ferrari phil hill

Cuba, 1957: When Heroes Raced

May 5, 2025 By pete

By Pete Vack
Photos by Robert Pauley
From the VeloceToday Archives, October 2017

When, in 1957, Robert Pauley wanted to go to Cuba “…to get a chance to see his heroes”, he may well have added “before it was too late,” for he would bear witness to the end of a very great era of motor racing.

It was not the end, not yet. But the Cuban Grand Prix held at the dawn of 1957, was the beginning of the end of an era. Just ahead would be four significant occurrences: the rear-engine revolution, the end of the Ferrari-Maserati wars, the retirement of Juan Manuel Fangio, and the tragic deaths of a high number of first class drivers born between 1926 and 1932. Not only would we lose the hero drivers, but the classic front engine race car, the constant danger, the sportsmanship, and the romance. We need not apologize for borrowing the dramatic title from Wagner…read on and you’ll realize that this was heavy stuff indeed.

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Phil Hill by Oosthoek Part 3

November 15, 2021 By pete

Sebring, March 1964. By now Phil was firmly in the Ford camp. Seen here in the Shelby Cobra/Ford he shared with Jo Schlesser and entered by Ford France, the combination finished sixth overall. (photo: Flip Schulke)

Captions by Willem Oosthoek

After winning the World Championship in 1961, Hill stayed with Ferrari for 1962 but the once dominant cars were now outclassed and Hill’s stints with ATS and Cooper were frustrating. Hill concentrated on sports car racing and found more success at Le Mans. Finding images by Jack Brady, Flip Schulke and Henri Beroul, Oosthoek puts together a series of photos that illustrated Hill’s drives with Ferrari, Ford, and finally, in 1967, with Chaparral.

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Phil Hill by Willem Oosthoek Part 2

November 8, 2021 By pete

Riverside, October 1958. During the inaugural Times Grand Prix Phil Hill was at the wheel of this Ferrari 412MI, equipped with the 4.1-liter V12 from the Ferrari used in the June 1958 500 Miglia di Monza, between Indianapolis and Formula One drivers. The factory claimed 450 BHP, but then Italian horses were always a bit smaller. Having qualified in the middle of the front row, Phil fought a close battle for the lead with Chuck Daigh in one of the Scarabs, until the Ferrari had to retire due to vapor lock. Note the crude windshield. (photo: Bob Tronolone)

Captions by Willem Oosthoek

It is still Phil Hill’s Championship year, albeit 60 years ago. We began with a look at Phil’s career in California, compliments of Jim Sitz, and then came Maserati historian Willem Oosthoek, who offered to allow us to use some of the photos from his collection. “After Jim Sitz’s wonderful columns on his personal interaction with Phil Hill, I recalled that I have a fair number of photos of Phil in sport racers as well.” In this case, Oosthoek did not take the photos but has the rights and or permissions to use them.

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A Reader’s Story: Ferrari Sharknose at Reims

March 31, 2020 By pete

By Jean-Marc Creuset
Photos by Jean-Marc Creuset unless otherwise noted

Thank you for your highly interesting contributions, and for maintaining our spirits on a high level in these uncertain times.

Last September, “Les Amis du Circuit de Gueux” organized a meeting featuring, among others, both of Jason Stuart Wright’s Ferrari 156 F1 replicas – actually re-creations of the lost originals – and the ex-Jim Clark Lotus 21 which, according to its mechanics, was involved in the tragic Italian GP of 1961.

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1957: When Heroes Raced

October 17, 2017 By pete

By Pete Vack
Photos by Robert Pauley

A brief excerpt from “Cuban Grand Prix 1957”

Phil Hill, On Record

September 3, 2008 By pete

Hill with a Peugeot in a R&T ad. Now listen to the recording below.

Below, we give our readers a chance to hear a rare 33 1/3 rpm recording, sent to us on a plasticized square piece of cardboard which measures seven by seven inches. For the record, it is simplistic, it is advertising, and it is not particularly well executed, even for the late 1950s. But it offers us a unique insight into what was then a new world for Americans, that of sports car racing and strange foreign cars with even stranger names. Despite being scripted, it says something about Phil Hill we may not have been able to ascertain elsewhere. Most telling, even though it is obviously a bought and paid for commercial, it is honest, as honest as Phil Hill always was.

Click on record to listen to Phil Hill.
Note that there is a 20 second
pause at the start.

This rare audio record came our way via Serge Dermanian, a retired Ferrari restorer living in Nice, France. Shortly after publishing an excellent article by Philippe H. Defechereux, which used an ad in which Phil Hill was photographed with a Peugeot 403, we received an email from Dermanian who mentioned that he had a record to go along with the ad. He added that he would be glad to send it along. We hooked up our stereo phonograph, carefully played the ancient audio device for pickup to a digital recorder, and finally converted it to the digitized format for use on a computer.

In addition, on this old, scratchy record, we hear Road & Track Editor John R. Bond, almost a lone voice in the wilderness, who used the magazineâ€™s power and platform to beg Detroit to build cars with good handling, quality, common sense and good gas mileage. There is a message here, then, and now.

Our thanks to Serge Dermanian for finding and sending along this rare recording of the late Phil Hill. Note that there is a 20 second pause before the actual voices are heard, so have patience.