Jump to content


Photo

Froilan Gonzalez, Silverstone 1951 - what car?


  • Please log in to reply
11 replies to this topic

#1 Bladrian

Bladrian
  • Member

  • 1,491 posts
  • Joined: July 02

Posted 16 November 2002 - 06:50

(koff)

I know Gonzalez won the race in a Ferrari 375, but what I didn't know was that, instead of the winner's prize money, Gonzalez was given a sports car. I have no idea whether the Pampas Bull would have preferred the cash instead, but I'd love to know what the car was .....

Advertisement

#2 Paul Parker

Paul Parker
  • Member

  • 2,198 posts
  • Joined: October 02

Posted 17 November 2002 - 11:01

Bladrian's assertion that Gonzalez was given (accepted?) a sports car in lieu of prize money for winning the 1951 British GP is certainly intriguing.

Nowhere in my library can I find mention of this and I find myself asking does Bladrian mean that Silverstone gave him a car or rather was it Enzo pocketing the money (such as it was in post war socialist Britain), and giving Froilan a spare bit of unsold and unwanted stock? I can feel a DCN moment coming on, so please respond Doug and solve the mystery.

#3 Rob29

Rob29
  • Member

  • 3,582 posts
  • Joined: January 01

Posted 17 November 2002 - 11:45

Sounds to me like a scam to avoid currency regulations. At one time you were not allowed to take more than £50 in cash out of the UK. In the 60s when British & other western drivers used to go to East Euopean F3 races the prize & starting money was converted into glasswear,the local currency being ,if not illegal to take out, worthless if you did!

#4 Vrba

Vrba
  • Member

  • 3,334 posts
  • Joined: April 01

Posted 17 November 2002 - 12:58

Says González in "Ferrari 1947-97 The Official Book":

"I knew that his business was having difficulties throughout the period when I drove for him, so one day when he gave me a piece of paper to sign, I did so, not knowing that it was a contract.
(....) And although we had agreed on a figure of six million lire, I did not expect I would ever be paid.

Later, during one of our many lunches together, Ferrari said he had found the way to pay me much more money that the contract required. He gave me a sports car chassis and arranged for Vignale to make a special body for it. I took it back in Argentina and found a buyer there. The selling price, I remember, was 350,000 pesos, so I got paid in a different way."

That sounds like a sports car for the whole contract, not for winning the British Grand Prix....

Hrvoje

#5 Bladrian

Bladrian
  • Member

  • 1,491 posts
  • Joined: July 02

Posted 17 November 2002 - 13:17

A Vignale-bodied Ferrari, owned by Froilan Gonzalez? Now THAT would be a collector's dream! I presume that would have been a 155 chassis, or would I presume too much?

#6 dmj

dmj
  • Member

  • 2,250 posts
  • Joined: August 01

Posted 17 November 2002 - 13:27

A story as told by Gonzalez himself, and reffered by Vrba, here (in Spanish) : http://www.jmfangio....5inglaterra.htm

#7 dmj

dmj
  • Member

  • 2,250 posts
  • Joined: August 01

Posted 17 November 2002 - 13:31

Originally posted by Bladrian
A Vignale-bodied Ferrari, owned by Froilan Gonzalez? Now THAT would be a collector's dream! I presume that would have been a 155 chassis, or would I presume too much?

155? You probably meant 166? Or 195? Both are possible... Someone will surely know.

#8 Bladrian

Bladrian
  • Member

  • 1,491 posts
  • Joined: July 02

Posted 17 November 2002 - 14:57

You're right. 166 is what I meant. :blush:

And I really hope the car still exists ......

#9 Doug Nye

Doug Nye
  • Member

  • 11,524 posts
  • Joined: February 02

Posted 17 November 2002 - 15:48

Gonzalez 'bought' chassis serial '0038M' - I believe - which began life as a 2-litre Ferrari 166 Barchetta (open sports car bodied by Carrozzeria Touring), but suffered at Serafini's hands in the Mille Miglia (perhaps). The repaired frame was then rebuilt as a Ferrari 195 and rebodied by Vignale as a Coupe, and went to Gonzalez reputedly in 1952- ultimately re-engined as a Ferrari 212. An 'entity' under this number survives today...I last heard of it in France....several times rebuilt/restored.

If this car indeed represented Gonzalez's prize money for winning the British GP I think he did pretty well by the standards of the time - though not perhaps fantastically well...The Old Man might sometimes have been soft, or silly, but commercially he was never stupid....

DCN

#10 Bladrian

Bladrian
  • Member

  • 1,491 posts
  • Joined: July 02

Posted 17 November 2002 - 16:53

Thanks indeed, Doug. Thus it appears we have a Vignale-bodied Ferrari 212 coupe, chassis #0038M, ex-Gonzalez, somewhere in France ....... and representing the prize monies paid to the driver of the first Ferrari to win a Grand Prix. That's just got to be worth restoring.

Thanks for all the help, chaps. Much appreciated.

#11 Arturo Pereira

Arturo Pereira
  • Member

  • 843 posts
  • Joined: March 01

Posted 17 November 2002 - 16:56

Froilan also said at that site that on that day he signed an autograph to a 12 years old guy that, years later, reminded him about this situation .... the name of that 12 years old guy is Jackie Stewart :)

#12 Vrba

Vrba
  • Member

  • 3,334 posts
  • Joined: April 01

Posted 17 November 2002 - 17:52

It would be nice to know how much 6 million lire was at the time (in comparison with average salary or common goods) and what was the retail price of a road going Ferrari!

BTW, I understood González quote as that he received a sports Ferrari as a payout for his whole contract, not just for winning British Grand Prix....

Hrvoje