Unknown swiss 750 Monza

Before racing Porsches all over the world, André Wicky was in the late 50s at the head of a team called Ecurie Lausannoise (from his home town). The team ran several 2 liter Maseratis, an AC Bristol and two Ferraris. The first one, I think, was 500 TR 0638 (ex-Monteverdi). I need your help identifying the other one, which is a 750 Monza. Here is what I have :

1959, June 28, Mont Ventoux hillclimb
driven by de Siebenthal, n° 148, photo in Louche's "Mont Ventoux" p239

1959 July 26, 2 Heures d'Auvergne, Charade
driven by de Siebenthal, n° 40, photo in Louche's "Un siecle de grands pilotes francais", p98

In 1962, the car was driven in hillclimbs by swiss driver Jean-Claude Rudaz (photo in Treml's "Die Aussenseiter" p112).

My likely candidates for this car are 0486 (ex-Monteverdi again) and 0548 which seems to have vanished at the end of 1956 when Daetwyler was finished with it.

What do you guys think ?

 

It is 0446 (0556MD) ex Picard 1954.

 

we need pictures!! 0446(0556) (a 735 S, by the way) will be immediately identifiable by two air ducts mounted on the cowl in front of the windscreen. After Picard, the 735 went to the Swiss deGraffenried who raced it at the Grand Pix of Venezuela in 11/55. We have not tracked the car past its next owner, Canonica. It is entirely possible that it went to another Swiss.

 

This photo is from 1957 when the car was driven by the swiss Gerard Pittet. Copyright unknown.
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This one is from the Mt Ventoux HC 1959 with Siebenthal finishing second. Copyright Maurice Louche!
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nice shots

 

As 0556MD

http://www.barchetta.cc/english/All.Ferraris/Detail/0556MD.500Mondial.htm

As 0446M

http://www.barchetta.cc/english/All.Ferraris/Detail/0446MD.500Mondial.htm



_J

 

Leonard - your heart is in the right place, but this is one of those examples where barchetta cannot be trusted; it has the histories on these two cars hopelessly confused and both are incomplete. Probably the most critical error, in addition to omitting its two most famous races, the GP of Venezuela and the 12 Hours of Sebring where 0556(0446)MD won its class at both, is the note that the 500 Mondial came back to the factory and was "restamped" to 0556. This is incorrect - the car left the factory as "0446" to assist Picard in his tax/carnet manuever w/ the 735, even though the 500 was built in between 0554 and 0558.
I am attaching the complete history of 500 Mondial 0556(0446)MD along with a photo that I have posted before on this forum of deGraffenreid's 735, 0446(0556)M, chasing Castellotti in the factory-entry 500, 0556(0446)MD at the GP of Venezuela (11/55). You can see the air ducts on the 735 in its Swiss livery, red w/ a white stripe.

I also note in Boudewijn's second photo of the 735 in 1959, the modified nose (larger opening), the addition of a passenger door, and the new exit for the exhaust in front of the rear wheel. Compare the nose to the 1955 and 1957 pictures.
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Well, point clearly made! On a side, the name Leonard Zelig is a joke: http://youtube.com/watch?v=itwxO3MqjEw



_J

 

I find the way these numbers are listed one of the most confusing things in the whole world of Ferrari. I fail to see the logic why the number that appears on title is put into parenthesis. It doesn't make it any easier that people using this numbering system seem first to have used it the other way round... and then switched it. Best wishes, Kare

 

Kare - when we wrote the first of the Mondial/Monza articles in Cavallino back in 91, we used the convention that you are referring to for cars that Ferrari "re-stamped" or switched for its customers - where the actual number stamped on the car was followed by the number that it SHOULD have worn for its sequence of manufacture. But for the past ten years or so, we have followed the convention of the other leading historians - the logic being that the first number reflects the correct placement of the car in time for when it was manufactured and the second number being a fiction, bearing no relation to when the car was made.

The second and now prevailing convention makes sense to me, since I think of these cars on a time continuum. I always refer to our Mondial as "0556" in conversation because it is the 5th of the 8 (or so) Series II Mondials and was made in early May 1955. Even though it has a telaio plate that says "0446" it clearly has no relation to the cars that were made in 1954 in either its technology or sequence of manufacture.

Bryan

 

I still find it very confusing as you have to know who is writing and what system he prefers to use. It only gets worse when there are three numbers involved. Best wishes, Kare

 

Thank you very much for all this. As an aside, does someone have info on the fate of 0548 after Daetwyler ? In 1957, he ran a Maserati 200 SI on the european hills.

 

Car was broken up in 1957.

 

From several contradicting sources (both internet, books, Cavallino) I collected the following list of races where 0446 (0556) MD MIGHT have participated:

12 Sept 1954 Tour de France Picard / Baraquet, #244, DNF
10 Oct 1954 Coupe du Salon de l' Auto Picard,?,4th AO
25 Oct 1954 Gran Premio de Penha Rhin, Picard, #22, 1st AO
27 Feb 1955 Agadir Grand Prix, Maret, #8, DNF (accident)
13 Mar 1955 Grand Prix de Dakar, Maret,?, 8th AO
17 Apr 1955 Coupes de Paris, Picard, ?, 3th AO and 1st in class
8 May 1955 4 Heures du Forez, Picard, #1. 3rd AO
6 Nov 1955 Gran Premio de Venezuela, de Graffenried, #16, ?
18 Aug 1956 Gran Premio di Pescara, Munaron, ?, 3rd AO
30 Sept 1956 Circuito di Sassari, Munaron, ?, 2nd AO
21 Oct 1956 Gran Premio di Roma, Munaron, ?, 8th AO
22 Sep 1957 Mont Ventoux hillclimb, Pittet, ?, ?
28 Jun 1959 Mont Ventoux hillclimb, de Siebenthal, #148, 2nd AO
26 Jul 1959 2 Heures d'Auvergne, de Siebenthal, #40, 4th AO

Any truth in this list?

 

In 1956 it was driven by Nogueira. He had a severe accident with the car in the GP do Porto Boavista on June 17.

 

8 May 1955 4 Heures du Forez, Picard, #1. 2nd AO. It's the Ferrari 750 Monza s/n 0508M

 

I don't have the database in front of me, but I believe that de Graffenried got the 735 from Ferrari the first week or so of May 55 and ran it either that June or July at Bari before running it in the GP of Venezuela in 11/55.

I have the 735 then going direct to Pittet. The 1956 races with Munaron I believe he ran in his 500 MDTR and not 0446(0556)M.

Also agree that Picard's May 55 run at Forez AND April 55 Coupes de Paris were in 0508M and not in the 735

 

I think this is the car discussed in this thread... The photo shows the car in front of Carrozzeria Fantuzzi in Modena in the 70's. Pierre Bardinon (Mas-du-Clos collection) was the owner at this time. The car is still in France.
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