Froilan Gonzalez, Silverstone 1951 - what car?
#1
Posted 16 November 2002 - 06:50
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 .....
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#2
Posted 17 November 2002 - 11:01
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
Posted 17 November 2002 - 11:45
#4
Posted 17 November 2002 - 12:58
"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
Posted 17 November 2002 - 13:17
#6
Posted 17 November 2002 - 13:27
#7
Posted 17 November 2002 - 13:31
155? You probably meant 166? Or 195? Both are possible... Someone will surely know.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?
#8
Posted 17 November 2002 - 14:57
And I really hope the car still exists ......
#9
Posted 17 November 2002 - 15:48
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
Posted 17 November 2002 - 16:53
Thanks for all the help, chaps. Much appreciated.
#11
Posted 17 November 2002 - 16:56
#12
Posted 17 November 2002 - 17:52
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