Historic Reflections - Ferrari Owners' Club

Ferraris in the Floridian sun are always an appealing prospect and a great way to open the calendar! In January 2006, the West Palm Beach-centred Cavallino Classic welcomed the overall Concours winners from each of the previous 14 years, whilst racer Lawrence Stroll demonstrated his new FXX on track at Moroso Park and Ferrari North America launched the 612 Scaglietti to its biggest market at the Breakers Hotel. With over 150 examples of Ferrari through the ages on the manicured hotel lawns, there is simply no better use for a golf course.

February in Paris means only one event to classic car enthusiasts – Retromobile. Staged and refined over the last decade at the Parc des Expositions, this has become a huge event with a significant global attendance and this year some mouth-watering Ferrari’s too. (2007 could be a landmark event as Christies will auction one of the legendary “Silver Arrows”, the 1939 Belgrade Grand Prix winning, Nuvolari driven Auto Union D Type).

After the success of the Trofeo Baleares, the Palma based Rally Clasico Isla Mallorca was a fitting way to enjoy the March sunshine in one of Europe’s favourite holiday destinations. For it’s 2nd running, the 60 + crews split between regularity and competition enjoyed 650 kms of closed public road over 3 days, combined with excellent hospitality, superb organisation and even a visit from local resident ,’95 World Rally Champion and sometime Ferrari Le Mans racer Colin McRae.

Early April has always meant the need to wrap up warm, pack the hot soup (this year was no different!) and head for the Vintage Sports Car Club’s annual Spring meeting at Silverstone. Despite the circuit’s history and its central presence to the UK motor-sports industy, its never been the most exciting venue - but this is more than made up for by the opportunity to catch up with like minded enthusiasts and enjoy some great racing. As ever the car parks are often as interesting as the paddock, with a pre war Tatra and Alfa 8C Monza favourite to share space in my garage.

The Villa d’Este (on the banks of Lake Como in Northern Italy) Concours has quickly established itself as an excellent replacement for the similar events previously held at Parc Bagatelle (Paris) and Hurlingham Club (London). With support from BMW, a significant Transatlantic presence from noted collectors and the unveiling of two specially ordered Ferraris (Peter Kalikow’s 612 Scaglietti Kappa and Yoshiyuki Hayashi’s 575GT Zagato) there was a significant attendance at this years event, compered by former Bonhams auctioneer and Lamborghini Muira devotee Simon Kidston. The overall winner was Henk Koel’s, DK Engineering-rebuilt Ferrari 166MM and with additional success at Paleis Het Loo in September this was my choice for car restoration of the year.

Monaco – home to the most spectacular Grand Prix on the F1 calendar and undoubtedly a crazy place for a motor race. In early May it was great to be back in the Prinicpality for the 5th Grand Prix Historique, where the unforgiving armco and twists and turns of this demanding street circuit, saw one of the drives of the year from multiple Shell Historic Challenge Champion Stefan Schollwoeck in his Maserati 6CM. With a lights to flag victory in the pre-war category, subsequent success a week later on the streets of Pau, a win at the Goodwood Revival and the 2006 Challenge Championship Stefan was undoubtedly my driver of the year.

Ex Scuderia Ferrari pilota and Monaco Clerk of the Course Jacky Ickx lead the sizeable Corse Clienti display in Uwe Meissner’s 312B2, whilst ex IMSA champion Jim Busby (F310B) and PMFC regular Klaas Zwaart (412 T2) lapped very quickly until most of the grid met at the Mirabeau corner, resulting in an unfortunate blocked track. Congratulations are also due to American Duncan Dayton (Lotus 16) and Martin Stretton (Simon Bull’s 6 wheel Tyrrell P34) who drove superbly to win their categories, whilst commiserations to amongst others Ryan Delane (Tyrrell 006) who left the harbour-side paddock with his car in several bits.

In late June the 14th Goodwood Festival of Speed celebrated the centenary of the Targa Florio and 40 years of thunderous Can-Am and Trans-Am as well as the life of much missed rally driver Richard Burns. Ferrari’s F1 team was represented by test driver Marc Gene, who demonstrated the F2004 and F2005, whilst American Peter Sachs drove his 1961 Le Mans Winning Testa Rossa and Sir Anthony Bamford’s JCB Dieselmax LSR projectile attracted much interest. Across the 3 paddocks there were significant rare Ferraris from every era (driven by pilota including Jacky Ickx, Brian Redman and Arturo Merzario) including one that especially caught my eye –Evert Louwmann’s Ferrari 375 Indy. No surprises that the Festival was again a sell out and was my event of the year, especially as I was able to meet and chat with a motor-sport hero, NASCAR legend Richard Petty.

Returning to Silverstone in July for the 2nd annual Classic Meeting and importantly sunshine, this 3 day event had something for everyone with significant marque and club displays combined with some superb racing on the full grand prix circuit. Most memorable drives were by ex Group C2 racer Richard Piper with 2 wins in his 900bhp McLaren M8 and Simon Hadfield who along with Graeme Dodd (both in Cooper Monacos) had the sizeable crowd on their feet more than once. With the FOC motor-home doing an excellent trade on bottled water, this years event was memorable for two reasons – the opportunity to view an extremely rare Monteverdi 375L and a pre war BMW 328 which had lain unused in Scotland for over 60 years.

So to August and an opportunity to recharge the batteries……not for long! With our family's Daytonas previously displayed at the North West and National Concours, the Historic Gold Cup at Oulton Park and a trip to the Paleis Het Loo Concours in Appeldoorn, Netherlands I realised I had been somewhere, doing something car connected for 16 of the last 20 weekends and I didn’t even make it to the Le Mans Classic!

Only two days after returning from Het Loo I was back at Oulton Park for Stage 2 of the opening day of the 2nd Tour Britannia. As spectators waited for the first car to arrive, Goodwood Revival attendees spoke of former British Touring Car Champion and FOC member Frank Sytner’s return to excellent health, with a superb race winning drive in his Lola T70…..well done Sir! Whilst the Tour was thin on entries, there were four Ferraris to cheer on, with the fastest being Arnold and Melanie Meier’s Daytona Competition (one of the original 15 built and interestingly four of which are currently for sale throughout Europe) closely followed by Steve Tandy’s much campaigned 275GTB. Sadly it was a very expensive morning for the Meier family, as son Diego crashed the family 275GTB/C beyond immediate repair whilst Steve’s 275 left Oulton needing a visit to a carosserie! Ex Formula 3 champion, Dane Jac Nelleman drove a spirited stage in the booming Corvette Stingray but overall event success would go to long-time Morgan dealer Bruce Stapleton in his +8.

Mid September and to “See Red” at Donington Park - with an excellent club display by fellow members on the inside of Redgate, a superb race winning drive from Joacquin Folch in Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham BT49 and the attendance of the car that had won the 1936 Grand Prix at the same venue, the Vintage Sports Car Club organised event was attended by over 15,000 enthusiasts. Belgian enthusiast Hubert Fabri is deserving of appreciation for bringing five of his collection to Donington (including a Bugatti Type 57 to go home in!) whilst Pearson Engineering should be winners of Race Preparation Firm of the Year for its superb presentation of three Lister Jaguars and two F1Coopers.

With the Ferrari Mondiali Finals at Monza in late October, including the last round of the Shell Historic Challenge, Corse Clienti and FXX demonstrations along with a celebration of Michael Schumacher’s success and contribution to Ferrari, there was a very welcome visitor! Resident in Louisiana USA for over a decade, the unique 250 SWB based Breadvan had retuned to Europe and into German dealer Klaus Werner’s custody (for those with long memories, this is the car raced by John Harper on UK circuits 30+ years ago) and with son Max at the wheel, demonstrated an excellent turn of speed.

With the justifiably sombre completion of the Targa Espana, won by arch enthusiasts Carlos Monteverde and Gary Pearson in the former’s Lightweight E Type Jaguar and Bonhams 9th annual sale in Gstaad, the European season was completed two weeks prior to Christmas.

Sadly historic motor-sport lost some true enthusiasts in 2006 – Nicholas Posner from Hendon Way Motors, the world’s oldest competing racing driver 95 yr old Tom Delaney, 9 time Bathurst 1000 winner Peter Brock and ex Ferrari F1 pilota Clay Regazzoni

It’s been a hectic year, with a real bottleneck of events from May to mid September and I haven’t even mentioned April’s Tour Auto Lissac as well as the Mille Miglia and Modena Centro D’oro that took place in May! It's fortunate that most historic events are covered on this website. If there were an award for enthusiasts of the year, it must go to Americans Steve and Lynn Dudley who crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic several times to compete in their Ferrari166/195 and 308 Michelotto at a variety of events.

2007 shows no sign of being any quieter – in fact quite the reverse! Ferrari SPA celebrates its 60th birthday and our own club its 40th anniversary with a weekend celebration at Silverstone on June 8th/9th, ,whilst Canadian auction house RM Auctions makes its first serious foray into Europe with a Ferrari only sale at Maranello in May. As ever, my Air Miles will come in handy, as I hope to enjoy the former along with amongst others, the 2nd Gran Premio Historico do Porto in July and the Ferrari Club of America’s National Meet at Watkins Glen in September………. see you there!