8.8.12

If you have an aircraft hangar you don't need, you could probably fill it with every book that's been published about Ferrari: the man, the company, the road and race cars, the recipes [that's Linda Ferrari! - Ed]. Which would be a reasonable use of the hangar as you would probably have to sell the Learjet that was in it to pay for them.

As a Dallarista, I'm in a better position. There's just one book, (“It's a Beautiful Story” by Guido Schittone, published earlier this year) and whilst it may seem to be of limited interest to Ferrari owners, there is a thread that weaves its way between the two companies. This also came out when I was fortunate enough to attend a talk given by Gian Paulo Dallara where he proved to be a charming and modest man. He later invited several of us to visit his factory - which of course we did.

Dallara and Ferrari are both based in the beautiful North of Italy, about 100km apart, in the town of the birth of their founders. For those unfamiliar with Dallara they are the doyen of production racing car manufacturers and were founded by Gian Paulo Dallara. He studied aerodynamics at Milan Politecnico. In 1959 Enzo Ferrari asked a professor if there was a suitable lad he could take on for F1 aero work, and so he started working under Carlo Chiti. He stayed until 1961, so would have worked on the 156P and 246P. When he left to go to Maserati, Enzo Ferrari visited his father to persuade him to return, but it was not to be. There was, however, a reconciliation when the team was testing at the local Varano circuit, now Circuit Riccardo Paletti. The book carries a charming, and I hope accurate, story of Enzo sitting outside Dallara's house telling the local children about his racing times while waiting to see Gian Paulo.

Moving on a few years, past the engineering design of the transverse V8 engined Miura at Lambourghini and work for other Italian supercar makers, the next Ferrari link is less substantial, but led to greater things. Dallara was called in by Lancia to develop the Dino engined Stratos. Later on, after his own manufacturing business was building up, he was called in again to develop the Monte Carlo as a Group 6 car which led to the LC1 and, coming back to another Ferrari powered car, the LC2 Group C car. Although hampered by limited development, this car was at one time the major rival of the steam-rollering Porsche 956, though with voluptuous lines and Martini stripes it was infinitely better looking. And, of course, it had that lovely 650hp tubocharged 308-derived engine, though from a recent Motorsport article I gather it's 308-derived like a Cosworth DFV is Anglia-derived.

As the '80s moved on, Dallara won the contract to build the BMS-Scuderia Italia F1 car, culminating in the V12 Ferrari engined 1992 car. Around this time, their F3 range eventually conquered the British championship, and now an F3 team not racing a Dallara is, to quote Dr Johnson “like a dog walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all”. 

So with a well established design and manufacturing plant at Varano, the ultimate connection between Ferrari and Dallara came about. Ferrari wished, prompted by Giampiero Morreti of Momo steering wheel fame, to produce a customer car for IMSA sports prototype racing. It was what became the 333SP. Too disruptive for the F1 facility and too small for the production facility, it had to be farmed out and so Dallara designed and produced the initial cars before the production mantle passed to Michelloto. A carbon/honeycomb two seater with pushrod suspension, it had a 4 litre V12 derived from the F1 cars. (Thinks – I wonder if Dallara had some BMS F192 engine mountings they recycled?).

I am no historian so I do not know how often Ferrari have farmed out the design and manufacture, save the engine, of an original car bearing their name. Not frequently, nor to any other than a highly regarded supplier, I suspect. The 333SP became an icon of sports racing, and an occasional Ferrari hillclimber and even more occasional owner who ran an LMP2 car in World Sports Cars told me that the 333SP was regarded as the best designed and engineered car in the field, which was reflected in its reliability.

Other links between the two companies include the abortive F50 GT1 and (although nobody was allowed to mention the connection with Ferrari and especially not with the Enzo) the Maserati MC12 GT1. However, for me the biggest surprise came as an aside in a short piece in the book about the Group C cars by Cesare Fiorio. When Fiorio closed the famous/infamous Guilford Technical Office of John Barnard in 1989 he tried to persuade Dallara to become Technical Director at Ferrari. Whether that would have worked, I don't know. As a Dallara fan, I suspect it would have done. But without Gian Paulo being behind the F3, Indycars, and other production racers I can guarantee that March, Ralt, Reynard and Lola, all now defunct, would wish he had taken the offer.

Footnote

Although not much to do with Ferrari, a couple of interesting pieces of information about F1 came from our Dallara experiences. The first arose in the question and answer session at Ing. Dallara's talk in England. He opened the evening by saying he had spent 50 years making mistakes. "But I try to not make the same mistake twice!”. Somebody asked about the recent F1 involvement and the personalities. “With F1 I did".

The second was that when the funds to build the HRT finally came through 50 engineers spent 12 weeks working on it - 11.5 man years. Whilst in the queue at the cash point in Maranello we spoke to a Brit who works for Ferrari - on the F1 gearchange. He said there were four of them working full-time on it - 4 man years - just on the gearchange, and they buy in the actuators as a finished item! This certainly gives an insight to the "haves" and "have nots" in F1.