The Crash of the Ferrari Breadvan at a vintage race

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HOME - CLASSIC CARS - THE PRICE OF VINTAGE CAR RACING
The Price of Vintage Car Racing
JULY 11, 2022
Ferrari Breadvan was smacked pretty hard at the LeMans Classic in Europe (see the video at the end). Thank God the driver –31-year-old Austrian Lukas Halusa–survived and no doubt it will be rebuilt. I am especially fond of this car since, when Matt Ettinger owned it, he took me for a spirited ride in it.

The Ferrari Breadvan crashes at Le Mans.



I enjoy seeing the Ferrari Breadvan in action because this was the “bad boy” Ferrari commissioned by Count Volpi, who had a team with two GTOs and was mad at Enzo when his order for a third GTO was cancelled. Enzo Ferrari had refused to sell any more 250 GTOs to Count Volpi, due to Volpi’s hiring of former Ferrari employees at ATS, a startup aimed at competing with Ferrari. Ing. Bizzarrini, who had left Ferrari as a part of the Palace Revolt, engineered the Breadvan out of an old 250 GT SWB fitting a lighter and more aerodynamic body and a six carb dry sump GTO-style engine. It had the potential to thrash the works GTOs but a broken driveshaft put it out. It had been running seventh overall after four hours into the race.

I feel a little guilty wanting to see cars run that are valuable pieces of history that, if smashed, might never be on view again. But in the other hand what if I paid $90 for a race ticket and marveled at a D-type Jag only to find it was built in 2021 and not the Fifties. One time I went to a vintage race in Wisconsin where half the cars in the front couple of rows were replicas and felt conned by that later.

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Ferrari Breadvan With Gary Wales Leaning On The Rear Fender – Photo by Dave Craddock

In music they have “tribute bands” and though I am not sure how the survivors of the original bands get compensated (or do they?) I enjoy seeing them when I know they are a staged remake as it were. But feel cheated at vintage races when I find out later I was seeing fakes/re-creations when I had paid in anticipation of seeing the real thing. It reminds me of when the public discovered that the short lived music group Milli Vanilli didn’t actually do the singing on their 1989 hit record. When they went to perform, the audience found out they couldn’t sing.

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Ferrari 250 Breadvan at the Ferrari Museum – Photo by Mike Gulett – 2013

So I want to see the real thing. Maybe I can liken it to WWII planes. I am old enough to where I’ve seen in person P51 Mustangs perform in tributes. I don’t want to see one built from scratch, as some have, I want to see and hear real ones, with real WWII experience. Maybe someday the FAA will say the originals are too old to fly and that will be the end of an era.

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Photo from Gabriele Spangenberg driving the Ferrari 250 Breadvan on a race track many years ago.

I will understand that, but with vintage cars, I still want to see the real ones. So I will welcome the Breadvan back on the grid but fully understand if it, like the Mercedes 300SLR that won the Mille Miglia, is judged too valuable to be on the grid.

What say you?







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THE AUTHOR: Author of 18 car histories Wyss is now wielding a paintbrush, depicting his favorite classics in oil on canvas. He will be manning his Art & Books booth at Concorso Italiano.







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Ferrari 250 Breadvan Art by Wallace Wyss









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