Coys
International Historic Festival
Silverstone, July 24-26, 1998
- Europe's
most important classic car event
- Ferrari
Shell Historical Challenge
- Again
some "new" car in the series
- Historical
Challenge Results
- Historical
Challenge heat overshadowed by accident
- Ferrari
Owners' Club meeting attracts some
interesting Ferrari
- Ferrari
starring in the Coys of Kensington
Auction
The Historic Festival hosted by the
renowned auction house of Coys of Kensington at
the famous Silverstone circuit in England is
probably undoubtedly the most important event of
its kind in Europe. Thus the 1998 International
Historic Festival did again attract hundreds of
entrants for the numerous races and meetings of
marque clubs, plus thousands of spectators. The
weather was just splendid during the weekend -
warm, sunny and dry - and made the entire event
an absolute "must" to any car-nut.
 
Of course, if you are mad for
Ferrari's "Cavallino Rampante", you
simply had to be there, too, one more time. Well,
of course Ferrari was not the featured marque
again as in 1997; instead one did celebrate the
50th anniversary of the 1948 British Formula One
Grand Prix, the first motoring event hosted at
the (former) airfield of Silverstone in
Northamptonshire. The organizing committee had
managed to reunite most of the actual (or at
least identical) cars and even some of the
drivers of the 1948 grid - however, there was
naturally no Ferrari among them.
But
nonetheless, many interesting Ferrari could be
seen again in the paddock since the Ferrari Shell
Historical Challenge was part of the event's
schedule. By the way, many of the participants
took the occasion to enter their cars in other
races as well: For example, Ed Davies raced his
512 M not only in the Challenge, but also in the
Pre-1972 Le Mans Car Race and many of the various
250 GTs and GTOs part of the Challenge were to be
driven in the Pre-1964 GT Car Race as well.
The capacity of both the paddock and
the grid was limited, and so organizer Jean Sage
had preferred Challenge entrants who had already
been part of the two events at Spa and Dijon
earlier this year. Thus, there were not too many
"new" cars to be seen in the series.
The probably most spectacular among these
newcomers rolled out on Friday only: Hartmut
Ibing's recently acquired 250 LM, s/n 6217,
suffered from technical problems after Friday's
training session and was out for the rest of the
weekend. S/n 6217 had come from David Lucas'
Nelson Collection, a small Ferrari museum in New
Zealand.
Another
car that took part in the qualifying only was
Lawrence Stroll's 250 GTO '62 s/n 3451GT. The
chairman of the Tommy Hilfiger fashion company -
one of the Scuderia Ferrari's sponsors in Formula
1 - had his car completely restored during the
winter. It is fitted with an unstamped spare
engine block, but the original engine is with Mr.
Stroll, too. Also right out of the restoration
shop: Anthony Wang's 250 GTO with 330 LMB-style
body s/n 4713GT. The car which was formerly
painted dark red now sports a bright red livery.
Swiss
collector Erich Traber showed up for the first
time in his 250 GT LWB Berlinetta Scaglietti
"Tour de France" s/n 0901GT. He moved
the car very carefully on the track, but although
he was too slow to be classified in both heats on
Saturday and Sunday, he obviously enjoyed driving
this car while his son Christian piloted the 750
Monza Spider Scaglietti s/n 0562M (the Monza is
also stamped s/n 0554M).
 
Not
a new car, but a new face could be seen in the
cockpit of Claes Jung's Dino 206 SP s/n 016 -The
Swedish enthusiast had handed over the wheel of
his car to Anders Olofsson, the well-known driver
of sports cars and prototypes and multiple Le
Mans participant. However, Mr. Olofsson
eventually did not drive the small Dino very
hard, but did achieve a 6th and 5th OA in the
heats.
A new face and a new car came from
Hong Kong Patrik Ma drove his 275 GTB/C s/n 9067.
Interestingly, the outcome of the
two heats held on Saturday and Sunday was almost
identical as far as the top positions are
concerned. Gary Pearson was dominant in Brandon
Wang's 512 S s/n 1016 and virtually outperformed
the two 512 Ms of Ed Davies and Patrick Stieger:
Gary was between three and four seconds faster
than his opponents all the time, but Silverstone
probably is one of his best-known circuits.
  
Christoph
Stieger performed well on Saturday in his 312 PB
s/n 0888, ending up on 4th position, but was a
DNF on Sunday. Christian Gläsel and his 312 PB
s/n 0882 were non-starters in the heats after he
had damaged the car in Friday's qualifying
session.
 
Many
cars had to pause on Sunday, including the Dino
268 SP s/n 0798 entered by Bernie Carl and driven
by classic car dealer Gregor Fisken: The latter
blew the Dino's engine on Saturday, but was back
on duty on Sunday in Bernie Carl's 250 GTO '62
s/n 3387GT.
Collector
Harry Leventis had handed over two of his cars to
professional or semi-professional drivers: Peter
Hardman took the wheel of the Dino 246 SP s/n
0784 this time while the 330 LMB (s/n 4381SA) he
used to drive so many times was piloted by
journalist Tony Dron this time. Unfortunately,
Mr. Dron dropped out on Saturday and was a
non-starter on Sunday.
 
The first heat on Saturday was
overshadowed by a severe accident: In the very
first lap, Carlos Monteverde lost control in his
250 TR s/n 0738TR when he slipped on oil; being
touched by another car, the Testa Rossa spun and
Dutchman Bart Rosman in his 250 GT SWB Berlinetta
s/n 2179GT crashed into the tail of Monteverde's
spinning car very heavily. The collector from
Brazil was rushed into hospital, but fortunately
he had suffered no physical damage except a bad
headache while his car, well, will probably not
be seen back on the track for quite a while. Bart
Rosman, too, remained unhurt, but the nose of his
SWB was badly bent. The race had been stopped
immediately and was restarted after the debris
had been removed.
 
Likewise as in previous years, the
FOCGB held a meeting at Silverstone in
conjunction with the International Historic
Festival (a track-day had been hosted at the
circuit some days earlier) which did once more
attract about 150 cars with some very special
examples among them.
The
probably most interesting one was the immaculate
166 MM/53 Spider Vignale of Bernard Worth, s/n
0308M. This car has been in Mr. Worth's
possession for some 30 years by now, and after a
long time of storage it was presented to the
public for the very first time since a remarkable
number of years. Much restoration work has been
invested during recent years, and the little
Ferrari is now just stunning. Of course it was
adequately parked right in front of entrance of
the FOCGB's tent in which one was offered several
kinds of refreshments and FOC-merchandising
products.
 
Next
to s/n 0308M, one could see the 225 Sport Spider
Vignale s/n 0198ET of David Vine. This was a rare
occasion to compare the first series of spyder
bodies manufactured by Alfredo Vignale with the
ones of the second series.
Martin
Emmisson again showed up in his dark blue 250 GT
California Spider LWB s/n 1411GT, originally
owned by Luigi Innocenti and later by the Italian
opera star Mario del Monaco. Also from the 250
GT-family: two SWB Berlinettas, s/n 2067GT of
Bernie Carl and s/n 2209GT of Stuart Passey,
which were on display on the FOCGB area, too.
  
Several
250 GTOs had been entered in the races, but
Stephen Pilkington's example (s/n 3527GT) was on
show at the Ferrari Club's gathering.
Also
very special: The 330 GT s/n 5805GT of Richard
Allen. Both the chassis and the engine of this
car have been bodied as a Nembo Spider. According
to the owner, this is the third body built by
Carozzeria Neri & Bonacini of Modena in the
second half of the 1960's. Two other Nembo
spyders on 250 GT chassis are known: s/n 1777GT
and s/n 3771GT. Someone had ordered a third car,
but for some reason which is unknown to me this
third project was never finished by the
coachbuilders and the body remained unused for
years. Much later it was discovered and made its
way to the UK where it was united with the above
mentioned 330 GT. Now the stunning car is painted
dark metallic blue with a tan interior and is an
RHD.
 
Among
the various modern Ferrari on display, the F50
s/n 103496 of Ian Hetherington probably caused
the major stir: This F50, which is one of a very
few to have been sold new in "Rosso
Barchetta", a dark non-metallic red color,
is being used by Mr. Hetherington in the
Maranello Challenge in the UK and therefore
equipped with many sponsoring stickers providing
it with quite a sporting look.
Some
other interesting Ferrari were parked in the
paddock, including Frank Sytner's 250 GT
California Spider SWB s/n 3077GT. This car
sported an unusual yellow livery for a number of
years, but has been repainted in silvergrey
metallic in the recent time. Another car one
should drop a line about is the red 275 GTB s/n
06683: This 275 GTB/2 Shortnose, registered 19
LML, has been rebodied as a GTB/4. Compared to
standard 275 GTB/4s, its outside filler cap is
the only remarkable difference.
 
Two Ferrari were the stars of the
annual auction performed by Coys during the
International Historic Festival: First, a dark
green 250 GT California Spider LWB, s/n 1253GT,
which had been entered by a German seller. The
car sold at a remarkable price of 330.000,-£
plus commission. The buyer apparently was a
British collector.
The
second special Ferrari on sale was 500 Superfast
s/n 6679SF. This car had been sold new to the
famous comedian Peter Sellers, and some
interesting photos of him together with this car
could be seen in the catalogue. S/N 6679SF, one
of eight 500 Superfasts equipped with RHD, had
been entered in the sale by its third owner and
sold at 100.000,-£ plus commission.
 
Andreas Birner
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