Ferrari Club of American National Meet 2010

Story and photos by Robert Neary

Celebrating the Cars of Sergio Scaglietti and 50 Years of the 250 GTE

Millville NJ, September 29th to October 3rd, 2010.
New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville NJ was the venue for the Ferrari Club of America’s 2010 International Meet which this year celebrated the road and racing cars of Sergio Scaglietti and the 50th Anniversary of the 250 GTE 2+2. Great cars, great people, great food, not so great weather…but this was not enough to dampen the enthusiasm of those that made it to this wonderful event.

The event kicked off with a cocktail reception at the NJMP Officer’s Club on Wednesday evening. Thursday was Concours day at NJMP and with severe storms forecasted, about a third of the 150 cars registered did not make it to the event. For those that braved the weather, a pleasant surprise awaited them as only a light drizzle fell on Millville while the storm raged all around us.

Those that signed up for the rally on Friday were not so lucky but heeded the words so often spoke at FCA events, “Ferraris are meant to be driven” and still enjoyed a damp but scenic drive around the south Jersey shore. At the end of the rally they were treated to a sumptuous luncheon at The Smithville Inn, a wonderful venue with delicious food and a magnificent setting for a line-up of more than 30 Ferraris… The sun even came out in the afternoon! Friday evening at NJMP gave the younger drivers a chance to pit their racing skills against the Ferrari racers on the Formula 1 Karting Track at NJMP. Next Michael Schumacher? Dario Cangialosi whose father organized the karting event took third place behind some pretty hard-core Ferrari piloti.

A great day was concluded by a cocktail reception and dinner at The Simeone Foundation Museum in Philadelphia, home to more than 50 racing sports cars “Celebrating the Spirit of Competition”. Dr. Fred Simeone has been collecting these cars since he was a young man and each and every one of them has a significant racing history. This museum is a must see for any car enthusiast and houses many unique cars, examples of which you cannot see anywhere else in the world.

Track day on Saturday was beautiful, and an eclectic selection of cars from early road and race cars to the latest Ferrari Challenge and GT2 cars and even a three week old 458 Italia road car were seen driving spiritedly around the NJMP Thunderbolt Raceway. The driving part of the prestigious Coppa GT award was also held on Saturday afternoon. A charity auction and awards banquet was held at the Officers Club at NJMP on Saturday evening and the event was concluded with a second track day on Sunday.

The big winner at the event was Admiral Robert Phillips with his magnificent powder blue 1955 500 Mondial Series II Scaglietti Spyder (S/N 0556 [0446] MD) which took home every major award for which it was eligible including the Enzo Ferrari Memorial (Best of Show) Award, the Phil Hill (Outstanding Ferrari Competition Car) Award and the Scaglietti Race Car Award for the Best Scaglietti Designed Ferrari Race Car as well as a Coppa Bella Macchina Award and a Premio di Platino Award in the Early Ferraris Class. Admiral Phillips has owned his 500 Mondial for almost 50 years, buying it when he was a young Lt. in the U.S. Navy who fell in love with a pile of scrap metal with the magical name Ferrari on the engine cam covers. It took Robert nine months to put the car back together and make it run and he had some early successes in hill climb events in the Sacramento CA area where he competed in nine events before the Navy transferred him to the East Coast. The only affordably way the young Naval Officer could transport his precious Ferrari was to drive it across country… a long story in itself.

Over the many years Admiral Phillips has owned his 500 Mondial, he has become the world’s foremost authority on 4-cylinder Ferraris and in particular Series II 500 Mondials. His car was the fourth of only 8 built. The original owner, a Frenchman (hence the blue color) kept it for only six months before returning it to the Ferrari factory. Still painted blue, Scuderia Ferrari entered the car in the Gran Premio de Venezuela in Caracas, where it was driven to a class win by Harry Schell and Eugenio Castellotti. The car was then bought by Porfirio Rubirosa who drove with Jim Pauley to class wins in Nassau and at Sebring.

After Robert’s transfer to the East Coast his busy naval career kept him from doing much with the car and it sat in his garage untouched for the better part of 40 years. When he did get around to restoring it, Robert did much of the mechanical restoration himself, ably assisted by his son Bryan, friend Michael Bayer and even his wife Helen Ann. Bodywork was entrusted to Craig Naff and the project was completed at David Carte’s facility. Imagine Admiral Phillips delight when he took the Enzo Ferrari Trophy for best Ferrari at Pebble Beach at his Mondial’s first post-restoration outing in 2008, where the judges included Pierro Ferrari and Jean Todt! This wonderful Ferrari has gone on to win best of show for competition car at the Cavallino Classic in 2009, best of show at Pietro Castiglioni’s Reading Concours in 2009 and the Forza Ferrari Award for Outstanding Ferrari Built in the ‘50s at the 2009 FCA International Meet at Elkhart Lake to mention but a few.

Among the Scaglietti bodied cars honored at the event were Dr. Fred Simeone’s remarkable 1957 250 Testa Rossa (S/N 0710 TR). This was the first Testa Rossa built for a customer and has a unique removable nose on its beautiful pontoon fendered body. Powered by a 3.0 liter (250 cc x 12 cyl.) 250 V12 engine, the Testa Rossa (red head) gets its name from the red painted cam covers. Only 19 Testa Rossas were built in 1958 for the World Sports Car Championship. Testa Rossas were entered in 19 International Championship races between 1958 and 1961 of which they won 10, including the Sebring 12 Hours, the Targa Florio and the 24 Heures Du Mans. Dr. Simeone’s car was purchased by John von Neumann immediately after the Press Conference at which the Testa Rossa was announced in November 1957. While being driven near the front of the Argentina 1000 by Richie Ginther the car retired with a ring and pinion failure. The pinion failed again at Sebring during the 11th hour while the car was running in third place. 0710 TR had a successful racing career on the West coast driven by Ginther, von Neumann and his daughter Josie.

Another magnificent Scaglietti car participating in the concours, was the 1957 Ferrari 335 Sport (S/N 0700) owned by Peter Sachs’ Scuderia N.E. This beautiful car has a spectacular racing history. Built in the spring of 1957 for Scuderia Ferrari, it led the Mille Miglia, driven by Peter Collins and Louis Klementaski at a record pace until retiring at Parma, 80 miles from the end of the race with differential failure. At that year’s Nurburgring 1000 Km Collins took 2nd place with Olivier Gendebien. After retiring on the second lap at Le Mans, 0700 took a 2nd place at the Swedish GP driven by Peter Collins and Phil Hill. The factory then fitted the car with a pontoon nose and Collins and Hill drove the car to victory in the Venezuelan GP and the 1957 Manufacturers’ Championship. Following the 1957 season the car was sold to George Tilp of Short Hills NJ and Phil Hill drove the car to two wins and a third place in Nassau. After being bought by John von Neumann in the summer of 1958, Neumann and Richie Ginther raced the car successfully on the West coast in 1958 and 1959. Ed Purvis of Seattle WA bought the 335 in 1960 and Skip Hudson and Lew Florence raced it successfully in state SCCA races. The car changed hands again in 1962 before being sold to Peter Sachs in 1992. Sachs completely restored the ca and returned it to its original configuration in 1993-5.

Winning a Premio di Platino award in the Early Ferrari class was Peter Carlino’s interesting 1951 212 Export Spider (S/N 0086E). This car has a fascinating history which will be the subject of an upcoming story in Cavallino magazine by renowned Ferrari Historian Marcel Massini. The car was destroyed in a fire in 1952 and has been painstakingly restored from old photographs by its current owner.

The Scaglietti Road Car Award for the best Scaglietti-designed Ferrari Road Car went to Lee Herrington’s unique and beautiful 1963 250 GT Speciale Berlinetta (S/N 4385). This car looks like a 250 GT Lusso from behind and a 250 GTO from the front. The one-of-a-kind car came about when a wealthy Italian friend of Enzo Ferrari wanted to buy a 250 GTO. At that time, Ferrari was inundated with such requests for his highly successful 250 GTO and insisted that it only be sold to 20 proven race car drivers. As a compromise, Enzo agreed to build a special car for his friend. He personally wrote on the build order for this car that it should have a steel body like a 330 LMB only shorter and a Lusso engine. When the car was completed in 1963, Ferrari’s friend was involved in a much publicized sex and money scandal and fled Italy before taking delivery of the car. To save the embarrassment of being connected to his disgraced friend, Ferrari sold the car to a buyer as far away as possible, in South Africa. It re-emerged in San Francisco in 1978 and was thought to be a modified Lusso. It wasn’t until the new owner asked Piero Ferrari about the car in the 1990’s that the true story of this unique Ferari was discovered

The Luigi Chinetti Memorial Award for Outstanding Ferrari Road Car and the Forza Ferrari Award for Outstanding Ferrari Built in the 1950s were also won by Lee Herrington for his other 250 Speciale, a 1957 250 GT Speciale PF Coupe (S/N) 0853). This car, which is also powder blue like the Admiral’s 500 Mondial, was built for Crown Prince Bertil of Sweden who was a collector of quality sports cars that he enjoyed driving. 0853 is the third of the 250 GT Pininfarina Coupes built and has a lot of unique custom features, among them the Halda Speed Pilot, an early rally calculator on the dash. Identical to a regular 250 PF Coupe back to the A-pillars, this car differs in many ways such as additional side windows, different rear fenders and horizontal wrap-around tail lights. Prince Bertil drove the car about 40,000 Km. before dropping it off for service at Pozzi’s the Ferrari dealer in Paris in 1966. He never returned to pick it up and it sat idle for 40 years before being bought by current owner Lee Herrington in 2007. Herrington has fully restored the car to as-new condition.