23 replies to this topic

[bill moffat]

look at any of those wonderful old pictures of Ferrari F1/sportscars and you will see the white stamp of the "Prova Mo" designation on the rear. Why did Enzo feel the need to make vehicle identification so public ?

[2F-001]

I thought it was something akin to a temporary registration mark?

[Vitesse2]

Prova numbers were (are?) the Italian equivalent of the red "trade plates" used in Britain, enabling unregistered cars to be driven on the public roads. MO stands for Modena, of course, so presumably they'd take the cars for a quick shakedown up and down the nearest Autostrada.

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by bill moffat
look at any of those wonderful old pictures of Ferrari F1/sportscars and you will see the white stamp of the "Prova Mo" designation on the rear. Why did Enzo feel the need to make vehicle identification so public ?

It theoretically allowed them to be driven on the roads! - it means something like "Experimental (Modena)" - each "provincia" has its two letter code for registrations. I can only think of a few - VA for Varese, MI for Milan, RM for Rome, VE for Venice, BO for Bologna, TO for Turin...

PROVA MO numbers, brown overalls, lambrusco.... can we have "proper" Ferrari back please?

pete

[VAR1016]

There's an excellent picture in "Mon Ami Mate" of the Farnham Flyer trying out a 375 Ferrari sports car outside the works (it was tested on the road and MH said that it could do 180 mph); standing by the car (which is unfinished, with body filler etc.) are Dino Ferrari, Leslie Hawthorn and Reg Parnell. It captures pefectly the atmosphere described by Pete Fenelon above.

PdeRL

[bill moffat]

..thanks guys. It makes perfect sense, particularly as various 50's Jaguars ran at Le Mans on UK trade plates.

Sports cars I can understand, but did the "prova mo'd" F1 cars ever test on the Modenese streets ?

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by bill moffat
..thanks guys. It makes perfect sense, particularly as various 50's Jaguars ran at Le Mans on UK trade plates.

... as demonstrated by two pictures in Classic Car Weekly this week of the Rolt/Hamilton winning car, one period, one contemporary. Unfortunately, the caption writer has managed to miss the fact that it was on trade plates - it reads something like "originally registered as 897FG but now ABC123" - of such cock-ups are legends born

[ensign14]

Did the F1 cars have to be pushed on public roads to get from the factory to the test track? That may explain the need for 'PROVA MO' to be stencilled on. Even lawn mowers used by the Council have number plates on them.

Incidentally, even the Ferraris in Grand Prix Legends have the Bandini 'number plate' from Monaco 68 on them. Nice touch. Noticed it in replaying one of my frequent crashes (GPL ranking is equivalent to Volonterio, I'm afraid. Did once finish 9th tho').

[bill moffat]

...and as it happens this week's Autosport has a picture of F1 Ferraris at Monaco with their backsides tattoed. I think Ensign might be right, as I seem to remember that back in the 60's the F1 cars were driven on the public Monaco roads (ie open to the public) to reach the actual road circuit.

[David M. Kane]

Having been to the Ferrari factory three times, this practice is still in
place today. Every new Ferrari is taken for a road test in the hills around
Maranello as well as the test track. In the old days, Mike Parkes in particular, like to take car out for "spins" on the Autostrada at top
speed, pull over make some notes, and head back to the factory. Oh! What I would have given to be in Modena/Maranello in those days. I believe PROVA means test vehicle in Italian or something close to that.

[char76]

It seems quite a coincidence that this subject should be brought up. If i am not mistaken there is a member of TNF who's user name is Provapr, and if you go to this thread http://www.atlasf1.c...&threadid=53095, he was looking for good quailty pictures of this ensignia. I wonder if he can enlighten us a little more as to the origins of the license plate?

[Yorgos]

Originally posted by ensign14
.............Incidentally, even the Ferraris in Grand Prix Legends have the Bandini 'number plate' from Monaco 68 on them. ......

Definitely not Bandini's in '68, unfortunately.

Yorgos

[ensign14]

Originally posted by Yorgos


Definitely not Bandini's in '68, unfortunately.

Yorgos

I know, but it is that number - Prova MO 53...(as a trade plate the number would have been re-used so is plausibke for 67).

[aldo]

No mistery behind the licence plate "Prova MO .." and the two digits after MO, which is the short-word for Modena.

As already correctly stated in this thread, every Italian "Provincia", i.e. county, used to have its own two letter short-word on the licence plates of each vehicle. The same two letters are still used together with the Zip Code in Italian mail addresses.

Since 1994, all licence plates have two letters-three digits-two letters, irrespective of the Provincia in which the owner of the vehicle lives. That helps when selling a car out of the Provincia: in the old times, each car had to receive a new licence plate when ownership moved to a new Provincia.

"Prova" licence plates are still used by car vendors and service centers to test client's cars on the public road. The reason behind such an use is the insurance coverage when the car is driven by someone else than the registered owner.

In the old times, "Prova" license plates were also used for "experimental" vehicles, i.e. not fully complying with the rules of the so called "Street Car Code", so they could be, theoretically, driven even on public road. Its key meaning was for a sure identification of the car for insurance purposes, provided that chassis number on racing car has always been something quite confusing and unreliable, furthermore not certified by any public agency. When insurance rules changed in the Seventies/Eighties, there was no longer the need of a "Prova" licence plate on GP and racing cars.

Ferrari, like anybody else, had some "Prova" licence plates and they swapped them freely among cars, both single-seaters and sports. Some of the most used numbers were 36, 38, 53. There are thousands of photos showing racing Ferrari sporting these numbers.

[John-w]

No mistery behind the licence plate "Prova MO .." and the two digits after MO, which is the short-word for Modena.

Ferrari, like anybody else, had some "Prova" licence plates and they swapped them freely among cars, both single-seaters and sports. Some of the most used numbers were 36, 38, 53. There are thousands of photos showing racing Ferrari sporting these numbers.

Hello,

does anybody know which number used Chris Amon on his Ferrari 312/69 (0017) during the Spanish GP 1969?

Thanks for your help.


John-w

[Slurp1955]

Hello,

does anybody know which number used Chris Amon on his Ferrari 312/69 (0017) during the Spanish GP 1969?

Thanks for your help.


John-w

15 (fünfzehn !)

see this link
http://driverphoto.f...-y-la-formula-1

Edited by Slurp1955, 31 July 2013 - 14:39.

[John-w]

15 (fünfzehn !)

see this link
http://driverphoto.f...-y-la-formula-1

Thanks for this link, but I am searching for the "Prova Mo" number (031, 036, 038 or 053) and not the start number.

John-w

[chr1s]

In the book "Racing Mechanic" Ermano Cuoghi (Cheif mechanic on Laudas car) mentions that the Formula one cars were often driven to Fiorano, although somtimes they were loaded on a transporter to save the clutch.

[wenoopy]

Hello,

does anybody know which number used Chris Amon on his Ferrari 312/69 (0017) during the Spanish GP 1969?

Thanks for your help.


John-w

Would there be any need for a "Prova" number (plate) on a Ferrari at the Spanish GP? As temporary numbers, were they for use only in Italy?

Did they exist as actual "plates"? I have seen 1950's Ferrari pictures with "MO 49" etc painted fairly roughly on the rear, and later ones with "Prova MO..." etc stencilled on. I don't recall any actual plates .

Stu

[Macca]

Hello,

does anybody know which number used Chris Amon on his Ferrari 312/69 (0017) during the Spanish GP 1969?

Thanks for your help.


John-w

I have looked at several photo books, Motor Sport magazine for 1969, and at photos on Aerogi's page from several races in 1968 and 1969. I can find no evidence that Ferrari continued to use 'prova mo' markings on the F1 cars after the end of 1967.

Paul M

[John-w]

Hello,

here is a photo from the decals



or is this a other sponsor in front of the fuel pump?

John-w

[John-w]

I have looked at several photo books, Motor Sport magazine for 1969, and at photos on Aerogi's page from several races in 1968 and 1969. I can find no evidence that Ferrari continued to use 'prova mo' markings on the F1 cars after the end of 1967.

Paul M

Hello,

in this photo from the Ferrari 312B you can see my model and the original car in Canada 1970,
so I think Ferrari used this "prova mo" markings also in 1970.



John-w

[Lee200]

Did the F1 cars have to be pushed on public roads to get from the factory to the test track? That may explain the need for 'PROVA MO' to be stencilled on. Even lawn mowers used by the Council have number plates on them.

Incidentally, even the Ferraris in Grand Prix Legends have the Bandini 'number plate' from Monaco 68 on them. Nice touch. Noticed it in replaying one of my frequent crashes (GPL ranking is equivalent to Volonterio, I'm afraid. Did once finish 9th tho').

Eric, the GPL '67 Porsche 910s also have their correct license tag numbers which apparently made them legal to drive on public streets.

[Macca]

Ah, I misunderstood and was looking for the large stencil 'PROVA'.

None of my books and magazines show the small sticker well enough to read the number. At Clermont-Ferrand in 1970 it was 'Mo 53', but that is all I could find for certain, but I think at Monaco 1969 it was also 'Mo 53'.

Paul M