1971 at the Norisring where he drove a Ferrari 512M chassis #1008 that burst into flames after an accident.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Today’s featured car meanwhile was sold to Doug Thiem for the 1962 season and he is known to have driven it in at least 14 further US sports car races winning outright at Erkhart Lake / Road America in September 1962.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione, Goodwood Festival of Speed

#3005 stayed in the US until 1980 when Italian Pietro Brigato acquired the car and entered it into classic events in Italy and Germany. In 2011 Lukas Hueni, acquired the car and can be seen at the wheel in the top photo at the 2011 Goodwood Revival and in the bottom photo at the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Thanks for joining me on this “Pedro y Ricardo ” 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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One Of Those Blue Italian Things – Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder #10691

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Way back when I was a teenager my folks took me to the Cinema to see a film staring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway called the Thomas Crown Affair, a story about a millionaire businessman, Thomas Crown played by Steve McQueen, who got his kicks by executing a near faultless bank robbery.

Ferrari 275 GTB/4, Concours by the Sea, Carmel

After the job a dirty thinking insurance investigator Vicki Anderson played by Faye Dunaway is sent to help squeaky clean Detective Eddie Malone solve the case, and after narrowing the list of suspects down correctly intuits that Thomas Crown is her man. She shows up in a high profile dark read Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder at a polo match in which Thomas is playing and starts to openly film with on a small movie camera, they inevitably meet and she introduces herself as an investigator and makes no secret of the fact that he is the person she is investigating.

Ferrari 275 GTB/4, Concours by the Sea, Carmel

Later on Thomas turns up at an auction room and parked outside is the dark red NART Spyder which catches his attention and his assistant remarks “isn’t that one of those red Italian things” to which Thomas responds in the affirmative.

Ferrari 275 GTB/4, Concours by the Sea, Carmel

After much cat and mouse Thomas decides to do one more job and lets Vicki in on the idea to see if she really loves him or wants to turn him in. I’ll leave it to you to see the film to find out what happens, here is a link to the trailer.

Ferrari 275 GTB/4, Concours by the Sea, Carmel

Luigi Chinetti had plans to have 25 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spyders built with Pininfarina bodies in 1967. The first chassis 09437 was supplied with a 330 hp race motor, Chinetti had a roll cage fitted and entered it into the 1967 Sebring 12 hours for Marianne ‘Pinky’ Rollo and Denise McCluggage who finished a credible 17th overall and second in class behind a Ford Mustang. The car was later scouted for The Thomas Crown Affair and painted dark red for the film.

McQueen liked the car that Dunaway had in the film and ended up buying chassis #10453. Todays featured car is chassis #10691 which won the Carmel by the Sea Concours d’Elegance best in show award last August where these photographs were taken by Geoffrey Horton.

Despite the good performance at Sebring and the appearance in the Oscar winning, best original song, Thomas Crown Affair Chinetti had trouble selling ten NART Spyders with out heavy discounts and so only ten were built. They now change hands depending on history and condition for between US$ 3 to 4 million.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this “One Of Those Blue Italian Things” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t for get to come back now !

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Running In At 116 mph – Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale

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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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Class But No Championships – Ferrari 312P #0872

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For 1968 a new championship was announced for 3 litre / 183 cui prototype sports cars called Championnat Internationale des Marques. A lack of entries for the series led to a late change in the rules which extended the life of the Ford GT40 and Lola T70 for four years and inadvertently gave Ferrari and Porsche a window in which to build the 512S and 917 models respectively.

Ferrari 312P, Goodwood Festival of Speed

For 1969 Ferrari built it’s first 3 litre / 183 cui prototypes using detuned V12 engines from it’s Formula One programme. In all three 312P’s were built by the factory two open top Spyders and the closed top Berlinetta chassis #0872 featured today.

Although the 312P’s are not remembered as being a match for the Porsche 908’s that ran in the same class they did take several class wins when they finished. #0872 won it’s class at Daytona in 1970, 4th overall, driven by Mike Parkes and Sam Posey, and again at Sebring driven by Parkes and Chuck Parsons who replaced Posey.

In 1971 #0872 appeared with Spyder bodywork and Luigi Chinetti and Garcia Veiga took another class victory at Daytona in the 24 hour marathon.

Ferrari 312P, Goodwood Festival of Speed

When #0872 was first raced by Chris Amon and Peter Schetty at Le Mans in 1969 carrying the #19 the car was a last minuet substitute for chassis #0868, which had crashed a couple of weeks earlier at Monza, and was raced with the #0868 identity due to the difficulty in getting the correct international travel documents for #0872 ready in time.

Chris Amon hit a fuel tank from the fatally disintegrated Porsche 917 of John Woolfe on the opening lap, causing #0872 to catch fire and it’s subsequent retirement without injury to the New Zealander.

Ferrari 312P, Goodwood Festival of Speed

In the spring of 1971 #0872 was dismantled, the engine, transmission, suspension and steering were subsequently fitted to a brand new chassis known as the Chinetti Special / Flying Shingle, a car which did not finish at Daytona in 1972 and manged 9th overall 6th in class at Le Mans in 1974 driven by Jean-Claude Andruet and Teodoro Zeccoli.

In 1980/81 all the parts of #0872 were reunited along with it’s original Berlinetta body, and the Flying Shingle has been reconstructed without any of the original parts from #0872.

Thanks for joining me on this “Class But No Championships” 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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Chinese Whispers – Ferrari 375MM Vignale #0286AM

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Today we are looking at a one off Ferrari 375MM Vignale chassis #0286AM, seen here at the recent Phil Hill Tribute at the Peterson Museum, that for 35 years was reported as being buried in a hole in the ground.

The Vignale bodied chassis 0286AM started life as one of four from a total of 10 340 MM’s with a 4.1 litre 250 cui Lamperdi V12. However before #0286AM left the factory it’s motor was upgraded first with a 4.5 litre / 274 cui V12 which had it’s origins in the Ferrari 375 Grand Prix Car, bringing the erstwhile Vignale bodied 340 MM up to 375 MM spec, in fact today’s car is seen as the prototype 375 MM. The motor was then bored out to 4.9 litres / 299 cui to the so called 375 plus spec.

Ferrari 375 MM Vignale, Peterson Museum

#0286AM appeared at four events in 1953, Luigi Villoresi qualified on pole for a sports car race at Spa but the car was withdrawn before the start due to engine problems. Villoresi set fastest lap in the Circuito di Senigallia Race but again retired with engine problems.

Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina drove #0286AM to victory at the 1953 Nurburgring 1000 kms after the engine had been changed from one of the other team cars before the start of the race. Somewhere around this time #0286AM was scheduled to transfer to the ownership of Tony Parravano however the engine problems at the Nurburgring meant this transaction never took place and Tony was given another 375 MM chassis #0362AM.

US Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti then bought #0286AM painted it black added a full width screen and entered it for himself and Alfonso de Portago in the 1900 mile 1953 Carrera Panamericana where engine problems prevented the car from completing the race. The car was then sold to Carlos Braniff in Mexico City.

Ferrari 375 MM Vignale, Peterson Museum

Braniff had the car prepared for the 1954 Carrera Panemericana with a standard 4.5 litre / 274 cui motor he had a second spare wheel fitted in the tail and added the distinctive head rest and fin as well as adding cooling vents for the wheels. Carlos drove the car to a second place finish at the The Lone Star National Sports Car Race held at Bergstrom and Phil Hill came second in the Orange Empire National Races held at March AFB prior to the Carrera Panemericana for which Hill was teamed up with Richie Ginther.

Hill & Ginther were in contention for the 1954 Carrera Panemericana win when they ran out of fuel on the 7th of 8 stages, on which they only managed a forth place finish. Hill & Ginther made up for the disappointment by completing the 572 mile final stage of the event, held on open roads remember, at a blistering 137 mph average to recover a 2nd place finish overall. That 137 mph average for the eighth stage of the Carrera Panamericana has never been beaten.

In 1955 Lou Buero became the owner of the car now repainted dark red / brown during the 1955 season Carrol Shelby drove the car to a victory at Torrey Pines. Lou Buero then had the head cylinder heads crack at the end of season races at Nassau and #0286AM would then go unseen in public for 39 years.

Ferrari 375 MM Vignale, Peterson Museum

It turns out that the reports of the car being buried in the earth were just a tad far of the mark, after Lou Buero Snr passed away his son had tried to revive #0286AM by attempting to fit a Jaguar motor and gearbox, however having failed he entombed the car in a 20ft trailer barricading it in so that no one could steal it in 1956. The myth of the car being buried in the ground stemming perhaps the inevitable Chinese Whispers over the ensuing 39 years owing to the dark red / colour of the car when it was last seen and the fact that it had been entombed in a trailer.

#0286AM was in need of a ground up restoration after spending 35 years in less than ideal conditions in Arcata, California, galvanic corrosion of the steering wheel had been so bad the wood rim of the steering wheel had dropped off ! The process began in 1994 and by 1997 Phil Hill was reunited with #0286AM and he promptly drove it to victory at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races. That same year #0286AM also won the Pebble Beach Cup at the Concours d’Elegance.

My thanks to Mark Savory who was partly responsible for restoring #0286AM who’s website gives a more complete history and further photo’s of the car.

Thanks for joining me on this 137 mph edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

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My Word Is My Bond – Ferrari 250 GT Boano Convertible

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Today’s uniquely bodied Ferrari images come straight from the Carmel By The Sea Concours on the Avenue which was held on Tuesday courtesy of GALPOTS regular contributor Geoffrey Horton.

Ferrari 250 GT Boano Convertible

In 1955 a New Yorker Robert Lee set off on a Safari stopping over in Rome for a week on the outward journey. While in Italy Mr Lee went to Modena and visited Enzo Ferrari who suggested that if Mr Lee should ever want to buy a Ferrari he should buy one direct from the factory in Italy.

Mr Lee responded that he did not think a Ferrari would be up to running on the streets of New York, to which Enzo replied “If you buy a Ferrari, I guarantee it will run in New York City”.

Ferrari 250 GT Boano Convertible, Carmel By The Sea

In 1956 Mr Lee saw this 250 GT Convertible on the Ferrari stand at the New York Auto Show, when Mr Lee enquired about the possibility of purchasing it he was informed by Luigi Chinetti, Ferrari’s New York representative, that the car was not for sale and would be returned to Modena after the show.

Mr Lee then sent Enzo a Telegram reminding him of their meeting and offering $ 9,500 dollars, all he had, for the Convertible.

Ferrari 250 GT Boano Convertible, Carmel By The Sea

Soon after on the instructions of Mr Ferrari, Mr Chinetti asked Mr Lee to bring him a cashiers cheque for $9,500 and the worlds only 250 GT Boano Convertible, which is alleged to have cost $20,000 to build, would be his.

55 years and two restorations later this unique car still belongs to Mr Lee, possibly making it the worlds oldest Ferrari in continuous original ownership.

Jaguar XK150, Carmel By The Sea

My thanks again to Geoffrey Horton, seen above with his sister Vanessa and XK140, for today’s photographs, I hope you will join me in congratulating Geoffrey on winning second place at the Carmel By The Sea Councours on The Avenue.

Hope you have enjoyed this Boano Convertible edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a large Bristol. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Grazin’ Arizona – Ferrari 166 MM #0052M

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Thanks to more photographs from Geoffrey Horton today we are looking at possibly one of oldest and most original known Ferrari race cars, one which regular eagle eyed reader Racer 187 spotted in my blog last week on the Phil Hill XK120.

Ferrari 166 MM, Danville Cd'E

This is a Ferrari 166 MM chassis #0052M shown here at the 2007 Danville Concours d’Elegance some 3 years after it was credited as having been identified by Ferrari Expert Marcel Massini in Arizona in 2004 where, it had been grazing in a barn for forty five years.

An unusual right hand drive model this 166 MM appears to have been delivered to Chinetti & Plisson in Paris and originally purchased by the 1949 Le Mans 24 hour winner, who famously won aboard another 166 MM #0008M after driving for just 20 mins, Lord Selsdon. Selsdon, real name Peter Mitchell-Thomson, raced #0052 at Le Mans in 1950 with Jean Lucas, a race from which the car retired after accident damage.

The car then was turned over to Luigi Chinetti and Jean Lucas who won the Paris 12 hours race. It came second in the 1950 Daily Express Trophy race at Silverstone driven by Dorino Serafini before Chinetti took the wheel and drove it to some 2 litre class speed records at Monthlery in France.

In 1952 owner TASO Mathieson finished 8th in the Targa Florio driving this car and in 1954 the car was fitted with a larger 2.3 litre / 142 cui Colombo V12 from the 195 S model. In 1955 the car was converted back to 166MM spec with a 140 hp 2 litre / 121 cui V12 by the factory.

Ferrari 166 MM, Danville Cd'E

By 1958 this Touring Superleggera bodied car was known to be owned in Switzerland and in 1959 a couple of owners later it was with Chinetti Motors in New York, Chinetti sold it to a Mr RL Litton of Scottsdale, AZ and despite being registered for road use in Arizona in 1964 it apparently was never seen on the road in his hands.

When the car was found in 2004 it transpired that the engine was not an original 166MM type rather a 2 litre V12 more commonly found in a Ferrari Formula 2 open wheel racer, while it is not unusual for Ferrari racers of this period to swap engines, as indeed has been recorded for this vehicle it is still a mystery as to why this car should have an engine common to an open wheel Ferrari.

Under the stewardship of Manny del Arroz the car was preserved and returned to working condition and won the Preservation Award at Pebble Beach in 2007.

#0052M is last known to have transferred ownership in Germany to Mr J Pawluk of Poland in 2008 for a reputed € 3.5 million, approx £ 3 million or US$ 5 million at todays prices.

Ferrari 166 MM, Danville Cd'E

Readers of my 2009 Rowdy posts might remember the freshly restored 166 MM chassis #0040M Reg YPY 333 belonging to the Mason – Styrrons at Goodwood.

This is a clear case where, in my humble opinion, the preserved bucket of rust is worth far more than the restored brand new machine. More photo’s of #0052 M, as it was found by Marcel Massini, in Arizona can be seen on this excellent thread at Ferrari Chat, you will probably have to sign up to see the thread.

My thanks to Geoffrey for today’s photo’s, to Michael Platzer for the chassis number and to every one who posted on Marcel Massinis Ferrari Chat thread.

Hope you have enjoyed another original patina edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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