Ferrari
September 30th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
With a new world record already set for a classic Ferrari earlier this year with a 1961 Ferrari California Spyder owned by actor James Coburn selling for €7,040,000 ($15.1m NZ), all eyes will be on the RM Auctions’ ‘Automobiles of London’ sale on 29 October when a another California, a 1963 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder, comes under the hammer.
Like the California sold earlier this year, the Ferrari for sale in London has strong Hollywood connections, with this car used in front of the camera between 1972 and 2003, including being driven by Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu in the hit movie ‘Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle’. One question that will be answered at the auction is whether a Ferrari driven by a member of the Magnificent Seven or Charlie’s Angels is a bigger draw card for buyers. With an estimated sale price of up to £3,500,000 ($9.4m NZ), there is a strong likelihood that this car will break the record set earlier in the year.
But this is not the only classic Ferrari in the auction, the largest of its type in Europe in the northern autumn. There is a fully restored, concours-winning 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France Berlinetta (Est. £1,800,000 – £2,200,000)($4.8m – 5.9m NZ), which received first place at the Ferrari 60th anniversary concours. Other significant Ferrari consignments set to cross RM’s London auction block include: a Targa Florio class winning 1965 Ferrari 250 LM Berlinetta (Est. £2,500,000 – £2,800,000)($6.7m – 7.55m NZ); a rare, modern 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO, accompanied by its original books and tool kits (Est. £280,000 – £340,000)($755,000 – 917,000 NZ); and a sleek 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Berlinetta, considered one of the most original examples in the world. (Est. £475,000 – £525,000)($1.28m-1.4m NZ).
RM Auctions, will present their Automobiles of London event at Battersea Evolution, Battersea Park, London UK on October 29, 2008.
August 6th, 2008 by NZCC Editor
Like the dinosaur, European supercars are in danger of becoming extinct. Currently, Europe’s auto manufacturers are locked in a deadly battle with environmentalists who point out that, with their massively powerful engines, supercars are pumping out as much as 2-3 times as much carbon dioxide as more standard cars.
These spoil sports — sorry, environmentalists — reckon that there is no place for the supercar in a world battling untoward emissions and climate change.
Manufacturers such as Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini are experiencing an uphill fight as they argue that the cars they produce are iconic vehicles that combine classic design with state-of-the-art technology — technology that could even help to save the environment in the long term. Either way, very few so-called supercars are pressed into service as daily drivers, so their overall contribution to CO2 emissions is very small.
However, the EU proposes to legislate for a decrease in CO2 emissions from cars to an average of 120g @ km by 2012 — currently the average is 160 grams.
This is potentially going to harm many supercars, most of which can squirt out as much as 200-500 grams a kilometre.
For smaller manufacturers there is some relief — those that produce less than 10,000 vehicles a year will be allowed to negotiate their own targets with the EU big-wigs. That lets smaller niche manufacturers — such as Lotus and Morgan — off the hook and would also throw a life-line to newly independent Aston Martin.
However, that won’t be much help to Porsche, Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini as they are all part of larger auto groups — so, for instance, Ferrari wouldn’t have the opportunity to set their own emission standards as they’d be lumped in with the much larger volume of vehicles produced by their parent company, Fiat.
What does the future hold for the supercar? Electric power? An electrically powered Ferrari would be a bit hard to swallow — the whirr of electric motors isn’t going to stir the blood quite as efficiently as the howl of a petrol-powered V12 at full noise!
In the meantime, the German and Italian auto makers are arguing strongly against these new proposals — let’s just hope that common sense prevails. It would be a less interesting world without Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and Maserati sports cars — we can’t all afford to own one, but we can at least admire them from a distance.
Of course, there is another solution if the worse comes to the worse — ship all the world’s supercars to New Zealand. We’ll look after them for all those well-heeled, supercar-owning Euros — then they can nip down here for a few days every year and thrash them around one of our race-tracks before heading off home. It’s not such a daft idea, ‘supercar resorts’ already exist in the US and Spain for just such activities — so why not here?
The world would be a poorer place without cars like the Ferrari Enzo
July 23rd, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
I guess it’s a simple enough idea, based on Phil Hill’s long-running series of articles on sports-racing Ferraris for Road & Track and Rosso Ferrari. But the magic lies in how it has all been brought together.
Hill won 25 sports car races in Ferraris through the ’50s and early ’60s. In the book he writes about 19 different models, almost all of which he raced at the time.
They weren’t all enormously successful, though most were, but very few of these cars are less than fabulous to look at.
Hill’s early days racing in the US get good coverage — it must have been a great period to watch and compete in. He has a wonderful knack for giving just enough of every aspect of the models featured — specifications, development, team politics, personalities, his own experience in racing them (some amusing, some tragic, but nearly all successful), subsequent history and owners of the individual cars featured to bring the period to life.
Cars featured in the book include the AAC 815 and the first Corsa Spyder, through the big four-cylinder Monzas, the 4.0-litre V12 MI and the elegant Testa Rossas, to the 1994 333SP.
Each model he drives again to provide a current viewpoint. The book is topped off with a wonderful piece about the Fiat transporters the factory used in the 1950s! John Lamm’s colour photos and the contemporary black-and-white shots are superb, and the large page size really shows them off well.
I remember Dalton Watson doing many one-make photographic books of quite modest size 30 to 40 years ago. This new Ferrari book is on quite a different scale, and the production quality shows the contents off beautifully.
You don’t even need to be a Ferrari fan to enjoy this one.
July 1st, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
There is something about the way Italians do things which is rather indefinable, but fires admiration in all of us
Just listening to Italians talk, in their own language or someone else’s, prompts a quiet private smile — and car manufacturers the world over use Italian-sounding names for their motor cars to give the product a certain brio.
Brio is an Italian word which in many ways sums up their culture, temperament and designs. Italians are spontaneous, artistic, stylish and apparently carefree, and they are damn good engineers too — you just have to drive along autostradas which tunnel ingeniously through mountains and span deep ravines on beautifully-designed bridges to appreciate they aren’t engineering lightweights.
You have to drive in Italy to understand why Italians design their cars the way they do — they drive their cars, rather than conducting them or using them like an appliance. They actually concentrate on what they are doing. Italian manufacturers must supply a vehicle which responds to that. But it’s their free spirit which endears Italian car designs to us. It is so free that sometimes practical details and reliability get lost in all the brio, but those who love Italian cars quite rightly put that down to character!
Read the rest of this entry »June 25th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
The Ferrari Life Buyers Portfolio differs slightly from Brooklands’ usual format by including a series of reports offering Ferrari buying tips from a well-known website (www.ferrarilfe.com). This book covers all the Ferrari road cars from the Dino 266GT to the 456GT, and there’s a wealth of expert knowledge on offer here — perfect if you’re considering a purchase — although it comes with a strong US bias.
Review by James Black
March 31st, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
Very rare Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada
The Concorso d’Eleganza once again invites the world’s most attractive classic automobiles to Lake Como on the last weekend of April (25-27.04) for this highly traditional automotive beauty contest. “Our commitment to the event underscores the high regard in which we hold an automotive aesthetic that goes far beyond the bounds of brands and models,” says Karl Baumer, Chairman of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este and Director of BMW Group Mobile Tradition, of the BMW Group’s longstanding patronage of the Concorso d’Eleganza. Jean-Marc Droulers, President of Villa d’Este SpA, also looks
back with satisfaction on the collaboration with the BMW Group since 1999: “The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este today ranks as one of the outstanding events of its kind. I believe we can all be a little proud of that.”
Milestone of a longstanding tradition
This Bavarian-Italian partnership, as cultivated in the Concorso d’Eleganza, enjoys a longstanding heritage at BMW. One milestone of this tradition is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year – the BMW M1. It has prompted BMW to devote its 2008 Concorso exhibition to the iconic sports car that came from the drawing board of Italian stylist Giorgio Giugiaro. Alongside the production model, the various racing versions will also be on show at Lake Como.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe
The unique ambience of Villa d’Este will once again provide the stage for a Rolls-Royce heading straight from its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show to the shores of Lake Como. The 101EX Experimental Car had already given a foretaste here of a potential new coupe model to come; now the fully-fledged Phantom Coupe is ready for presentation this year. The fourth member of the Phantom family is the latest, driver-oriented Rolls-Royce to emerge from the fold. In it the timeless proportions of a Rolls-Royce are combined with modern lines, cutting-edge materials and the finest interior finishes. A driving experience such as this enables long distances to be covered in relaxed yet pacy style.
Classic beauties
Once again, more than 50 stunning classics covering six decades of motoring history have been selected for the Concorso d’Eleganza. Urs Paul Ramseier, the Selecting Adviser responsible for choosing the vehicles that take part in the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, already provided a few tasters from this select field of participants in Geneva.
Streamlining: Mercedes-Benz 540 K Autobahnkurier (1938)
Just two streamlined coupe bodies were mounted on the chassis of the Mercedes-Benz 540 K. In 1938 this model was acquired by Dr. Ignacio Barraquer and remained in family ownership until 2004. Then the Autobahnkurier was purchased by Deborah and Arturo Keller and subsequently underwent complete restoration before being presented again in 2006. 70 years after its world premiere, the Mercedes-Benz 540 K Autobahnkurier makes its reappearance in Europe at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.
Winning type: Ferrari 166 MM Touring Berlinetta, 1949
Count Giannino Marzotto bought the Ferrari 166 MM from Enzo Ferrari. Touring provided it with an aerodynamic coupe body in Touring Superleggera construction. The car had been presented at the 1950 Geneva Motor Show, and Count Marzotto’s aim was to drive it to victory in the 1950 Mille Miglia. He was not happy with the output of the 166 MM, however, and so Ferrari gave him with a new V12 Type 195 Colombo engine. This proved a resounding success: Count Giannino Marzotto and co-driver Marco Corsaro in car no. 724 swept to victory in the 1950 Mille Miglia.
Sporting the spurs of this challenging “1,000-mile race”, the Ferrari was exhibited at the Turin Motor Show that immediately followed. Whereas Raymond Sommer had been less successful in the 1950 Le Mans race, Marzotto went on to win the Rome 3-hour race in 1950 as well. In the late 1950s the Ferrari was deployed in smaller races in the USA before being sold to an American collector in 1965 along with its original engine of 1949. The new owner kept the car until 2001. Today’s owner acquired it in 2003 and had it completely restored to its original condition.
Ahead of its time: the ATS 2500 GT (1963)
The mid-engine sports car built by Carlo Chiti and designed by Franco Scaglione must have caused a minor sensation at the 1963 Paris Motor Show. The ATS was not destined to be a commercial success, however, and only very few examples left the ATS automobile factory before it closed its gates permanently.
After the Paris Show, the ATS 2500 GT went to a French collection, where it remained until 1984. Its current owner managed to obtain the car in 2003 and will present it at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este with its original odometer count of just 1,300 kilometres.
Pininfarina’s yellow masterpiece: the Dino 206 Competizione (1967)
The Dino Competizione Pininfarina was unveiled for the first time at the 1967 Frankfurt Motor Show. This concept car, built on the basis of the Ferrari 206S chassis, remained in the Pininfarina Collection until 2007 – more than 40 years. Ferrari enthusiast James Glickenhaus succeeded in purchasing this exquisite one-off and, as its first owner, will present the car in complete original condition at Lake Como.
Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2008
Over the weekend of 25-27 April 2008, the splendid grounds of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este and the Villa Erba in Cernobbio on Lake Como will once again be transformed into a unique backdrop for the most beautiful cars from eras past and the most flamboyant concept cars of today. First staged in 1929 at this same location, the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este today ranks as the world’s most tradition-steeped event of its kind.
After the event opening on Saturday for invited guests, Sunday sees the Concorso offering all car fans another chance to experience these dreams on wheels in the adjoining parkland of Villa Erba. In addition to the models presented the previous day, there will also be numerous other prestigious classics on display in special exhibitions. Admission to Villa Erba, which is located in Cernobbio on Lake Como, is 10 euros (single), 20 euros (family ticket) or 8 euros (concessions).
We will have photos from the 2008 event in May. In the meantime, enjoy the huge number of photos from the Concorso d’Eleganza from 1999 through to 2007 in our gallery below. Click any of them to view in higher resolution or to start from the first photo in the gallery click here.
March 21st, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
The Ferrari 275GTB/4 was the last of its kind — the final Berlinetta built by an independent Ferrari (the car’s successor, the Daytona, was built under Fiat rule) and the last Ferrari built before US regulations exerted their influence. Tim drives the ultimate expression of the classic front-engined V12 Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari and Michael Schumacher’s current domination of Formula One is not without precedent and, when Ferrari debuted the beautiful 275GTB at the 1964 Paris Salon, it was against a backdrop of the marque’s total domination at Le Mans and in sports car racing in general.
In those halcyon days sports car racing grabbed at least as many headlines as Formula One and, capitalising on this success, Ferrari released a long string of stunning, V12-engined GTs and sports cars, many of which have now become legendary. Drivers such as Gendebien, Frere, Hill, Bandini, Scarfiotti, Guichet and Vacarella had stood atop the podium of the world’s most famous race after 24 gruelling hours, proudly wearing the yellow shield and prancing horse on their overalls.
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