9.2.09

To own a Ferrari is a privilege dreamt of by many yet achieved by few. For both, rosso corsa is often the only possible colour.

However, there has always been a small minority who choose another, perhaps as a declaration of individuality, or perhaps because they simply prefer it. Giallo (yellow) is, for some, one of the most attractive and distinctive Ferrari colours. What could look sexier than a yellow spider? The Factory obviously agrees as they chose it for one of the launch models for the very latest spider, the F430 Scuderia 16M.

A friend of mine decided to collect only yellow Ferrari models when his expenditure on models threatened to overtake his expenditure on the real thing. This makes it impossible for him to pass a model shop, or stall, in the hope of adding to his esoteric collection!

Yellow is, of course, the international racing colour of Belgium. When in Francorchamps once, I bought a Brumm 1/43 scale model of a yellow Lancia-Ferrari D50, race no 20. We were intrigued because no-one could recollect such a car racing . An e-mail to "telaio" (the discussion group for awesomely erudite Ferrari trackers) produced the answer in an instant: D50 s/n 0009 was loaned to Ecurie Francorchamps by the Scuderia for the 1956 Belgian GP. Driven by Belgian Andre Pilette, it finished in 6th place.

This lead me to wonder about other yellow racing Ferraris and what was the best result ever achieved? Belgian Olivier Gendebien raced D50s at the 1956 French and 1957 Reims GPs (0005) and it was considered that one might have been painted yellow . However this is unconfirmed. As they were works cars, was this likely? Most are certain that the 246 Dino s/n 0011 he drove in the 1958 Belgian GP (finishing 6th) was yellow.

Fellow Belgian Willy Mairesse drove a variety of cars for the Scuderia including 246 F1s in 1960 and 156s in 1962. He ran a 156 F1 s/n 0004 in the Belgian GP on 17 June 1962 where he was dicing for 2nd place with Trevor Taylor's Lotus. The cars came together at Blanchimont, hospitalising Mairesse. Lacking any period colour photos it was assumed that this car was yellow but there is contrary feeling that the car was, in fact, left in the Scuderia's red.

So which was the most successful yellow racing Ferrari? Legendary Ferrarista Jacques Swaters drove Ecurie Francorchamp's 500 F2 s/n 0208 to victory in the 1953 Avusrennen, but this was not a World Championship GP. The best result ever achieved by a yellow Ferrari in a GP is the one everyone knows about, 156 s/n 0002 driven to 4th place in the 1961 Belgian GP by Olivier Gendebien.

A glance in the model display cabinet showed that there have been a large number of yellow sports racing cars, too many to cover here, so we'll restrict ourselves to some of the more interesting and successful examples. One of these was a mighty 512S Berlinetta, the tipo built by Ferrari in 1970 to challenge Porsche in endurance racing. This it failed to do, largely due to the factory's efforts at the time being dissipated by Grand Prix racing.

512S s/n 1030 was supplied in 1970 to Ecurie Francorchamps, painted yellow of course. It finished 5th in the 1970 Le Mans 24 hours in the hands of Walker/ de Fierlant. The car was also driven on occasion by sports car legend Derek Bell. Its best result was 4th at Watkins Glen in '71 after being converted to "M" specification and driven by de Cadenet/Motschenbacher. The car was later sold to Anthony Bamford (of JCB fame) and finished 2nd in the '72 Silverstone Interserie in the hands of Willie Green. This venerable warrior re-emerged in 1993 to take part in the '93 Tour de France driven by Beaverbrook/Beckwith-Smith.

An earlier, but equally gorgeous, yellow sports racer was the P3/4 s/n 0850 which finished 2nd on its debut in the '67 Paris 1000km driven by "Beurlys"/Bianchi. The most interesting fact about this car is that "Beurlys" took it hillclimbing with considerable success. Though hardly comparable with the great long distance races, these provide the only outright victories I could find achieved by a yellow racing Ferrari.

More intriguing in these days of highly specialised, somewhat anodyne racing is the concept of hillclimbing a current sports racing car. It's impossible to imagine a 333SP, let alone an Audi or "Bentley", being taken up a hill, except possibly the ersatz Goodwood FOS course.

To find the greatest achievement for a yellow racing Ferrari we go back to the epic Le Mans 24 hour race of 1965, the scene of a titanic battle between Ferrari and Ford. The Factory entered two 330 P2s, NART and Maranello Concessionaires had a 365P and an LM each and Scuderia Filipinetti had an LM. Of more relevance to this tale were the yellow 275 GTB s/n 6885GT of Ecurie Francorchamps for Mairesse/"Beurlys" and the LM s/n 6023GT for Langlois/"Elde". Dumay entered a yellow 250 LM s/n 6313 which he shared with Gosselin.

Lined up against the Ferraris were the might of Ford: 11 cars including two 7 litre coupes, GT40s and two Cobras. The Fords quickly fell by the wayside. After 3 hours Ferraris held the first 5 places. At one third duration the Ferraris began to get into trouble with various problems, notably brake failure. At half-distance the Dumay/Gosselin yellow 250 LM took the lead which it held until it blew a tyre.

The (red) NART 250 LM driven by Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory then took the lead which it held to the finish. Ironically, Rindt and Gregory had decided that they stood no chance of finishing, so they would drive flat out from the start to break the car, so they could go home early! The robust 250 LM held on to the end despite this abuse, giving NART its first Le Mans victory and denying Dumay/Gosselin the ultimate success. Nonetheless, they finished 2nd. The 275 GTB driven by Mairesse/"Beurlys" finished 3rd, its bodywork hacked about for greater cooling, to achieve the most noteable result by yellow racing Ferraris, their 2-3 at Le Mans.

Since the demise of national racing colours in the face of commercial sponsorship there were several yellow 333SPs but none achieved conspicuous success. I wonder if we'll ever see another successful giallo sportsracer? Meanwhile, there's always Phil Bachman's FXX.