Basel 15 October 2011 – 08 April 2012
Another season with many different driving and show events tends
to an end and the cars are going to their winter dormancy in
temperature-controlled garages. This is a good time to set up a
special display like the one currently visible in the Pantheon in
Basel, Switzerland. The initiators Stephan Musfeld (chef of the
Pantheon), Niki Hasler (Ferrari dealer in Basel) and noted Ferrari
historian Marcel Massini convinced the owners of almost 40
Ferrari to lent their cars for 6 months to Basel, most of them
coming from Germany, Austria and certainly Switzerland.
The exhibition can be divided in 4 different areas:
the sports racers,
the Formula cars,
the street cars and the latest supercars.
The oldest car on display is a 1949 166 Spider Corsa (s/n
0012M). The car started with an open spider body with open
wings that reminded on the racing Alfas of the period. Being an
early Ferrari Mille Miglia competitor the car was rebodied in the
late 1950s in the style of the TRC and spend most of the next 3
decades in the USA before it came to Switzerland to be restored
to its original configuration. Today it is one of the few very early
spiders to survive and giving an impression how the successful
story started. The next sports car racer with even chassis number
is the 250 MM Pinin Farina Berlinetta with the number 0298MM
that shows the development in the body style within just 4 years.
During this period the separate wings disappeared and the race
cars of this era became much more elegant. The 250 MM was
bodied either by Vignale as an open spider or by Pinin Farina as
a Berlinetta and was the second model to carry the name of the
most important Italian road race of the time. Beside the 12
cylinder cars Ferrari started to built 4 cylinder engines to compete
in the two litre class. The 500 TRC followed the Mondial and is
considered to be the most elegant of the racing Ferrari of that
period being a masterpiece of the late Sergio Scaglietti who just
passed away a few days ago. The exhibited car is just the
second car built and has an early race history in the US before
coming to Switzerland were it was part of the famous Obrist
collection for some time.
Early in the sixties the Colombo 3-litre engine was used in several
road an race cars, the GT car of the era was the 250 GT SWB
that was built either as a road or competition version in steel or
alloy. Both versions can be seen in Basel, both in silver with red
interior. Following the SWB is the most glamorous of all Ferrari,
the legendary 250 GTO. The car will celebrate its 50th anniversary
in 2012 and therefore will be featured in many events. The
exhibited car in chassis 3809GT that started life in Switzerland
before it was sold to Germany where it stayed since 1965. The
GTO was described as a homologation of the GT SWB to
compete in the GT class rather than in the prototype class, a
trick that Enzo Ferrari tried again with the 250 LM, this is also the
reason why this car was named “250” although the later
production cars featured a 3.3 litre engine rather than the former 3
litre. The engine moved from the front the the middle installed in
front of the back axle and therefore had to compete in the
prototype class but nevertheless won the 1965 Le Mans to be the
last of the Ferrari victories at La Sarthe. The exhibited car was
bought new by the Scuderia Filipinetti of Geneva, had a wild life
with many different owners before coming back to Switzerland 5
years ago. This was also the last car in the 250 series as it
already had the 3.3 litre engine. The following 275 was built as
Berlinetta (GTB) and Spider (GTS) plus a few competition
versions (GTB/C). This is one of the last GT racers built by Ferrari
as with the fall of the 1960s the prototypes became more and
more important. The road races of the 1950s were gone and Le
Mans saw the Ford GT40 and later the Porsche 917 coming up
Ferrari had to compete with. In the following years Ferrari entered
the prototype-series including the exhibited 312 P of the year
1969 that was just built 3 times. Chassis 0872 was entered by
the North American Racing Team (N.A.R.T) of Luigi Chinetti but
was not able to win a major race due to the most radical
prototype of the era, the Porsche 917. The car is today in
restored condition and was displayed in Pebble Beach but is also
entered in historic racing.
Ten years later the 512 BB with the Boxer engine was the street
car of the time aside the 8-cylinder 308 and a competition version
of the 512 BB was built named 512 BBLM to compete in Le Mans
with a aerodynamic improved Silhouette body. Beside the
N.A.R.T the BBLM was entered by several smaller teams but the
cars were not as successful as some might have hoped back
then. Today it is a very competitive car in vintage racing and
several of them are expected to race at the coming Le Mans
Classics.
The sports car racers are rounded of by a F40 LM and the 575
GTC FIA GT1 from 2005. This also leads to the next section, the
so-called supercars.
The first of the supercars was the 288 GTO that was built in 1984
and might have formed the name supercar together with the
Porsche 959 and brought back the name GTO in the Ferrari
line-up, followed by the F40 and F50 to celebrate the 40th and the
50th anniversary of the marque. After the Enzo in 2003 the name
GTO reappeared with the new 599 GTO to be the latest supercar.
All these are displayed in Basel.
Beside the sports cars the Formula 1 is a big factor of the Ferrari
myth. Ferrari competed in the Formula 1 ever since 1948. Four
Formula 1 cars and a F2 of 1952 are displayed in Basel. The first
one is a 312 T2 that was used in the era of Niki Lauda when he
had his horrible crash at the Nürburgring and gave the Scuderia
the 1976 constructors and the 1977 Championship. The 412 T1
on display is of the era when Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi
raced for Ferrari. After the last championship in 1979 with Jody
Scheckter the pressure on the Scuderia became higher year by
year as the Ferraristi expected nothing less than the title but it
took a few more attempts until Michael Schumacher won in 2000.
Of the Schumacher-era the F2003 GA is displayed although it is
a moke-up.
Beside the race cars a good number of street cars are exhibited
in Basel. Unfortunately there are no early coach-built street cars
displayed as the oldest are the 1957 250 GT Ellena and a 250 GT
LWB California Spider that were already built in small series.
Further cars are the GT Lusso, the already mentioned street
version of the GT SWB and the 4 seater GTE of the 250 series.
The 275 is represented by the GTB/4 and the GTS plus a NART
conversion. Later cars include a 330 GTC, a 365 2+2 that was
nicknamed “Queen Mary” due to its size, a 365 GT/C and the 365
GTB/4 Daytona.
The Pantheon consists of a helix winding up 2 floors, the Ferrari
special display is located on the top floor. As the name giving
Pantheon in Rome the building has a round skylight giving light
from the inside plus the revolving window on the outside.
The ground floor shows the newest models plus a display of the
calender photos of Günther Raupp.
The exhibition is still visible until the 8th of April 2012 and is worth
a visit over the winter. As some of the cars might not stay to the
end of the exhibition it is recommended to go there rather sooner
than later.
List of cars as on 21st of November 2011
1949 166 MM Spider Corsa s/n 0012
1952 500 Formula 2 Monoposto s/n 54/1
1953 250 MM Berlinetta Pinin Farina s/n 0298MM
1957 250 GT Coupé Ellena s/n 0693GT
1958 500 TRC Spider Scaglietti s/n 0660MDTR
1959 250 GT LWB California Spider Scaglietti s/n 0965GT
1960 250 SWB Berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 1771GT
1962 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 3431GT
1962 250 GTO Series I Berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 3809GT
1963 250 GT/L Berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 5371GT
1964 250 GTE 2+2 Coupé Pininfarina s/n 3583GT
1964 250 LM Berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 5899
1965 275 GTS Spider Pininfarina s/n 06877
1966 275 GTB/C Berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 09007
1967 275 GTB/4 Berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 10721
1967 275 GTB/4 NART Spider Conversion s/n 09747
1968 312 P Berlinetta s/n 0872
1968 330 GTC Coupé Pininfarina s/n 11225
1969 365 GT 2+2 Coupé Pininfarina s/n 11567
1971 365 GTB/4 Berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 15095
1972 365 GTC/4 Coupé Pininfarina s/n 15129
1973 246 Dino GTS Spider Scaglietti s/n 07158
1975 365 GT/4 Berlinetta Boxer Scaglietti s/n 18641
1976 312 T2 Formula 1 s/n 025
1979 512 BB LM s/n 35523
1980 512 BB Scaglietti s/n 33513
1984 288 GTO Berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 54227
1988 F40 Berlinetta Scaglietti s/n 91491
1992 F50 s/n 106685
1993 F40 Le Mans s/n 97881
1994 412 T1 Formula 1 s/n 149
2003 F1 2003 GA Formel 1 mock-up s/n N 89 (R 16)
2005 575 GTC FIA GT1 s/n 2216
2005 Enzo Ferrari s/n 136089
2010 458 Italia s/n 172646
2010 599 GTB Fiorano HGTE s/n 168614
2010 599 GTO s/n 180641
For more details visit: www.pantheonbasel.ch
Text & images: Peter Singhof www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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