The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Story and Photos of 0488 AM by Alan Boe
From the VeloceToday Archives, October 2018
Three Kings met, with historic results: King Leopold requested it, Enzo Ferrari built it, Pinin Farina styled it.
Royalty and expensive motor cars just seem to go together. You know the types…Park Ward Rolls-Royces, Grosser Mercedes, and stretched limousines of various manufacture. They’re a normal part of any royal retinue. And why not? We’ve come to expect it.
Story by Peter Darnall
The first five Mondials built were set aside by the factory to compete as “works” entries in the 1954 Mille Miglia. The third of these First Series Mondials to be built was Chassis Number 0408 MD. Owner Jeff Abramson treated me to several laps at speed around the Sonoma Raceway in this car and that run was my introduction to these extraordinary machines.
By Peter Darnall
The Italian word “mondiale” translates as “world” in the English language but in the Ferrari factory at Maranello, the name has special significance. Mondial (without the final “e”) is a Maranello trademark name which commemorates factory Grand Prix cars which won two successive World Championships in 1952 and 1953. The original Mondials were a group of 2 liter Ferrari 4-cylinder sports racing machines which challenged the motor racing world in the mid-1950s. They were known as “500 Mondials” (the cubic centimeter displacement of a single cylinder) to differentiate them from larger displacement versions of same engine which would follow.
Story by Alan Boe
Photos by Alan Boe unless otherwise noted
This is the first part of a story about two magnificent Ferraris, both owned and maintained for many years by a man we consider to be one of the greatest Ferrari enthusiasts of all time. His name was Tom Caulfield of Janesville, Wisconsin, and for many years owned both a Ferrari barchetta and berlinetta.
The berlinetta is a Touring bodied 212 Export and the spyder is the only Touring barchetta ever built with a 2.7 liter Ferrari V12, and the last barchetta built on the short 88 inch wheelbase chassis.
In this article we will focus on the berlinetta.
Story and photos by Alan Boe
This is the second part of a story about two magnificent Ferraris, both owned and maintained for many years by a man we consider to be one of the greatest Ferrari enthusiasts of all time. His name was Tom Caulfield of Janesville, Wisconsin, and for many years owned both a Ferrari barchetta and berlinetta.
This is the only Touring barchetta ever built with a 2.7 liter Ferrari V12, and the last barchetta built on the short 88 inch wheelbase chassis.
In this article we will focus on the barchetta.
Tom Peck’s 750 Monza prototype, s/n 0428 MD, won the Scuderia Ferrari Cup at the Cavallino Classic, awarded to the finest competition Ferrari on the field. This Ferrari started out as a 500 Mondial in 1954, but was quickly upgraded to a 750 Monza at the factory.
By Alan Boe
The 29th annual Cavallino Classic was held from January 22 to 26 in Palm Beach, Florida, headquartered at The Breakers Hotel and Resort. I’ve been lucky enough to have attended 26 of these Ferrari fests, many as a concours judge and concours entrant (for 2020, I was an entrant). This year, the weather was great, the Ferrari turnout was great, and it was great to reunite with dozens of Ferrari friends.
Story and photos by Alan Boe
In the mid-1950s Ferrari was deeply immersed in the business of building, selling, and racing an impressive array of sports cars; four, six and twelve cylinder engines were employed in spyders and berlinettas bodied by Touring, Vignale, Scaglietti, and Pinin Farina on chassis of varying wheelbases. The ability to manufacture such an amazing variety of sporting machinery did not seem particularly out of the ordinary…for Ferrari. It was accepted practice then, but it would be impossible today! And none of Ferrari’s competition of the time was ever able to produce anywhere near the range of sports racing cars that Ferrari did.
Story and Photos of 0488 AM by Alan Boe
Three Kings met, with historic results: King Leopold requested it, Enzo Ferrari built it, Pinin Farina styled it.
Royalty and expensive motor cars just seem to go together. You know the types…Park Ward Rolls-Royces, Grosser Mercedes, and stretched limousines of various manufacture. They’re a normal part of any royal retinue. And why not? We’ve come to expect it.
Story and photos by Alan Boe
Berlinetta. A word bandied about somewhat more casually today than it was in the 1950s (remember the Camaro Berlinetta?). In the Italian, however, a Berlinetta is a lightweight, agile fast, two passenger, fixed roof gran turismo automobile. But try to find a precise definition of the word and you’ll probably come up empty-handed. That’s because it’s a word that, if not actually coined by Ferrari, was put into the auto enthusiasts’ vernacular by the use of the term by Enzo Ferrari. [Read more…] about Ferrari S/N 0393 GT
Story and photos by Alan Boe
Three seventy-five. In the world of Ferrari this number often alludes to the twelve cylinder engine used in some of the company’s most savage, brutally fast, all out competition machinery built in the early to mid-1950s. There were topless spyders and a few berlinettas with bodies by Pininfarina, Vignale, and Scaglietti and of course, Grand Prix machines and even a few Indy cars. But not all 375 Ferraris were designed or destined for racing. In addition to at least one 375 engine adapted for marine use, Ferrari also used its big 4.5 liter engine to drive a limited series of luxuriously leathered-line high powered grand touring coupes and berlinettas, several of which were first trotted out for in an important European show before being sold off to a wealthy industrialist, entertainer, or titled personage. Only a handful of these road-going 375s were built, but in the mid-1950s, they represented the ultimate in exclusive, high speed European touring cars. [Read more…] about Ferrari 375 Pinin Farina, S/N 0355 AL