Waiting to be Unleashed

This is a photograph I took at the Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park last month and it's of the field for the AMOC Intermarque Championship being led round to the rolling start by the BMW course car.

The field is being led down from Hill Top towards the Knickerbrook chicane and you can see a number of Aston Martins, with a sprinkling of Porsches and Ferraris, and a lone Ford Falcon Sprint just coming over Hill Top.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph in the public parking area at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in July 1987.

It's a Dino 246 GT, a car produced by Ferrari between 1969 and 1974. It has a 2.4 litre V6 engine and the 'L' at the end of the registration number suggests that it was made between 1 August 1972 and 31 July 1973, which should indicate that it's a Series III model. It was marketed as a Dino rather than a Ferrari and this Wikipedia article gives the following explanation:

'Dino was a marque for mid-engined, rear-drive sports cars produced by Ferrari from 1968 to 1976. Used for models with engines with fewer than 12 cylinders, it was an attempt by the company to offer a relatively low-cost sports car. The Ferrari name remained reserved for its premium V-12 and flat 12 models until 1976, when "Dino" was retired in favor of full Ferrari branding.'

Friday's Ferrari

At the race meetings for historic vehicles at Silverstone it's always interesting and enjoyable to have a walk round the area devoted to the various owners' clubs and marque displays on the infield adjacent to the paddock. These photographs were taken in the Ferrari Owners Club area mainly at various of the Coys International Historic Festival meetings I've attended.

A line of Ferraris at the 1992 meeting headed by a 330GT 2+2 and a 275GTB

Again at the 1992 meeting a 250GT Boano and a 250GT California

This is a line of Ferraris as far as the eye can see at the 1997 meeting

This is a Ferrari F50 in 1998. The F50 was introduced in 1995 to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary.

This Ferrari 500 Superfast was seen at the 2001 Coys meeting. There's also an F40 and a 250GT Coupe.

In 2010 at the Silverstone Classic meeting I took this photograph of a Ferrari 365GT 2+2 and a 365GTC

This is a line of Dino Ferraris, also at the 2010 Silverstone Classic meeting

Friday's Ferrari

Today's Ferrari is one spotted at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in 1970. I can't find the programme now, but as I recall it didn't identify what type of Ferrari this was supposed to be. It looks very much like the final version of the Lancia-Ferrari raced in 1957, particularly from the side and rear, except for the exhaust pipes. The 1957 car had a V8 engine with 4 exhausts coming along each side of the car whereas the one in these photographs has exhausts suggesting a 4-cylinder engine. The 1957 cars were apparently dismantled by the factory when they were no longer needed and the surviving engines and transaxles have been used in recent years to reconstruct four, I think, of the original 1955 Lancia D50 and 1956 Lancia-Ferrari cars.

Note (Nov 2014); I've now found that this is a 'special' constructed on chassis 0712 by Ferrari for New Zealander Pat Hoare and you can read about it here.