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 !

Maserati 250 F

I apologise to all my Rowdy friends who will have seen this car before on rowdy.com but I have expanded on that original post in this blog in honour of Canadian artist Paul Chenard who very kindly helped me out with another project I am working on. If you like drawings and paintings of old racing cars you'll love his gallery linked here.

The 250 F was first raced in 1954 by 1951 world drivers champion Juan Manuel Fangio who took a maiden outing win in Argentina and then won again, having missed the 1954 Indy 500, at the following race in Belgium.

Juan then went on to become Champion in 1954 driving for Mercedes Benz for the rest of the season. With Mercedes at the height of their power in 1955, Maserati were locked out of the top spot in Formula One but in 1956 the 250 F was again driven to two victories by Fangio's former Mercedes team mate Stirling Moss.

Having been crowned world champion from 1955 - 56 the now four time world champion Fangio returned to Maserati for 1957 and promptly won four of the eight championship races to set a four peat world championship record that stood until 2003.

In that 1957 season Fangio drove one of the races of all time during the German GP, having failed to out fox the Ferrari team after a disastrous pit stop, Juan Manuel set 7 consecutive lap records on the 14 mile Nurburgring Nordschleife making up over 48 seconds before taking the lead from the Mike Hawthorn's Ferrari with a lap to spare and record the 250 F's 8th and final Formula One Championship victory.

Fittingly JMF drove his last ever race in a 250F at the 1958 French GP coming 4th, winner Mike Hawthorn sportingly refraining from lapping him on the final lap.

The 250 F continued to appear ever more uncompetitively until 1960.



This 1957 250F is the last of the 26 built. Complete with a six cylinder 240 hp engine.
This car is differentiated from most by a short wheelbase Piccolo chassis.
The 250 F is recorded as being the most forgiving of the 2.5 litre (152.5 CUI) F1 cars by Willy Green who has driven every type of 2.5 litre F1 car competitively in historic races.

Hope you enjoyed today's post and will join me again tomorrow.