I read an upcoming book where it mentioned von Trips had a road Ferrari. I don't recall this getting much publicity, not unlike Peter Collins whose open 250GT was retrofitted with disc brakes, supposedly inspiring Enzo to finally use discs (or was Ferrari using discs on GP cars at the time Collins got his road car retrofitted?) Anyhow I am imagining that von Trips had an open car too, but does anyone recall? And what happened to it after von Trips was killed? I don't think he had children so it couldn't have gone to them. I recall Phil Hill, his team-=mate, showing a picture of von Trips castle years later and it was all overgrown with weeds...
I only know of one Ferrari that the owner told me was owned by Phil Hill and that was one that would have pre-dated the year Hill was on the Ferrari F1 team though he may have owned it years later in Calif. I think it was a viganle bodied car, red, might have been a coupe,it had sort of Buick style metal ovals on the side for heat dissipation. The owner who told me it was Phil Hill's was Rick Busenkell, of the Camarillo area, who worked for Petersen Publishing in the early '70s. So if nobody remembers Phil Hill owning a Ferrari while he was driving for Ferrari, I wonder why he didn't want to drive around town, or was it a case of vonTrips and Collins having the money and Hill not having the money so only von Trips and Collins got road Ferraris. It's hard to believe the automaker would charge the drivers on their own F1 team for a road car but, hey, we're talking EF here...
I have a vague recollection of reading an article (Road & Track?) where Jody Scheckter said that he had to pay for his road Ferrari.
Those perks are negotiated at contract time. Some drivers stipulate use of, or ownership of road cars. Others include ownership of race machines.
I think that you're referring to Phil's 225S? Ex Ron Pinto? Phil drove a Peugeot 404 on the road during his career, followed by an Alfa-Romeo Giulia T.I. Super. Post-racing, Phil had a 6.3 Mercedes, and then a Lexus LS 400.
Phil was an introvert and an ascetic (and I don't mean this as anything other than a personal observation). He told me once that he lugged a reel-to-reel stereo around the circuits when he was racing so that he could listen to classical music in his hotel rooms, as he got lonely. Phil was not one to chase skirts around hotel bars. I think that his choice of daily-driver cars reflected his personality. [Funny story about Phil's LS400- it came with a factory Nakamichi stereo, and when Phil took delivery of the car he drove around his neighborhood in Santa Monica for a while listening to the stereo. Eventually, the police pull him over- apparently a neaigbor thought Phil (in a brand-new Lexus!) may have been a burglar casing the neighborhood for a future burglary...]
a lot of F1 drivers, both then and now, tend to drive low key cars as their daily drivers, the main reasons being that they are less likely to be noticed by the public when they are out and about and, their daily job is driving one of the fastest and most uncomfortable vehicles in the world, so they'd rather have a bit of comfort, plus, driving fast on the public roads is a bit like slow motion to them anyway.
Jackie Stewart once commented that he felt safer on track than on public roads and preferred being chauffeured.
Jackie was never one for taking unnecessary risks in life and trust Me when I say that drivers in the UK are one of the most unpredictable creatures on the planet!.
If I hadn't spent a lifetime driving here in Boston I'd believe you I've driven throughout the UK and our drivers are worse. Its the irrational unpredictability that give our locals their "charm". Happy New Year
Now that's just plain scary! A Happy New Year to You too Sir and My apologies for being away so long!.
Welcome home. Boston is scarier than Manhattan and some third world nations I've been to. To make matters worse our pedestrians seem to be part lemming.
Phil Hill drove a Peugot 404 in his later years with Ferrari. But in the early years he bought a series of Volkswagons which he then sold in the US. Very thrifty and practical.
Maybe I can answer my own question as to why Phil Hill , unlike Collins and von Trips, didn't toodle about in a road Ferrari. I have since found a magazine with a 1957 interview that reveals that he got a lot of tickets when he drove the Alfa 2.9 around , apparently that being a pre-war sports car that is now worth over $1 millon but was then just a beater sports car. So he told the interviewer in 1957 that he switched to a beetle because he could shift all he wanted and no one noticed. So I am concluding that somehow the glamor of being recognized as aa race driver was not his goal when he was not at the track (and maybe even when he was at the track)
Blitzer, I would LOVE to read that article from 1957. Mind sharing the publication and date? Thank, Thanks.
In 1961 the US Air Force Skyblazer aerobatic team gave Taffy a ride in the two seat F-100F Super Sabre. This included buzzing the Nurburgring straight at very low altitude. He arrived at Bitburg Air Base near Trier, Germany. His personal car was a green 250 PF Cab. I recall it was British racing green. He was also accompanied by a bus load of German press. While Taffy was aloft; I led the press in a walk-around the F-100C explaining various bits. They were a serious lot, particularly a woman reporter. Standing by the engine tailpipe; I told here with a straight face: this is where baby jets come from. Taffy invited the six Skyblazer pilots to his castle near Horrem. It was surround by a large wide moat so large there was a small island on the moat with a sauna bath, which we used. Ulf Norinder was also visiting Taffy and we did go kart racing in the drive in from of the castle. Some of us drove the PF Cab. I recall asking Taffy if it were difficult to maintain and his answer was that it required virtually no maintenance. Photos: me helping Taffy with the parachute. me on the right discussing his PF Cab, the second two were taken at the 1961 German Gran Prix by Count Giovanni Volpi. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
There is also S.I Cabriolet s/n 0735, may have been originally owned by von Trips but was owned for decades by his girlfriend, Angela Muenemann. She may have been the original owner, at some point it too acquired disc brakes. When owned by BC, the car was converted to RHD. At that time the inside plug engine was swapped with an outside plug engine. Enterprising folks on the continent constructed a fabulous LHD S.1 Cab with drum brakes around the original engine.
