Ford and Chevy-Engined Ferraris at CI

Story by Staff

This year’s Concorso Italiano celebrated a little-known part of Ferrari history, which is covered in two recent books authored by Randy Cook of Tallahassee, Florida.

His books, Bowtie Ferraris and Blue Oval, et al, Ferraris, document almost 100 Ferraris of the 50s and 60s that were at one time powered by Chevy, Ford, Buick, Chrysler and Offy engines.

The two basic reasons for implanting American engines into very rare and exotic cars of the time were to make racing Ferraris faster and easier to maintain, and to keep street driven Ferraris on the road and out of the scrap yard at a time when it was almost impossible to repair a broken Ferrari engine. Two magazine articles appeared in 1959 documenting the installation of Chevy engines into two different Ferrari chassis for street driving. A car featured in one of the articles was an unexpected guest at the Concorso, actually it was the body of the car (0024) which is now on another chassis (0097).

Above, Hugues Vanhoolandt videoed Bowtie Ferrari author Randy Cook and Matt Stone discussing the Ferrari 0126A which was given a Chevy engine in 1958.

Randy’s books reveal that Ferrari racer John von Neumann’s two 625 TRCs were later re-engined, one with a Chevy (0680), and the other with a Ford (0672). His 500 TRC (0708) was the recipient of a Buick engine. Owen Coon installed a Chevy engine in the 1958 Le Mans winning Ferrari 250 TR (0728) while his friend George Reed put a Ford engine in the ex-factory 250 TR59/60 (0770). George Tilp fitted an Offenhauser engine into his 500 Mondial (0464). All of these cars were road raced or drag raced with their American engines. Other notable examples include the ex-Jim Kimberly 375 MM (0364), which became the Rich Lyeth Hi-Tork Special and the ex-John Edgar 857 S Monza (0588) raced by Oscar Koveleski known as “Car 54 Where Are You.” Both had Chevy engines.

Last year Randy brought his Bowtie Ferrari (1175 GT) to the Concorso, which was the car’s final show culminating an almost 20-year ownership prior to being sold to The Old Racing Car Company in Felmingham, England. The car will be kept in its current configuration and as such, is likely the last remaining pre-1960 two-seater Ferrari still with a Chevy engine.

All the cars covered in Randy’s Bowtie Ferraris book (except 1175 GT) that still exist today have been reunited with their original, or original type, engine and thus are highly desired and valuable cars that likely owe their survival to the interim use of an American engine. Two such cars were displayed this year as follows:

This car was delivered to an Italian owner in 1951 and reportedly was returned to the factory 17 times between 1952 and 1954 to be “repaired and revised.” The car came to the U.S. west coast in 1958 and the Ferrari engine was replaced with a Chevy V8. In the 1960s it was sold to a Naval officer who took the car to the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba. The officer was reportedly killed in Vietnam and the car stored in a barn in North Carolina for several years.

In 1976 it was restored using an engine from a 250 GT PF Cabriolet. A 340-type engine was built for the car in 1988 and installed along with a period correct five-speed competition gearbox. The car went from Italy to Japan, Mexico and then in 1994 back to the U.S. It has since competed in historic racing events and been displayed at various concours. Murray purchased the car in 2009.

The Ferrari factory painted this Monza yellow and sold it to Jacques Swaters of Brussels to be raced by his Ecurie Nationale Belge racing team in 1955. From March 1955 until February 1956, it competed in several European sports car races with its best finish a third at Spa driven by Roger Laurent.

In 1957 the car was purchased by John Kilborn of Decatur, Illinois who raced it several times in 1957 and 58. It was then sold to Dean Knight of Oklahoma City. Knight and “Big” Jim Hall raced the car in 1959. Bobby Alyward, Goebel and Delmo Johnson raced the car for Knight for a couple more years around Texas and Oklahoma. Author Willem Oosthoek designated this car as a “Chevarri”.

Karl Bloechle of Switzerland purchased the car in 1981 and had it restored with an engine from a 275 GTB. During the next twenty years, Bloechle and others ran the car in historic races in Europe and England. Dan Ghose of Connecticut purchased the car in 2001 and raced it in historic events in the U.S. and Italy.
Recently, under Markowski’s oversight, the car was restored again, now back to its original yellow Swaters livery.

Two cars featured in Randy’s second book, Blue Oval, et al, Ferraris, were also on display. These cars retain their transplanted American V8 engines and are examples of several such 60s four-seat street Ferraris not restored back to their original configuration. At least 20 similar Ferraris are known to still have American engines.

This car was converted to Chevy power in the 1970s and was once owned by Harry Hibler, editor of Hot Rod Magazine, who reportedly planned to write an article about a hot rod Ferrari for the magazine. The unfinished project was purchased by Briggs in 1999 and in 2004 initial restoration of the car was undertaken by his father. Briggs has continued to update the car over the years and it is in beautiful condition today. His unique 12 cylinder diesel transporter made its first trip after restoration to the Concorso.

Shortly after Lipscomb purchased this car in 1976 he replaced its ailing Ferrari engine with a Ford 289 and the car became known as a “Ferrari Cobra”. Lipscomb has an interesting story about the car on a display board with the car.

Not too far away at the Goodings Peeble Beach auction another car from Randy’s Bowtie Ferraris book was also a centerpiece car. 0046M, formerly owned by Darrell Westfaul, a University of Alabama classmate of Randy’s, sold for $5.45 million and although the Ferrari drive train had been reinstalled in the car, it was not running. The car looked just like it did when it came out of Westfaul’s warehouse where it had been parked from 1967 until 2007.

Randy’s books have gotten favorable reviews from Ferrari historian Michael T. Lynch and others. Bowtie Ferraris sold out its initial run of 500 copies and Randy had a second printing done of 250 copies. Only a few copies of Blue Oval, et al, Ferraris remain and it will not be reprinted. These are the only books ever written on the subject of American engined Ferraris and a must add to an enthusiast’s motorsports library. Check out the Bowtie and Blue Oval Ferraris website at www.racmotorsportspublishing.com