The Ferraris and Maseratis of Dr Wax

Story by Graham Gauld

For companies like Ferrari and Maserati, the importance of the private customer could never be underestimated, and with Ferrari in particular, Enzo was always willing to do anything for certain clients. One such was Dr Enrico Wax from Genoa, who always demanded something special and different. As a result, he had the ear of Mr Ferrari.

For example, in 1959, when Enzo Ferrari was planning to put the 250GT Short Wheelbase into production, Dr Wax arrived, and in his conversation with Enzo Ferrari the subject of the new car was brought up. Dr Wax showed an interest and the story goes that he was taken into the factory where the first group of three prototype SWBs were being built. These were chassis 1539GT, 1613GT and 1739GT. Enzo Ferrari pointed to the first one in the line, which was 1739GT, and offered it to Wax. The other two cars were being built for the upcoming October motor shows in Turin and Paris with Pinin Farina bodywork, and as Dr Wax wanted to have some stylistic changes to the bodywork, his car was sent to Bertone.

The chance to design a car for Dr Wax was given to the 21 year-old stylist Giorgietto Giugiaro. The car proved to be one of the star attractions. As can be seen from the photograph it had a wire mesh grille at the front and the hood tilted forward. Another personal touch was that on the front three-quarter panels had the badges “Prototype EW” – for Enrico Wax – and even the familiar Ferrari badge on the front was made bigger than standard. Under the hood Dr Wax had specified that the cam covers be painted red as in a Testa Rossa, and he specified Campagnolo wheels rather than the normal Borrani wheels. In other respects, it was a typical Short Wheelbase competition car but with a luxurious interior.

The car was finished in time to be shipped to Geneva for the March 1960 Motor Show before being delivered to Dr Wax. It was then borrowed back to be shown at the Turin Show in October of that year but was then sold in 1961. The car is still around, however, owned by an American Ferrari enthusiast.

A few years later, in December 1967, Dr Wax decided to go to Maserati for a new car and approached them about buying one of the new Maserati Ghiblis and have it customized to his own specification, and the factory agreed.

So who was Dr Wax?

Enrico Wax was President of Wax and Vitale SpA in Genoa, the importers of Johnny Walker Scotch Whisky, Moet et Chandon champagne and agents for many more premier brands of alcohol. He was a discerning customer who had his own idea of how his cars should be finished. It is sufficient to say that none of his cars were ever in standard trim; they all had to be different.

So it was that when Wax telephoned Maserati on April 13 1968 to officially place the order for the Ghibli, he was put through to Ermanno Cozza – later to become the Maserati historian and archivist – who pulled out a standard A4 pad and started to scribble down the instructions with a scribbled quote beside each request. (See copy of his notes.)

The two most important elements about this Ghibli were the engine and the bodywork.

The normal engine would have been a 4.7 litre V8 Ghibli but on this car’s build sheet the engine, No.0366, is logged as a 5-liter dry-sump SS engine of which only four or five were built. As a result, the car chassis plate carries only the car and engine numbers with no homologated engine number or engine type.

After Bob Linwood purchased the car, he later realized the reason was because this 5-liter dry sump engine was not officially homologated until nearly a year later! Dr Cozza has since confirmed that it was the first SS engine to be put into a Ghibli and probably the first engine to be built.

When it came to the bodywork, Dr Wax wanted three “shark gill” slanted vents behind the front and rear wheels, special bumpers and, something which he appeared to demand on all his cars, the engine bay was to have chromium plated trim around it. The exhaust system was also special, having two separate pipes each split to give four silencers. The interior trim and fittings were also non-standard.

When the car was finished, test driver Guerino Bertocchi took Cozza with him on a high speed test run on the Autostrada del Sole where it hit 268.6 KPH ( 171.5 mph) . Though the car was delivered with manual steering Dr Wax decided he would prefer power steering.

Dr Wax eventually sold the car to an American enthusiast and later, in 1988, it was imported into the UK where it was sold to a Mr Sikander Latif who had heard the car had been built for the Shah of Persia and that it had been timed at over 200 mph! He wrote to Maserati about this and was told that the car had not been built for the Shah but for Dr Wax and that it had not been timed at 200 mph.

It is a number of years now since last I met up with Bob Linwood, and he has returned to the United Kingdom, and as far as I am aware, is still the owner of a very special Maserati which has certainly increased considerably in value as a truly unique Ghibli.

And another Wax Ferrari as found by Jonathan Sharp