Two Time World Champ - Ferrari 500 #005

In 1951 there was a close fought contest for the World Drivers Championship between the Alfa Romeo drivers in old pre war 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui supercharged cars and Ferrari drivers in new 4.5 litre / 274.5 cui normally aspirated cars. Juan Manuel Fangio won the title but a run of three straight victories by Ferrari drivers González and Ascari was enough to convince Alfa Romeo that they could not hope to be so competitive with their old cars and so with no money to fund the building and development of new machines they quit Grand Prix racing as two time champions.



Alfa Romeo's withdrawal left the FIA, organisers of World Championship Grand Prix Racing, with a shortage of entrants for the 1952 season only the up and coming Ferrari and brand new BRM team, who had built a beautiful sounding, but hideously complicated and unreliable 1.5 litre 91.5 cui supercharged V16 vehicle being prepared to enter events run to the existent formula one regulations.



The FIA decided that they would run the 1952 and 1953 World Championship for cars built to Formula 2 regulations with normally aspirated 2 litre / 122 cui engines while new formula one regulations would be introduced in 1954. Ferrari had all the bases covered for 1952 as he had coincidentally just instructed Aurelio Lamperdi to design a 4 cylinder 2 litre / 122 cui engine that was powerful and extremely efficient.



For 1952 Ferrari built six type '500' Formula 2 Cars cars to compete in the World Championship and they won all of seven races into which they were entered missing the Indy 500, run to different regulations in which Alberto Ascari competed with a Ferrari 375.

On his return from the 1952 Indy 500 Alberto Ascari won the six remaining World Championship races with the car, seen here at Donington Park, on his way to capturing the 1952 World Championship. Ascari retained the title using the same chassis in 1953 with another 5 victories.

The Ferrari '500' design is one of the most successful of all time only the McLaren MP4/4 which won 15 races out of 16 in 1988 as against 7 out of 8 eligible events in 1952 for the '500' is statistically more successful, though it could be argued that since the Indy 500 was not run to the same regulations as the rest of the 1952 World Championship the Ferrari '500' has a 100 % winning record for the 1952 season.

This particular #005 chassis won an unequalled 7 straight World Championship Grand Prix races from 1952 to 1953, and 9 straight world championship races entered again the 1953 Indy 500 counted as a World Championship Grand Prix in 1953, and is credited with a total of 11 World Championship Grand Prix wins in total. As the highly regarded Doug Nye says of chassis #005 "Possibly the most successful chassis in Grand Prix history."

The 4 cylinder engine went on to have a hugely successful career in sports car racing when installed in the 500 Mondial and 500 Testa Rossa's.

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

Outlaw Racer - Ferrari 365 GTB/4

Launched in 1968 the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 replaced the Ferrari 275 GTB/4 and to this writers mind represents the pinnacle of front engine rear wheel drive fastback GT cars. Until outlawed by US legislation in 1971 the 365 GTB/4 came with headlights mounted behind acrylic glass covers.



This most stylish of vehicles is powered by a 347 hp Lamperdi inspired twin overhead cam 60º V12 stretched to 4390 cc / 268 cui motor, each cylinder with a volume of 365 cc from which the model gets its name.



To optimise the weight balance and handling the gearbox is mounted as part of a transaxle just in front of the rear wheels.



As one would of expect of a vehicle this cool to look at it has performance to match being capable of reaching 60 mph from rest in 5.4 seconds with a top speed of 174 mph.



Competition versions of the 365 GTB/4 run by privateers with up to 450 hp counted amongst their successes a GT class winning 5th overall at Le Mans in 1971 along with GT Class wins in the same race in '72, '73, and '74 scoring 1st to 5th in class in '72, and five years after production of the model had ceased an amazing 2nd overall in the Daytona 24 hour race.

Dan Gurney and Brock Yates also drove a 365 GTB/4 2,876 miles from New York to Los Angeles averaging 80.1 mph to win the inaugural Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in 1971.



It is thought just 1,406 of these cars designed by Leonardo Fiorvanti of Pininfarina and built by Scaglietti including 122 Spiders and 15 lightweight competition vehicles. The high desirability of the rare Spiders has led to several Berlinetta models being converted and several companies have made Spider replicas with a variety of engines.

The 365GTB/4 was replaced by the rear engined 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer.

I hope you have enjoyed today's Outlaw Racer edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Grant Piston Ring Special - Ferrari 375 No: 2

For Ferrari Friday I hope readers of my Indianapolis series will forgive me getting a little out of sequence by a year or two in order to present the 1952 Grant Piston Ring Special, a Ferrari 375 captured in these photographs by my Nostalgia Forum acquaintance B² from Indiana who saw this vehicle in a Holiday Inn car park Dearborn, MI around 1971.



The Ferrari 375 was originally conceived as a Formula One car to take advantage of the normally aspirated engine regulations that allowed for engines up to 4.5 litres / 274.6 cui as opposed to the maximum 1.5 litres /91.5 cui maximum capacity allowed for supercharged engines.

The 375 evolved through three stages, the first stage was the 275 which featured a new Lampredi designed 3322cc / 202 cui V12 which made its debut in Jume 1950, in July 1950 the 340 made its debut with a longer wheel base de Dion rear suspension and a 4101cc / 240 cui version of the Lambredi V12.

Finally in September 1950 the 375 with a 335 hp 4493 cc / 274 cui made its debut at Monza, by 1951 Jose Froilan Gonzalez driving a 375 scored Ferrari's first formula one Grand Prix victory in Britain to begin cementing Ferrari's place in the top echelon of motor racing.

There were so few contenders in races run to formula one regulations that in 1952 and 1953 the World Drivers Championship was run to Formula 2, 2 litre / 122 cui regulations both won by Alberto Ascari driving a nine race winning streak for Ferrari, making the 375 essentially obsolete. When the World Championship returned to a championship for drivers of formula one regulations the maximum mandated 2.5 litre 152 cui normally aspirated engines and the large Lamperdi V12's were consigned to being
used in sports cars only.



With the Ferrari 375 being obsolete in the top echelon of European racing allegedly US importer Luigi Chinetti convinced Enzo Ferrari to develop the car further with a stronger longer chassis.

Ferrari was represented at the 1952 'Indy 500' by four cars 1 works and 3 customers, No: 1 'Ferrari Special' for his works driver Alberto Ascari, No: 2 Grant Piston Ring Special for drivers Jonnie Parsons and Danny Oakes, No: 3 'Kennedy Tank Special' for driver Johnny Mauro, and No: 4 'Mobil Special' for driver Bobby Ball.

Outwardly the Ferraris appearance at Indianapolis in 1952 showed Ferrari lacking finesse preparing their cars for oval racing and that the 'Yanks' had little idea of how to coax the most out of what was essentially a beefed up road course car at Indianapolis.

However in his description of the 1952 race (scroll half way down), fuel injection manufacturer Stuart Hilborn shows that at the very least Ferraris disdain of many things American and his legendary machiavellian gamesmanship had come into play.

In brief Hilborn discovered that the #38 Mobil Specials cylinder head fuel inlet ports had been tampered with resulting in the ports being undersize, thus reducing the power output and it was found that the power output had been further reduced by Ferrari not fitting the high compression pistons which had been specified by Hilborn during a meeting at the Ferrari factory and presumably paid for owner Howard Keck ! (Note only one Ferrari qualified for the 1952 race not two as Hilborn asserts.)

The four 375's were around 200 lbs over weight in part due to the drum brakes being too large and more suited to road course racing.

Despite these problems Ascari drove some of the smoothest and most consistent qualifying laps ever seen at Indianapolis, which unusually possibly due to incorrect gearing, included changing down a gear for both the first and third corners to secure 19th place on the grid.

Parsons in the second 375, even after trying magnesium wheels, opted for a more powerful Offy powered vehicle and well known midget racer Danny Oakes also failed to qualify the Grant Piston Ring Special.

Mauro allegedly really only wanted his 375 for the Pikes Peak hill climb and did not take the '500' seriously and never got near a qualifying time, his car today resides in the IMS Hall of Fame now painted red.

Bobby Ball like Parsons also opted for an Offy powered machine after he had tried the forth car with Hilbourn fuel injection in place of the usual Weber carburetion. This car was restored in the 80's destroying it's original patina and is now thought to be in the care of a New York collector.

Ascari fancied his chances in the race switching, pre race, from a one stop strategy to a three stop strategy to accommodate higher than expected tyre wear. During the race Ascari planned to keep the revs low for the first two segments in order to benefit from the tendency of his US competitors 'win or bust' strategies.

Due to his weight handicap Ascari got a slow start but rose from 21st to 7th when on lap 41 the right rear wire wheel collapsed causing his instant retirement. Ascari is generally acknowledged to have given a good account of himself with a possible race contending performance up to the point of his retirement.

The No: 1 375 appeared at the 1953 '500' with a 3 litre 183 cui engine, new body and side tanks but was withdrawn from the race. In 1954 it appeared again with original body and 4.5 litre 274 cui engine but failed to qualify. Ascaris 375 is currently thought to reside in Hong Kong.

Which brings us back to the car in the photograph which is thought to be the No.2 Grant Piston Ring Special unsuccessfully qualified by Parsons and Oakes,

This car was seen around 1970 on former owner Lindley Bothwell's estate in 1970. By 1998 this 375 belonged to a Brazilian Carlos Monteverde who allowed Ludovic Lindsey to demonstrate it at Imola in Italy. During the demonstration the car suffered heavy broadside impact with a track side wall which wrote off two Borani wheels, smashed the respective brake drums, and destroyed the differential casing.



In August 2000 the No.2 375 now repaired was purchased by a Dutch owner and has been displayed in it's white 1952 #6 Grant Piston Ring livery in the Netherlands at the Louwiman Museum and at festivals, above at Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2006, ever since.

My thanks to B² for todays photographs, and to everyone on the Ferrari 375 Indycar thread at Ferrari Chat for additional information.

There is some mystery alluding to the chameleon nature of the paint work of the Grant King Piston Ring website shows period photo's of this car in white with cockpit wrap around screen with Johnny Parsons at the wheel and also a photo of Danny Oakes at the wheel of a red car with small screen, if you know the correct sequence of colours and dates this car has appeared in, when it left the factory, ran in the hands of Parsons and Oakes and when it was returned to it's current livery please do not hesitate to chime in below.

Hope you have enjoyed Ferrari Friday Indy Special edition of Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

When is a redhead not a redhead ? Ferrari 500 TRC #0690 MD TR

The other day Rowdizen jr Cracker asked if I had ever seen a Ferrari Testa Rossa driving around town the answer to which is no, but a couple of months ago I did see this Ferrari 500 TRC chassis number #0690 MD TR which came from the second batch of Ferrari vehicles with the Testa Rossa name.



Having noticed that the Alta engines of the HWM Formula 2 team had noticeably superior fuel efficiency compared to his own Colombo designed V12's which dominated the Formula 2 class Enzo instructed Aurelio Lamperdi to design a 4 cylinder 2 litre / 121 cui engine.

The Lamperdi alloy four pot featured double over head cams acting on 2 valves per cylinder. Installed in a Formula Two car this engine powered Alberto Ascari two world championshops in 1953 and 54. This 4 cylinder engine was also used in the successful 500 Mondial Sports Cars of 1954 - 56 which scored numerous class wins.



Towards the end of 1956 Vittorio Jano completed work on his update of the 500 Mondial which featured red cam covers on its Lamperdi 2 litre 4 cylinder engine and so the Testa Rossa legend was born, the TR scored a maiden win at Monza in the hands of Brits Collins and Hawthorn.

The first batch of 500 TR's were rendered almost instantly obsolete by new sports car regulations, written and introduced after the disaster at Le Mans in 1955, known as Appendix C which required sports cars to race with full width screens, a passenger door, and fuel tanks mounted outside of the cockpit. The second batch of Testa Rossa's became known as the 500 TRC of which #0690 MD TR is one of less than 20 examples.



This particular car has an unfortunate history, it was entered in the 1958 Cuban GP, an event during which pole sitter Juan Manuel Fangio was kidnapped by Castros forces and he ended up watching the race on television. Armando Garcia Cifuentes was at the wheel of #0690 when he lost control on a patch of oil, hit a curb and promptly ploughed into a spectator area. Seven spectators were killed in the accident over 40 were injured, miraculously Armando survived after being taken to hospital on the bonnet of a competitors TR.

It is not clear what happened to #0690 after that crash but the Indiana Jones of finding forgotten cars Colin Crabbe located it and it has now been restored with a non standard 12 cylinder engine allegedly sourced from a 250 GT Lusso, one of the more expensive 250 GT variants ! It is not known what happened to the original 4 cylinder Testa Rossa engine.

Note uniquely for a 500 TRC #0690 now has a large central perspex bonnet scoop for the V12 carburettors.



In order to not disappoint jr Cracker entirely here is a photo by Ed Arnaudin of a 500 TRC compete with a 4 cylinder red cam cover engine and without the large central bonnet scoop. The vehicle in this photo taken at Lime Rock possibly 24th April 1959 appears to be chassis number #0706 MD TR entered by the MJ Garber team and driven by Swiss driver Gaston Andrey.

Thanks once again to Steve Arnaudin for letting me share one of his father Ed's photos. Hope you enjoyed todays edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' hope you'll join me again tomorrow, don't forget to come back now !