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Family pressures meant that I nearly had to miss the 2005 FOC Concours at Boughton House near Corby in Northamptonshire. However, the attraction of this annual Club event proved as strong as ever so I set off bright and early for a drive down the M1 for a day with red cars. I followed the sunshine south, since I gathered that early rain had caused some consternation for the Hon. Sec. and his team of organisers. As usual the first polishers were at work when I arrived although I thought that this year the turn out of cars was not as large as some previous times. For those such as myself, with a love of the early products of Maranello, there was a fair spread of examples from the 1950s and 1960s. Chronologically, the earliest car was a 1950/51 Monosposto GP car. The chassis was initially used as a 166 Formula 2 car but a variety of engines were used at various times. It was originally campaigned by Villoresi who gained a 1st place in March 1950 at the G.P. of Marseille. Ascari also gained success with a 3rd place at the G.P. of Holland (a F1 event) and 1st place at the G.P. of Germany in August 1950. During 1952 various drivers such as Villoresi, Serafini and eventually Gonzales raced the car with varying amounts of success. The car was then sold to Brazil and raced in South America until it was retired and languished for a number of years in a garage in Uruguay. That great barn finder, Colin Crabbe, discovered it in a garage in Montevideo and returned it to Europe. The car passed through various hands and appeared in the 2002 Monaco Historic Grand Prix. It remains today an interesting example of an early racing car from Ferrari. Although I had last seen the 410 Sport, s/n 0598 CM at the Silverstone Jubilee Meeting in 1992, it was good to have the opportunity to examine this glorious piece of Ferrari history in detail. It sounds magnificent and looks fantastic. This Scaglietti Spyder with twin-ignition 4962cc engine was built for the 1956 season. However, Scuderia Ferrari raced it just once at the 1000 Km Buenos Aires race in January 1956 where Fangio and Castellotti failed to finish. The car was then sold to the American west coast and team Edgar where Caroll Shelby used its immense power to win a whole series of SCCA events. Phil Hill and Richie Ginther also drove the car. Terry Hoyle, who brought the car along to the Concours on behalf of its new American owner, now feels he should add his name to the list of drivers since he powered it up the hill at Goodwood the previous weekend. The journey to Northamptonshire was worth it just to see and hear this wonderful car. There was a pretty good spread of 250 cars from the late 1950s to the
early 1960s on display. Matt Spitzley brought his 250 LWB TdF Berlinetta
(s/n 1035GT). We had examples of a 250 GT Coupé (s/n 1083GT), Martin
Lange’s 250 SWB Berlinetta (s/n 3605GT), Sir Anthony Bamford’s
fine Series 1 250 GTO (s/n 3767GT), three 250 GTEs, and four 250 GT Lussos.
However, considerable interest was shown in the Series 1 250 GT Cabriolet
that Andrew Pisker brought along. Unfortunately it was suffering from
a dud battery and much effort was spent by various experts in making the
car able to run under its own power again. This left hand drive car, (s/n
1193GT) has spent much of its life in the USA, but illustrated some fine
touches of Pinin Farina design. Slightly more modern, but not forgotten,
were the 1972 Series 2 365 GTB/C Daytona of Carlos Monteverde (s/n 15667GT)
and the 512BB Competition car of Nigel Chiltern-Hunt. (s/n 26685).
Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
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