By Pete Vack
S. Scott Callan’s book
The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
By pete
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By Graham Gauld
It was whilst in England for the 1949 British Grand Prix on May 14 that Luigi Villoresi received a surprise. “I had a message from Enzo Ferrari to say he had sent a single seater 166C Ferrari to Brussels for me to race in the Brussels Grand Prix, and a new 166MM sports car( 0016M) to Luxembourg to race in a sports car race the following weekend.”
Luigi continued. “I won both races and when I got back to Milan I had a telephone call from a journalist friend called Corrado Fillipini telling me that Enzo Ferrari wanted me to drive for him; so why didn’t I go and see him and sign for Ferrari?”
This provided a dilemma for Villoresi, as he had disliked Enzo Ferrari since the day of the accident that killed his brother Emilio at Monza, back in 1939.
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By Graham Gauld
I had first met Villoresi years before and once he became rather frail and had moved into the hospice, I wanted to sit down with him and talk about his life. He surprisingly arrived at a Ferrari event in Italy where I think Schumacher presented him with a trophy, and had been brought by Lauro Malavolti, who owned Lauro’s restaurant in Modena and was another pal of mine. I said to Lauro I would like to talk to him and so he asked me if I could wait a few months and then come down to Modena, and he would arrange a lunch with Villoresi.