N.A.R.T A Concise History of the North American Racing Team 1957-1982
Author: Terry O’Neil
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Veloce Publishing (December 14, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1845847873
ISBN-13: 978-1845847876
Product Dimensions: 10 x 1 x 10 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
Price $100
Order here
Review by Wallace Wyss
When you are new to the Ferrari world, there are lots of phrases people throw around like “SEFAC hot rod” and “NART”. Well, finally there has been a book written about one of these strange terms, NART, the acronym for North American Racing Team.
The protagonists are Luigi Chinetti Sr. and Jr; two very important personalities who essentially paved the way for acceptance and success of Ferrari in America.
Chinetti poses with his wife, Marion, and son, Luigi Jr, after winning the 1949 Spa 24-hour race with co-driver Jean Lucas.
Luigi Sr. drove Ferraris, mostly privately entered, and later pioneered selling them in the U.S. His biggest accomplishment as a driver was winning Le Mans three times, twice with an Alfa Romeo and once in 1949 driving a privately entered Ferrari.
British author Terry O’Neil has previously written a history of the Bahamas Speedweeks and another volume on US racing in the Northeast and Mideast.
O’Neil did a good job in trying to sort out the team’s accomplishments, but only provides fragmentary glimpses of the Chinettis, Senior and Junior. You get to know Sr. a little bit but the son, not at all.
The father emerges as a feisty man who came to America to race right before WWII began, and once here he had to stay on. Which was fortunate for him, for even as a “enemy alien” as he was able to contribute to the U.S.war effort.
Following the war he went back to Italy just as Ferrari was starting up his auto firm, suggesting that Ferrari produce street cars and selling them in the U.S., thereby putting the marque on the map. He was awarded the first franchise to import Ferraris to America and for decades would field entries at various events including Le Mans. The team ran under the name North American Racing Team, or N.A.R.T.
NART entered the OSCA S 750 at Le Mans. Bentley and Gordon successfully brought home the car in 18th place. Click on Photo to read entire story by Jack Gordon.
Luigi Sr.’s son, Luigi Jr., “Coco,” receives scant attention in the book, without so much as a paragraph describing his education, adaptation to American life; business life, opinions, etc. The author admits that Luigi Jr. discouraged him from writing the book (though he did give him an interview) and I lament that the Luigi Jr. part isn’t fleshed out. Subsequent to the racing story of NART he has become as much of a key player in advancing Ferrari collector car values as his father was in promoting Ferrari’s name in racing. The only story it tells about son Luigi is how he managed to marry one of the wealthy ladies that came to buy a Ferrari.
As a race team, sometimes they were the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Stirling Moss is quoted as saying that, at Sebring in ’62, the team had nine cars entered but their pit organization was a “shambles.” The author also quotes Dan Gurney as a driver who turned down a Ferrari ride from NART because he thought the cars were too slow for his skills. Despite this, the NART team achieved 7 overall wins and multiple class wins in World Championship Sports Car racing.
The fun part of the book is the internal politics. There’s one section where the team went back to Sebring, after having one of their cars involved in a multiple fatality the year before, but entered all of their cars under other names so they wouldn’t have the cars snatched as part of a lawsuit. The team’s tenacity is to be admired from such stories as taking a junkyard Corvette and making it good enough to finish 15th at Sebring.
NART’s cars are withdrawn to the back of the pits after the ACO refused to let the Dino GT4 race.
Maybe the best story is the brinkmanship of the old man. He would go up against the Le Mans organizers in a contest of who could bully who. When only hours before the start the organizers told him they wouldn’t accept his Ferrari 308GT/4, Chinetti said he’d pull his entire entry–three Ferraris– from the race if they didn’t allow his 308 GT/4. They told him go ahead and pull them so he lost that head-butting match.
It is a sad tale of how Ferrari eventually replaced the Chinettis as their distributors in America and the team fielded ever more insignificant entries; one of their last efforts a Bonneville speed record attempt.
The whole era of post war racing, and of Luigi Jr. designing some special-bodied Ferraris (including a Daytona shooting brake!) is not mentioned at all, and maybe those cars deserve their own book. Ironically by hanging onto many of their old race cars through thick and thin, Luigi Chinetti Jr. has at least $50 million worth of collector Ferraris which he is parceling out to the market at a very deliberate and profitable pace.
The book has many fine color pictures, of the cars in their original livery at races, and also many excellent black and white photos. However, many have been previously published elsewhere. The book is a tad high priced at over $100, but the color pictures, as a reference for car modelers, artists and restorers make it worth it. The almost square format is easy to hold. The only criticism I have on format is the type is a tiny bit large (one type size smaller and they could have squeezed in more art) and the decision to include many photos of cancelled checks is tiresome, to what end?
We noticed that there are a few factual errors in the book, the most obvious being fact that he claims that Chinetti’s Monza 500 entry for Schell in 1958 had a 335 4-cam sports car engine.
Overall if you have an interest in 50s through 70s Ferrari racing and always wondered what the role of NART was vis-à-vis the factory, this is a book you will want, and is essential for Ferrari enthusiasts and historians.
Contents:
Author’s foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1 Luigi Chinetti
Chapter 2 1957-58 the formative period of NART
Chapter 3 1959-1961 Expanding horizons
Chapter 4 1962-1964 NART diversifies
Chapter 5 1965 Le Mans success
Chapter 6 1966-69 A series of disappointments
Chapter 7 1970-1973 Overcoming adversity
Chapter 8 1974-1977 Further troubled times
Chapter 9 1978-1980 Limited participation
Chapter 10 1981-1982 The passing of an era
Index
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THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is the author of the Incredible Barn Finds series from Enthusiast Books, Hudson WI. He assures us each book contains some Ferrari barn find stories.