Friday's Ferrari

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997 featured a special display of Ferraris in the paddock where I took this photograph.

In the centre is a 1951/2 Ferrari 375 4.5 litre Formula 1 car, chassis 04, which was modified to take part in the 1952 Indianapolis 500 race. Four of the cars were entered for the race but three, driven by Americans Johnny Mauro, Bill Vukovich and Danny Oakes, failed to qualify. The fourth car, driven by Ferrari team driver Alberto Ascari, qualified but did not finish the race due to a failed rear wheel bearing. The Indianapolis 500 race at that time was one of the races which counted towards the Formula 1 world championship, which in 1952 (apart from Indianapolis) was for the smaller-engined Formula 2 cars because all the previous year's Formula 1 teams except for Ferrari had pulled out of racing. Because he was qualifying for the Indianapolis race Ascari missed the Swiss Grand Prix, the opening round of the Championship but was then victorious in the remaining six Grands Prix in his Ferrari 500 and became the 1952 World Champion.

The car to the right is a 4.9 litre 1956 Ferrari 410S, chassis 0598CM, two of which were originally built to take part in the Carrera Panamericana race in Mexico. That race, however, was cancelled and the only time the cars raced for the official factory team was in the Buenos Aires 1000 km race, but both the cars retired with transaxle failure after which they were sold to private teams.

On the left is a Ferrari 335S, chassis 0700, which was one of the cars used by Ferrari in the 1957 World Sports Car Championship series. It was whilst driving one of these cars that Alfonso de Portago suffered the fatal accident which effectively ended the Mille Miglia.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph at the Donington Park museum in September 2014.

It's the final version of Tony Vandervell's Ferrari Thin Wall Specials, a 1951 Ferrari 375 using Vandervell Product's own Thin-Wall bearings in the 4½ litre V12 engine. On 14 February 2014 I showed photographs of the car that I'd taken on earlier visits to the museum.

Friday's Ferrari

Another of the Ferraris in the Donington Grand Prix Collection in 1989 was the Ferrari 375 which Tony Vandervell ran in 1951 with a 4½ litre engine using his own thinwall bearings and known as the Thin Wall Special. The Ferrari serial number is 010. This is what it says about the Thin Wall Special in http://8w.forix.com/thinwall.html:

'Guy Anthony Vandervell had ordered a Ferrari Tipo 125 Grand Prix car to be used to prepare the team for the upcoming BRM car. The initially delivered Tipo 125 had a 1.5 liter supercharged V-12 and was raced by Raymond Mays and Ken Richardson in the 1949 International Trophy race. The car carried the “Thinwall Special”, named for Vandervell's bearing company. The car proved a handful and was crashed by Richardson. Vandervell returned the car to Ferrari and took delivery of a second Tipo 125. This car was driven by Alberto Ascari in the 1950 International Trophy race. Ascari spun in the rain and failed to finish. Vandervell again returned the car to Ferrari, who rebuilt the car and added a 4.5 liter unsupercharged V-12 engine. This car ran for the first time with Reg Parnell driving at the 1951 International Trophy race at Silverstone. Parnell managed to finish second in his first heat race.'

This is a photograph of the car taken in May 1989

This photograph was taken in October 1989