23 replies to this topic

[Barry Boor]

It is common knowledge that around 1956-7 Ferrari often painted different colours on the nose cones of their cars, presumably to help the drivers to get into the correct cars on the grid.....

However, I have a picture of a model Ferrari (a 555 Super Squalo, I think) and it has a yellow nose. It has a number 2 on it in black in a white circle. I know this was quite rare for Ferrari who usually used white numbers.

So my question is, is this an actual model of a particular car in a particular race, and if it is, who drove the yellow nosed car and were there any other Ferraris with different nose colours present that day?

[marat]

Gonzales has the nose of his 553 Squalo Ferrari painted yellow at the belgian and french
GP in 1954.
The car bore number 2 at the french GP, black in a white circle.
Hawthorn's car had a green nose at the french GP.

[Barry Boor]

Thanks, Marat.

Trintignant also drove a factory Ferrari in that race. I wonder if his car had a blue nose????

[marat]

Bravo.
Blue nose and a thin white strip to have the french flag for Trintignant in his 625 Ferrari.

[Roger Clark]

At the French GP most of the cars seem to have had black numbers and a white backgound. THe only exceptions I know of were the Mercedes which had red numbers (the national colours of Germany) painted on the silver bodywork.

At the British GP two weeks later, the Ferraris retained black numbers on a white background, the Maseratis had the usual white numbers painted directly onto the red bodywork and the Mercedes had black nubers on a white background.

I assume that all this was due to race regulations but I would love to know what they said and why they appear to have been enforced so randomly.

[marat]

At the British GP, only a few cars had white numbers at the front: the Maseratis of Stirling Moss
and Harry Schell, the Vanwall driven by Peter Collins.
Villoresi's Maserati had on the nose an ugly painted white circle with black number and just
behind the number painted in white.
Most of the cars (out of the Mercedes) had white numbers at the back.

[D-Type]

On the same theme. I have a model of a 1956 Lancia Ferrari with a white nose and a black number 1 on white roundels. Can anybody tell me who and where? Faz favor!

[Roger Clark]

The only races where a 1956 Ferrari had number 1 in black on white roundels were Fangio at the International Trophy and the British Grand Prix. He didn't have a white nose in either. At the International Trophy he had the number in white on the side pod, in the Grand Prix it was on the tail.

[Frank S]

Originally posted by D-Type
On the same theme. I have a model of a 1956 Lancia Ferrari with a white nose and a black number 1 on white roundels. Can anybody tell me who and where? Faz favor!

Both my Brumm r127 examples have silver nose rings and No. 1 black in a white rondel on the nose, white No. 1 on the sides. One of them came in a box that said "G.P. Monaco".

[D-Type]

Originally posted by Frank S


Both my Brumm r127 examples have silver nose rings and No. 1 black in a white rondel on the nose, white No. 1 on the sides. One of them came in a box that said "G.P. Monaco".

I had a closer look at my one. It's just like you describe, but my box (from about 10 years ago) says Brumm r76.
?







Barry, sorry for hi-jacking your thread.

[Barry Boor]

No problem, D-type!

I am looking at my Brumm catalogue right now.

Both R76 and R127 are indeed Lancia Ferraris. R76 has a silver nose, while the front number (#1) is black on white, the side numbers are just white.

R127 looks as though its nose is gold ! and it carries #20. As a matter of little interest, R128 is a yellow (Belgian) version of the same car, with the same gold nose and black #20s.

As a diecast collector, I must say I have never liked this particular Brumm model as the front radiator opening looks the wrong shape to me, being completely flat at the bottom.

Further to the discussion earlier in this thread, I see that the Brumm Ferrari 555 is produced in plain red #38, listed as Hawthorn/Spain 1954 and also in the livery I describe in my first post. They list this one as Hawthorn/Holland 1955 - which nobody picked up on.

I will have to watch my Grand Prix Trio video all over again!

[D-Type]

But it's better than their Vanwall!

To be fair to Brumm, they have raised their game and some of their later offerings are better. And they are affordable!

[cabianca]

Don't think race regulations had anything to do with nose bands. Believe it was a way for the team to identify which car was coming before the number could be read.

[Frank S]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
No problem, D-type!

I am looking at my Brumm catalogue right now.

Both R76 and R127 are indeed Lancia Ferraris. R76 has a silver nose, while the front number (#1) is black on white, the side numbers are just white.

R127 looks as though its nose is gold ! and it carries #20. As a matter of little interest, R128 is a yellow (Belgian) version of the same car, with the same gold nose and black #20s.

As a diecast collector, I must say I have never liked this particular Brumm model as the front radiator opening looks the wrong shape to me, being completely flat at the bottom.

Further to the discussion earlier in this thread, I see that the Brumm Ferrari 555 is produced in plain red #38, listed as Hawthorn/Spain 1954 and also in the livery I describe in my first post. They list this one as Hawthorn/Holland 1955 - which nobody picked up on.

I will have to watch my Grand Prix Trio video all over again!

As a matter of even less interest, I have a yellow No. 20 that came in a box marked "r75", and a red No. 20 with no box, bothe D50s with gold (yellow) noses.

eBay purchases can come in low on price and accuracy.

[Barry Boor]

Having finally completed the 4 year! building of my 1/43rd scale Lancia D.50 kit, I thought it might be interesting to make a comparison of the factory Lancia and the Ferrari-ized version.

As has been stated, perfect scale and accuracy cannot be assumed, but putting my kit next to the Brumm Lancia/Ferrari mentioned above makes interesting viewing.


It is easy to see how much Enzo's team lengthened the tail, presumably to put the fuel there and also the nose. However, the similarities in other areas are there for all to see.

Having measured the wheelbase of my kit and multiplied it by 43, it appears to be very accurate. The Brumm model wheelbase is slightly longer but then Ferrari may have played about with that anyway.

[marat]

Barry,
There were two versions of the nose of the Ferrari car, the standart, similar to the original
Lancia and the "long" one, driven by Gendebien at the French GP, and by Fangio, Collins
and Castellotti a

[marat]

Barry,
There were two versions of the nose of the Ferrari car, the standart, similar to the original
Lancia and the "long" one, driven by Gendebien at the French GP, and by Fangio, Collins
and Castellotti at the German GP.

[Arjan de Roos]

Be careful with comparing Brumm models. They are great value for money but have sometimes an error somewhere. They made the 246 many years ago. A great looking model. As well as their D50. When the 801 came up (which is as we all know a development from the D50), they used the 246 body....
Also sometime coloring of wheels or interiors are not correct.

Through the years the developped their techniques. Early Brumms have a nearly matt paint finish. Now they are high gloss.

[Barry Boor]

Earwig o again....

At times during 1951 Ferrari ran recognition a small amount of colours around the top and slightly down the side of the radiators of the 375s.

I know Ascari had blue, presumably to match his helmet and Gonzales yellow (I think) but looking at black and white photos, Villoresi's seems to be white and Taruffi's dark - green?

Can anyone confirm these pointless assumptions, please?

[Arjan de Roos]

These color bands around the nose were intermittently used. During the 1951 italian GP for instance. I think Gonzalez had a yellow band at that venue. During the British GP Ferraris did not sport a band.

Taruffi had a green band, at least at the 1952 Swiss GP.

Manzon drove a 500 F2. It was blue. Can anyone confirm the red and white bands? I only have b&w pics.

Originally posted by cabianca
Don't think race regulations had anything to do with nose bands. Believe it was a way for the team to identify which car was coming before the number could be read.

Most often for the mechanics recognizing what car was coming in. Ferrari sported yellow fluo tags on Gerhard Bergers car in 1987-1989.

[Barry Boor]

Re Manzon - yes, red and white bands.

[Tony Lethbridge]

Here's one for you Barry. Was in Ostend over the weekend and found a nice little model shop called Timms. They had a small collection of Ferraris labelled Ecurie Francorchamps. Among them I found what purported to be the Willy Mairesse 1960 Dino 246, number 22, which he raced at Spa. It looks to me to be yet another Brumm variation of the old 1958 body. Nevertheless to me its a rarity. However it has a nose band in three colours, black, yellow and red to represent the Belgian flag. A quick look in the library indicates that it is correct, given that the photos in Louis Stanley's 1960 Grand Prix Year are black and white.

I eagerly await your 'Like this one?' post.

[Barry Boor]

I worry about this one, Tony.

You see, Brumm have no 1960 Ferrari in their catalogue. I haven't seen the model close up but I have a feeling it is a mucked about 1958 246 Dino with a Belgian tricoleur on the nose.

I hope I am wrong!

[Tony Lethbridge]

No, Barry, you are not wrong. I've just compared it with a '58 Dino and apart from the exhaust, screen and no rain plates behind the front wheels the '60 car is the same. It's now in the cabinet alongside the La Storia Tony Brooks '59 Monaco car which looks much nicer. Still it fills a gap in the collection for the time being, and as I said before it's a rarity around here!