More Old Photos

This is slightly off the main topic (old photos), but having seen Ed Niles' pictures of 0012 in Post #3869 and read the article about it in Cavallino 133, I was surprised to find this unrestored car today on Rodeo in Beverly Hills. The card said it was a 1948 Spyder Corsa, but the body looks so similar to Niles' 0012 that it begs the question... what is the history of this car? The owner claimed (as he jumped in and made a fast getaway) it was rebodied by Scaglietti in 1955 as shown and was chassis 0014 with a 166 motor. 0014M shows up on www.Barchetta.cc as present and accounted for with a standard barchetta body so that is surely not the correct number. I have included a picture of the dash which shows the Ferrari logo on the instruments and not on the horn button just like 0012. Your additions to this puzzle are greatly appreciated.
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Wow!
Great to see another unrestored car.

 

Yes, see below by Martin Krejci on World Sports Racing Prototypes* in British International Races 1955

http://wsrp.ic.cz/intgb1955.html#27

* This is an excellent source (smiley)

 

Hi Ken
It is interesting that you looked at 0014M - I believe this is a different car - 014I
Nathan

 

oh this is (ex ?) Norm Blank's 014I, a 166 Spyder Corsa/Barchetta..

regards
ivo

 

I don't know if you know any history of the Collier family. They were early sports car racers who were very close with Briggs Cunningham. Two of the patriarchs of the family in fact (I believe I am correct about that) were killed racing. One of the Colliers for example raced at LeMans in 1950 driving the 1950 Cadillac coupe which placed tenth and drove in semi formal attire as a hoot. They were serious about their driving though and were pretty good.

I have visited their museum in Naples and its filled with significant racing cars which include many of Briggs Cunningham's race cars and their own. Its not a big museum but it has excellent cars.

I think the Colliers would qualify as avid enthusiasts.....at least in my minds.

Tom W

 

Well, i'm not a mine of information, and i certainly don't know everything about who is who, but from your brief description then i would tend to agree.
maybe one day i will be able to visit the museum and appreciate the collection

 

Hello Paul, hope you are well.

Museum closed years ago.

It is now only viewable on special occasions such as when the local Porsche club of America visits. If you plan to leave your wet isle for a Florida holiday enquire well in advance with the PCA's local chapter.
It is well worth a visit trust me....

 

That is a shame. Saw Briggs' collection years ago in Cal.

 

Thanks Marc,
The last time i was in Florida was about 20 years ago and wasn't able to tour much then. Maybe next time.

Hopefully David, you will still contribute to the thread. Your knowledge was far more extent than just posting photos,so your input would always be greatly received

 

From what I gather the city of Naples did not help at all (same problem many car museums face, from their local city hall, Peter Kaus had that in Aschaffenburg some years ago) and the Collier family neded neither the aggravation nor the income.

 

David,

Thanks for all your great postings. I'm sure the collection is in good hands, but being selfish for a moment I feel a great resource is lost to us. The overwhelming majority of us will never have access now. Thanks again.

Gil

 

David, thank you for the contribution. This thread will be alot quieter now.....hopefully others will fill in the gap.

Best,

 

I always thought that maybe it lost money, tax deductable for five years, and then since it never became self supporting it was closed when the tax deductability ran out.

Now its a very beautiful private storage facility.

Too bad. I bet that arranging a visit might not be too hard.

I went down to take pictures of the 1950 Caddy coupe that they ran at LeMans for an article I was working on for the Cadillac club newsletter. They gave me free run of the car. I crawled under, opened the hood, doors etc. Other than minor mods to the engine the chassis appeared to be completely stock. IIRC it averaged just under 80 mph for the 24 hours....pretty much trouble free. In those days caddies were really rugged and fast for their day. It beat all of the Ferraris that year........


'course they all broke!

Tom W

 

Too bad. I'm just glad i saw it in Costa Mesa and also saw Bill Harrah's collection before it went.
David

 

Thank you Nathan & Ivo for the clarification. This is the listing from Barchetta and a photo of the original body taken at Pescara in August 1948. (last car #21) This reproduction is on page 33 of Ferrari Tipo 166, The Original Sports Ferrari, published by Haynes ©1986 ISBN 0 85429 498 8 All rights reserved.

http://www.barchetta.cc/english/all.ferraris/detail/014i.166.spyder.corsa.htm

I was also fortunate to visit the Costa Mesa Cunningham collection before it closed. Simple nondescript industrial building, but magnificent automotive history. Years later when I heard that the Collier was closing to the public I was in New Orleans visiting family and decided to rent a car, drive to Nashville and pick up my then 10 year old daughter and drive to Naples. I never realized how long Florida actually is and Naples is about as far south as you can go aside from the Keys. Much more of a museum presentation than Briggs had. Great cars, particularly Porsche and as I remember one of the Scarab sports cars. I'll search for my slides.
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Several responses: (1) Many thanks to David for all the great pix---they make me wish that I had been to all the great events and venues shown in your photos. You've truly been there and done that! (2) 014I: After Norm Blank, this little sweetheart was in the custody of our own Tom S., and I think there have been some postings about it elsewhere. Tom is extraordinarily knowledgeable about the details of these early cars, and (even better) he drives 'em. This car had a great number of outings around SoCal before he moved on to his 375MM, which also gets driven regularly. I had a ride in 014I some years back (when with Norm) and was surprised at how peppy it was. A real blast! (3) For those who asked for more pix of 024MB, I will post some now. I know that conventional wisdom (?) is that the chassis came from the Barchetta that was cut in half, but somewhere I have correspondence from G. Marzotto stating that he bought the new bare chassis direct from Enzo. I think that statement may have ended up in one of my stories. Who knows? I'm living proof that the memory fools us.
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Great photos, Ed!

 

Is that the Drogo coupe they call the uovo? (did I get that right?)

I am guessing in Italian that may mean egg?

Pretty cool!

Tom W

 

Yes, uovo means egg. The 166/212 egg shaped car, however, had the coachwork built by Fontana

 

this is me answering a 2 year old question, but I dont think you got it right. The Vignale bodied car in the 1955 Tunis GP is an OSCA MT4, there are 2 in the proramme.. chassis 1134. Wonderful thread though. It is taking me weeks to browse through... Nik
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Please add message# when answering old messages. Makes it much easier to find the original message... Best wishes, Kare

 

The photo of Tunis 1955 and 0244M at Hyères in 1953 (Copyright Maurice Louche).
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Contemplate the softness of the springs to generate such a lean angle on wet pavement!

Did I read someplace that that car may not have had any anti sway bars?

Tom W