Friday's Ferrari

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997 featured a Ferrari display in the paddock which included the two cars pictured below.

The car on the left is a 1952 Ferrari 340 Mexico which at that time was owned by Carlos Monteverde and is chassis #0226AT. The car is powered by a 4,102cc V12 engine designed by Aurelio Lampredi and the body designed by Giovanni Michelotti for Carrozzeria Vignale. Only four of these cars were produced, three Berlinattas and one Spyder, and they were built specifically to take part in the Carrera Panamericana race from the south of Mexico near the border with Guatemala to the north of the country near the border with Texas. In the end the Spyder which was entered for the American Bill Spear did not start in the race but the three Berlinettas did. The car above was driven by Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Scotuzzi and retired after an accident in the early stages of the race. One of the other cars, driven by Luigi Villoresi and Franco Cornacchia, also failed to  finish, but the third Berlinetta, driven by Luigi Chinetti and Jean Lucas, finished the race in third place.

On the right is the 1957 Ferrari 335S of Peter Sachs, which has a 4.023cc V12 engine and is chassis #0700.  Four of these cars were produced, one a converted 315S, as Ferrari's answer to the threat the 4½ litre Maserati 450S posed for the smaller engined Ferrari 315S and 290MM. The first race for the 335S was the 1957 Mille Miglia where two cars were entered, Peter Collins driving #0700 with Louis Klementaski as co-driver, but retiring with a broken drive shaft when in the lead. The second car, chassis #0676, was driven by Alfonso de Portago, partnered by Ed Nelson, but a burst tyre caused the car to leave the road and crash, killing both men together with 10 spectators. As a result of this crash the Italian government banned racing on public roads in Italy so that was the end of the Mille Miglia, though since 1977 the event has been revived as a regularity run for pre-1958 cars that would have been eligible for the original race. The 1957 race was won by Piero Taruffi in a Ferrari 315S, and Ferrari also won the 1957 World Sportscar Championship, with a 290MM winning the 1000km of Buenos Aires, and Peter Collins and Phil Hill winning the last race of the season, the Gran Premio de Venezuela in 335S #0700. The Maserati 450S won two races, the Sebring 12 hour race and the Swedish Grand Prix, and the other two races were won by British cars, Aston Martin winning the Nürburgring 1000 km and Jaguar cleaned up at Le Mans with Ecurie Ecosse D-Types in the first two places with 3 other D-Types in third, fourth and sixth places.