2 replies to this topic

[Writer2]

I have another four queries, and these concern the earlier Ferrari Monopostos.

 

1948 02C/102, I have no information as to what happened to the car after Bracco last raced it on 15th August 1951.  I have a note that says: "1984: Discovered by Massimo Colombo." 

 

1948 04C/104: Early history up to Landi/Casini/Dacqua 1954. Then: "chassis 04C was found in Paris in 1964 by Bart Loyens on behalf of Stanley Nowak (US). Later that year it passed to Henry Austin Clark Jr (US), the owner of the Long Island Automotive Museum, and was being entered in concours events by James Clark, Henry's son, in 2006." (Barchetta.cc).

 

1949 08C/108: Works car. All good up to 1953. Last heard of in Uruguay with Pinheiro Pires.

 

1949 112: Was this really the car sold to Pierre Staechelin/Ecurie Espadon? There seems to be confusion between this number and 01F, (Which in original form was re-numbered as 011F, when sold to the Automobile Club of Argentina).

 

Any help gratefully appreciated...

 

[Doug Nye]

Phrases such as 'discovered by' and 'found in a (complete as required)' became very familiar during the 1980s as the escalating market values of old banger racers began to ring bells with wheelers and dealers.  A number of approximate look-alike 'restorations' began to emerge - not always accompanied by much in the way of explanatory provenance though often with very exotic stories to explain 'survival'.  More forensic investigation of revived car, and of the owner/dealer/victim's understanding of its long-term history, usually ended up in tears.  A number were found to be have been created from a cuboid of empty airspace barely a month or two prior to their miraculous unveiling - while others included some genuine bits, albeit drawn from a number of other source cars and not necessarily the individual entity that was being claimed.

 

But remember that the 1980s was only 30 years after some of those car designs had been current and competing.  Here in 2024 a further 30 odd years has passed, and some of those once laughable revivals have now accumulated pretty much as many races, if not more, than the originals upon which they are so loosely based.  The point is that no historic or vintage race appearance, nor success, holds anything more than pipsqueak importance in contrast to the frontline international achievements of more real cars, when it mattered, in events of significance.

 

DCN

[Writer2]

I quite agree with you Doug!

 

...But there are still some good mysteries out there waiting to be unravelled...