P4 replica in Argentina

Does any body know anything about this car ? http://juliusracing.com.ar/Trabajos%20especiales/coches/coche_ferrari.htm
On the preceding page, it says:
Ferrari 330 - P4
Este auto fue construido en el taller "El Vikingo" en el cual participamos de la mecánica, electricidad y suspensión.

which (with a little help from Altavista-Babelfish) translates as:

This car was constructed in the factory 'The Viking' in which we (Julius Racing) participated in the mechanicals, electrics and suspension.

Tried emailing Julio, the website's owner - Got no reply.

Or can anybody identify that DOHC V-8 that it's been fitted with ?

 

I did a little reasearch about it.

The Viking, is a shop that specialises on replicars, that P4 is for a client who wanted to have one just like the real one. Apparently the most expensive order the shop has ever had.

other than that i have no technical detail. my guess is that engine is some chevy or ford. since the website talks about having those for 1/4 mile. just a guess.

george.

 

Did you actually make contact with 'The Viking', George, or is your statement (although likely correct) just purely conjecture ? I'd like to contact 'The Viking' myself, to see what I can find out about the car and its owner. Already tried directory enquiries for both Buenos Aires and Cordoba, without success. Any idea where their 'factory' is ?

Not such a good (second) guess, George. My feeling is that it's something Italian - if not a Ferrari V-8. So far I've managed to eliminate such likely possibilies as Alfa Romeo (Montreal) and Lamborghini (Jalpa/Urraco/Silhouette) ....

 

I think I head of this car from an Argentine friend who used to race F1 in the 50s. I think he told me it has a 308 engine in it.

I am going to Buenos Aires in December, if you give me more info I will hunt around down there & see whats what

 

LOTS of "replicars" being built today in Argentina...everything from Bugattis to Alfa TZs....

 

William - Looking at that photo in the link above again, I think you may well be right about the engine being a 308 V-8. It was the black cam covers and twin distributors (on a carburetted engine) that initially threw me.

Sorry to say that I have found out no more than is on the website: http://www.juliusracing.com.ar. Have sent an email to 'Julio', a week or so ago, but not heard anything back. If he does reply, I'll keep you informed ....

 

It wouldnt be by any chance, Jose Froilan Gonzales, the first man to score a victory for Ferrari.

and as for you P4replica, I just did a search in yahoo argentina, and there are two articles in "el clarin" about the place. The owner is named rey, but there is no address or phone number. sorry

George.

 

George.
Thanks for your help. You kind of put me on the right track. It turns out that Fernando Rey is an employee of 'El Vikingo'. 'El Vikingo' is in fact owned by Roberto Macnie (AKA 'Mac' - an ex-pat Scotsman living in Argentina). Julius Vassallo is an ex-employee of 'El Vikingo', and has now set up his own body shop - Julius Racing. The 'El Vikingo' company is located in Buenos Airies. I've got an email address and phone numbers for Roberto - I'll let you (and William H.) know what transpires ....

 

WOW, That's Great!

I though this was a dead end.

Thank you for letting us know Paul.

George.

 

Far from it, George ...
A few (bounced) emails, thanks to AOL's un-co-operative email servers, followed by a couple of rather expensive (but worthwhile) phone calls to Argentina produced this reply today:

Dear Paul,

Andrés at Pur Sang copied me on your e-mail exchange re P4 replicas.

Yes, between ´92 and ´97 I was involved in building a P4 at my "Vikingo" garage where we specialized in building Vintage & Classic cars out of bags of bits and pieces. In other words, a sort of last-hope-for-lost-causes.

The P4 was built on an aluminium monocoque tub from a local sports racer of the late sixties, built by Clemar Bucci, a racing driver of Fangio and Gonzalez´s days. The tub was lengthened about 3 inches so as to match the P4´s wheelbase. We then installed the 308 GTB engine in line with the chassis, and adapted it to a ZF, 5 speed, transaxle (from a Pantera, I believe). We also had to cut bits off the Ferrari engine block to be able to fit a fabricated oil pan, as the Ferrari gearbox acts as the 308´s oil sump, and this had been removed when we placed the engine in line.

We then mocked up the body with 5 mm wire until we were happy with the shape, working from photographs, and my memory of David Piper´s P4 with which I had become intimately acquainted at the Sebring Historic races in 1981 (when we were living Stateside).

The first thing we had made was the windscreen, we made the mould to shape this enormous piece of glass. This sounds very grand, but is not actually.

With the windscreen on hand, we built the car round it in 1.5 mm aluminium sheet welded with TIG. At some point we had Ferrari centre-lock wheels made by Ruedas Argentinas in a diameter and width suitable to modern tyres 15" x 10" if memory serves. Although smaller and skinnier than the originals, they look suitably menacing. We had the three eared knock-offs cast in bronze and machined them ourselves. We also made up the hubs to suit.

All this took for ever, as at times we were stuck for months - waiting for the windscreen - for the tyres, etc. I guess the car took about 3 years to build over a 5 or 6 year period. Another complication was myself having a stroke in ´94 which slowed me down a mite !

I have pictures of the car which I can scan, I hope, and I have been meaning to see the car painted for some time, so I´ll use this excuse to visit the owner (who also had a stroke a couple of years ago) who lives on the other side of town.

This in a nutshell is the story of the Argentine P4.!!!

Best regards, Mac

 

William.
The car is in Buenos Aries. If you are interested, once I have them to hand, I'll PM you the owner's contact details - if you want to have a look while you're there.

 

Wow Thank you so much Paul.

Please post if you get some pictures,

I would love to see that car painted too.


George.

 

Yesterday, I recieved another email from Robert Macnie (El Vikingo) - see extracts from it below. He also kindly sent me a few photographs of the completed car, that he took, which I have posted here: http://public.fotki.com/p4replicas/p4_replicas_global/

Yesterday afternoon Phyllis and I visited Luis Caldarola at his Alfa Romeo garage in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires, the first time I have seen him since his 2002 stroke, and also the first time I have seen his/our P4 painted.

The car looks very good with its "Rosso Corsa" paint, and racing numbers, rather unimaginative 330, but good all the same. Luis decided that he could not learn how to change gear left handed, and moved the gearshift from the left pontoon to the centre. Of course now he has had a stroke (on the right side) he will also find changing gear difficult. Anyhow, he is not driving at all yet, and the Ferrari has not turned a wheel in anger since 2002. - A shame, as it should be seen in motion. I got the impression Luis will probably sell the car ....

The car was not in the best place to be photographed, and outside it was raining, so we did the best we could. You have one photo from the rear quarter, one of the engine room, one of the front with me standing next to the driver´s door (lhd) and one with both doors open with Luis sitting on the lh pontoon and I am on the rh passenger pontoon. The car has dual tanks and fillers, as the original ....

You were right about the tyres, 15 inch doughnuts by BF Goodrich, usually found on US pick-up trucks. The front set skinnier than the rear. The wheels did a complete circle from Ferrari to an Argentine sport prototype back to a (replica) Ferrari. In other words in the late sixties somebody building a racing car got hold of a Campagnolo wheel, and had it copied, but using 5 lugs instead of centre lock, we got hold of one of these wheels, ridiculously wide, with Indy tyres, and reversed the process, having them built to take modern tyres, which had to be imported anyway. I have no idea what Ferrari the wheel was from originally, but something from about ´65 - ´68.

The ZF gearbox has been turned upside down in order to get more ground clearance in view of the atrocious state of our roads - this can be done with ZF´s, proof is we did it, and it works !

Luis has no problem being mentioned on the web (in fact I think he would rather like it), his shop phone is 4780-2001, Echeverría 1031, Buenos Aires, and home phone 4791-6371. He does not have e-mail.

 

Thanks for the pics paul.

A shame that the car has not been driven.

Cheers


George.

 

Nice. Thank you. Wonder what else is under that tarp in the back of the shop next to the 330....




Vasco.R

 

Seeing as Luis Caldarola is an Alfa Romeo specialist, and, looking at the roof profile, I would think a 1980's Alfa GTV is a fairly safe bet !

 

Seems like you may be right!