This is a photograph I took at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997 which featured a tribute to Ferrari with a large display of cars.
It's a 1955
Ferrari 555 Super Squalo and I previously showed a photograph of this car on
20 April 2012. After an unsuccessful season as a Ferrari team car it was fitted with a 3½ litre 860 Monza engine and used for Formula Libre racing in Australia and New Zealand, at which time the serial number, originally 555/1, was changed to
FL/9001. Some years later a Chevrolet V8 engine was fitted, together with a Morris Minor body. Much more recently it was restored back to its original 1955 Super Squalo configuration and reunited with its original engine.
NB: When I write these little notes that accompany the photographs I've taken I rely not only on my memory, but also on little articles in the programmes of the events concerned and information gleaned from the internet. It's only natural that errors might creep in from time to time therefore, but there's one about this car in the programme which I hadn't spotted before - it says this:
'The 'Super Squalo', meanwhile, last appeared on these shores in 1955, when Mike Hawthorn drove it to sixth place in that year's British Grand Prix at Aintree. Silverstone this weekend also marks only the second time the car has raced since it was last used in competition in 1962, in Australia's Tasman series. "After that ir was left over there and its condition sent downhill rapidly," adds Tony Merrick. "It was rescued and brought to England in the early 1980s; we got our hands on it three years ago and restored it."
I went to the 1955 British Grand Prix and I can remember how disappointed I was that day that the Ferrari team consisted of three of the older 625 models for Mike Hawthorn, Maurice Trintignant and Eugenio Castellotti instead of the Ferrari 555 Super Squalos I was hoping to see.
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