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Dancing in the Rain
Goodwood Festival of Speed, June 20-22, 1997
The 50th anniversary of Ferrari was celebrated in events all over the world. One very special event was the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which took place in June near Chichester in England. Except the tremendous turnout of numerous Ferrari, the spectators and participants were confronted with some other surprises as well, also including the weather.
This was already the 5th Festival of Speed hosted by the Earl of March in the park of Goodwood House, and it is always a motorsport festival with its very personal charm: It is simply a meeting of some of the most valuable race-cars of all times, and each of these cars can be admired in action during a hillclimb that has its roots in the 1930s. But the relation to the traditional hillclimb does not mean necessarily that the drivers have to try to absolve it in the fastest possible way; if you like, you may also regard the hillclimb as a demonstration run. Normally, the cultivation of the English lifestyle is another tradition during the Festival of Speed. But in 1997, the picnic-tables were left in the cars: After the four foregoing festivals had seen nice, warm and sunny weather, the fifth edition was hit by massive rain that turned the lawn into a field of mud. However, Ferrari was the featured marque, and so an array of some of the most important race- and sportscars was parked in front of Goodwood House around an F310 Formula 1 (which was on display in vertical position!). Reading the descriptions of the cars on display, the spectator was bombarded with heavy words which made him tremble, like "Winner at Le Mans in 1962", "1953 Mille Miglia Winner", "1st OA in 1961 Goodwood Tourist Trophy", "Winner of the Tour de France in 1957" or "Victorious at Sebring in 1956", just to name a few.
Spoken less stereotype, this meant for example that the very 330 TRI (#0808) could be admired in which Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien took the last win for a front-engined car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1962. The car, owned by the famous French collector Pierre Bardinon, was shown to the public for the first time after many, many years of slumber in Bardinon's private museum, and Phil Hill even took out the old war-horse for a ride. For the 1961 Formula One champion, it was probably a busy weekend since he also piloted Chris Rea's 156 Formula 1 Replica (in the original car, he became champion in 1961), and also took the wheel of the very 1967 Chaparall Formula 2 in which he succeeded in the BOAC 500; after that final victory, Phil Hill had retired from his racing career.
A German collector living in Switzerland brought out his rare 860 Monza Spider Scaglietti s/n 0604M; this car was driven to 1st OA in the 1956 12 Hours of Sebring by Juan Manuel Fangio and Eugenio Castellotti. Side by side, nearly all members of the 250 GT's competition family could be seen: Starting with the 250 GT LWB Berlinetta Scaglietti "Tour de France" s/n 0677GT (Gendebien's winning car of the identically named event in 1957), one could follow the evolution via the 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione s/n 2735GT (in which Stirling Moss won the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood in 1961) to the 250 Berlinetta Sperimentale s/n 2643GT; this car, that resembles a 400 Superamerica Coupé Aerodinamico, was the prototype for the 250 GTO. The latter type was represented not only by an example in the 1962 body-configuration (s/n 3757GT), but also by one of the rare examples wearing a 1964 body (s/n 4091GT). An one-off, technically based on the 250 GT SWB, was present as well: the so-called "Breadvan", originally delivered to the Italian Scuderia Serenissima - the nickname of course relates to the car's unusual body. The last evolution of Ferrari's famous tipo 250 could be seen also: a 250 LM, this one being Brandon Wang's s/n 5903.
The fact that Ferrari once did participate in the American Can-Am Series is even unknown to many people who are part of the Ferrari-scene. So it was quite an unusual pleasure to see three of these cars in one spot at the same time: Symbolic Motor Cars from La Jolla, California, had brought their 330 P3/4 Can-Am s/n 0844. This car has a complicated and interesting history: "born" as a 330 P3 in 1966, it had been converted to a 412 P (Ferrari's prototype-version for customers) in 1967 before being sold to Luigi Chinetti's N.A.R.T. Finally, s/n 0844 was rebodied as a Can-Am spyder. The second Can-Am Ferrari at Goodwood was the 612 Can-Am s/n 0866 owned by Robrt N. Dusek of Pennsylvania. And finally, the most powerful Ferrari ever built could be seen as well, the 712 Can-Am s/n 1010 which had been constructed in their early 1970's on the chassis of a 512 M. Yes, it does have a 7-litres engine which provides s/n 1010 with about 700 hp.
Except the above mentioned s/n 0844, three other 412 Ps had been built. Two of them had come to Goodwood: P. Paul Pappalardo's s/n 0850 (ex-Ecurie Francorchamps) and Paul Vestey's s/n 0854 (ex-Maranello Concessionaires).
The usually rarely seen prototypes formed a remarkable group at Goodwood since there were also the 212 E Montagna s/n 0862 (Swiss Dr. Peter Schetty had become European Hillclimb Champion for Ferrari in this car in 1969) and a Dino 268 SP (s/n 0798), Ferrari's first eight-cylinder model. Claes Jung had brought his little Dino 206 SP s/n 016 from Sweden.
"Pink Floyd" drummer Nick Mason had come from London with his 512 S s/n 1026, his 312 T3 Formula 1 s/n 034 and his 156/85 Formula 1 s/n 082 from the turbo-era.
It seems to be a habit of the collectors during the Festival of Speed to hand over their race-cars to the very persons who drove the cars years (and often even decades) ago. Thus Carlos Reutemann entered the cockpit of Mason's 312 T3, while the Turbo was piloted by Stefan Johansson, René Arnoux and Eddie Irvine. Furthermore, one Up-Hill session had been reserved for Grand Prix celebrities. So, Tony Brooks drove the resurrected 1959 Dino 246 Formula 1 s/n 0003 and Chris Amon took the wheel of the 1967 312 Formula 1 s/n 0003. Jody Scheckter could be seen in the 312 T4 s/n 040 in which he had become the - up to now - last world-champion for Ferrari in 1979. Derek Bell piloted a Dino built for the Tasman Series (s/n 0010), which this very couple won 1969. Unfortunately, there is none of the 158 Formula 1 in existence in which John Surtees once became world-champion; hence one decided to let him drive the 166 Formula Libre s/n 011F, originally raced by Froilan Gonzales.
Most of the participants did not care how long the difficult and somehow dangerous ride took; some did, but since the weather was changing steadily, the results should not be regarded as representative. The officially fastest Ferrari of the weekend was the 412 P of Paul Vestey, chased up the hill by the Earl of Arundel in 58.0 seconds. The overall fastest time was set by McLaren's testdriver Nick Heidfeld in the McLaren-Mercedes MP4/12. The star of the German Formula 3 championship absolved the sprint in 47.3 seconds. Despite of the terrible weather, the Goodwood Festival of Speed was a treat for everybody who was in attendance. Let's hope that the next edition of this prestigious event in 1998 will take place in the agreeable early summer sun again!
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