Mondial - no, not mine - a 500!

SUPER!!!

 

Thanks, Russ! We had a good time as well; but you shortchanged yourself 2 cylinders in your first post above!

It's definitely a kick to work on the 500 and then my 365 which we call "the new car."

 

Awesome!

 

nice pics - but please tell me more.

i was told, that the 500 mondial (0556MD) was rebodied and renumbered from a 735s (0446M).
now the pics show the chassis-number (0446MD).

are this two different cars ?

 

here's the story:
Francois Picard, a French privateer and regular Ferrari customer, owned 0446MD, a 735S. He and Paul Maret raced it from approximately fall 1954 through the spring of 1955. At that point, he wanted to trade it in on one of Ferrari's new Series II 500 Mondials.

In the first week of May 1955, the fifth of the ten Series II cars was completed and, instead of being given its sequential s/n of 0556, Ferrari stamped the s/n plate as well as the front frame crossmember and crankcase with "0446MD." This way Mr. Picard would not have appeared to purchase a 'new' car and pay the extremely high French tax that would have been imposed on such a purchase. Picard's former 735S 0446 was then stamped 0556MD and was re-sold by Ferrari to another privateer, the Swiss DeGraffenried. The car pictured above never carried any s/n other than 0446MD.

In an interesting twist, the 735S now numbered 0556MD and the S. II 500 Mondial numbered 0446MD eventually ran in the same race; the Grand Prix of Venezuela in Caracas on November 6, 1955. The 735S, driven by DeGraffenried, came in 3th OA while the S. II 500 Mondial, driven by Schell and Castellotti as a factory entry, came in 5th OA and first in the 2 liter and under class.

We have heard the 'rebody' theory that you were told and know the author. In that theory, the car pictured above was born as a 735S with the tipo 501 chassis but then rebodied, engine replaced with the tipo 111 2 liter, and the front suspension changed from the 501's transverse leaf spring to 2 coil springs. This theory does not pan out for so many reasons I would use up significant band width completely debunking it. The theory you heard does not begin to explain all of the myriad differences between the chassis, gas tank, instrument cluster, etc. on the car pictured in this thread and the 735S now numbered 0556MD. The chassis on 0446MD is CLEARLY a tipo 510 (the chassis for S. II Mondials), and not a 501, because of its curved chassis rails (as opposed to the 501's straight, welded members) and the lack of interstitial structural members intruding into the cockpit. The assembly data sheets of the two cars also clearly track the distinct physical differences between them.

This factory re-stamping for certain customer's tax purposes was not uncommon; the same thing happened with 0424MD and 0564MD.

Because of serial numbering confusion occurring on many older Ferrari racers, several prominent Ferrari historians adhere to the following numbering protocol - first, the proper sequential manufacture number followed in parentheses by the number now carried. The car in this thread is referred to as 0556(0446)MD.
thanks for you interest.