primotipo…

I’m constantly in awe of the talents of the photographers whose work is displayed in this ‘masterpiece’ of mine…

Take a careful look at the composition and execution of this shot of Phil Hill’s Dino at Monaco in 1959-the use of light, the way the shadows of the palm tree and building architecture frame the shot of the snub-Monaco nosed Ferrari 246 and the expression on the American drivers face. The shadow of the photographer gives a sense of involvement.

Things were pretty tough for the front engined brigade by 1959 of course.

Jack’s first Cooper title was bagged that year. In the process of trying to keep up, Enzo’s brigade created quite the most beautiful cars in these later Dino’s. The snub nosed car not so much but checkout Tony Brooks slinky, curvaceous chassis above during the BARC 200 at Aintree on 19 April ’59. Jean Behra took the win that day in a sister car, the Scuderia may have been lulled into a sense of false security by this non-championship event result.

The 1959 Dinos had more voluptuous bodywork by Medardo Fantuzzi, clothing big-tube frames with coil-sprung de Dion rear ends rather than the transverse-leaf setup used earlier. Dunlop disc brakes and tyres were used with Armstong telescopic shocks replacing the ‘unreliable’ lever-arm Houdailles- Doug Nye wrote that some Ferrari team members blamed the Houdailles as the cause of Peter Collins fatal 1958 German GP accident.

It was very much a Cooper T51 Climax year.

They won three of the five non-championship events (Moss took 2, Brabham 1) with Ferrari and BRM taking one apiece (Behra and Flockhart). Ignoring the Indy 500 which was part of the world championship back then, there were eight GP events. Cooper won five (Brabham-Monaco, British and Moss-Portugal and Italy two races each for the Aussie and the Brit and McLaren-US 1 win). Ferrari won two (Brooks-French, German) and BRM won one, the break-through first win for the Bourne marque and Jo Bonnier aboard a P25 at Zandvoort.

Its front is a little ‘fugly’, the looks only a mother could love

‘Snub nosed’ Dino, Hill rounding the Gasworks Hairpin, Quay in the background. Oooh, la, la from the rear tho. All things Italian look great from the back!? Hill hustling his Dino, thru the Mirabeau right hander below.

Have a look at Phil’s car below in August on the hugely picturesque and dangerous Monsanto road course during the Portuguese GP.

DNF when Lotus 16 mounted Hill G spun in his path taking out both cars. Moss won in a T51 Cooper Climax from Masten Gregory similarly mounted, Gurney the best placed Ferrari in 3rd.

I guess by definition these Dino’s are the ultimate expression of the front engined GP car given Enzo persevered at least a year longer than he should have.

Credits…

Heritage Images, Klemantaski Collection, LAT, Cahier Archive, Ferrari Dino article by Doug Nye in Motorsport November 2007

Etcetera- Technical Specifications…

Two rare photographs of Dinos in the semi-nude.

The first, above, is a 156 F2 in the Nürburgring pits in August 1957, both are by Bernard Cahier. The second is of the Taffy Von Trips (DNF) car during the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix weekend at Spa.

Vittorio Jano’s new 65 degree 1.5 litre V6 gave about 180 bhp @ 9000 rpm on the Maranello test-bed, it burst into life about five months after Dino Ferrari’s untimely death due to renal failure on 30 June 1956.

The cars chassis was a scaled down variant of the Lancia Ferrari 801, its tubular frame comprised of two large diameter bottom tubes braced by a welded on superstructure of thinner tubes- not a true spaceframe in a definitional sense.

The engine was angled across the frame, as you can see, this allowed the prop-shaft to run past the drivers seat to the left. The front suspension, clearly shown, is by wishbones and coil springs with the rear suspension by de Dion tube and transverse leaf spring. Drum brakes and Houdaille lever arm shocks were fitted with Scaglietti providing the sexy aluminium body.

The 1957 German GP was a famous victory for Fangio’s Maserati 250F from the Hawthorn, Collins and Musso Lancia Ferrari 801’s. The Dino, if the photo is captioned correctly, was perhaps in the transporter. Whilst entered in the F2 section, the race results show Maurice Trintignant as a ‘no-show’, Denis Jenkinson’s race report also says the car did not arrive so perhaps the date on the caption is wrong and the shot is of a 1958 246.

The first F2 Ferrari Dino, chassis #’0011′ made its race debut at the Naples GP on 28 April 1957. Enlarged engines of 1983 cc, 2195 cc were built over the ensuing months and- then the 2417 cc variant was raced by Peter Collins during the non-championship 27 October Moroccan GP- the Dino 246 was born!

Stricken by flu, Peter spun off, the 85mm bore, 71mm stroke, 2417 cc engine at that stage gave 270 bhp @ 8300 rpm burning 130 octane AvGas, the 1958 mandated fuel.

The 1960 Dino 246/60 (above) were lightened with engines angled across the frame the opposite way to 1959, with the transaxle turned around to match- providing the drivers with the challenge of a reversed gearchange gate.

They also featured pannier fuel tanks without separate covering body panelling (look closely above) smaller fuel tanks and all-independent coil-spring and wishbone suspension.

At Spa Phil Hill used the Ferrari four-cam power advantage but was still overwhelmed by a Cooper Climax 1-3 finish. Jack Brabham led home Bruce McLaren in T53’s whilst Olivier Gendebien was third in an earlier T51.

Tailpiece: And what a tail. I’m cheating really, this is the butt of Phil’s ’58 Dino, this pictorial article is mainly about the 1959 cars…

The photo is another masterpiece of composition and high-speed shutter work during the Moroccan GP at Ain-Diab, Casablanca Morocco on 19 October 1958.

Check out the different tail treatment from the later cars earlier in the article and ‘three piece’ fabrication of the Ferrari’s rear tail section comprising from driver back- the fuel tank, then oil tank and finally small curvaceous endplate, Italian panel bashing at its best.

Finito…