On Ferrari Friday’s, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breath the Ferrari brand.
William spends some time reflecting on Mille Miglia week and talks more deeply about Michael Mann’s version of the 1957 race in the new Ferrari Movie.
William returns with Jon Summers – The Motoring Historian & Crew Chief Eric from Break/Fix podcast, to continue the celebration of Ferrari and recounting the history of the Mille Miglia. This episode picks up from Part-1 at the end of 1953 through the catastrophic finale of the 1957 race.
Episode 21
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Fiery Marketplace. I’m your host William Ross and hope everyone’s checking out the Motoring Podcast Network MPN and uh, we’re adding new things on a regular basis. So a lot of exciting things coming. We got, uh, some awesome new shows are going to be headed our way to be, uh, hosted on the site.
So be sure to keep checking that out. I’m your host, William Ross. [00:01:00] And today for Ferrari Friday, we are going to be talking about Ferrari, the movie, not just Ferrari itself. We’re going to be talking about Ferrari, the movie. So I was thinking about, I actually went and saw the movie the first day it came out.
Now, I don’t know where it releases, whatnot, but up in where I’m at by Cleveland. Ohio. Uh, it got released on Christmas Eve. So me and I drove my old man to it to go see it. Bought him his ticket to make sure he’d go with me. So I wasn’t sitting there like some weirdo by myself, but I wouldn’t have cared anyways.
But anyway, so I went and saw it for the first showing that they had that day on Christmas Eve. So we could, I could check it out because I was all excited about this movie. Boom, got what the year, year and a half prior to, you know, all the behind the scenes stuff I saw some leaked stuff with shots and everything like that when they’re shooting in the square everything like that So, you know, I was really really excited for it and the kind of [00:02:00] stuff you saw in the build up to it said hey, yeah, your tracks are pretty good everything like that and Spoiler it was but again, like I said, I thought about doing it right after I saw it But then I kind of had a thought like well, you know what?
I don’t want to kind of do a spoiler for anybody. I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade or anything like that. Just wants to go see it because obviously holidays, Christmas, you know, not everyone, you know, is the nutcase about Ferrari like me is going to run out immediately and go see it. So, like I know my man Eric there, you know, Crew Chief Eric over at Rape Fix, you know, I know he was trying to see it, but the closest place he could go was like an hour away from where he lives.
I am down in Palm Beach right now. Actually, I’m in Lake Worth, Florida right now because I just attended Cavalino that was up at the Breakers Hotel. So, I did a verbal stay in this cool little cottage that’s in the backyard of some nice cool little house in Lake Worth. If you’ve ever been down to, uh, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Lake Worth, the area, but it’s, [00:03:00] it’s a really cool little area.
Uh, cool little cottages and everything like that. You know, everything’s kind of set up in, uh, like a beachy. You know, kind of way, uh, supposedly it’s got the largest, I guess, um, collection of all these cottages, like over a thousand of them that are just kind of lined up and down in this one area. So really cool, um, you know, and the Verbo was, you know, not that expensive.
It was pretty cool. Uh, it’s pretty cheap, parking right in the back. The one cool thing was, is if you check out my videos, um, take a look at those on YouTube. I hope you’ve, uh, liked and subscribed to my videos and then checked out the YouTube channel. Garage 65 or the Ferrari Marketplace. Garage 65 is two words garage and the word 60 spelled out Then the number five and the reasoning behind that if I haven’t mentioned it before is because garage The number six and five was going to cost an arm and a leg for the website It was gonna be like three grand for GoDaddy.
Garage 65 with the word 60 spelled out was You know, a dollar for the first year. So, do the math. So anyway, [00:04:00] getting back to it, like I said, I didn’t want to do a rehash or just a review of the movie right off the bat because I wanted everyone to go see it. I wanted everyone to get their own opinion about it.
You know, kind of You know, see what their thoughts were, everything, you know, and it’s been very positive, but the one thing I really want to stress to everybody and, you know, and I posted up some things on LinkedIn and around the thing, just some little brief synopsis. I didn’t get into the details because I didn’t want to kind of spoil it for anybody, but it’s, this is not a documentary.
This is not factual. This is not trying to tell you exactly how things were in 1957 and the buildup there’s, you know, obviously there’s a lot of leeway because it’s a movie. It’s entertainment. So please. Remember that this is not a documentary. This is just for entertainment value It’s just you know to go spend a few hours at the movie theater checking it out All I really want to stress to everyone out there Before they go see it.
If you haven’t seen it [00:05:00] already, like I said, I watched it a second time. I downloaded and watched it on the plane on the flight down here. Um, three hour flight. So that killed some time. And I was actually starting and I was reading the Brock Yates book, the Enzo book. I had already read the other one by Luca, I don’t know if I can, I can never pronounce his name, but the Italian guy.
I read that one prior. Uh, and Brock Yates’s books kind of got a lot of similar similarities to it. Um, but obviously it’s just a different viewpoint. I think it’s a little more. To the point and not so, I don’t want to say fluffy. Um, Luca’s book was, I want to say, you know, I don’t want to say put him in a positive light.
I don’t know how I really want to word it. You know, he, um, he wasn’t going to be negative, I guess you could say, or just, I guess say all, you know, I guess you’d say all warts and blisters and everything like that. Where in Brockade’s books, he’s going all warts and blisters. In essence, you know, not all of them extremely in depth, but I mean, you know, he doesn’t pull any punches, which is great.
So, anyway, [00:06:00] back about the movie. Now, as we all know, the movie’s based on 1957 and that short period, just a few months of when the meal Amelia was going to take place. Obviously, actually the last meal Amelia to ever take place. If you’ve listened to the last two episodes, myself, John Summers, and Coochie Eric went over these and, you know, kind of got in depth.
We did a two parter because there was a lot to kind of unload and go over. So, but take a listen to those if you like. But again, the movie takes place in that short period in 1957. You know, obviously, you know, Enzo is getting to that point. You know, racing is getting a lot more expensive, you know. How familiar are with his racing background and history in regards to what they competed in, but they competed in everything because one of the things that he did to kind of, I guess, augment cash, you know, earnings is, you know, he got a percentage of the, uh, driver’s winnings.
So. You know, but he [00:07:00] covered, you know, bills and whatnot, got the car done, but he’d also, you know, get a percentage and sometimes he got, you know, start money, that kind of stuff, but you know, a big portion of how he made money was through getting winnings from the driver. I could have anywhere from, you know, 40, 50%, 30%, depending on the driver, you know, obviously to entice them to drive his cars and they won quite a lot, but, you know, they ran and racing everything, you know, at that point in time, Formula One, they were doing endurance racing, um, you know, they were doing hill climbs, you know, And in that period of time, there’s probably a race going on in some shape or form every weekend over in Europe because it was just absolutely massive in regards to the popularity of the sport.
So, I mean, you can go anywhere, just in Italy alone itself and go and race somewhere pretty much probably every weekend and find an event, you know, and how much, you know, winning drawings and whatnot, you know, obviously it’s going to vary depending on the promoter and the vet, everything like that. But, you know, I know for like D’Amelio and Target Florida, you know, he, they did pretty well because You know, they entered quite a few cars [00:08:00] now again, go back and listen to the podcast.
We did covering the melee melee, kind of going over it, but, you know, starting out in the first, you know, obviously pre war there wasn’t really Scuderia Ferrari technically as Ferrari, the cars, there was Scuderia Ferrari as a team for Alfa Romeo, but, you know, they competed Enzo race, you know, they did pretty well.
Um, you know, and obviously, as we know, Enzo wasn’t that bad of a racer himself either. So post war coming back 1947 was the first race back. He only had two cars entered and So but subsequent years going forward, obviously that you know grew because obviously in 48 he won with Clemente B and Daddy So as that goes and you know, they make this comment the movie So this was never something that was created by NASCAR.
It wasn’t anything like that It was basically kind of by these guys’s Hey, went on Sunday, sell on Monday. That was the motto and [00:09:00] it’s actually in the movie movie It gets make that comment gets made so see if you catch it in there But it does get stated that comment does make the statement in there So I thought that was kind of an interesting little tidbit, you know, it’s just held true no matter what Race series manufacturer, what hey, went up Sunday, saw Monday, but as we know, at that point in time, obviously in 1957, you know, they make reference to it that they only sold the previous year.
So, in 1956, 98 cars, you know, Angel thinks it’s more, and he’s not really into all the minute details in regards to running his business. He’s more focused on the racing, the cars being faster, building the motors, you know, and hey, horsepower, everything like that. And as we know, he was always about, you know, motor in front, you know, the ox, ox pulls the cart, um, you know, it doesn’t push it, you know, hence his big reluctance to go to mid engine cars, you know, the big onslaught from the, uh, British entourages coming in with the rear engine cars.
And obviously we [00:10:00] know that Proust superior. So he obviously had to go that route, but at this point in time, everything’s still, you know, basically all front engine, uh, in 1957, you know, he’s running. You know, that’s when the infamous Testarossa name came out, but they also had the 500 TR, 500 TRC’s racing that, um, but the big cars that they had in there were the 315’s and the 335’s.
So, obviously the difference between those is displacement, uh, a few more horsepower, everything like that, torque wise. 315’s were always just a little more reliable, a little bit easier on the car. Whereas the 335s were a little more, uh, abusive to the base, especially the rear ends, the back trans axles, the rear axles, the suspension, uh, just getting beaten and everything like that.
And you got to stay, you know, these guys are having like, you know, 30, 40, 50 gallon gas tanks in these cars. So you start out a race and you’re going balls out and you know, that thing’s taking a beating, but as you use the gas, it gets lighter, but you make a pit stop, [00:11:00] bam, they’re loading that back up and these things are taking a beating.
So there you go. So, cause a lot of the cars in that 1957 race, especially Peter Collins, who, and just a side note, the Greek photographer, Peter Klimaski was his co pilot, taking some great stuff in that. But he was winning majority of the race, uh, till his rear end probably had a broke on him. So. But anyway, let’s start with the movie in the beginning.
So, you know, it starts out and again, you know, and I got to say Penelope Cruz plays a great role as Laura. Uh, the lady that plays Enzo’s mother is hilarious. She’s just short little tiny lady, but you know, and. Cheyenne, Cheyenne or Shailene Woodley is playing Lena Lardy, his mistress, mistress forever that, you know, he, she bore Piero Lardy, but then obviously it turns to Piero Ferrari, uh, subsequently down the road after Laura dies.
But, I will say this, they were very gracious in regards to the, the looks, I guess you could say, about them, because if you look at [00:12:00] some photos back in the day, neither of those women were very good lookers. I mean, uh. Lena was obviously a little bit better, more attractive than Laura was, but they’re not very handsome women, I guess you could say.
So I don’t know, cause like I said, Enzo, like, you know, he wasn’t like the, let’s say the most attractive guy either. But so anyways, so they were very, you know, gracious in that fact. So it starts out, you know, obviously 1927, Dino’s already died. So his son’s already passed away. So it’s always the point of contention between obviously Enzo and Laura.
Because Laura, it seems in the movie, is blaming, I can see it’s, you know, blaming Enzo for his death and not saving him, but you know, he had muscular dystrophy. There was no savings back then, it wasn’t going to happen. So, you know, it’s amazing that Dino lived until he was 26. That’s, you know, that was even unbelievable for that day and age.
So, and at that, by this point in time, though, is when it starts and she’s not aware of Piero, how true this is, I don’t know, but she’s not aware of it, then through some, [00:13:00] going to the bank and whatnot, she discovers, you know, finds out about him, you know, and finds out about, uh, Lena, and then finds out about Piero, all this, and that’s when she makes the, you know, kind of thing, and he’s a, ends up basically flat, flat out says that, you know, he loves Lena, you know, hey, obviously he loves Piero, because it’s his son, you know.
Uh, but Laura makes the statement, and I guess, you know, puts her face down and says, He will not have the Ferrari name until after I die. And as you know, Laura dies in 1978. And in 1979, even maybe sooner, 78, right after Laura dies, Piero takes on the Ferrari name. So now it’s named Piero Ferrari. And just a little sidebar.
He has a son, or grandson, I’m sorry, grandson, I believe his name is Enzo Ferrari, I believe it’s Enzo, he’s going to, he’s the last I checked, he was a, not like a stalker, but he was going to college, uh, somewhere in California, I don’t know if it’s Pepperdine or, I don’t know, somewhere out there, but anyways, so, again, the movie takes a lot of leeway in [00:14:00] regards to historical accuracy, so again, this is not a documentary, this is just entertainment.
So, you know, they kind of start going into about his money woes and, you know, being approached by Ford and all this crap, which, as we know, did not happen until the 60s. So they’re a little bit ahead of their time in regards to that. And then also the talks with Fiat and Anginelli, you know, giving him a call.
There’s, it’s funny, you know, Anginelli, you know, they’re talking on the phone. He makes the comment, why didn’t you call me first? He goes, I did, you know, and, uh, and you said no. He goes, that was 1917. So Enzo was holding the grudge. So anyways, you know, so they, they discussed that and again, you know, they go into everything about testing, you know, getting the cars, you know, they get on how to port, you know, Alfonso de Portillo to Portago.
I’ll say that, right. I can’t do accents very well. You know, coming onto the scene in 1957, um, you know, testing, he shows up. So, why don’t you introduce yourself? Enzo knows who he is because he bought a car from him the previous year or [00:15:00] prior or something like that. So, he’s aware of this and he knows that he won the Tour de France, uh, previously.
And I want to say, was it a Ferrari? Uh, and those not, those who aren’t familiar with the Tour de France, take a look at it. It was a grueling, grueling race. Not only the roads, but our racetracks, time trials, everything like that. But it was, that was a pretty impressive, uh, undertaking if you took part in that and you won.
So anyway, so the Pargo, the Pargo comes onto the scene. Um, and he goes and tests because, um, so bear got a cat on my mind’s going blank. They’re testing at the track, you know, um, no, it’s a Castellani who can, who guys got the camera? Watch the movie. You’ll see. I can’t remember off the top of my head. My mind’s going blank.
Um, anyways, you know, he’s wanting to do it and he’s like, oh, no, no, this and that, you know, I don’t have any driving. I have my job. There’s my dad. So bear comes into town about setting a fast lap. Enzo calls up cast. [00:16:00] And if I’m, and if I’m wrong in the names, I’m sorry. I apologize. Like I said, I, this is, I believe that’s who it is.
I, I don’t have my notes in front of me ’cause I’m, I’m down in Florida and I’m, I’m, I’m doing this, so I have some time. So anyways, he calls the cast, Hey, bring your gloves, blah, blah, blah. Come, you know, the bears coming in the town to, you know, test and, you know, in a Maserati and break in time. So anyways, he goes to track the port goes.
Uh, and if they have to track him there and he’s pushing him real hard, Kesselite, and then he, you know, dies and gets himself killed. So, eggs, then Enzo looks at the program and says, be in my office Monday. So, he gets to drive that way because Kesselite got killed. Um, and again, or whoever was driving it, again, I apologize if I’m giving names wrong.
But, you’ll see the movie and you’ll understand. So, anyways, so he gets the car and obviously we know in the race what happens at the end. But, so, you got Pierrot, Tarufi, DePorto, Peter Collins are running the cars, and you got Oliver [00:17:00] Gendibian as your factory driver. Gendibian’s in a coupe with another gentleman in a 335, a 315, so there’s a smattering.
But, total there’s 24 cars, or 22 cars total entered, but he’s only got those four factory cars. Obviously, what happens in the race, I think we’re all aware of it, everything goes back and forth and whatnot. I was like, I said before, Peter Collins is, you know, his back axles, rear axle suspension is in a brace, he can’t go on a transmission shot.
Uh, DePorgo’s up there going, running, he’s got some potential up here. Truffy’s, you know, this guy’s run the race, you know, 16 times prior, 15 times prior, so he knows the course. Ups, down, left, right, he’s got it down pat. So, obviously going through the whole race, everything, we get to the end. Um, you know, I, I think we know what happens because of the accident and I will say this, it’s a pretty brutal, I know it’s CGI, but that’s pretty brutal how they depict that accident that the program gets into and takes out those people.
Now, one thing I thought was interesting, I don’t know if you ever, I was looking at some of the notes, some of the, you know, [00:18:00] some interviews with Michael Mann, and supposedly when he went to scout that area where the accident happened, some old man came out and actually, And I said, Hey, what are you doing?
And he explained it to him and he’s like, Oh, it was, I was there. He goes, you know, and his brother had died. He actually was one of the kids. That was in the farmhouse. It’s big to the wherever to kill out to watch it now out there eating dinner again How much you do I don’t know but he got that from those whole man.
So he put that in there But the old man say oh, yeah, that was my brother. Yes. We came out blah blah and then his brother was killed So I thought that was kind of interesting. So getting it right from the horse’s mouth So that’s probably pretty accurate to painting how that was. But again, I can’t guarantee it That’s you know going from you know, a director of a movie is trying to sell tickets.
So who knows but anyways You know, the photography of the movie, the racing is great in it, um, like it, I don’t know how much you’ve looked into the cars that they were utilizing that obviously were not actual, real, legitimate Ferraris. They were [00:19:00] recreations. done out of this firm out of Italy, and they look phenomenal.
I mean, they did a hell of a job building those. Um, you know, if you look into who, you know, Prior Truffula’s Patrick Dempsey, uh, uh, was it, uh, Derrick Hill, Phil Hill’s son, you know, is in there as well. You know, there’s some, you know, names that you should be familiar with that actually portray some of these drivers.
So, you know, you have legit guys, you know, running. So, but the race is really good. The engines sound glorious. I don’t know if that’s what the engines are using or if that was just dubbed in sound. But, I gotta say, they did a phenomenal job. I really, really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was great. And again, I took it back, it’s entertainment.
This is not a documentary. I highly recommend you go see it if you haven’t. Um, and if you have, if you’re like me, I bought it so I can watch it, you know, ten times over again and again when I get bored. Cause it’s, I feel it’s just that entertaining. Adam Driver, I thought he did a great job as Enzo Ferrari.
Obviously, the, you know, going between how Enzo looks and how Adam Driver looks, you know. But there, but I thought he did an excellent job of portraying him. You know, only things I’ve [00:20:00] ever seen of Enzo, I’m sure the majority of people has, you know, interviews he did or, you know, recordings. Not really kind of any personal stuff, so how much that is true in regards to that, I don’t know.
But I thought he did an excellent job, like Stephanie Delpy, who did a great job as Laura. Uh, you know, as we know, she rules everything with an iron fist. You know, she, uh, basically created the, uh, the mutiny there at Ferrari where all these, you know, you know, uh, higher ups left because they were just sick and tired of all the meddling and everything that was going on.
But, you know, it seems to be how true it is again, if the movie is depicted as accurate, you know, she seemed to kind of have very good control and oversight of what was going on with the finances. So. So. Again, I highly recommend seeing it if you have not seen it yet, you know, leave your comments below.
Shoot me an email. Let me know your thoughts. You know, I always like to get to hear other people’s opinion. Like I said, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. I was going to find, you know, the nuances, everything. Something’s wrong with it. Everyone wants me to pick it, you know, but you know, hey, so be it.
You have that right. So, but check out the movie. I highly [00:21:00] recommend it. You know, it’s, I, I, you know, I feel it’s, you know, well portrayed, you know, and if you haven’t read the books, read both the books and it kind of, you’ll see that, you know, hey, they’re kind of following the book pretty closely. So, which is really nice because I said, Brock Hayes is doing an extra job.
I’m about halfway through his book. Um, but, you know, reading the other books, they’re both about 800, 900 pages long. So, I mean, they’re pretty in depth and going to it, but the books actually, you know, are starting from basically the beginning of Enzo’s, you know, hey. in life and going forward and all the way to the end.
So. It really kind of it doesn’t encapsulate that whole time period just to sell those 800 pages But when you get to those points in the book, you’re talking about it, you know The million million was extremely extremely important to Enzo Ferrari Obviously in selling cars and we have you know history starts.
It’s going forward as we all know what happens So again, I appreciate all you guys listening. I’m William. I’m your host Like I said, leave some comments below shoot me an email William at the Ferrari marketplace calm And hey, check out the YouTube channels [00:22:00] the fire marketplace and also check out garage 65 Uh, obviously the Ferrari Marketplace is just deals with everything Ferrari, Garage 65, it covers everything.
I go over all different types of cars and check out events and everything like that. So, um, take a look at both those and hit the subscribe button on those things to help support the channel. Uh, remember check out the Motoring Podcast Network. We got a lot of great things coming this year, so we’re going to be blowing things up.
So, hit that like and subscribe button, keep track. I appreciate everyone listening and back to you next Friday with talking about Cavalino. Thanks guys.
Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission.