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[December 4, 2001]
We Said, He Said, Boris Said
Last month, in the Carol Hollfelder Story, we said that Bob Said raced Grand Prix cars in the 1950s. We were taken to task on this issue by one of our eminently qualified subscribers, who said, Bob (Boris was his real name) Said only raced sports cars. Since we intrepid journalists often write facts from memory, this brought about what we like to call aftermarket research, or, the Oops Factor Resolution Group. After a search, we found the Memory okay, but it wasn't as if old Boris was duking it out with Fangio and Moss every weekend in a 250F, as the statement may have implied. As we found in our ensuing frenzy, however, Bob Said was an unusual character, who owned Thorium mines in Montana. A radioactive element, much in demand, Thorium served as a source of nuclear energy, used in vacuum tubes and various alloys. This enabled Bob to afford a number of pleasurable pastimes. He was likely to be behind the wheel of his Ferrari Mondial, nicknamed Mongoose, and in between races more likely to be seen in far off places like Pakistan (well, it was far off in the 50s) hunting, tigers we suppose.
Said proposed an all American Formula II team for the 1957 season, the cars to be powered by the Meyer-Drake Offy, an endeavor that never quite made it off the barstool. He owned the first Porsche Carrera convertible in the US, while maintaining a very close relationship with Luigi Chinetti. That's where the Grand Prix car comes in. In 1955, Bob took Chinetti's ex-Ascari Indy Ferrari (re-numbered as S/N 0388) to Daytona where he averaged 170 mph for a new beach record. This was long before the oval race track was built, and the run was made on the sand. But that wasn't the last of it, though Bob retired from active racing in 1957. Tim Considine, who authored "American Grand Prix Drivers" knows Bob well, and reminded us that he also entered the 1959 American Grand Prix at Sebring, "He did test some F1 cars in Europe, a Cooper-Alta, and the TechMech Maserati, but only actually raced the one time, at Sebring, and then only for one lap" wrote Considine.
The Hollfelder story also drew some comments from readers. Brian Keegan wrote, "Great story on Carol Hollfelder. I saw a special on Speedvision about the Challenge car but wanted to know a little more. I knew her father when I worked for Mike Sheehan."
VelocePress co-author John Apen (Ferrari Tuning and Tech Tips, with Gerald Roush) sent along a couple of photos of the cars with which he won awards at the Atlanta Italian Car Day on November 11th. A rare Italia and a very nice GTB2. (sorry, no s/n).
 
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