And How! is a new regular feature in VeloceToday, just right for those stories which are too short or too little or news items that don’t qualify as full length articles.
Ferrari’s Bad Day at Indy
Photos courtesy of Dale LaFollette
Motor Racing June 1956: “The two most interesting entries for Indianapolis in 1956 are the Ferraris. Bardahl’s six cylinder experimental car, entered by Bardhal Lubricants, Florence, Italy, with Farina driving, and the 12 cylinder-engined Ferrari Special, entered by Mrs. Marion Chinetti, of New York, the driver of which has not been nominated.”
Farina must qualify and have to pass his Novice Driver’s test and his car will have to carry three stripes on its tail until he has successfully passed the test. Here Farina is seen in the old V12.
Motor Racing July 1956: “So, the foreign challenge came to nothing and Offenhauser Kurtis won the 1956 Indianapolis 500 mile race. This year there was some added interest in the prospects for this year’s race because it was thought there was at last a real threat from Europe. Hopes were high, as Bardhal had gone to a great deal of trouble and made a determined effort to produce a car, in conjunction with Ferrari and the Maserati brothers, using the Kurtis chassis.
Farina getting ready to try to qualify the Kurtis Ferrari Maserati OSCA.
“Farina, however, was not the wisest choice of drivers, however, he passed his rookie test with the old 4.5 liter V12 car that had failed to qualify in 1954. After Farina had completed the required number of laps at 125 mph, he was seen to be studying a large chart which several thought to be some sort of a lap table for the race. On closer inspection, we found it was sailing table for boats to Italy.”
The Bardahl car has an American Kurtis-Kraft chassis, and a 4.4 liter six cylinder Ferrari engine.
The Bardahl Kurtis Ferrari Maserati OSCA failed to qualify, as it could not muster up enough horsepower and was even slower than the old V12. “Too much spaghetti, not enough sauce,” it was said, and so ended the 1956 European Indy attempt.
Our thanks to Dale LaFollette at Vintage Motorphoto for the use of these images. To visit his site, click below.
Bardahl did indeed sponsor the car from the beginning to fulfill Farina’s dream of racing at Indianapolis. The original target was the 1955 race, but there were delays at both the Kurtis and Ferrari ends and Ferrari lost interest and turned the car over to the Maserati Brothers for completion. However, the Maseratis had been gone from their eponymous firm for years and were running OSCA, so the description as a Bardahl Kurtis Ferrari Maserati OSCA is incorrect.
Regarding the relative speed of the 1954 375 at Indy vs the Bardahl Kurtis is pure speculation, since neither car made a qualifying run. In 1956, Farina had arrived late at the speedway and by the time Farina was in line, the rains came and he never made an attempt.
As many road racers found over the years, Indy is a very specialized race. Farina never really showed any pace in the car and a practically unknown driver, Earl Motter, took the car out and was considerably faster than Farina. Motter came to the speedway five times in the 1950s and never managed to qualify. It would have been interesting to see what a more competent driver could have done with the car.
The car has been restored by François Sicard and remains with the Chinetti family.
Remember reading that Farina would approach the corners like a road course and do any braking before entering it, while oval drivers sort of dived into that same corner. Farina was told “that’s the way to do it” but he refused to listen, being of the old school road course driver.
The Bardahl-Kurtis- 6 cyl Ferrari was on display a number of years ago in saratoga. It appeared to have half a V-12 engine under the hood. I wonder
if that design was inspirational for 1961 pontiac Tempest that was a 421 ci motor sliced in half the same way.