We’ve had quite a bit of focus lately on the factories and workshops that turned out our dream machines. Winter has hit the upper Midwest and the garage must be calling. These scenes were photographed in preparation for the 1953 Mille Miglia and the wrenches were spinning furiously amongst the Italian makers. The home race is always reason enough to turn up the heat a bit.
OSCA
OSCA Workshop – 1953
Maserati
And of course, the rather more commanding Ferrari floor.
Here’s Mike Hawthorn checking in on the 250MM Spyder he’d be piloting for the race. He DNFed that year, but his car is still looking amazing 56 years later. The race would be won by the 250’s larger brother, Giannino Marzotto’s 340MM Spyder.
When I was playing A LOT of Tetris as a kid, my mind went a little funny. Whatever I would see that day—a car, the space between buildings, the front of the classroom—in my mind I was subconsciously figuring out what Tetris pieces I needed to fill in the space. It’s an odd sensation.
Ferrari 250GTO
I imagine that Paul “Lego911” has a similar affliction. Whenever he sees a shape, I’m betting his mind starts figuring out how to sculpt it in Lego bricks. The condition must be grave, because he’s got serious skills. You probably didn’t think you could craft the gentle arc of a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso’s bonnet, the distinctive mouth of an Aston Martin DB5, or the short tail of a Porsche 917K from humble Lego bricks, did you? Turns out, in the hands of a master, you can.
Thankfully, Paul has learned that he’s not alone. He’s started a Flickr group called LUGNUTS as a support system of sorts and found others with the same condition artistic vision.
Gurney’s Ferrari passes the Salvadori / Shelby Aston Martin DBR1. The Aston would shortly drop out of the race with a broken gearshift lever.Moss made up a lot of ground through the rain in Cunningham’s Lister Jaguar to finish 6th.Von Trips at the wheel of his Porsche 718RSK would take a class victory and finish 3rd overall.Jean Behra’s Ferrari 250 TR would ultimately finish 2nd.Ultimately though, the day belonged to the No. 7 Ferrari 250TR Fantuzzi Spyder co-piloted by Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Chuck Daigh, and Olivier Gendebien.
This is a bit heartbreaking. If you suffer from heart problems, are pregnant, or have a weak stomach, by all means look away.
This Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa driver had a bit of an off at Laguna Seca this weekend and put one of the most beautiful cars of all time all the way through the kitty litter and into the tires. It largely looks like body damage, but it’s a chilling sight nonetheless.
I love to see vintage cars driven hard, wheel to wheel; the drivers getting a little competitive. Unfortunately, this is the price we sometimes have to pay for that passion. I don’t know what happened at this race, and I don’t say any of this to place blame on this driver. Aggressive contact and carelessness are terribly rare at vintage events, and I’m assuming that this wasn’t the result of either. I hope he wasn’t injured. It looks like a glancing blow on the tires, so hopefully he’s alright.
I’m looking for a silver lining here; I guess this is good news for restorers. You can click on any of these photos for larger versions—but I wouldn’t recommend it. Octane had an excellent photographer in the right place at the right time and has the complete sequence of photos that led us here.
Octane has been really on top of Monterey coverage this weekend and I commend them for it. They’re really taking care of the vintage racing junkies that are trapped at home in front of our computers waiting desperately for information from the Historics.
Update: an incredibly comprehensive set of photos of this crash is available at AutoBlog. They report that the driver, David Love, is a long-time Monterey Historics competitor who suffered a brake failure in the corkscrew. David was dazed, but unhurt.
I’ve heard it said that Formula 1 is what Europe has instead of a space program. That’s only partially true of course, but it does pretty accurately communicate the level of engineering prowess on the world’s Grand Prix circuits. On today’s 40th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo program, I can think of no better visual tribute on The Chicane than this Lotus trying to achieve escape velocity at (probably) the Nurburgring.
How could I have missed this? Road America is only a few hours drive away and somehow I completely missed the chance to see some marvelous vintage Ferraris at a racing pace in the Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge. The series is open to pre-1980 machines, and divided into disc and drum brake classes.
The drum brake class featured two—two!—Maserati 250Fs on the starting row. Ultimately the pole-sitter, Peter Giddings, won the drum brake race by more than 30 seconds. No surprise there, Giddings has won most of the events since the series started in 2000. So chalk another one up for Giddings. No matter though; whatever the official site lists in standings for the event, the folks hanging out at the Turn 5 fence and the Hurry Downs benches were the real winners. It’s a bit of a rarity to see vintage machines from Maranello racing hard here in the Midwest and I’m really kicking myself for missing the opportunity.
If you’re in Quebec, don’t make the same mistake I did. The next Shell Ferrari Historics will be hitting Le Circuit at Mont-Tremblant from July 24 to 26.
This is the first online announcement of the Feature Car of the 2009 RM Monterey Auction!
For sale is the Dino Ferrari 1953 166 Mille Miglia #0050 (ex 0308M). This 166 Mille Miglia was the personal car of Enzo Ferrari’s son Dino and the first small grill Ferrari. Dino had a major role in the development of this car. To quote the October 2004 issue of Forza: “A fresh impulse came from Enzo Ferrari’s son Alfredo (Dino), who received a spare 166 MM chassis from his father. Dino came up with some ideas of his own to be executed by local coachbuilder Sergio Scaglietti: together, they conceived of an aggressive and fluid line for Dino’s 166 MM. Scaglietti bodied the Mondial that scored the early-1954 success based on this design, with its unusually small front grill”.
This is the first Ferrari Jack Reuter purchased. In 1965 he happened to see it partially covered through a window of a warehouse in St. Louis Missouri. He was able to locate the owner of the building (Ed Kaysing) and purchased the car for $1,000. It was in pieces but was “so original it would make you cry”. He then restored the car and took it to the 1966 Ferrari Club Of America meet in Indianapolis Indiana where he won the prize for Best Roadster. We still have the pewter cup…He later sold the car to Ken Hutchison.
166 MM When Purchased By Jack Reuter In 1965
Cliff Reuter
Update: This car did not sell at a high bid of $1.1Million against an estimate of $1.5Million-$1.8Million. I’m surprised.
I was reminded this morning of Pierre Scerri’s epic build of his own Ferrari 312PB. Unfortunately, he built it at 1:3 scale. Remarkably, it’s completely drivable (if you could find a driver small enough), and conforms to Ferrari’s original engine design and gearing. The build took 15 years to complete and is an amazing achievement. This was all completed in 1992 and since then he’s built another for a collector. He’s currently working on 330P4 and a 250GTO.
Barbie’s dream house never had a better stocked garage…
Here are a couple of progress shots from his current model builds, head over to his site for more details.
It’s only been a few short days since this year’s Mille Miglia and already videos are starting to trickle online. There’s aren’t just quick shoot and post phone-cam videos either. Some of these are quite lovely, like this first short video from Ricky Montalvo. He was able to stake out some of the more interesting areas the Mille passes through—the tiny villages that are ordinarily closed to automotive traffic. These picturesque little towns make for some lovely vantage-points to take in the amazing field of Mille Miglia participants and some excellent atmospheric shots of spectators. Take a look.
