When I first moved to California in 1970 a few of the real cognoscenti were still driving Ferrari race cars, some still with numbers painted on from LeMans, on the street. Not so much now but only last week, in July, I spotted one at an informal car gathering in Malibu. But it is rare when you see a car that raced at LeMans driven on the street.
The 1961 SWB 250GT was a combination of the old and new. It was created when Enzo Ferrari felt that the original 250GT was too long. Giotto Bizzarrini cut down the wheelbase and designed a more svelte body. It had triple Webers at first but racers ordered six-carburetor set-up. Old was a semi-elliptic leaf sprung live axle but new was disc brakes on all four wheels and road cars were fitted with a Bendix servo. With all the tweaks.
A racing version had 35-40 bhp more and if you got the alloy bodied version, a speed of 165 mph was possible. Before the word Lusso applied to a model of its own, it meant the Premium luxurious model in
Lusso SWBs came with leather-clad seats, roll up side windows, The competition cars got an aluminum-panelled dashboard, finished in crackle-black. Standard of both road and race model was with a wood rimmed alloy spoked steering wheel.
It was Pininfarina that styled the SWB 250GT, but Carrozzeria Scaglietti built the bodywork. It could be ordered in steel or alloy; however this silver car shown here was the ultra-lightweight SEFAC spec thin alloy body. It was originally ordered by a man named Dumay to replace one he had borrowed from Pierre Noblet and smashed. Noblet got it too late to tune it for LeMans in ’61 but was able to make the race.
He and another Frenchman took their class but even more impressive were third overall, behind two factory full race Ferraris.
The car’s other race work while still in Europe includes Coupe de Bruxelles , the Grand Prix de Spa as well as the Nürburgring 1000 kilometres and the Trophée d’Auvergne. When first sold to the US it was thought Americans expect Ferraris to be “racing red” so when John Upton bought it several owners later he had the original silver put on right down to the blue racing stripe.
Former glory, which took almost 10 years to complete.
It is rare to find the owner of a car that was so successfully raced Internationally in 1961 and 1962 bringing it out to drive it on the streets of Los Angeles We commend him.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR/ARTIST: Wallace Wyss (rhymes with "Reese"), the author of 18 automotive books - now a fine artist - depicts postwar sports cars in oil on canvas. Wearing his artist hat, Wallace Wyss says, if art galleries, exotic car stores and car museums want to talk the possibility of taking art on consignment, he can be reached at photojournalistpro2@gmail.com