The prototype Ferrari 250 GTB SWB on test at Modena Autodrome on 29 October 1959…
Carlo Chiti, Chief Engineer is behind the car, to his left in overalls is the legendary Enzo Ferrari Lieutenant Luigi Bazzi, by then I think ‘Technical Consultant’. You can just see the tip of Richie Ginther’s head over Bazzi’s shoulder.
I wonder if Richie had a steer of the 250 or whether he was focussed on the GP 246 Dino, the nose of which can be seen at left.
This session is in the huge gap between the Italian GP at Monza on 13 September in which Hill was second behind Moss’ Cooper T51 Climax, and the US event at Sebring in December. There Tony Brooks Dino was third behind the Cooper T51’s of both Bruce McLaren and Maurice Trintignant.
Ferrari got the hang of the mid-engined caper in 1961 with the Tipo 156 but 1960 was to be a year of slim pickings, the front-engined Dino was well past its useby date.
What a car the 250 SWB proved to be!?
Shorter in wheelbase than the 250 ‘cruisers’ to lower the cars weight and increase it’s agility. High power- between 237-276 BHP from the 3 litre V12 and well sorted suspension by the design and development team of Chiti, Giotto Bizzarini and the youthful Mauro Forghieri made it a winner. Around 176 were built in both steel and aluminium ‘Lusso’ and ‘Corsa’ forms.
The car below is chassis ‘3281GT’, imported to Australia by WH Lowe Automobiles Pty. Ltd. in 1962. Bill Lowe was the Australian importer of Lancia’s and Ferrari’s for decades.
(unattributed)
I was a Camberwell Grammar School prat nearby Lowe’s factory/showroom and regularly dribbled over the showroom window in Whitehorse Road, Balwyn, Melbourne from 1969-1974. I admired everything, particularly 246 Dinos. I was as infatuated with those almost as much as the perky, pert, teenage temptresses at Fintona Girls School just round the corner. Both were unattainable of course.
‘3281GT’ was Lowe’s daily drive until he sold to Jim Leech in 1964. Jim and his brother Bill Leech were ‘Light Car Club of Australia’ stalwarts, racers pre and post war and owners of some wonderful cars. From memory they had a Lombard AL3- this car was raced by Bill Lowe in the Australian GP at Phillip Island from 1929-33, Cisitalia D46, Maser 300S, Bug T37A and some great road stuff including this Ferrari- the 58th steel bodied car built, RHD too. It was a familiar beast at many Victorian events forever, inevitably it was sold overseas, cars such as this are global commodities after all.
Here ‘3281’ is participating in the Geelong Sprints along Ritchie Boulevard, on Geelong’s waterfront circa 1970 at a guess.
Not a bad bit of kit?!…
Credits…
Klemantaski Collection
primotipo... 
This car and its Lusso and GTO variants will always be my idea of the perfect Ferrari. No; the prefect automobile. I wish I’d blown all my college money (didn’t do me any good anyway) on a clapped-out example in the late 60s and just parked it in my living room. If only I’d had a living room.
Yes David,
I guess for me its the 246 Dino- it took decades for another car to replace it as my favourite ‘roadie but then Gordon Murray came along with the McLaren F1 which blew the Dino off its pedestal. It is amazing to see the value escalation of these cars in the last forty years- since the mid seventies I guess?, wish I had popped a couple of things away too. The only context in which it all makes sense is to see the cars as collectible art, which of course they are!
Mark