01C or 02C The first ?

Sorry, but which car do you mean?

A few words about numberings and renumberings.
The first 2 cars - #01C and #02C - are still clear and easy, where the “C” stands for “Corsa” (competition).
In September 1947 they started a new system, they switched to 3 digits, and they splitted the numbers in even ones for competition cars, and odd ones for road cars (stradale).
The first competition cars of this series had been #002C and #004C, but the series then was switched to the “I” ending (#006I to #016I).
The “stradale series” simultaneously started with #001S (Allemano bodied Spyder), #003S (Allemano bodied Coupé), and #005S (Touring bodied Coupé). The first 2 cars had been designated “Sport”, but from #005S onwards the road cars officially had been named “Inter”.
This always creates confusion with the “I”-ending of the Spyder Corsas, but the “I” stands for “Internazionale” based on the “Formule Internationale” or in Italian “Formula Internazionale” of the new sports car category. Why Ferrari designated the road cars “Inter” is still a mystery for me.
The change of the Spyder Corsa designation from “C” to “I” between numbers 004 and 006 came along with starting construction of the new monoposto prototype, as somebody decided that “C” for “Corsa” should apply only for real racing cars. The Grand Prix / F1 prototype then was numbered #02C, and the following cars #04C to #12C. The designation of real works cars (F1 and F2) was a purely internal one, and didn't followed the 3- and later 4-digit rule. Only in winter 1950/51 (nearly) all ex-Scuderia cars sold to privateers received 4-digit telaios.
So we have 2 x #02C plus another #002C, but all 3 cars are not identical.
Later in 1948 they changed the system again by switching to 4-digit numbers, starting with #0002M (where the “M” stands for “Mille Miglia”). The change for the road cars came only 2 years later, they simply added another zero to the number.

Renumberings had been common at Ferrari, because old Enzo always made his customers believe that they get new cars. However, my personal believe is that the word “renumbered” is used much too often in actual car histories. As said already, there is some evidence that #01C was reborn as #010I, but the “#02C to #020I” case for me is doubtful.

 

Hi
Thanks again. I'm asking about the car Christies will be auctioning at Pebble, 02C.

 

Napolis,

According to the pervious post the car in the Forbes article was originally 002 SC but I heard that it was 020I and therefore 02C. This is a car with "stories".

Does anyone have pictures of what are believed to be 01C and 02C in their current sn/configuration?

Art S.

 

I wonder if the Mille Miglia 1948 car and the Pescara car have completely different noses. Compare the pics. In the book Red Arrows by Marzotto the 1948 car is listed as #020I also.
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Boudewijn, shame on me, you're absolutely right of course...! Should look into my files before posting, and not writing hands-free. However, this does not change the fact that the 1948 car which is claimed to be #02C is different to the 1947 Modena car. Only appearance in between known to me is the Targa Florio 1948, but unfortunately I have no photos of the car from this event. I also do not know the reason for Cortese's DNF there. Accident? Then a new nose for the MM would make sense, otherwise the mystery remains.

I do not believe the #020I story for various reasons. I have learned during my research that not all what has been written in the past decades is correct, including some articles or books published by some of the "big shots". The story is that in 1949 Cornacchia bought #02C - renumbered as #020I - as a rolling chassis, and ordered a berlinetta body at Touring. The story later appeared in another version, saying that the renumbering had been done by Ferrari already in early 1948. Well, first of all there was no reason for Ferrari for renumbering a car as long as it was in service for the Scuderia. Cheating yourself? Unlikely. The last Spyder Corsa - having the telaio #016I - was delivered to Luigi Chinetti in June 1948, so using the number 020I already months earlier? And even if so, renumbering to "I" ending is unlikely, because this designation was exclusively used for the SC series. Also renumbering when sold to Cornacchia in 1949 is unlikely, because if it was in fact only a rolling chassis Cornacchia clearly could see that this is no new car. And even if so, why using a number from an old series, and not one of the actual M/MM series? And why rolling chassis only, where was the bodywork? Ferrari was always short on cash, he sold each car as soon as there was no internal use for it, so it is rather unlikely that he sold #02C only one year after it has been put out of service.
The main reason however for my doubts is the fact that #018I never existed. In the 70's a tipo 166 with barchetta bodywork appeared, having no chassis number, but the rear axle was stamped "018I". For some years it was believed that this was the "very last" Spyder Corsa, so why not another "very very last" one? #018I then turned out to be wrong, most probably this was #012I which at a certain point received axle #018I as a spare. Although this is common knowledge in the scene, #018I obviously is still alive. Sometimes one can read "#018I was never completed", but one can even find race logs for this mystery car...! Fact is that #016I was the very last Spyder Corsa, although components had been manufactured with numbers up to #022I or even #024I. However, cars with these numbers never had been built, because the "dual-purpose" SC series was substituted by the Mille Miglia and the F2 monoposto. Parts with these numbers of course could be found, engine #022I e.g. was used for the 166 MM #0002M, and the rear axle 018I for the SC #012I. Possibly the Cornacchia car has engine or gear box stamped 020I, but even if so, spare parts make no complete car. And the fact that "02C" rather easily could be restamped to "020I" is no proof that such renumbering in fact has happened.
It's rather strange that the #018I mystery is kept alive over the decades, although such car is not claimed to be existing today. But without #018I it's hard to believe in any #020I...

 

What do you think the real story of the car that Christies is auctioning is?

 

Wait my friend, only one piece at a time....!

 

@ Napolis & Brian

The car which will be auctioned by Christie’s is #002C and not #02C. Basically it’s the car which first appeared at Modena 1947 in the hands of Franco Cortese, and later that year won the Torino GP with Raymond Sommer.

Interesting the typical “auction description”: "founding Ferrari", the earliest complete Ferrari supplied to a paying customer and, in all probability, the earliest surviving competition Ferrari.
Well, indeed this was the first Ferrari sold to a paying customer (was there any customer who did not pay for his Ferrari...?). Earliest surviving competition Ferrari? Well, if #01C in fact is #010I with new bodywork, then this is wrong. And frankly spoken, what is a “founding Ferrari”??

The following text is copied from another source, can’t remember, possibly the auction article from Gstaad 2002.

His winning car was subsequently sold by Mr Ferrari during the winter months of 1947-48 to Gabriele Besana – heir to a Milan confectionery fortune – who thereby became Ferrari’s first private customer. Both ‘Gaby’ Besana and his elder brother, Count Soave Besana – who had competed with minor success pre-war – had been attracted by the notion of racing these raucous new V12-engined cars, and Gaby Besana wanted his immediately in order to ship it out to the forthcoming Argentine Temporada race series, in South America. It seems quite likely that his new car – ‘002-C’ – was actually shipped in its original 1.9-litre Tipo 159-engined form, since V12 designer Giaochino Colombo did not join the Maranello company full-time until January 1949, and enlargement of the power unit to 2-litre Tipo 166 form then became his first task. Since Besana and ‘002-C’ seem to have arrived late in Argentina there may just have been time to equip the car with the first 2-litre engine, but this seems doubtful. When the Turin-winning Tipo 159-specification was replaced by the latest Tipo 166 ‘2-litre’ – the cylinder bore was further increased by just one millimetre from 59mm to 60mm, which then combined with the already lengthened 58mm stroke to displace 1,992cc – or 166cc per cylinder, hence the model re-designation.

This car’s ‘002-C’ chassis serial was the basis of a new Ferrari competition car identification system, nine of the initial batch using open-wheeled Sigaro-style bodywork in a modified and tidied form known thereafter as the Spider Corsa ‘slipper-body’, with outrigged cycle-type wings as seen here. This group of eight early cars were identified by three-digit even-numbers only serials running from ‘002-C’ (for Competizione) to ‘016-I’ (for Internazionale, betraying their constructor’s commercial ambitions), leaving ‘018-I’ uncompleted. This group would be rounded-off as late as January, 1950, when what may have been one of the very earliest 1947 prototype chassis frames emerged with entirely new Berlinetta Le Mans coachwork by Touring of Milan, under the serial ‘020-I’.

Meanwhile, this landmark car in Ferrari history offered here had been sold officially on January 19, 1948, to Gabriele Besana (by which time it should already have been on the high seas, en route to Buenos Aires) while a virtually identical sister car – also re-engined in Tipo 166 form and similarly based upon one of the 1947 factory prototype chassis – was formally sold to his elder brother, Count Soave Besana on March 16, 1948.

Between the factory Certificato d’Origine dates of these two cars, a uniquely full-bodied Spider Competizione with chassis serial ‘001S’ – from yet another parallel serial numbering system – and clothed in bodywork attributed to Allemano was ‘originated’ for the Besana brothers’ friend, Bruno Sterzi, on February 2 while an Allemano-bodied coupé emerged for the works inventory on February 7.

Thus, while only two, maybe three prototype Ferrari cars had been completed and run publicly during 1947, total production through 1948 totals perhaps only a further eight cars. In contemporary times, the new breed of Ferrari V12s were rare jewels indeed.

The Besana brothers’ purchase agreement with Ferrari for the new model 166 cars had painted a glowing picture of factory support offering regular upgrades for the cars to enable the brothers to compete adequately against Ferrari’s own projected works team entries. As had been the case with the pre-war Scuderia Ferrari, these customer cars would be maintained and race-prepared by Mr Ferrari’s staff in his own premises in Modena and at Maranello.

Gabriele Besana’s Argentine trip proved abortive. He practised for only one of the Temporada races, in Buenos Aires’s Palermo Park, but did not start, perhaps due to some mechanical problem. He was photographed in the car during the Temporada series rounds at Palermo Park. Certainly this unsupercharged 2-litre was at a disadvantage against very much more powerful supercharged Grand Prix car entries from Maserati and Alfa Romeo. However, it would appear that he could well have made the trip as an independent, which prompted some conflict with ‘official’ Italian party interests organised by prominent Italian journalist Corrado Filippini, in whose contemporary reports published in ‘Auto Italiana’ magazine the presence of Besana and this first Ferrari in private hands seems to be ignored. Contemporary Argentine reports in the journal ‘El Grafico’, have journalist Ricardo Lorenzo "Borocotó" describing Besana’s Ferrari as a ‘no show’ at the start of the second Palermo Park race, held four weeks after the Temporada opener there. Perhaps this first Ferrari in Argentina had simply arrived too late?…

In any case, on April 11, 1948, Gabriele Besana qualified 10th for the Circuito Internacional de Interlagos, Brazil. While ‘002-C’ was shipped back to Italy, it would appear its owner flew, in order to share brother Soave’s sister Ferrari ‘004-C’ in that year’s Mille Miglia. Both cars – wearing the brothers’ ‘Gruppo Inter’ team emblems - then competed widely during the 1948 Italian racing season. Their family team’s greatest success was achieved on May 30 that year, by visiting Brazilian driver Francesco ‘Chico’ Landi when he drove ‘002-C’ to outright victory in the Bari Grand Prix. By that time – May 30, 1948 – this car featured minor modifications including a new grille with starting-handle aperture, mirror, additional bonnet straps, also certainly the full-sized 166 engine. The Besanas also achieved a second place on the Posillipo circuit at Naples, third in the gruelling Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti and fourth on the fantastic public road circuit at Lake Garda. This car also featured at Mantua, Pescara and Florence.

Ending that season ‘002-C’ was retained and received the fashionable new ‘egg-crate’ radiator grille treatment, while Count Soave’s sister ‘004-C’ was sold to Franco Mosters. In 1949, Gabriele Besana then shared this car with the experienced Ferrari works driver Franco Cortese – under race number ‘630’ – in the classical Mille Miglia 1,000-mile road race.

Thereafter ‘Gaby’ Besana sought a buyer for his Ferrari 166 Spider Corsa, and in 1950 it appears that ‘002-C’ was campaigned by Luigi de Filippis – brother of that great lady racing driver of the 1950s, Maria Theresa de Filippis. The car was sold during that year to Renato Nocentini, the Florence Ferrari dealer, whose Garage Rotunda business had its – presumably rather tired – open-wheeled slipper bodywork replaced by a handsome new wheel-enveloping body shell fashioned by Rocco Motto. Incidentally, a very similar looking Spider Corsa body to ‘002-C’s discarded panelling was used by Clemente Biondetti on his Jaguar-engined Ferrari special…

Nocentini then found a buyer for the car offered here in visiting American Dr Samuel Scher of New York, who test-drove it around the Tuscan roads and was evidently impressed by its performance. He completed his purchase and imported the car into the USA, where it was registered as a 1953 model. Soon after, however, he decided to sell ‘002-C’, engaging Irwin Goldschmidt of Long Island, NY, as broker. He found a customer in Frank Adams, who contracted Bill Wonder to rebuild the 2-litre V12 engine, but after his acquisition Mr Adams investigated the car more fully and complained to Irwin Goldschmidt that it was not “a current 1953 model”. This led to the threat of litigation which Mr Goldschmidt subsequently settled out of court.

Don Vitale of Waterbury, Connecticut, became ‘002-C’s next owner, ultimately selling it on to Richard O’Hare of Westfield, Massachusetts, reportedly for $3,500.

Mr O’Hare drove the restored car to attend the Bridgehampton ‘Double-500’ race meeting, where he was invited by the Ferrari Club of America to demonstrate this early 166 on circuit between races. During this race Mr O’Hare met Ferrari authority Stan Nowak, and their meeting led eventually to Mr Nowak acquiring ‘002-C’ for the same price that Mr O’Hare had paid for it years before.

In 1968 Stan Nowak showed the car at the Ferrari Club of America’s Annual Meet at Greenwich, Connecticut, and in 1969 prominent Ferrari aficionado and collector Carl Bross agreed to purchase ‘002-C’ and to have Mr Nowak restore it fully to its original Besana-period Tipo 166 Spider Corsa form. This work was entrusted to Del’s Auto Body of Locust Valley, New York, and the sister ex-Besana car ‘004-C’ was loaned by its contemporary owner as a working pattern. Sadly, before work could be completed, Carl Bross died and further work was suspended.

Upon settlement of the Bross Estate in 1972, Anthony Bamford – now Sir Anthony – of the British JCB company based in Staffordshire, England, purchased ‘002-C’s bare chassis, engine, mechanicals and all related components together with the rest of the Bross Ferrari collection. He subsequently also acquired another Ferrari 166 Spider Corsa – serial ‘010-I’ - from the John Willment Estate. Inspection of the two sister cars led to work being concentrated upon this latter machine, while ‘002-C’ was stored until – through Stan Nowak – new buyers were found in Bill Zunkel of New York, USA, and David Cohen of Vancouver, British Columbia. Ferrari 166 ‘002-C’ was subsequently shown at the 1983 Pebble Beach Concours where it won the Charles Chayne Special Award for demonstrating the outstanding technical design of its era. Subsequently, ‘002-C’ was further restored at SSR Co of East Setauket, Long Island. On August 26, 1994, the finished car was presented at the Concorso Italiano at Quail Lodge, Carmel, California, and on August 28 it appeared at Pebble Beach.

In 1995 ‘002-C’ was then sold to David and Ginny Sydorick of Beverly Hills, California, who subsequently showed it in the Cavallino Classics and in 1997 it featured – most appropriately – in Ferrari’s 50th Jubilee celebrations in Rome and at Maranello and Modena, after having starred in the Mille Miglia Retro driven by none other than Ferrari’s 1961 Formula 1 World Champion Driver, Phil Hill.

Mr Hill wrote of this car in ‘Road & Track’ magazine: “I loved these early Ferrari V12s. An important aspect of the Ferrari engine is its multiple stages of performance. They are beautifully flexible from way down in the revs where you have a nice little power band for any kind of pottering around. The more revs you use, the more torque and power are available. If the three Weber carburettors are adjusted well, the engines aren’t fussy…”

John Fitch – only American driver to serve with the World Championship-winning Mercedes-Benz factory team of 1955 – also recalled how George Rand won at Bridgehampton, Long Island, in June 1949, driving Briggs Cunningham’s first Ferrari to be raced in America: “The Ferrari was marvellous. Exquisite. Twelve cylinders in this tiny car with beautiful brake drums. And it sounded so wonderful, whirring like a big sewing machine…”.

As ‘Road & Track’ confirmed: “The Ferrari went out and won that race…and then the hearts of many American enthusiasts…”.

Today the car is very familiar throughout the Ferrari world. It has been featured, as above, in such respected journals as ‘Road & Track’, ‘Cavallino’ and this month’s ‘Classic Cars’ and is offered here in fully restored and proven running order. It is accompanied by a large history file and is UK road registered. Swiss import taxes are also paid.

It is not known to me how much of #002C today is still original. The bodywork clearly is replica, and it is known that Bamford used a lot of the original components to complete his #010I. The remains he sold back to Stan Nowak, who built a new car around them.
The Nowak work was resonable, representing craftmanship quality of the original period, but the later concours restoration by SSR in my humble opinion is “over the top”.

 

Mr. Müller,

I would like to say that I am really enjoying reading your posts. Thank you for your insightful analysis.

In an article I read several years ago, it mentioned that the chassis stamp on the car in the Forbes article was depressed (knocked in) back-filled with lead and then re-stamped. Years later, when the fill was removed, the old chassis number 020I was visible. Is this true, and if so, how does this fit into the story?

Sincerely,

Art S.

 

Thanks!

 

I only know this story about #010I, where during servicing a piece of lead carrying the telaio number got loose, and under it the original number #01C appeared. If this would be the only proof that 010I was 01C before, frankly spoken, I would doubt it. But there are some other indices and criteria which back this story.

 

Thank you for the clarification. I must have confused the cars.

Art S.

 

Spotted a mistake in my posting # 24:

And to make the story even more confusing, what car did they enter for Cortese at Pescara 1948? Righetti’s Modena 1947 car was upgraded during the winter to full 2 liter 166 (60 x 58 mm) specification, and used with the same bodywork for the 1948 Targa Florio (3/4 April), and the 1948 Mille Miglia (1/2 May), but for Modena (15 August) Cortese drove this car:

Of course it must read "but for Pescara (15 August)..."

 

Michael:

Do you have any information on the car in the front row middle on the picture below, between the Ferrari and Auto Avio 815?


http://axos.nl/retrorace/ferrari/Ferrari159S-02C-Cortese-PescaraStart-1947-1.jpg

 

Here is a link to the museum of the man who owns the Auto Avio 815, and a bunch of other wonderful Italian cars:

http://www.righinimario.it/seconda_museo.htm

 

@ Gilles

#01C and #02C (as roadster) never appeared together, which makes research indeed somewhat difficult.
Historic research does not require a specific mental preference for the object, only some kind of interest in the topic itself. In fact it is better to do such research without "red colored glasses" in order to keep neutrality and reality. Although I researched the Spyder Corsas rather detailed, I have very little knowledge about their successor as sports car, the 166/195 MM, because I concentrated myself on the formula route successors, the 125GP and 166F2.

@ dretceterini

Sorry, no idea about that car.

 

re: 012I - Apparently, '40 0012M history gets mixed up, too.
"other race history listed in other source is not correct and mixed with 012I etc..."

 

#008I and #012I both had been works cars. After the 1948 season #008I had been sold to Roberto Vallone, and #012I to Giovanni Bracco (obviously already in fall 1948).

Until recently the Vallone car was documented as #008I, seen here below at the 1949 MM.

He later sold it to Emilio Romano, seen here at the Nürburgring Eifelrennen in 1951.

After the 1952 MM driven by Ottavio Guarducci the car disappeared.

Recently a recreation appeared, reportedly #0012M, with bodywork similar to that of Vallone’s #008I, and the statement that #008I has been renumbered to #0012M when sold to Vallone. I have no further information about the background, so I will not comment this. However, the other 2 works SC - #012I and #014I - had [not] been renumbered when sold by the Scuderia to the privateers Bracco resp. Bianchetti.

In fact there is some mixing up in race logs between #008I and #012I, including #0012M as per newest data, but I’m lacking the time right now to sort these out.

 

Michael
Do the original race logs on these cars still exist?

 

???
Race logs are always the result of historic research.

 

I was refering to the diary that Mr. Ferrari kept on the S.P.A. cars.
Best

 

To my best knowledge there's no such diary in the Ferrari archive, and frankly spoken, I doubt that something in this direction was kept. In those days life was not as bureaucratic as it is today, there was no FIA car passport as we know today, cars had been entered for the races by filling in the entry form which only required make and engine capacity. Even no type was required, and I do not know a single entry form where the chassis number had been given. Thus most period entry lists and race programmes show only "Ferrari 1500", not more.

 

Thanks! I had heard of such a diary but never knew if it was folk lore. At what point did the race entry sheets become more accurate or complete?

 

No idea, at least not during my period of motorsport interest, which goes up to the early 50's only.