Tag Archives: GTC

A Bit Rorty – Ferrari 330 GTC #11333

Today’s featured right hand drive 4 litre / 244 cui V12 powered Ferrari 330 GTC was built in 1968.

Ferrari 330 GTC, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

It appears to have been with the current owner for nearly 35 years, the only interior non 1968 factory spec item the owner has fitted to this car is a 12 Volt outlet which he describes as more ‘necessary today than it would have been in 1968’.

Ferrari 330 GTC, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

Amazingly the owner has the original two sets of three keys with ivory coloured plastic covers over the heads and the Pininfarina ‘PF’ logo moulded in to them.

Ferrari 330 GTC, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

Soon after he bought the car the present owner had Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Ansa Chrome exhaust tips fitted which gave the engine a concomitant ‘quiet purr’.

Ferrari 330 GTC, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

Some years later when the car was being resprayed the bodyshop left the car outside for two or three weeks in wet weather causing the Ansa tips to corrode. The exhaust pipes and tips were replaced with stainless steel items that have lasted for 30 years, but they sound ‘a bit rorty’.

Thanks for joining me on this “A Bit Rorty” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a South American adventure in an Austin Seven. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Tenth Of Twenty – Ferrari 365 GTS #12307

The original 4.4 litre / 268 cui single overhead cam version of the V12 Ferrari 365 motor was introduced to Ferrari’s road going range in 1966 with the Ferrari 365 California in 1966.

Ferrari 365 GTS, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

14 365 California’s were built up until 1967 before the; 365 2+2, 365 GTC Coupé and today’s 365 GTS Spyder models were launched in 1968.

Ferrari 365 GTS, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

This 1969 example is one of just 20 365 Spyders built and so far as I have been able to ascertain is quite possibly the only one to have resided in the UK although not all the histories of all 20 GTS’s is known to me at this time.

Ferrari 365 GTS, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

If as I believe the chassis number of this car is #12307 then it is the tenth of the series built and was delivered new to a customer in Rome and #12307 remained in it’s homeland until 1999 when the car made it’s way to the UK via an auction in Gstaad.

Ferrari 365 GTS, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

1979 World Champion Jody Schekter can be seen being driven through the streets of an undisclosed Italian looking town in #12307 when it still carried Roma plates on this link.

Ferrari 365 GTS, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

All 20 365 GTS models built between 1968 and 1970 are Left Hand Drive, LHD, and at least four of them are red so if perchance you know this car is not #12307 please do not hesitate to chip in below.

Thanks for joining me on this “Tenth Of Twenty” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the last in the present series of Saturday Bristol Specials. Don’t forget to come back now !

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90 Hours and 500 Zip Ties – Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 #2844

3 years after starting race car driving, in which the highlight was winning the 2005 Six Hours of the Glen with Niclas Jönsson in the Grand Am series, Tracey W Krohn founded his own Grand Am team in late 2005 and started competing in the at the 2006 Daytona 24 hours.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Success was immediate as Krohn team driver Jörg Bergmeister won the drivers championship and Krohn Racing finished second in the top DP division of the championship. Right from the start Krohn Racing also ran a parallel GT program mostly at Le Mans with Risi Competizione running Ferrari’s.

Krohn, Jönsson, Mediani, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Since 2011 Krohn Racing has run it’s own GT programme to compete in the US and European Le Mans series, which in Europe last year became the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Krohn Racing started competing in the GTE Am class of the WEC last year with today’s featured car the Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 chassis #2844 that this year has been driven by Tracey, Swede Niclas Jönsson with whom he won the Watkins Glen six hours and former Russian Formula 3 Open Wheel champion Maurizio Mediani.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

There seems to be some confusion about the name of this model with various sources quoting it as a GTC others including Krohn Racing’s own website calling it an F458 GTE however the Ferrari website calls the model a GT2 which is good enough for me. If you know different chime in below.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Based on the stunning Ferrari 458 Italia road car the GT2 differs with it’s more aggressive aerodynamic aids, however like the road car it has power steering, air conditioning to keep the cockpit temperatures tolerable and perhaps most surprisingly electric mirrors.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Power from the 4.5 litre / 274.6 cui V8 is restricted by air intake restrictor plates that means the motor produces a maximum 465hp at 6,250 rpm down from 562hp at 9,000 rpm in the road car.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

#2844 is seen here at the recent 6 Hours of Silverstone where the team came home 25th overall and 6th in class. Since then the car has competed at the Spa 6 Hours where the team came home 28th overall and 8th in class and at the Le Mans test where Will and Maurizio recorded 61st fastest time.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

The chassis final appearance was at the Le Mans 24 hours where during the opening day of practice Will, as Tracey is known, skidded off the track in the Dunlop Curves and wrecked the €480,000 / US$ 628,000 car fortunately with out any injury to himself.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

By 11pm that night Krohn Racing had concluded a deal with Edelcriss Racing in Northern Italy to lease a their racing 458 chassis. Only problem was it was a more powerful GT3 spec car and it was 1,100 miles away. The Edelcriss Racing transporter set off with the car for a 15 hour sprint to Le Mans.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

When it arrived it was promptly stripped and refettled to GT2 spec using all of the salvageable parts from #2844 a task which took a team of ten technicians 9 hours and some 500 Zip (cable) ties.

The new car was ready to roll for the Thursday qualification session in which Le Mans rookie Maurizio had yet to complete 5 laps in order to qualify.

The car made it to the grid but had to retire at 1am after another accident at the Porsche Curves left the new car stranded out on the track.

All of Krohn Racing troubles were put into perspective when they learned that fellow GTE Am competitor Allan Simonsen, seen above leading the Krohn Ferrari in the #95 Aston Martin, was killed in after a crash during the opening laps of the Le Mans 24 hours after he left the circuit at Tetre Rouge.

An appreciation of Allan’s life will be appearing in tomorrow’s blog.

Thanks for joining me on this ’90 Hours and 500 Zip Ties’ 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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Same Body Bigger Motor – Ferrari 365 GTC

In 1966 Ferrari launched the 330 GTC of which some 600 hundred were built up until 1968.

Ferrari 365 GTC, BIAMF

The body of the 365 GTC which replaced the 330 GTC in 1968 was almost identical apart from the absence of the large cooling ducts in the front wings/fenders which vented air from the engine bay.

Ferrari 365 GTC, BIAMF

Ferrari’s 4 litre / 244 cui V12 from the 330 cars was upgraded to a 4.4 litre / 268 cui V12 for the 365 series cars which increased the horsepower from 300 to 320.

Ferrari 365 GTC, BIAMF

One other significant difference between the 330 GTC and 365 GTC was that the later car had the gearbox moved from behind the motor to in front of the rear axle to improve the weight distribution.

Ferrari 365 GTC, BIAMF

Alloy wheels came as standard Borrani wire wheels were an optional extra.

Ferrari 365 GTC, BIAMF

This 1969 car has covered over 80,000 miles and is one of 150 that were built up until 1970 when it was superseded by the elegantly understated Ferrari 365 GTC/4.

28 04 12, date for your diary, this car and several others featured on ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ over the past year was seen at the Bristol Italian Auto Moto Festival (BIAMF) last year. This years BIAMF event, the largest annual participatory automotive event in Bristol will be on Saturday April 28th. Event details can be found on the BAIMF website linked here. If your planing on going leave a message below or e-mail me see address at the very bottom of this page and we will see if we can’t organise a GALPOT meeting.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Same Body Bigger Motor’ 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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Wanting For Nothing Except A New Owner – Ferrari 330 GTC # 10653

Ferrari 330 GTC, Silverstone

Basking in the cool shade on a hot day at a Silverstone Press Event a couple of weeks a was this elegant Ferrari 330 GTC, though as we shall see less kind mortals than myself might have construed it’s presence as a spoiler for a rival auction coming up at Goodwood Festival of Speed organised by Bonham’s on the 1st of July.

Ferrari 330 GTC, Silverstone

Should one of the tyres on the four, originally optional, fetching Borrani wheels deflate this vehicle comes with a jacking bag to facilitate wheel changes.

Ferrari 330 GTC, Silverstone

Introduced in 1966 the Ferrari 330 was in production while it’s predecessor the 275 GTB/4, with which it shared a common chassis features including wheelbase dimensions, oval tube construction and rear mounted gearbox attached to a transaxle, was still in production, both models went out of production in 1968, around 600 of the larger engine 330 models were manufactured.

Ferrari 330 GTC, Silverstone

The Pininfarina bodywork is a master class in simple, sexy, sixties elegance from just about any angle.

Ferrari 330 GTC, Silverstone

Not at all sure how the fuel cap works but it’s hard to imagine it operation will be any less elegant than it’s design.

Ferrari 330 GTC, Silverstone

This particular vehicle was originally imported to the United States in June 1968 and sold through US importer Chinetti after spending 20 years in New York it moved to sunnier climes with a new owner resident in Florida and thence back to Italy. This car was bare metal restored in Switzerland in 2001 and sold to a Dutch Collector with whom it remained until it’s present owner acquired the car in 2009.

Ferrari 330 GTC, Silverstone

The car has been fitted with a 300 hp 4 litre / 244 cui Colombo V12 motor #07433 of the correct type, though originally installed in a 330 2+2.

As the man from Bonham’s says this car want’s for nothing except a new owner.

My thanks to Jonathan Gill of mpacreative, who facilitated my visit to Silverstone, don’t forget Silverstone Auctions sponsors of the forthcoming Silverstone Classic Weekend will be holding their own Silverstone Classic Sale on July 23rd.

Thanks for joining me on today’s elegant Pininfarina 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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Superfast2 – Ferrari 430 Scuderia

The Ferrari 430 Scuderia, launched in 2007, fell between the standard road F430 and the race only Ferrari F430 GTC as a track day car.

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A 430 Scuderia benefits from a weight saving over the standard F430 of 100 kg / 220 lb.

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Performance of the 430 Scuderia was further enhanced by electronic upgrades including Superfast2 software for the semi – automatic transmission which facilitates 60 ‘millisecond’ shift times.

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The Scuderia engine produces 508 hp at 8500 rpm enough to give the vehicle a rest to 62 mph time of 3.6 seconds and a top speed of 198 mph.

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When tested around the test track by a popular TV series the Scuderia proved to be even Stevens with the Nissan GTR and fractionally faster than the Porsche Carrera GT and significantly faster than a Mercedes Benz SLR.

Thanks to the pistonhead who brought this fabulous Ferrari along to January’s Sunday Service.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Scuderia edition of Ferrari Friday and that you’ll join me again tomorrow, don’t forget to come back now !

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Magnificent Seven – Ferrari F430 GTC

The F430 was in production from 2004 – 2009 starting with side vents harking back to the Ferrari 250 TR 61 Spyder Fantuzzi this car wreaks racing business from it’s nose to Enzo inspired tail lights.

Particularly popular amongst sports stars and minor TV celebrities the F430 was tasked with going up against the teutonic might of Porsche in sports car classes GT2 and GT3.

These 4 litre F430 GTC photos are from the GT2 Class during the Silverstone 1000 kms last year.

Chassis #2408 Bruni/Bell, JMW Motorsport 23rd overall, 1st GT2.

Chassis #2636 Melo/Garcia/L Mansell, 26th overall, 4th GT2.

Chassis #2608 Kaffer/Montanari, Hankook Team Farnbacher, 27th overall, 5th GT2.

Chassis #2402, Rosa/Montermini/Cadei, FBR, 29th overall, 6th GT2.

Chassis # 2476, Basso/Tenchini/Plati, Easyrace, 34th overall, 11th GT2.

Chassis #2450, Daoudi /Hartshorne/Kutemann, JMB Racing, 35th overall, 12th GT2.

Chassis #2612, Farnbacher/Ehret/Beltoise, FBR, Not Classified.

Missing from this set is the Griffin / Bamford, Advanced Engineering car which came in 33rd overall, 10th GT2.

In case you have still not had enough Ferrari’s I have updated last weeks 250 GTO blog with another photo I found of ‘250 GTO #3757’ taken last year.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Hope you have enjoyed my first 103 posts and you’ll join me again tomorrow, don’t forget to come back now !

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