GTO/64 : The Story of Ferrari's 250GTO/64 by Watermark Publications (UK) Limited

WELCOME TO THE DETAILED STORY of the front-engined 3-litre V12 Ferrari which really marked the ultimate development – the end of the line – of the fabled Italian marque’s 250GT saga.

This volume details the individual histories of all the

GTO/64 cars produced for the 1964 competition season. They were – and of course remain – an exceedingly rarefied band of brothers,

FOREWORDN

or sisters, whatever gender one might wish to assign to such great and important classic cars. There were only seven GTO/64s manufactured in period, and of that septet only three were produced as brand-new from the ground up – even though they almost certainly used pre-existing, as yet unused, basic chassis frames – while the earlier-numbered four were all produced by rebodying and making requisite mechanical modifications to pre-existing so-called ‘Series 1’ Ferrari 250GTO chassis, which had already been hard used during 1962-63.

In producing this account, I have tried to paint in relevant

detail the preceding history of the Ferrari marque, and particularly its role in endurance racing and Gran Turismo class design, manufacture and competition. The personalities, capabilities and in many

TRIAL AND ADVERSI

cases the reminiscences of Ferrari’s most significant personnel

and co-manufacturing associates is also presented. Our objective here has been to provide a background to the sporting, industrial, technical, political and social environment into which the GTO/64s were introduced in that heyday of GT World Championship competition, and most particularly to give due credit – in at least one case for the first time – to some of the artisans involved in the creation of these mechanical masterpieces.

In particular, I believe this is the first time that the hyper-

active Italian hillclimb scene of the period has been so extensively explored and recalled in connection with the GTO/64s, their preceding sisters and equally their 1960s rivals. Each of the relevant venues is described in some detail, not least because the prospect of such significant and intense high-speed automobile competition in such perilous and threatening surroundings is for many 21stcentury enthusiasts – particularly those of a younger generation – an enduring source of wonder.

I GTO/64 I

ITY

I will admit that I have made some decisions within these

working, dedicated and in most cases oh-so-talented individuals who

pages to ignore normal style rules in presenting what I prefer to see

conceived, created, campaigned and drove these machines into our

and read. While the term ‘berlinetta’ is usually spelled with a lower-

memory today – well over a half-century later. Here then, is the story of

case initial, I believe it has such significance to our story that I abhor

Ferrari’s magnificent seven.

seeing it spelled without a capital ‘B’ – hence the use of ‘Berlinetta’

So just fasten your seatbelts, like Innes Ireland in the Mara-

throughout this book. And if Italian speakers prefer ‘b’ then why is

nello Concessionaires Ferrari 250GTO/64 (‘4399GT’) above, and let’s

the ‘GTB’ badge itself rendered in capital letters on the appropriate-

tear into it …

model cars which followed? In truth capital ‘B’ or lower-case ‘b’ within Ferrari literature is very much a variable feast. Of one thing I am certain, if Mr Ferrari could be asked which version is correct he would

Doug Nye, Farnham, Surrey, England April 2021

probably have replied “I don’t mind how you mention it – as long as you mention ‘Ferrari’”. I hope very much that the story that follows pays adequate tribute to those seven cars, which provided the swansong of Ferrari’s legendary 250GT family line, and to those hard-

I FOREWORD I

3 DECADES OF DEVELOPMENT

HAVING BUILT HIS BUSINESS, his racing team and his own reputation through the 1920s and ’30s, racing for Italy, for his home town of Modena, and for himself, Enzo Ferrari had finally become divorced from the new in-house Alfa Corse factory racing team in 1939, and had founded his own manufacturing business back in Modena. As part of his severance agreement with Alfa Romeo, he undertook not to manufacture rival motor cars under his own name for four years. He still found a way of building the two Auto Avio Costruzioni ‘815’ sports cars for enthusiastic customers to campaign in the 1940 Mille Miglia, but otherwise kept true to the word of his agreement.

Then the Second World War erupted, and any thought of

serious future car development took an enforced back seat, until 1944-45. Indeed, even while there was still a shooting war in Europe, Mr Ferrari was already planning for new car production post-war, under his own name. The first Ferrari car developed around a 1500cc V12 engine purpose-designed by engineer Gioachino Colombo, the same designer who had worked so diligently for Alfa Romeo (and for the Scuderia Ferrari) on the pre-war Alfa Romeo 158 vetturetta project among others.

Colombo had been an ardent supporter of Mussolini’s Fascisti,

and in the immediate post-war atmosphere of recrimination and vengeance he had a hard time – being suspended by Alfa Romeo and

the prototype Ferrari 125 sports car of 1947 – the taproot of the entire

widely vilified by many former workmates and contacts. But Mr Ferrari

marque.

would never show any antipathy towards capable workers happy to support a megalomaniac dictator … and Colombo’s work emerged in

At the 1951 Brussels Salon de l’Automobile, Ferrari launched

both a 2.56-litre 212 model and the big, muscular 4.1-litre 340 America. Maranello’s proliferation of interrelated models and engine

Opposite August 9, 1931 – Circuito

‘Silver Arrows’. Drivers here are Achille

Delle Tre Provincie. In what today is

Varzi (2nd), Louis Chiron (winner) and

Porretta Terme’s Piazza della Liberta,

Count Carlo Felice Trossi (3rd, co-driv-

Enzo Ferrari is seen here with his

ing with Guy Moll).

riding mechanic and long-time faithful retainer Peppino Verdelli (left), and the Alfa Romeo 8C-2300 in which he finished second to Tazio Nuvolari’s less powerful 6C-1750. This became Mr Ferrari’s last race as a driver.

Right above Near Colombaro, some seven miles south of central Modena, the Auto Avio Costruzioni-built ‘815’ with its 1.5-litre Fiat-based straight-8 engine undergoes a high-speed shake-down test before the 1940 Mille Miglia. Ferrari

Right top Poised for a twilight front-

built two of these Touring-bodied 815s

line Grand Prix victory, these Scuderia

for young customers Alberto Ascari and

Ferrari-entered Alfa Romeo Tipo B

the Marquis Lotario Rangoni. While both

Monoposti finished 1-2-3 in the 1934

impressed, neither finished the race.

Grand Prix de l’ACF at Montlhéry, outlasting all the innovative new German

sizes then progressed from the 2.56-litre 212 through the 225S (2715cc) to the 250S (2953cc) of 1952. And it would be that particular ‘250’ line of 3-litre V12-engined designs which then established the Ferrari name for many years, right at the cutting edge of Gran Turismo technology, and of sporting achievement.

Ferrari historian Godfrey Eaton once observed that while, “…

the total production of Ferrari cars during the first five years as an independent constructor stood around the 200 mark, 11 years later, when the 250 series came to an end, that figure had risen to between 3,000 and 3,500. Many other models had been introduced, but most of that [production] increase was due to the 250 series”.

I DECADES OF DEVELOPMENT I

Bizzarrini’s proclivities would be vividly demonstrated in

When fitted with the dry-sump engine installation and in

1965 when he was working with Renzo Rivolta on the Chevrolet-

its ‘Anteater’ rebodied configuration, ‘Il Papera’ had around 285bhp

engined Iso Grifo GT project. With his greatest interest remaining in

at 7500rpm from its moved-rearward V12 engine, but around the

racing cars, Bizzarrini arrived quite late at that year’s Nürburgring

weekend of the 1961 Italian Grand Prix at Monza it was still wet-

1000Kms race meeting in Germany, visibly worn-out, with red-

sump powered when test-driven not only by Belgian works driver

rimmed eyes and plainly shaken. When asked if all was OK he could

Willy Mairesse, but also by the premier racing driver of the period,

only explain, “yes, yes … the problem is that I had to drive the

Stirling Moss. In conjunction with his long-time friend and entrant

prototype on the road from Livorno”. Giotto Bizzarrini was a real

Rob Walker, Moss was in the process of negotiating a deal for 1962

‘wild-eyed genius’ but, as an Italian friend put it, “… not really the

with Mr Ferrari in which he would campaign Ferrari cars, not only in

best example in terms of organisation”.

sports and GT competition, but also in Formula 1.

So what was the basis of his ‘Il Papera’ – the bum-waggling

On September 8, 1961, both Moss and Mairesse drove the

duckling? A recently discovered factory document infers that it was

car. Stirling recalled: “When I got my chance to drive it, my brief

another 250GT SWB or ‘Passo Corto’ Berlinetta – the ex-Lenza

from Mr Ferrari was simply to try the car and offer him my opinion,

chassis serial ‘1791GT’. This car, first registered on April 28, 1960,

nothing more. But after only two laps I returned to the pits. The

to Gustavo Lombardi in Naples, was raced and hillclimbed for him

wet-sump lubrication wasn’t man enough to cope with the long

that season by Elio Lenza, until he crashed it heavily on September

bends at Monza, particularly the second Lesmo – the oil pressure

4 during the Coppa Sila hillclimb, near Cosenza. Its road registration

just fell away and it was obvious we were going to ruin the engine

was then cancelled in January 1961, and the rebuilt car – in SWB

if we continued.

form – only reappeared, having been bought by Sicilian Vito Coco,

in September 1962. That leaves an ample window for the chassis

hastily fitted with a dry-sump oil system. I lapped in 1m 49s and hit

to have under-pinned ‘Il Papera’s developing body shape through

155mph very easily. I just knew that the car was fantastic to drive.

the autumn of 1961, before being finally repaired and returned to

It was extremely precise entering curves, with a predictable power

standard SWB form for resale during the summer of ’62.

oversteer. It braked safely and very powerfully, and the car showed

“Next day, back at the Autodrome, the engine had been

obvious potential. I knew it had infinitely superior potential to the other GTs of the day of which I had recent experience, including the 250GT Short-Wheelbase cars [with which he had won the Goodwood TT races of both 1960 and 1961 and had led the GT category at Le Mans that second season] and the Aston Martin DB4GT Zagatos. In contrast, this experimental Ferrari was capable of performance which was unthinkable at the time … And it was great fun to drive.”

I GTO/64 I

Left September, 1961 – Monza

Opposite Back again after its 4th

Autodrome. The great Stirling Moss

place overall and GT class win in the

stayed on after the year’s Italian

February Daytona 3-Hours, the one-

Grand Prix to discuss future plans

off 250GT Sperimentale ‘2643GT’

with Mr Ferrari and to test-drive

was shared in the 1962 Le Mans

the, as-yet, still undeveloped new

Grand Prix d’Endurance by George

250GTO prototype … finding it

Reed/Ed Hugus, finishing 9th overall

“fun to drive”.

and 3rd 3-litre GT home.

After Moss had departed to continue his hectic schedule, ‘Wild

Forghieri took credit for the solution to the problem, adding

Willy’ Mairesse continued serious testing. However, even here there is

a Watts linkage – an anchorage consisting of short radius rods and an

an alternative account to be considered. Chiti’s imminent replacement

intervening lever-link – which maintained the rear axle’s lateral location

as Direttore Tecnico – although neither knew it at the time – was Mauro

relative to the chassis, while still permitting it full vertical freedom,

Forghieri and he offers an interesting take on Moss’s sampling of the

controlled by the connected springs and damper system. This modifi-

unpainted prototype, saying that his fast times were due to his prowess

cation enabled the works test drivers, finally, to match Moss’s times,

as a driver and that there remained serious issues with the car which

which so impressed The Old Man that he regarded Forghieri’s design

needed urgent attention.

group with new-found admiration. As Forghieri’s stock rose, so that of

the wild-card, but useful, Bizzarrini began to decline. One might also

Initially, works drivers Mairesse, Baghetti and Bandini could

get nowhere near Moss’s times. The car’s continuing tendency to

regard the story as telling us far more about Moss than about the car …

weave disconcertingly under power and braking – in other words as

its pitch angle changed – was, according to Forghieri, evidenced by a

decisions which were made by Chiti – advised by both Forghieri and

serious accident that then befell Mairesse on the Autostrada del Sole.

Bizzarrini – and then applied to the first of the new model line: chassis

They decided the rear axle was not under sufficient control, but were

serial ‘3223GT’. This car became the first true prototype Ferrari

limited by what they could do due to the car already being homolo-

250GTO – and a product of the formal Ufficio Tecnico, building upon

gated, and thereby accepted by international authority (the FIA) as the

the lessons learned from Bizzarrini’s rather wild and woolly, agent

standard which race scrutineers had to verify before permitting the cars

provocateur, test team.

This test series then informed the aerodynamic and structural

to compete.

I DEVELOPING A CHAMPION I

Left Ferrari 250GTO ‘3387GT’ completed as a painted body/ chassis unit at Scaglietti, ready for final engine installation, completion and preparation at Maranello. This is the car which made the model’s racing debut in the 1962 Sebring 12-Hours, co-driven by Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien to finish a resounding 2nd overall. Opposite Masterly British cutaway artist Tony Matthews’ depiction of ‘Series 1’ Ferrari 250GTO ‘3757GT’ – the Ecurie Francorchamps 3rdplaced car both at Le Mans and in the Tour de France, 1962. British enthusiast – and Pink Floyd drummer – Nick Mason bought the car in 1978 and has preserved it into the 2020s … Opposite below This evocative 250GTO display piece demonstrates the Modenese coachbuilder’s favoured filoni or filoun framework of welded wire rods used to define the required form against which freshly beaten or hammered aluminium panels would be finalised.

tight street circuit or on the public road and in rallying. Each ‘D’

hatch, which hinged open to access the radiator filler cap. Near the

intake could be closed off by an alloy panel secured by push-and-

trailing edge of the engine cover panel were two small plastic scoops

twist fasteners. On some GTOs there were rectangular slots opened

deflecting airflow down into ducts providing cabin ventilation and

into the nose-edge on either side of the central elliptical radiator air

cooling. Early GTO bodies as delivered from Scaglietti featured two

intake, accommodating inserted Marchal fog lights. Circular and

raked air-exit ducts on each side between the front wheel-arch

occasionally oval apertures sited outboard of these lamp mounts

and the leading edge of the doors. Competition experience then

then accommodated indicator lights or, in race trim, provided brake

persuaded several owners to have an additional third slot opened

cooling intakes, which could also assist in controlling damper

alongside these two, often during repair after earlier accident

temperatures when in action on really bumpy surfaces. Every

damage. In later versions these were cut in from new. There was

centimetre of the new model’s design and specification reflected

also a classic large ‘D’-shaped air-exit duct opened abaft each rear

Ferrari’s hard-won years of experience – a large proportion of which

wheel-arch, in this case relieving high-pressure airflow accumulation

had been fed back from the 250GT-line’s many private customers

from within the bodywork there.

to the factory via the Assistenza Clienti department.

around windscreen, while the door windows on each side were just

On top of the nose just ahead of the opening engine cover

panel – the hood or bonnet – was another small Dzus-fastened 60

I GTO/64 I

Laminated glass was used in the steeply raked, wrap-

sliding Perspex panels. Tail treatments then differed in detail. The first prototype, ‘3223GT’, when featured at the February 1962 Ferrari Press Conference lacked a tail-top spoiler of any kind. But one was speedily added, initially in separate riveted-on form as an afterthought. These spoilers later grew in proportion, first to full-width dimension and then, late in 1962, becoming supplanted by an integral spoiler that was fashioned into the tail body panelling from new.

On March 10, 1962, the second GTO – chassis serial

‘3387GT’ – was test driven by works drivers Willy Mairesse, Giancarlo Baghetti and new recruit Lorenzo Bandini. They reported – rather disappointingly – that in high-speed curves the GTO was “disturbingly unstable”. This added to Mr Ferrari’s political concerns about selling this potent new Gran Turismo to just anyone who called at his door, but it was a concern that was speedily addressed – both technically, and politically.

I CHASSIS AND DRIVETRAIN I

Above and opposite A comparison

panelling amidships, which were re-

between the general configuration of

moved pre-assembly of the GTO/64

a 1962-63 ‘Series 1’ Ferrari 250GTO

variants, in part easing the lowered

chassis frame (above) and that of the

seating position. Other modifications

ultimate 1964 250GTO/64 develop-

are as noted on the drawings.

ment (opposite). Note especially the twin bracing tubes each side of the stressed-skin transmission tunnel

I GTO/64 I

I GTO/64 IN PRODUCTION I

studied and finalised in detail with Sergio Scaglietti, but knowing his own men and their working practices so well it seems likely that he would rely only upon three-dimensional models, not waste their precious time with two-dimensional blueprints. This would explain their recollection there were no drawings that they can remember.

In fact, Casoli’s factory GTO/64 bodylines drawing is dated

November 26, 1963, leaving nine long weeks before the first prototype (‘5571GT’) would be shipped to Chinetti in February 1964, plenty of time considering Scaglietti’s rapid construction capability. Perhaps the first GTO/64 body had indeed been started before Casoli completed his drawing. However, we should first spool back two years to the original 250GTO’s genesis.

Over many years, late evenings would often see Mr

either approving or vetoing developments and ideas. While Guerra

Ferrari visiting Scaglietti to view progress on new models, spending

was popular, he was also tough, feisty and outspoken. Diplomacy

up to two hours at a time there, listening to Sergio and Guerra and

was not his strong suit. Whenever Mr Ferrari visited, Sergio Scaglietti would reportedly ensure that The Old Man and Guerra were never left to discuss an evolving shape or bodywork matter alone, just in case the foreman might express himself too forcefully to the company’s prime customer.

On his visits, Mr Ferrari was often accompanied by Casoli,

who also visited independently, often with a Ferrari body-section colleague named Bonfigliolo. But so far as the Scaglietti veterans like Afro Gibellini are concerned, the major share of credit for the original GTO body shape should go to their senior colleague Giancarlo Guerra. Such Ferrari veterans as Casoli’s protégé and ultimate successor, Ing. Giacomo Caliri, instead cite ‘Millimetro’ as having been creator of the GTO shape. But if that finalised form was essentially his concept, it had certainly evolved through the dayto-day progressive panel bashing undertaken as Giotto Bizzarrini’s ‘Anteater’ prototype had evolved through the latter part of 1961 … Left Scaglietti veterans Oriello

Above Credited to Pininfarina,

Leonardi, Afro Gibellini and (seated)

the body form of the rear-engined

Giancarlo Guerra wielding the panel

Ferrari 250LM embodied input from

hammer he used all his professional

Edmondo Casoli at the Ferrari fac-

life. They are photographed here

tory. Significantly, its aerodynamic

with display-piece GTO bodies, for

lift-reducing cabin-roof shape, with

ModenArt, in the former Bugatti

recessed rear screen ahead of that

works at Campogalliano in 2018.

flat rear deck, transferred direct to the front-engined 250GTO/64.

I GTO/64 I

« Any self-respecting Modenese craftsman would seldom digital scan shows the definitive Ferrari 250GTO/64 chassis frame in all its functional glory – the synthesis of a decade’s experience hard-won by Ferraristi over 10 to 15 years of white-hot competition.

turn out a car – even if it was purely a racing workhorse

– looking less than the best that could possibly be achieved in the time available.

Below This gorgeously evocative

I GTO/64 IN PRODUCTION I

13 THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE 1964 1 : February - March

February 16, 1964 – III Daytona Continental 2000Kms,

Chevrolet V8 engines, with six more each from Ford and Porsche. The

Daytona Beach, Florida, USA

Challenge was won by A.J. Foyt in Texan John Mecom’s rear-engined

327 laps of 6.132kms/3.81 miles – 2,005.16kms/1,246.21 miles

Scarab-Chevrolet Mk4, from Floyd ‘Fireball’ Roberts’ Ford Fairlane Prototype (a sedan), with Ed Hugus third in his modest Lotus 23B.

The Daytona International Speedway had been created from the

Dan Gurney had been running Foyt close until a refuelling stop on lap

ambition of Deep South stock-car racing promoter Bill France. He had

38, when the car failed to restart because its starter motor had seized.

opened it in 1959, and France and his business partners had looked

The frantic crew push-started the car – hoping officials wouldn’t notice

beyond NASCAR speedway racing by including a winding infield

– but they had, inevitably, and Dan was promptly disqualified. Pedro

section, with the potential – in combination with a high-speed stretch

Rodríguez retired NART’s new Ferrrari LM (‘5419’).

around the 31-degree outer circuit banking – to host an International

FIA road race.

heavy rain cleaning the Speedway’s road course, but by 9am Sunday

morning the skies had cleared though the air remained chill as the

The inaugural Daytona Continental had been run in 1962 as

a 3-Hour event, racing anti-clockwise around the combined road-and-

Overnight, a weather front swept across the Florida coast,

10am start-time for the 2000Kms approached. Chinetti’s NART team

track course. Dan Gurney had won in the Arciero Brothers’ Ford V8engined Lotus 19B, famously crossing the finish line on the starter motor after the car’s engine failed at the last gasp – so scoring arguably the first international sports-car race victory for electric power.

Another 3-Hour Daytona Continental had followed in 1963,

won by Pedro Rodríguez in the ‘Series 1’ Ferrari 250GTO ‘4219’. The brand-new car had just been bought by tobacco industry heiress Mamie Spears Reynolds from Luigi Chinetti, and it won its debut race there in Florida, run by Chinetti’s North American Racing Team (NART).

For 1964, the Daytona Continental was run as a 2,000-

kilometre enduro, and would become America’s longest race, lasting some 40 minutes more than the well-established Sebring 12-Hours. Daytona’s big road-race weekend actually hosted two events, opening with Saturday’s 66-lap American Challenge Cup, a ‘400Kms’ nonChampionship race for sports cars, followed by the 2000Kms international on Sunday. No fewer than 12 of the Challenge Cup cars used Opposite February 16, 1964 – Day-

Right above Phil Hill settles into ‘5571’,

tona Continental 2000Kms. This is no

fresh from Chinetti’s New York head-

way to treat a brand-new Ferrari, but

quarters following its air-freight delivery

the hammers are out as NART’s Phil

from Maranello. The Goodyear-shod car

Hill/Pedro Rodríguez-driven Ferrari

looks immaculate in the Florida sun.

250GTO/64 (‘5571GT’) has frontquarter damage hastily beaten clear of the left-front wheel following a tyre blow-out at speed. Worryingly, as the sun lowers and night approaches, the headlight appears to be history …

Right Retired racing great Stirling Moss sits on the pit wall during Daytona practice with Pedro Rodríguez (centre) and Phil Hill (right). After his horrendous 1963 season, Ferrari’s 1961 World Champion Driver was seeking redemption … and he found it.

I THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE 1964 I 1

139

– and formal works entries of 250GTO/64s were made only here at

Below March 20, 1964 – Sebring

330P (‘0810’) of Pedro Rodríguez/

12-Hours. The field erupts into deaf-

Buck Fulp will retire, while race winner

ening action from the Le Mans-type

No 22 of Michael Parkes/Umberto

run-and-jump start, with the Ludovico

Maglioli hangs fire against the pit wall.

Scarfiotti/Nino Vaccarella works

Rushing out (right) is the dark No 17

Daytona-winning GTO/64 ‘5571GT’ – crewed this time by David

Ferrari 275P (‘0820’), which will finish

Cobra Roadster of Charlie Hayes/

Piper, Mike Gammino and Pedro Rodríguez. Luigi Chinetti had

2nd, broadsiding into the immediate

Graham Shaw, also destined for

lead. The white-nosed NART Ferrari

retirement.

Sebring, and in the ADAC 1000Kms at the Nürburgring.

In Florida, the first finisher among the rival Ferraris – the

incumbent GT Champions – was the North American Racing Team’s

popped the Mexican into the car after the open prototype Ferrari 330P in which Pedro had started the race – teamed with co-driver Buck Fulp – had expired with engine failure after only 40 laps and just over three hours racing – quarter-distance.

On the broad expanse of the Hendricks Field aerodrome

circuit, the 3-litre Ferrari 250GTO/64s were simply outgunned, outmuscled, outrun and outlasted by the 4.7-litre V8 Cobras. Two GTO/64s had started the race: the NART-entered Piper/Gammino car, later also driven by Rodríguez, plus a works team entry for Jean Guichet and the capable Italian Carlo Mario Abate – the name he always used despite being christened Carlo Maria. For some time he had been Count Volpi’s number one driver in the Venetian aristocrat’s Scuderia Serenissima team, and together they had campaigned such private Ferraris as a front-engined 250 Testa Rossa sports-prototype, and the unique 250GT SWB-based Drogo-bodied ‘Breadvan’ Berlinetta – which Mr Ferrari personally so detested.

Both of the ‘Sebring’ Ferrari GTO/64s featured the 250LM-

like ‘short-roof’ (‘cabina corta’) cabin-top treatment, including integral aerofoil sections at the rearward extremity of the roof, above their inset rear windscreens. The Guichet/Abate factory car has since been identified in all publicly available Ferrari literature and Above Evocative front cover design of the 1964 Sebring 12-Hours race programme.

records as having been chassis ‘5573GT’. With the GTO/64s continuing the Ferrari production tradition of adopting odd-number chassis serial numbers (unlike the dedicated racing designs which were even-numbered), it naturally seemed logical for the second of the new-built GTO/64 cars to have been given the chassis number following ‘5571’ – which would indeed have been ‘5573GT’.

But that was not the case. The works Ferrari 250GTO/64

at Sebring ’64 – and therefore only the second to appear in public – was, in fact, the third of the 1964 ‘new-builds’: chassis ‘5575GT’.

148

I GTO/64 I

« Two GTO/64s started the race: the NART-entered Piper/Gammino car, later also driven by Rodríguez,

plus a works entry for Jean Guichet and the capable

Italian Carlo Mario Abate.

I THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE 1964 I 1

149

158

I GTO/64 I

last the race”. Tony commented on how “… the Cobra team were well rehearsed in their pit work even though there was some confusion from time to time, but it was nothing compared with the Chinese fire drill which was a feature of some of the Ferrari pit stops”.

Immediately after the Johnson/Sanesi/Stoer incident Tony

reported, “the two accidents cast a shadow over the Cobra pit and rumors started to circulate concerning the condition of both Johnson and Stoer, but the situation brightened considerably when Johnson reappeared with nothing more than a black eye to show for his accident. Unfortunately, the Johnson/Gurney car had been the leading Cobra, lying fourth at the time and on the same lap as the third-place Ferrari. However, when the flag fell the Cobras finished four, five, and sixth overall behind three Ferraris, and one, two and three in the GT class – which was the object of the exercise”.

While the Ferrari works team’s sports-prototypes were shipped

triumphantly back to Maranello, the works car ‘5575’ accompanied them less happily and, indeed, it is possible that during shipping the car’s aerofoil-bearing roof was damaged, since before its next public appearance – as an Equipe Nationale Belge entry at the Spa 500Kms in May – the car’s roof had been replaced by a new, plain panel. Damage or progressive development, no definitive record of the reason for this modification seems to have survived. GT World Championship points post-Sebring Points added: Ferrari 4.8 – Cobra 14.4 Running total: Ferrari 16.5 – Cobra 18.3

One week after the Sebring race, back in England, Ford

Advanced Vehicles then announced its new 4.2-litre mid-engined V8 endurance-racing GT model, and the Maranello Concessionaires team prepared to race its Ferrari GTO ‘4399’, which had been rebodied during the winter to the latest 1964 design, complete with a small Left This lovely photograph of the

aerofoil set into the trailing edge of the roof. In initial form this car

NART-entered Daytona-winning Ferrari

featured warm-air induction and a smooth hood – later to be converted

250GTO/64 (‘5571’) – assigned to the Anglo-American pairing of David Piper/

to ram air induction with a hood blister and intake. It was sprayed plain

Mike Gammino – was taken before race

red, without (as yet) Colonel Hoare’s favoured pale-blue stripe and nose

day’s lateral white identification stripe was added across the scuttle and

surround, and its racing debut in rebodied form quickly followed – at

flanks, just ahead of the Prancing Horse

Easter Monday Goodwood.

NART badge. Note the car’s rooftop aerofoil above its sloping airflow ramp.

I THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE 1964 I 1

159

“At the end of lap 28 Vaccarella was leading from Ireland,

with Surtees catching up fast, and nobody else was in the race as regards the overall picture, but the Parkes/Guichet GTO Ferrari was next, hotly pursued by the Linge/Mitter Porsche and the Pon/Koch Porsche, these three racing for the lead in the GT category. The way things were going up at the front of the field it was beginning to look as though they might eventually be racing for the overall win as well, but time alone would tell.

“At the end of the 29th lap Vaccarella came into the pits on

schedule for refuelling and new rear tyres and to hand over to Scarfiotti, and it was seen that Ireland was now overdue. Surtees was signalled to be nearing the completion of the lap, so the pit work slowed up noticeably and there was much wiping of the windscreen until the second works Ferrari appeared in view, and

then Scarfiotti was permitted to rejoin the race, just as Surtees went by into the lead.

“Ireland was then seen coming over the brow of the hill

before the pits, but he was on foot, for his car had run out of petrol a few hundred yards before the top of the hill. The regulations did not permit any petrol to be taken out to the stricken car and the Maranello Concessionaires pit realised this and began to pack up Above The race pro-

rather sadly, but then an official told Graham Hill he could take a

gramme for the 1964

can of petrol to the car, so off he went and returned a little while

ADAC 1000Kms at the Nürburgring.

later to have the tanks filled before going back into the race. Not for long, however, for the official was at fault and the race control soon gave the car the black flag and brought it in again. It was then discovered that the reason it had run out of petrol was because a tank had split, so all the efforts were in vain and the car was wheeled away to the dead car park.

“This left the two works Ferraris in complete control, with

the works GTO fluctuating between third and fourth places with the Porsches, depending on who was driving and the time taken for refuelling. Parkes was outstandingly fast when at the wheel and could leave Linge well behind, but Guichet in the GTO was not as fast as Mitter in the Porsche, so a driver change tended to reverse positions, and meanwhile the orange Porsche of Pon and Koch was

184

I GTO/64 I

Opposite The magnificent, magical Nürburgring circuit in the Eifel mountains of then West Germany. The Nordschleife lap as used for the 1000Kms race and German GP measured 14.2 miles, the little-used Südschleife 4.7 miles. Opposite below Ford Advanced Vehicles’ mechanics get to work on the Hill/McLaren Ford GT as it makes what turned out to be a terminal stop during the ADAC 1000Kms, with Bruce McLaren at the wheel. Opposite bottom The Shelby Cobras were commonly all at sea on the humpybumpy Nordschleife, but No 101 here still lapped quickly in the hands of Bob Bondurant and Jochen Neerpasch only for its engine to fail after 12 laps. Right Michael Parkes refuels his works 250GTO/64 (‘5573GT’) on the Startplatz pit apron. He drove exceptionally well that day, while co-driver Jean Guichet also did a wonderful job of keeping the car in contention. They finished 2nd overall, one lap down on their winning team-mates, Scarfiotti/Vaccarella, in the more powerful 3.3-litre V12 rearengined 275P sports-prototype.

equally fast no matter which driver was at the wheel, so the car was a

quick header into the bushes, coming to a quicker stop and leaving

continual menace to the other two.

Surtees unhurt, but it was a severe blow to the Ferrari team. This

presented the Scarfiotti/Vaccarella car with an unchallenged victory,

“Out in front Surtees was happy once again, for there was no

question of Scarfiotti beating him, and they merely had to run in team

providing nothing else decided to break, and Scarfiotti slowed right

formation and reel off the laps that lay ahead. On lap 32 this

down, touring round for the final laps, for he was still more than a whole

satisfactory situation was dealt a mortal blow when the right-hand axle

lap ahead of the GT cars.

shaft on the Surtees car broke off flush with the hub carrier, and the

wheel and hub parted company from the car. Luckily it was on a

had been put out of the running by a broken oil pipe, which had caused

“Parkes had had his situation eased for the Linge/Mitter car

comparatively slow and twisty part of the circuit and the car took a

I THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE 1964 I 2

185

Left A pit stop for the Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari 330P (‘0818’), with Graham Hill craning himself out of the cockpit at the end of another stint. This proved to be a most successful car for him, as he would finish 2nd here with Jo Bonnier co-driving, before the pair went on to win the Paris 1000Kms together, while Graham would also win the Goodwood TT solo. Opposite Ferrari’s most successful challengers at Le Mans 1964 would prove to be 1959 Le Manswinning driver Carroll Shelby (left) and his Cobra team, led by Formula 1 star (and future 1967 Le Mans winner for Ford) Dan Gurney (right). Opposite right Ferrari’s nemesis at Le Mans was the Ford-powered, Ford-financed Shelby American Cobra Daytona Coupe, co-driven by Dan Gurney and Bob Bondurant. They would survive several minor alarms to finish 4th overall and winners of the GT category which Mr Ferrari so coveted.

It was Maranello Concessionaires’ Jo Bonnier who led the

field in the Wednesday practice session, the bright red Ferrari 330P

shattering 3m 56.1s, ninth fastest overall. In addition, the AC

with its Cambridge-blue nose flash and centreline stripe lapping in

Cars-entered Sears/Bolton Cobra Coupe boomed round in 3m

3m 47.2s, 132.53mph. In Thursday’s final practice John Surtees’

58.7s, 13th overall … and ominously 4.7 seconds quicker around

works 330P then pulverised all records with 3m 42.0s, increasing

the Sarthe circuit than the fastest Ferrari GTO/64.

the average lap speed to 135.286mph … but 24 hours is a long,

long way.

its three-mile Mulsanne Straight the 3-litre V12 GT Ferraris could

not come close to the outright speed and power of the 4.7-litre V8

Six cars lapped faster than Surtees’ existing 1963 lap

I GTO/64 I

It was painfully evident that on this high-speed circuit with

record of 3m 53.3s, with the Surtees/Bandini 330P topping the

Cobra Daytonas. The Belgian GTO/64 of Bianchi/‘Beurlys’ was timed

list. Richie Ginther took his Ford GT round second fastest in 3m

at 4m 03.4s, with the British Maranello Concessionaires’ entry for

45.3s, followed by the Rodríguez/Hudson 330P with 3m 45.5s, the

Ireland/Maggs next up at 4m 04.5s, then the Grossman/Tavano

Phil Hill/McLaren Ford GT in 3m 45.8s, then Guichet/Vaccarella’s

NART car on 4m 04.9s. The Hugus/Rosinski NART car was the

Ferrari 275P on 3m 50.1s, and the Parkes/Scarfiotti 275P with

slowest of the GTO/64s – bettered by a Jaguar and two Porsches –

3m 51.9s. The David Piper/Jochen Rindt Ferrari 250LM (‘5909’)

at 4m 14.1s, meaning the GTO/64s qualified 18-19-20-24 overall.

entered by NART also proved very quick, lapping at 3m 53.9s, while

However, first sight of Dan Gurney rocketing round in a brand-new

the Attwood/Schlesser Ford GT was 1.6 seconds slower.

Daytona Coupe – only completed a few days before and in which he

had never even sat – convinced the Ferrari runners to save their

While the sports-prototypes plainly set the performance

gold standard, within the GT category the Gurney/Bondurant Shelby 196

Cobra Daytona Coupe set the fastest practice lap time at a class-

overheated and we had a broken throttle cable – stupid little things that could well have put us out of the running. We finished second some five laps behind the leading Ferrari. Nevertheless, it was the best performance that I’d ever put in at Le Mans”. Despite its vicissitudes – which cost it a total of 62 minutes in the pits – the Maranello Concessionaires 330P never ran lower than fifth (in the 13th hour) and was third for no less than nine hours and second for the final 10, finishing 45 miles behind the winning works 275P shared by Guichet and Vaccarella, and over 57 miles ahead of the delayed works 330P of Surtees/Bandini. The British-entered 330P was timed at 189.5mph on the Mulsanne Straight.

equipment for the long race itself. This was preparation for no mere sprint race; this was the 24-Hour Grand Prix d’Endurance.

While Maranello Concessionaires were running their

250GT0/64 (‘4399GT’) for the two established Formula 1 drivers, Scotsman Innes Ireland and South African Tony Maggs, Colonel Hoare required a reserve driver and had chosen the fast-rising young Formula 3 star Jackie Stewart. The Colonel recalled, “… he sat on the pit counter throughout first day’s practice and finally just had to do the necessary laps to qualify the car. We sat him in the cockpit and I said ‘Right, off you go and if you so much as scratch its paintwork I will personally break you limb from limb’. He did one flying lap in each car with Graham, Jo, Innes and Maggs all looking down their noses – and was faster than any of them! Then he just sat on the pit counter throughout the race”.

On race day, after the inevitably hectic ‘Grand Prix’ on the

opening lap, Graham Hill quickly settled into second place in the team’s open 330P sports-prototype. Richie Ginther’s Ford GT pulled away in the lead, while Graham led the entire Ferrari fleet, sitting back under strict orders not to be drawn into a destructive battle with the Fords. Graham recalled, “it was pleasant getting back in a car with a chance to win the race … A Ferrari is a useful piece of machinery for a race lasting 24 hours – there’s a lot of experience behind you and you can always reckon that if you’ve got a Ferrari you should be in at the finish … [but] the car did not prove quite as reliable as I’d hoped. We had a spate of curious little maladies which delayed us on several laps during the course of the race … We had to change the condenser twice, we

I THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE 1964 I 3

197

No 25 (‘4399 GT’) Ireland/Maggs – Maranello Concessionaires Ltd 6th overall – 2nd in 3-litre GT category and 3rd GT overall. Car weight: 1,083Kg/2,387.58lbs [making this British entry the second lightest of the four GTO/64s] START – 16.00: Ireland drove opening stint and logged 276km/h (171.5mph) at the Poste 44 speed trap at 17.28 Stop 1 – 17:45 (stint duration 1hr 45mins): refuel and driver change to Maggs – rejoined at 17.47 Stop 2 – 19:43 (1hr 56mins): refuel and Maggs rejoined at 19.44, so driving a double stint Stop 3 – 21:43 (1hr 59mins): refuel, add oil and no driver change recorded – rejoined at 21.44, so driving a triple stint. [However, 1:56 + 1:59 + 1:54 = 5hrs 49mins, over the maximum 4 hours permitted. Highly probable therefore, that at this stop Ireland took over and the commissaire’s reported driver identification was inaccurate.] Stop 4 – 23:40 [really 23.38] (1hr 54mins): refuel and driver change (?) to Ireland – rejoined at 23.38 [really 23.40 – it appears that the times were reversed in the ACO’s ‘Journal de Course’ record] Stop 5 – 01:42 (2hrs 2mins): refuel and replace brake ‘parts’ [driver

change to Ireland unrecorded, but a change over to Maggs was recorded at following pit stop] – rejoined at 01.47 Stop 6 – 03:45 (1hr 58mins): refuel, add oil and replace spark plugs, and driver change to Maggs – rejoined at 03.53 Stop 7 – 05:55 (2hrs 2mins): refuel and no driver change recorded [Maggs driving a double stint] – rejoined at 05.58 Stop 8 – 07:58 (2hrs 0mins): refuel, add oil and change both rear wheels, and driver change to Ireland – rejoined at 08.02 Stop 9 – 09:58 (1hr 56mins): refuel, brakes checked and driver change to Maggs – rejoined at 10:03 Stop 10 – 12:06 (2hrs 3mins): refuel, add oil and driver change to Ireland – rejoined at 12.07 Stop 11 – 13:59 (1hr 52mins): refuel, add water and driver change to

Right June 20, 1964 – Le Mans 24-

Maggs – rejoined at 14.01

Hours. The great race’s intangible

FINISH – 16.00 (1hr 59min) – having officially completed 4,403.62kms (2,736.86 miles)

early evening atmosphere, with tiered spectators on the approach to the Dunlop Curve. The Ireland/Maggs Ferrari 250GTO (‘4399GT’) is about

Overall positions hour-by-hour: 15th for the first three hours, then 13th

to be passed by the Surtees/Bandini

– 9th – 8th – 9th – 9th – 8th – 10th – 7th – 10th – 9th – 8th – 7th

works 330P (‘0822’), with the white-

from the end of hour 15 to the end of hour 18 – followed by 6th for the final six hours, 19 to 24 inclusive

204

I GTO/64 I

nosed NART 330P (‘0810’) crewed by Rodríguez/Hudson in hot pursuit, while the Noblet/Berney Iso Grifo A3C, No 1, follows on behind.

I THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE 1964 I 3

205

Interlude – Candlestick Park August 9, 1964, San Francisco, California, USA 20 laps of 3.06kms/1.9 miles – 61.2kms/38 miles

Just like the Whit-Monday Goodwood meeting in England – or perhaps even more like an English-scene Mallory Park ‘clubbie’ – this was by no means an international-licence event, but it has some significance within our international overview of GTO/64 racing because the entry included one of the cars …

Bev Spencer of Hillsborough, California, was an auto-

mobile dealer whose Spencer Buick company – based at 3700 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco – also became an authorised

224

I GTO/64 I

Ferrari dealer. He was an enthusiastic and competitive SCCA

competitor, and in 1963 had run a ‘Series 1’ Ferrari 250GTO

livery, featuring multiple recognition stripes on its nose in addition

(chassis ‘4219’) for a driver named Frank Crane. That car was

to the broad white lateral hood-top band over its otherwise Italian

finished in white with blue centreline stripes – American racing

red paintwork. The underside of the car’s nose was also white,

colours. Its first owner had been Mamie Spears Reynolds, whose

while six lateral bands of white tape marched up the nose section’s

wealthy parents had tobacco industry and mining ties, and who

upper surface between the headlights, with five more bands applied

was briefly married to Luigi Chinetti’s son Luigi Jr – better known

to each front quarter, outboard of the headlights. No Ferrari GTO/64

in period as ‘Coco’.

was ever more distinctively liveried.

Upon that GTO’s debut in the 1963 Daytona Continental

At Reims, ‘5571GT’ had been most notable for its ‘jazzy’

In San Francisco’s SCCA Candlestick Park race meet-

3-Hour race it had won overall, driven by Pedro Rodríguez. Bev

ing, Bev Spencer entered the car – which also still retained its

Spencer had bought it that May, for a reputed $14,000, but now

rectangular NART prancing horse decals on both sides – for the

in 1964 he had acquired from Chinetti the ex-NART Ferrari

experienced and capable driver Augie Pabst, of the Milwaukee beer

250GTO/64, ‘5571GT’. The car was fresh from its last NART out-

family. Apart from having had the lowest band of nose-top tape

ing in the Reims 12-Hours in France, where it had been co-driven

removed, and the nose’s underside restored to plain red paintwork,

by Pedro Rodríguez and Nino Vaccarella to finish a troubled 11th

the car’s only major visual difference from its Reims appearance

overall, and fourth in the 3-litre GT category.

was the large ‘Ferrari – Spencer Buick’ lettering applied above its

Opposite August 9, 1964 – Candlestick Park, San Francisco. Driver Augie Pabst talking with Bev Spencer, the new owner of Ferrari 250GTO/64 ‘5571GT’, which the Pabst brewing company executive is about to race for him. Opposite below Collision on the Candlestick car-park circuit as Augie Pabst, in the ex-NART 250GTO/64, tangles with a spinning Jaguar E-type, and careens into retirement among the straw bales. Only panelwork and pride were damaged. Right Bev Spencer’s newly acquired ‘5571GT’ was driven at Candlestick Park, still wearing the majority of its Reims 12-Hours NART-team race livery. The car’s race day appearance proved all too brief.

hot-air exit ducts on each forward flank. The car even retained its

right-side rooftop identification light from Reims and Le Mans.

abandoned. Media reports and photos of the Martin crash did nothing

to improve motor sport’s image on the US West Coast, and the

This 1964 SCCA Regional race meeting was the second to be

After that gruesome disaster the 1965 meeting would be

run around the San Francisco Giants baseball team’s stadium car-park

following morning’s ‘Chronicle Sporting Green’ published a piece by

circuit. A year later, Phil Hill would drive a 7-litre Cobra there for Carroll

writer Gordon Martin in which he declared (accurately) “Candlestick

Shelby and ever after would roll his eyes in horror when reminded of the

Park is undoubtedly doomed as a site for sports car racing”.

course. “It had a kind of polished track surface which I thought was

just about the most dangerous I’d ever raced on … and two guys get-

Spencer ran ‘5571GT’ on the stadium car-park course for Augie Pabst

ting killed there pretty much showed I wasn’t wrong.”

in the 1964 meeting’s 25-lap Jaycee Class A, B and C Production race.

The event would be dominated by the Porsche 904GTS coupés of Don

One of Candlestick’s 1964 meeting race winners was Bart

Such tragic events lay a year in the future, however, when Bev

Martin in his Cooper Monaco-Chevrolet sports-racing car, but he

Wester and Milt Minter, while Augie Pabst was caught out by the slip-

would lose his life back there in 1965, driving its replacement, a new

pery surface, suffering a collision which led to the GTO/64’s retirement.

V8 Brabham-Ford BT8. During practice for that 1965 meeting, Ken

O’Neill Jr from Saratoga had died when his Merlyn sports car flipped

in the two-day Candlestick Park programme on August 7-8, 1965,

onto a guardrail, and on raceday Bart Martin died when his Brabham

Bev Spencer would provide the repaired and repainted ‘5571GT’ –

smashed through straw bales and felled a pole carrying electric cabling

stripe-free and looking utterly immaculate – to serve as the pace and

which ignited spilled fuel, sparking a devastating fireball.

course car for the San Francisco venue’s ill-fated motor sporting

When both SCCA National and Regional-status races featured

swansong …

I INTERLUDE – CANDLESTICK PARK I

225

Left Edoardo Lualdi really gained prominence within the Italian hillclimbing scene driving his ex-Pierre Dumay long-wheelbase Ferrari 250GT Berlinetta (‘1357GT’) through

1960, before acquiring a 250GT

‘Passo Corto’. Here’s a familiar startline scene at the beginning of the 1960 Trieste-Opicina hillclimb.

When enthusiast racing historian Danilo Castellarin once

I GTO/64 I

He spoke admiringly of, “… more than others Eugenio

asked Lualdi why so many in the motor racing world considered

Castellotti, Luigi Musso and Ludovico Scarfiotti. Eugenio was

hillclimb events to be just B-category competitions, the veteran

impetuous, he raced from the heart; Luigi was more refined, a

Champion retorted: “Because they don’t understand anything. Look,

stylist, a superfast conductor, a classy pilot; and Ludovico showed

I’ve raced in several races, both on the track and uphill. Well I can

he knew how to win both uphill and in Formula 1. Hillclimbing is

assure you that on the track at some point one pushes to the limit

not a small thing”.

and tries to live there, hoping that the car will hold. And this is

because one is in a position to see your opponents, to know their

emerged as one of the leading lights of the Italian ‘uphill race’

positions. If they are too far ahead, patience, let them go. If they

scene, with his Ferrari 250GT becoming National Champion in the

are behind, check them, judge the pace and keep ahead. In short,

over 2000cc category, before adding a second consecutive title in

the mêlée, the brawl, does not last the whole race.

1957. He also circuit-raced occasionally, proving almost as com-

petitive as he was on the hills. Through 1960-61 he achieved two

“But hillclimbing is a completely different thing. Because

It had been in 1956 that Edoardo Lualdi had really

uphill you run alone. Against an invisible opponent. Without car,

more consecutive National titles in the over-2500cc GT category

without engine, one’s rival is the clock which makes no noise as it

and would go on to own and compete in Ferrari 250LM Berlinetta

passes. Then the weather. If it is good then one must give his best,

and Dino sports-prototype cars, ultimately accumulating some 84

all of himself, to the extreme limit. And one cannot know until the

outright career victories, 77 of them in Ferrari cars, including 72

finish whether what one gives is enough to win … or not.

in the Italian Mountain Championship series.

“Add that the ascent is unforgiving. Rock face on one side

Lualdi first appeared in a Ferrari 250GTO (‘3413GT’) as

and precipice on the other. There are no escape routes and if

early in the original so-called ‘Series 1’ model’s career as May

someone makes a mistake he always finds something hard.” When

13, 1962. Driving that GTO in the Coppa Città di Asiago hillclimb

asked if that danger concerned him, Lualdi’s response was crisp:

outside the cheese town in the foothills of the Alps in north-eastern

“Yes, because I have seen too many friends die. One always thinks

Italy, he set fastest time of the day (FTD) to win overall first time

that it only happens to others, and goes on …”. 272

Right Three great Italian drivers much admired by Lualdi as his own competition career developed – the sophisticated Roman Luigi Musso; the flashy, tempestuous Eugenio Castellotti, from Lodi; and the patrician Torinese, Ludovico Scarfiotti, whose grandfather had been a co-founder of Fiat. Below May 8, 1960 – Targa Florio, Sicily. Lualdi shared his 250GT LWB Berlinetta (‘1357GT’) with aspiring works driver Ludovico Scarfiotti in the renowned FIA World Championship-qualifying round. They finished 10th overall, while winning their over-2500cc GT class.

I EDOARDO LUALDI GABARDI I

273

302

I GTO/64 I

Left Accelerating across the stone bridge into the town of Firenzuola is Corrado Ferlaino in his GTO/64 ‘3413GT’, heading for a third place finish overall behind former GTO owner, Roman jeweller Gianni Bulgari, in his victorious 2-litre Porsche 904, and ‘Kim’s 1.6-litre Alfa Romeo TZ. Firenzuola is regarded as Tuscany’s most war-damaged town, with 98 per cent of its buildings totally destroyed. Here were happier times.

Dragoni, who was by then the Ferrari works team’s Direttore Sportivo, Sigala finally agreed to buy the freshly overhauled Ferrari GTO/64. The haggling had started at 10,000,000 lire and he closed the deal for 9,400,000. Mugello was to prove a daunting stage for his expensive big-car debut.

Saverio Ciattini’s race report in ‘Auto Italiana’ described how

the race proved to be a “monologue” by the triumphant Porsche 904GTS owner-driver Gianni Bulgari. Ciattini wrote, “the Roman driver took the lead on the first lap and ended the race in the same position, without any of his direct opponents – Sigala, Nicolosi and then Ferlaino – being able to disturb him in any way. After the initial outburst that allowed him to build a significant advantage over the pursuers, Bulgari was able to slow down the charge so much that the average, which in the first and second laps had been 106km/h, then dropped slightly”.

In fact, the Roman jeweller tore home to complete the five

tremendously challenging laps in 3h 7m 58.3s, having averaged 105.651km/h (65.66mph) for the entire 200 miles. Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ driver ‘Kim’ (Sergio Pedretti) came home in second place, over 17 minutes adrift, but his nimble 1600cc twin-cam Berlinetta had beaten off Ferlaino’s GTO/64, which finished third – the Neapolitan ownerdriver’s time for the full distance being some 7 minutes longer still, at 3h 22m 13.4s.

Unfortunately, Oddone Sigala’s early second place was marred

by ignominious retirement in a roadside ditch, after he had collided with Sergio Bettoja’s Mercedes 220SE while trying to lap him.

June 28, 1964 – X Predappio-Rocca delle Caminate, Emilia-Romagna 4.0kms/2.49 miles – rising 230 metres/754 feet

Above The programme for the 11th

Coppa Emilio Materassi, bearing a map of the entire 41-mile road course on its Italian racing-red cover.

One week after his fellow GTO/64 privateer had been road racing at Mugello, Edoardo Lualdi reappeared in the Italian Trofeo della Montagna hillclimb series at Predappio, near Forli – barely 18 miles from the Adriatic coast near the eastern end of the Emilian plain. Driving his GTO/64 (‘4091GT’) among 97 starters, he emerged triumphant, setting FTD overall with a time of 3m 20.0s at an average speed of just 72.0km/h (44.74mph), which becomes understandable when one considers that 19 hairpin bends were packed into those 2½ miles climbing up to the Rocca delle Caminate castle, Mussolini’s

I THE ITALIAN SCENE 1964 I 2

303

May 1, 1965 – XXX RAC Tourist Trophy, Oulton Park, Cheshire, UK

the fastest ‘GT’ contender should have been David Piper’s green-

Aggregate result of two 2-Hour races on 4.44kms/2.75-mile circuit

liveried Ferrari 250LM (‘5897’), which he qualified 11th fastest overall on the outside of starting grid row 3, but it was marooned

For the first time the Royal Automobile Club’s age-old Tourist Trophy

in the Prototype class.

race, first run on the Isle of Man in 1905, was brought north to this

picturesque parkland circuit in Cheshire. The race was to be run in

250GTO/64 in 16th spot, on row 5 of the grid. He had Goodwood

two 2-Hour sections, divided by a one-and-a-half-hour break during

winner Roger Mac’s Chequered Flag-entered Cobra to his left and

which repairs and maintenance could be carried out in the pit lane.

Sir John Whitmore’s Alan Mann-entered Cobra roadster to his right,

The entry comprised 24 cars plus five reserves, including sports-

with Peter Sutcliffe’s ex-Piper GTO (‘4491GT’) beyond that. An

racing and Prototype cars of over 1600cc and Grand Touring cars of

oddity of the Oulton Park starting grid was that pole position and

over 2000cc. The GT category formed Round 6 of the 1965 FIA GT

faster times were arranged on the left-hand side, on the outside

World Championship.

entering the first corner at Old Hall, rather than on the inside as

conventional elsewhere. So John Surtees sat on pole position with

The four-strong front row of the grid comprised John

Meanwhile, Mike Salmon lined up the Dawnay Racing

Surtees on pole in his Lola-Chevrolet T70, from Bruce McLaren’s

the spectator bank and crowded onlookers immediately to his left,

McLaren-Oldsmobile M1A, David Hobbs’ Lola-Ford T70 and Denny

while Denny Hulme was on the ‘outside’ of that front row, against

Hulme’s 2-litre Brabham-Climax BT8 – all sports-racing cars – while

the pit lane on the right. Practice and qualifying, meanwhile, had been greatly enlivened by private owner-driver David Wansborough dropping his Jaguar E-type into the trackside lake at Cascades Corner, but as Mike Kettlewell reported for ‘Autosport’, “… the

Above The race programme for the 1965 RAC Tourist Trophy at Oulton Park.

mechanics hung it on the washing line overnight and it was dry for the race”.

Mike then described how in the opening 2-Hour race, “…

the battle among the Grand Touring category was tremendous: Salmon just held off Mac, with Gardner [Australian driver Frank Gardner in the Willment Cobra Coupé], Whitmore and Sutcliffe giving chase. Mac dropped back signalling violently to the pits and coming in on his 13th lap to top up with fuel. By this time Gardner and Whitmore both took Salmon, the Alan Mann driver later taking the Willment pilot to lead the class”. Left above May 1, 1965 – RAC

but the Kiwi’s 2nd place in Heat 2 was

Tourist Trophy, Oulton Park. Early

close enough to take victory overall on

front-runner Bruce McLaren in his

aggregate.

McLaren-Oldsmobile M1A just holds off Jim Clark’s works Lotus-Ford 30 at Cascades Corner.

I GTO/64 I

puted the TT overall, Mike Salmon’s target in the Hon. John Dawnay’s

Left That day’s winner of the 70-lap

250GTO/64 (‘4399GT’) was the GT

Heat 2 was David Hobbs, here in the

category. Brake failure in Heat 1 ruin-

Harold Young team’s Lola-Ford T70.

ed his chances, but he did take a fine

He had placed 2nd to Denny Hulme’s

4th overall in Heat 2.

2-litre Brabham-Climax BT8 in Heat 1,

328

Opposite While the sports cars dis-

Up front, the sports cars dominated the race with Surtees’ Lola

The race then became a battle between David Hobbs and

T70 leading Bruce McLaren but only for the first four laps before the

Denny Hulme, the big Lola leading the diminutive Brabham until a long

World Champion dived into the pits to complain of “dodgy steering”. He

Lola refuelling stop converted an 81-second lead into a 40-second

lost seven minutes in a first stop, then another 40 in a second, before

deficit behind Hulme.

having finally to retire the car. Bruce McLaren then led with Clark in the

works Lotus-Ford 30 breathing down his neck, and Denny Hulme third

with Whitmore dropping to third after a pit stop for a new rear tyre, and

in the white-and-green Sid Taylor-entered 2-litre Brabham. Lap 13 saw

Sutcliffe, driving his Ferrari in inspired fashion, beating Gardner. Mac’s

McLaren retire, his M1A’s experimental automatic transmission having

Cobra had lost a wheel on the approach to Island Bend some time

blown a seal which let all the fluid out. At 20 laps Clark led David

earlier, while Salmon’s Ferrari took to the escape road at Cascades,

Hobbs’ Lola T70 by 25 seconds, with Hulme nearly a minute adrift,

used the short circuit back to the pits and found that a brake calliper

third. But on lap 26 Jim Clark brought in the Lotus to complain of

had broken. Salmon rejoined after 30 minutes.”

altered handling. A second stop cost a further 12 minutes while the

car’s suspension was being investigated, but he rejoined and began

Hulme’s Brabham was declared the winner, having completed 69 laps,

Mike Kettlewell: “In the GT category … the racing was close,

As the chequered flag was shown after two hours, Denny

lapping as quickly as ever.

I THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE 1965 I

329

356

I GTO/64 I

Opposite The sheer sense of proportion demonstrated by Ferrari’s in-house ‘shape man’ Edmondo Casoli for the 250GTO/64 and its rearengined sister, the 250LM, is seldom better demonstrated than in this classic Geoff Goddard photograph, taken below Bivio Polizzi. Here the Ravetto/ Starrabba GTO/64 (‘4091GT’) leads the Toppetti/Grana LM (‘5995’). Right Clemente Ravetto hammers

‘Pippo’ (‘4091GT’) down the Via Vincenzo Florio in Collesano, under the admiring (and always respectful) eyes of the Carabinieri. Like all good Sicilians they would often urge the red cars on.

Healey 3000 in Sebring trim, its drivers being Paul Hawkins and Timo

720kms (447-mile) distance, but it had taken them 49 minutes longer

Mäkinen. They enjoyed the circuit, but as the car was burning up Dun-

than the works drivers in their sports-prototype.

lop rubber at the rate of one set of tyres every two laps, it was obviously

going to lose a good deal of time … Fastest was the Filipinetti GTO of

encountered during the long, hot drive around the Madonie mountains,

Bourillot/de Bourbon in 44m 46s …”.

and ‘4091GT’ proved particularly fast along the coastal three-mile-long

Buonfornello Straight, its high fifth gear really paying off. When asked if

The Ferrari works team arrived in force with three rear-engined,

The Sicilian GTO/64 duo enjoyed duels with any other car they

3.3-litre V12 275P2 prototypes. On race day to the wild excitement of

the car’s width made it tricky to place on the often narrow and rough-

the huge and partisan crowds spectating all around the long circuit, it

surfaced course, Clemente Ravetto answered, “… the circumstance

was local star Nino Vaccarella who took the chequered flag to score an

provided the advantage of faultlessly keeping the possible pursuer

immensely popular win. He co-drove his works 275P2 (chassis ‘0828’)

behind …”.

with Lorenzo Bandini, and they led home four factory-entered Porsches which filled second to fifth places overall. And in 12th place, winning

May 9, 1965 – XI Castell’Arquato-Vernasca, Emilia-Romagna

the 3-litre GT category, came ‘Pippo’ – driven well and consistently by

9.775kms/6.07 miles – rising around 260 metres/850 feet

Ravetto and Prince Starrabba. While Vaccarella had stopped the clock

at 7h 1m 12.2s in winning overall, the Sicilian pair in their GTO/64

Castell’Arquato is a medieval town folded within the Val d’Arda

completed the full 10 laps in 7h 50m 57.2s. They had covered the full

region of the Piacenza hills, some 20 miles west of Parma. To opera fans it is celebrated as the birthplace of librettist Luigi Illica, who

I THE ITALIAN SCENE 1965 I 1

357

« Vincenzo Nember screamed

out of the fog and under the ‘traguardo’ finish banner in

GTO/64 ‘4675GT’ – respectably fourth fastest overall with

a time of 6m 37.3s.

Above August 1, 1965 – Agordo-

Opposite Indifferent road surfaces

Frassenè hillclimb. That man again,

were an added potential hazard con-

Edoardo Lualdi in his ever-faithful,

fronting the Italian hillclimbers. Here

‘Gran Turismo Competizione Nazionale’ class, which Lualdi of course

and exquisitely well-prepared, Fer-

‘Nanni’ Nember’s ‘long-roof’ GTO/64

rari 250LM (‘6217’) – set overall

(‘4675GT’) would have been taking

won, while Nember still emerged first overall in the Trofeo della

FTD at this Dolomite venue, some

quite a pounding over the much-

Montagna championship-qualifying ‘Classe Oltre 2500cc’ – ahead

60 miles north of Venice.

patched Agordo-Frassenè roadway,

of the Carlo Pietromarchi and Sergio Marchesi Ferraris. Both were

as he heads towards setting fourth fastest time overall.

The LM, however, was confined to the Ferrari-favoured

listed in the event results as being ‘Series 1’ 250GTOs. Marchesi certainly ran the ex-Bowmaker/Surtees/Zourab Tchkotoua GTO

that several drivers even reported ice forming. Herbert Demetz’s

(‘3647GT’) that year, although this Agordo event seems to have

1964 record climb in the works Abarth had been timed at 5m 16s,

slipped off its published appearances list. What car Pietromarchi

but that mark could not be approached in 1965.

drove that damp, foggy day in the Dolomites – as a Scuderia

Settecoli entry – might well have been the elderly 1959 250GT

On his practice run – with the climb wet only in patches

– Lualdi had clocked 5m 31.9s in his 250LM. But his official best

Interim, ‘1465GT’.

of 6m 16.2s brought him FTD – an entire minute outside the year-old Demetz record. Lualdi’s average speed for the 5.59 miles

August 15, 1965 – V Coppa Città di Enna, Pergusa, Sicily

was 86.124km/h (53.51mph). Giuseppe Dalla Torre earned great

105 laps of 4.79kms/2.79 miles – 502.95kms/312.58 miles

praise for setting second FTD in his elderly Abarth-Simca, without the works support given to more recently built examples. Even so,

In 1965, this race on the artificial autodrome circuit, which had

he was only 9.9 seconds slower than the winning Ferrari 250LM.

opened in 1951, encircling Lake Pergusa in central Sicily, was run

Next up, in third place, was the Abarth 2000 of ‘Matich’ (Gianni

as Round 16 of the FIA Manufacturers World Championship. The

Lado) in 6m 30.5s, before Vincenzo Nember screamed out of the

international governing body had extended its series to include

fog and under the ‘traguardo’ finish banner in GTO/64 ‘4675GT’ –

races at Imola, Mugello, the Coppa Intereuropa at Monza, the

respectably fourth fastest overall with a time of 6m 37.3s, but still

Nürburgring 500Kms (in addition to the 1000Kms classic there),

21.1 seconds slower than Lualdi’s rear-engined sister Ferrari.

the American Bridgehampton Double-500 on Long Island and four major hillclimb events – at Rossfeld, Bolzano-Mendola, Freiburg

370

I GTO/64 I

I THE ITALIAN SCENE 1965 I 2

371

and the Ferrari mechanics tore a few of the tattered bits of bodywork

normal racing practice. He was very lucky to escape with only cuts

away from the rear wheels, tried in vain to bang the engine cover

and bruises and the GTO driver stopped and gave him a lift back to

down so that it would not wave in the breeze, and Parkes set off

the pits. At our depot we knew nothing of this at the time, except

again, his only hope being to get back to the pits. The way the car

that the big Ferrari was overdue, so imagine our surprise when a

dodged about, it looked as if the rear suspension or the chassis were

crumpled GTO Ferrari stopped and we saw a depressed and slightly

broken and we did not anticipate seeing him come round again. The

bleeding Bandini in the passenger seat. He told the mechanics what

conditions were taking their toll …

had happened, took a bottle of mineral water from them, and the

GTO set off for the pits. It was a left-hand drive GTO which may

“The Targa Florio appeared to have won this year’s battle of

men and machines against the mountains, for Mitter had gone off

account for some of the observers seeing it arrive thinking Bandini

the road and bent the front suspension of the Porsche, and Bandini

was driving it!” And then, “for us it was all over, Porsche had won

had been about to pass a GTO Ferrari driven by a local driver [in fact

the Targa Florio yet again, Ferrari had stumbled and fallen …”.

Matteo Marsala in GTO/64 ‘4091GT’] when he collided with it and

the big prototype Ferrari had gone off the road, turning over and

from all around the course, the works team mechanics found that

wrecking itself against a tree. The GTO driver had signalled to

many parts were missing, having been stripped by spectators as

Bandini to ‘wait’ and Bandini had taken it to mean ‘OK, go by’ as is

souvenirs. Jenks concluded, “… the Targa Florio only happens

When the trucks went out and recovered crashed cars

once a year, and the Sicilians made the most of it”. 390

I GTO/64 I

Opposite May 7, 1966 – practice

Below Another Targa ’66 practice

for the Targa Florio, Sicily. A sunny

scene, this time up at Bivio Polizzi

practice-day shot of the ex-Lualdi, ex-

with Nino Vaccarella turning in his

Ravetto Ferrari 250GTO/64 (‘4091GT’)

works Ferrari 330P3 ‘0846’ which he

in the hands of new owner Adriano

was co-driving with Lorenzo Bandini.

Reale and his co-driver Matteo Mar-

Next day in these hills, this P3 hot

sala. Here the car is just about to

favourite and the elderly GTO/64

burst out of Campofelice and head

would meet …

down to the start of the coastal Buonfornello straight. It was to play a critical role next day …

Lorenzo Bandini declared loudly to the mass media how

“When I arrived near the Masetti monument I saw, in the

rear-view mirror, the Alpine of the Frenchmen Delageneste/Rosinski approaching at a steady speed. To give way, I approached the crumbling edge of the road to allow the overtaking that I signalled by putting my left hand out of the window, in accordance with the international sports regulations that I know well.

“After the Alpine had overtaken, I went back to the centre of

the roadway. At this point, also in the mirror, I saw the No 230 car approaching at a staggering speed, driven by Lorenzo Bandini. To make

Marsala had first waved him by, but had then pulled across the narrow

the [next] curve I went to the left side of the road; Bandini at this point

road straight into his Ferrari P3, blaming him entirely for the accident

… at first struck me and then also tried to overtake on the right side,

which had denied Ferrari its chance of winning yet another Targa Florio.

contrary to the provisions of the regulations. Due to the rear-end col-

Franco Lini in ‘Auto Italiana’ tried to be fair to both drivers involved:

ision, the car’s path veered, meaning I had to correct towards the right

“Caught by the 330P3, the driver of a Ferrari GTO, as a signal that he

side of the road to avoid ending up down the slope below.

was being correct and had noticed the presence right behind, raised a

hand, meaning that he had seen [Bandini] and requested [him to] wait

became evident: to avoid the collision and risk [going off] on his own,

a moment before he would leave free passage. There was a curve to

or collide again with my car with the related consequence that evidently

the right and it widened to the left.

would have led to my [going off] or to him leaving the road. The Ferrari

driver, for reasons only he can justify, preferred the second solution by

“Bandini interpreted the gesture as he would have interpreted

“Correcting the [car’s] trajectory, the solutions for Bandini

it from any professional driver, accustomed to the normal jargon of the

paying the costs of colliding again with my GTO.

track, that is, the other was leaving him room to pass and would move

to favour him. So he slipped into the gap, [thinking the GTO driver

stopped [and] went down to meet the Milanese driver, not ‘running

was] aiming the car to the left, leaving road space to the right. At that

away’, as he told the press when he arrived at the pits. I got him into

“When Bandini’s car overturned down the escarpment, I

moment, when the Ferrari had almost overtaken, the other veered to the right and the nose of the GTO hit the left flank of the four-litre, which was pushed off the road, and overturned. Bandini exited the car after punching out the side window, but his race was over – and Ferrari’s hopes also ended …” Franco’s pay-off line sounded almost operatically sad in such a musical language as Italian: “… ma la corsa era finita; e finivano anche le speranze della Ferrari”. Pure poetry.

However, Matteo Marsala angrily reacted with his own

viewpoint, declaring: “While I was on the sixth lap, arriving near the Montemaggiore crossroads, I queued behind the Ferrari Le Mans of Hawkins and Epstein and proceeded with them towards the crossroads of Caltavuturo. Continuing along the way, I quite properly gave way to one of the cars of the Autodelta team whose race number I do not remember, thus losing, due to this slowdown, contact with the Ferrari that preceded me.

I THE TWILIGHT YEARS I

391

FIA GT CHAMPIONSHIP RACES

‘5571GT’

Daytona Continental 2000 Kms, FL, USA

Sebring 12-Hours Florida, USA

1st

7th

NART Phil Hill Pedro Rodríguez

Targa Florio Piccolo Madonie, Italy

Grand Prix de Spa 500Kms, Belgium

1st i/c

NART D. Piper / M. Gammino Pedro Rodríguez

3rd

3rd i/c

Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Lorenzo Bandini

DNF

Equipe Nationale Belge Lucien Bianchi

5th

2nd

1st i/c

SEFAC Ferrari Jean Guichet Michael Parkes

4th

DNF

SEFAC Ferrari Jean Guichet Carlo Mario Abate

‘3413GT’

Le Mans 24-Hours La Sarthe, France

Reims 12-Hours Champagne, France

DNF

11th

NART Ed Hugus José Rosinski

‘5573GT’

‘5575GT’

ADAC / Nürburgring 1000Kms, Germany

2nd i/c

Equipe Nationale Belge Lucien Bianchi G. Langlois van Ophem

9th

6th i/c

NART Fernand Tavano Bob Grossman

5th

2nd i/c

Equipe Nationale Belge Lucien Bianchi ‘Beurlys’

NART Nino Vaccarella Pedro Rodríguez

DNF NART Bob Grossman Skip Hudson

9th Equipe Nationale Belge Lucien Bianchi Pierre Dumay

1st i/c

Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Corrado Ferlaino Luigi Taramazzo

‘4091GT’

‘4399GT’

1st

6th

Maranello Concessionaires

Maranello Concession. Innes Ireland Tony Maggs

Michael Parkes

2nd

DNF

‘4675GT’

Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Jean Guichet Carlo Facetti

Stallavena-Bosco Chiesanuova, Veneto

Coppa Città di Volterra Tuscany

Coppa delle Consuma Tuscany

‘4091GT’

Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Edoardo Lualdi

Bologna-Passo della Raticosa, Emilio R.

Internationaler AlpenBergpreis, Germany

Mont Ventoux Provence, France

1st Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Edoardo Lualdi

2nd

1st i/c

Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Edoardo Lualdi

Coppa Emilio Materassi Mugello, Tuscany

3rd

1st i/c

2nd i/c

Corrado Ferlaino Corrado Ferlaino

1st i/c Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Edoardo Lualdi

3rd i/c Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Edoardo Lualdi

DNF

‘4675GT’

404

1st i/c

Maranello Concession. Michael Parkes Ludovico Scarfiotti

2nd i/c

Corrado Ferlaino Corrado Ferlaino

2nd

3rd

Scuderia Filipinetti Jean Guichet

8th

‘3413GT’

3rd i/c

Oddone Sigala Oddone Sigala

I GTO/64 I

NON-F Freiburg-Schauinsland hillclimb, Germany

RAC Tourist Trophy Goodwood, UK

Tour de France Automobile, France

Sussex Trophy Goodwood, UK

Silverstone Internation’l Silverstone, UK

Grand Prix du Limbourg Belgium

Guards Trophy United Kingdom

Candlestick Park USA

Chamrou France

DNF Bev Spencer Augie Pabst

6th

1st i/c

NART Ludovico Scarfiotti

DNF NART John Surtees

9th

3rd

1st i/c

Ecurie Francorchamps Annie Soisbailt Nicole Roure

Unrec

1st i/c

Ecurie Francorchamps Gérald Langlois van Ophem

Marquis Nicole R

DNF Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Ludovico Scarfiotti Giampiero Biscaldt

6th

4th i/c

Maranello Concessionaires Innes Ireland

DSQ Maranello Concession. David Piper Jo Siffert

1st

DNF

Maranello Concessionaires

Graham Hill

THE ITALIAN SCENE Predappio-Rocca delle Caminate, Emilio R.

Bolzano-Mendola Trentino-Alto Adige

Trieste-Opicina Friuli Venezia Giulia

Trofeo Amoco Sestriere, Piedmont

Coppa Shell Ascoli, Marche

1st

1st i/c

4th

1st i/c

1st

Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Edoardo Lualdi

2nd i/c

Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Edoardo Lualdi

6th

3rd i/c

Oddone Sigala Oddone Sigala

Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Edoardo Lualdi

Trofeo Vallecamonica Malegno, Lombardy

Coppa Intereuropa Monza, Lombardy

Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Edoardo Lualdi

Trofeo Città di Lumezzane

Coppa A Veneto

1st

2nd

Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Edoardo Lualdi

2nd

1st i/c

Oddone Sigala Oddone Sigala

5th Oddone Sigala Oddone Sigala

4th

3rd i/c

Oddone Sigala Oddone Sigala

Scuderia Edoardo

CHASSIS ‘4675GT’ This car was first completed as a left-hand-drive Ferrari ‘Series 1’ 250GTO, with its ‘Certificato d’Origine’ issued on May 23, 1963. It was finished in Rosso Corsa (racing red) with Blu Cina (China blue) seat upholstery – engine numero interno 1074/62E – gearbox No 27 – rear axle 539 62/C, 8x34, No 28. The car was supplied new via VECAR Srl of Rome, Italy, to a private owner Pasquale (not ‘Paolo’ nor ‘Piero’ as sometimes quoted) Annunziata of Rome, for whom it was driven in competition by Guido Fossati. It made its competition debut on April 28, 1963, not in Italy but in the Col Bayard hillclimb in the Dauphiné Alps of south-western France, four miles north of Gap and barely 40 miles from the Italian border. Its second outing was also in France, at the Montagne de Lure hillclimb, near Sisteron. Car ownership appears to have been transferred from purchaser Annunziata back to VECAR Srl of Rome, but Fossati continued to compete in it until purchasing it from VECAR on September 4, 1963, before that month’s international Tour de France Automobile, in which it was crashed. Fossati had driven ‘4675’ in six hillclimbs that year, setting second fastest time overall in five of them – and in class, all six. During the winter of 1963-64, the car was then rebuilt and rebodied by the factory and Scaglietti to ‘long-roof’ GTO/64 specification without roof-top aerofoil. On April 10, 1964, it was registered in favour of Guido Fossati and Ariberto Francolini, while the first formal owner in this GTO/64 form seems to have been a body entitled Scuderia Elmo d’Argento SpA, of Milan – represented in competition as the Milan-based Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus as formerly managed by 1962-66 Ferrari Direttore Sportivo Eugenio Dragoni. This reconfigured ‘long-roof’ Ferrari 250GTO/64 was then run as a quasi-works entry in the 1964 FIA GT World Championship-qualifying Targa Florio and 500Kms Spa Grand Prix – for

426

I GTO/64 I

works driver Jean Guichet – before being acquired by Oddone Sigala to become his entry in a further six events that year. Overall, 1964 saw ‘4675’ start in eight circuit races and hillclimbs, finishing second overall in the FIA World Championshipqualifying Spa 500Kms, before winning its class in the Trofeo Bettoja race at Monza and taking one second place overall at the Vallecamonica hillclimb. Through 1964 the car had only four drivers: Jean Guichet, Carlo Facetti, Oddone Sigala and Edoardo Lualdi Gabardi. Into 1965, it was acquired by Vincenzo Nember of Brescia, Italy, who made his debut in it at the Monza 1000Kms FIA World Championship race, before contesting 10 Italian national hillclimbs. Late in the year the car passed to Luigi Taramazzo for the Rally Jolly Hotels that October. Its frontline racing career was completed early in 1966 when Taramazzo drove it in the Coppa FISA race at Monza, followed by the FIA World Championship-level Monza 1000Kms that April. Overall, ‘4675’ competed at significant level 1965-66, in the hands of five drivers – Vincenzo Nember, Roberto Bonomi, Luigi Taramazzo, Giorgio Pianta, and rally navigator ‘Pesco’ – before being exported to the American market.

1963 May – acquired by Pasquale Annunziata, via VECAR Srl, Rome, Italy road registered ‘ROMA 634374’ April 28 – Col Bayard hillclimb, France Guido Fossati – 4th overall 2nd in class June 9 – Montagne de Lure hillclimb, France Guido Fossati – 2nd overall June 22 – Car apparently re-acquired by VECAR Srl, Rome, Italy June 23 – Garessio-Colle San Bernardo hillclimb, Piedmont, Italy Guido Fossati – 2nd overall 2nd in class July 14 – Trento-Bondone hillclimb, Trentino-Alto Adige Italy Guido Fossati – 2nd in class July 28 – Cesana-Sestriere hillclimb, Piedmont, Italy Guido Fossati – 13th overall 2nd in class August 4 – Aosta-Pila hillclimb, Valle d’Aosta, Italy Guido Fossati – 7th overall 2nd in class September 14-22 – Tour de France Automobile, France Guido Fossati/Ariberto Francolini #172 – DNF (accident) October – Car acquired by Guido Fossati, Rome, Italy December 1963-March 1964 – Car rebuilt and rebodied to ‘long-roof’ GTO/64 specification without rooftop aerofoil

1964 April 10 – Car acquired by Scuderia Elmo d’Argento SpA, Milan, Italy road registered ‘CN 110711’ April 21– Car re-registered by the Scuderia Elmo d’Argento, Milan, Italy new registration ‘MI 901733’ April 26 – Targa Florio, Piccolo Madonie, Sicily, Italy (as quasi-works Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus entry) Jean Guichet/Carlo Facetti #118 – DNF transmission May 17 – Grand Prix de Spa 500Kms, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (as quasi-works Scuderia Filipinetti entry) Jean Guichet #21 – 2nd overall 2nd in class June 24 – Car acquired by Oddone Sigala, Brescia, Italy road registered ‘BS 157747’

I LATER LIVES I ‘4675GT’ I

427

Left September 16, 1964 – Tour de

France Automobile. Annie Soisbault de Montaigu’s Ferrari 250GTO/64 (‘5575GT’) pluming down the Pau circuit’s Avenue Gaston Lacoste towards the start-finish line of the round-the-houses race stage.

447