Thinwall Special #4 - Ferrari 375 #010

Having failed to become a regular Grand Prix contender with his first attempt at building the Ferrari 125 F1, Ferrari's second attempt at building a Grand Prix car was based around a 4.5 litre / 274 cui normally aspirated V12 motor designed by Aurelio Lampredi.



The 375 proved a more competitive proposition against the 1.5 litre / 91 cui supercharged pre war designs of Alfa Romeo that were the class of post WW2 Grand Prix fields. Jose Froilan Gonzalez was at the wheel of a 375 when he won the 1951 British Grand Prix, claiming the marques first victory in a World Championship Grand Prix Race.



The fourth and final 1952 Thinwall Special seen here at the Donington Collection, shares the same, long Indianapolis chassis design as the Grant Piston Ring Special. This car should not be confused with the third Thinwall Special which comprised the Ferrari 125 chassis I looked at last week fitted with a 375 type motor that scored a famous victory in the rain shortened International Trophy at Silverstone in 1951.



Piero Taruffi won the first and second of 8 victories recorded for this car at Dundrod and Silverstone in 1952. Mike Hawthorn and Nino Farina were also engaged to drive the car in 1952 and 1953. Peter Collins appears to have been the last driver to race this car, owned by Tony Vandervell, in 1954.

Many thanks to Don Capps for clarifying the distinctions between the four Thinwall Specials.

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

Ice Maiden - Ferrari 500 Mondial Spyder PF Series I #0408 MD

The 1953 Ferrari 500 Mondial used a version of the 2 litre / 121 cui 4 cylinder engine that powered Alberto Ascari to the 1952 & 1953 World (Mondial) Championship run to Formula 2 open wheel regulations. With body work by Pinin Farina a Mondial Spyder finished second in the 1954 Mille Migllia driven by Vittorio Marzotto despite giving a 1 litre / 60 cui in engine size to the top class vehicles tipped for overall victory.



So far as I can tell the vehicle in Geoffrey Horton's photo above taken at Danville Concours d'Elegance in 2007 is chassis #0408 MD completed in March 1954 and sold to Valdemar Stener in Sweden who in 1955 set a class Swedish Speed Record in the car. This vehicle has had many owners one of whom Mas-Olle Persson won the 1957 Swedish Ice Racing Championship in this car.

In 1958 0408 MD was rebodied with a copy of a later Scaglietti body in fibreglass and just over 30 years later the Pinin Farina Spyder spec body by Carrozzeria Bachelli & Villa was fitted.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sending today's photograph and to toggie at Ferrari Chat for pointing me in the direction of the cars probable chassis number.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Ice Racing Champions edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

PS Belated congratulations to Geoffrey and his Jaguar XK 140 on winning class B at Palo Alto Concours last weekend !

Rare Side Vents - Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series 2 #1815GT

Despite the Haynes International Motor Museum having a room full of red vehicles only one of the Rosso Corsa cars is a Ferrari.



The Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series 2 was launched in 1959 featuring a Pinin Farina designed body that was simpler than the Series 1, in part was due to the intention of the Series 2 to be made for series production rather than to order.



This 1960 left hand drive model with a 3185 cc / 194 cui V12 was orginally exported to the USA and in 1987 was sold by Coy's of London with the registration 'Q 999 EGC'.



It is thought around 212 Series 2 models were manufactured as against just 36 of the Series 1 model.



While the Series 2 is known as a model manufactured in series this particular example has extremely rare, for the model type, side vents.

Thanks for joining me on this slightly tardy Ferrari Friday edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me for a stretch limo edition tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

What's a missing 1/4 light between friends ? - 1957 Ferrari 250 GT Ellena

It's a great honour to share another couple of Steve Anaudins Dads photo's to day this time from Lime Rock in 1959.



During the mid to late 50's Ferrari like Maserati realised that a business model focused on the production of low volume racing cars was not sustainable and so both began producing larger volume road cars, we saw the Maserati 3500 GT yesterday, Ferrari's transition was a little more chaotic with the introduction of 250 GT which was introduced in 1954 and in at least 12 different body variations.

The car was built around the staggering 280 hp 2,953cc / 180 cui Colombo Tipo 125 V12, which weighed nearly half the weight of the contemporary Jaguar XK 6 engine with a similar power output.



Amazingly the clue to the identity of this 250 GT is in the absence of the 1/4 light window in the door ! In 1956 Pinin Farina designed a prototype coupe which he did not have the capacity to build so responsibility for production was handed over to an ex Farina and Ghia coachworks employee Mario Felice Boano who produced 64 coupes all with a lower roof line than original prototype.

Not long into production Boano was employed by FIAT and so he handed production responsibilities over to his son in law Ezio Ellena who produced a couple of cars identical to the low roof line Boano, before raising the roof line and doing away with the quarter light to tidy up an already exceptionally clean and smooth design. It is thought that Ellena produced around 50 250 GT's before production of the next 250 GT upgrade was taken in house by Ferrari in 1958.

Hope you have enjoyed popping by today, thanks again to Steve Arnaudin for sharing his Dad's photographs with us and thanks to Steve's Dad for taking them in the first place.

Looking forward to trawling through my archives for tomorrow's edition of 'Gettin a lil' psycho on tyres !' hope you'll join me, don't forget to come back now !