primotipo…

‘This is the prettiest car I have ever snapped’ said Dick Simpson. Hard to argue…

This is one of four Ferrari P4s built; chassis numbers 0856, 0858, 0860 and 0846, the latter a converted P3.

At the end of the 1967 endurance season two of the cars were lightened and modified to run in the ’67 Can-Am Series in the US, chassis 0860 and 0858. The latter was then acquired by Scuderia Veloce’s David McKay for one fabulous season in Australia. I wrote an article a while back about SV, David McKay and his 250LM #6321, have a read of it rather than repeat the background here.

Pete Geoghegan: Ferrari 250LM ‘6321’: Bathurst Easter 1968…

Simpson’s shot is of Aussie Bill Brown at the wheel on 5 May 1968, the shot taken at the left hander after Warwick Farm’s (Sydney) Shell Bridge, it captures the curvaceous beauty of the thing!

The photographers and their artistry inspired this article, acknowledgement of them all but especially Dick Simpson, John Ellacott, Roderick MacKenzie, Ellis French and Lindsay Ross.

1967 was a halcyon year of sports car racing, the high point of the ‘Unlimited Formula’…

A 5-litre limit for sports cars and 3-litres for prototypes was imposed by the FIA for 1968 so Ford had one more year to race their 7-litre Mk 2 and 4s.

Chaparral returned to Europe with the fabulous 2F Coupe after an exploratory endurance year with the 2D in 1966. Lola competitors struggled with engine reliability to match the excellence of the chassis, and Ferrari returned with 4-litre engines but with three-valve heads after a year of austerity in 1966. Ferrari mainly entered one P3 at each race while coping with widespread industrial unrest in Italy that year.

The season wasn’t all about just the big three; Alfa raced their T33, Porsche the 907, Matra their M630 V8 BRM engined cars, but in reality the season was about the big outright cars. It was an unforgettable year of sports car racing arguably caused by Enzo’s rebuff of Fords’ desire to purchase the Italian autocrat’s company five years before and the Lola GT/Ford GT40 program which followed.

The Ford Mk4 incorporated all the company learnings, the early failures of the GT40 and Mark 2 in 1964/5 and the triumph at Le Mans in 1966, where Kiwis Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon ‘won’ over the Ken Miles/Denny Hulme Mark 2 in Ford’s farcical Form-Finish.

The Mark 4 was of aluminium honeycomb construction and had much more advanced aerodynamics than the Mk 2, developed as it was from extensive testing of many variations of shapes to get the appropriate mix of top speed and downforce. The mechanical package was largely carried over and incorporated a 7-litre OHV Ford V8 fed by 2-four-barrel Holley carburettors giving circa 530bhp @ 6200rpm. The four speed Kar Kraft gearbox was again used after experiments with a two speed auto. Weight was circa 1100Kg.

All of the major contenders suspension layouts were similar; upper and lower wishbones at the front with coil spring/damper units and adjustable roll bars. And at the rear, single top link, twin radius rods, lower wishbone, coil spring/damper units and adjustable sway bars.

All three big-cars also had rack and pinion steering, and of course cast iron disc brakes front and rear.

The Chaparral 2F Chev was the most exotic of the three cars despite its pushrod OHV 7-litre Chev V8. Fed by four 58mm Weber down-draught carburettors, the engine developed 575 bhp @ 7500rpm. The chassis was made of fibre-glass, weighed 793Kg dry, the advanced specifications extending to its three speed General Motors automatic transmission and advanced aerodynamics including distinctive high rear wing. The Texans had incorporated all they learned on their European campaign in 1966 with the 2D into the new 2F.

Ferrari’s P4 ‘aero-chassis had slightly wider tracks than its P3 forbear and was the result of evolution over previous seasons. Ferrari’s first mid-engined sportscar was the V6 engined 246P of 1961. Doug Nye records that chassis #0796 was cut up and lengthened slightly to accommodate a two-cam 3-litre Testa Rossa engine. The 1963 Le Mans winning 250P evolved from this prototype. So too did the 1965 winning 250LM, which was essentially a 250P with a roof and 3.3-litre V12, making it a 275LM in the eyes of many…

The 3.3-litre two-cam 275P followed in 1964, 275P2 and 4-litre four-cam 330P2 in 1965. The P2s departed from earlier Ferrari space-frame practice by utilisation of the ‘aero’ tube-frame semi-monocoque structure, whereby the frame was stiffened by rivetted sheet steel panelling. The model range is more complex than this as it also includes different engine/chassis combinations for customers. I will stick to the works cars for the purpose of this article.

The 4-litre P3 followed in 1966 with much improved suspension geometry to address inadequate camber control and to suit the latest generation of ever widening tyres. The 4-litre engine, adapted for Lucas fuel injection developed circa 420bhp @ 8000rpm. As outlined above, Ferrari’s 1966 season was impacted by industrial problems in Italy as well as team leader John Surtees midseason departure. The sports car and quite probably the World F1 Titles which were theirs to take with an ace at the wheel…and some luck with reliability.

The stiffness of the chassis was improved as Nye describes ‘…previous P-series Ferraris had carried their engines on four simple mounts plus plus two for the gearbox, the new P4 engine featured a stiffer crankcase and could be mounted as a semi-stressed structural member, picking up on four carefully triangulated mounts at the front, two each side and four at the rear.’

The engine, the block stressed as above, featured the three-valves per cylinder (two inlet and one exhaust with the inlets between the two camshafts of each bank) layout developed by Franco Rocchi in late 1966, as developed for the F1 cars. There were two plugs per cylinder still fired by good old fashioned coils, four of them. Lucas fuel injection fed the fuel. The engines capacity was 3967cc and developed 450bhp @ 8000 rpm.

Also new was a five speed gearbox made by Ferrari to replace the earlier ZF unit, the ZF5DS25 units as used in the Ford GTs, had been unreliable in 1966. Weight was 965Kg. Firestone replaced Dunlop as the teams tyre supplier.

And so the scene was set…the prototype completed 580 laps at Firestone tyre tests at Daytona in December 1966, Amon was the quickest ahead of Parkes, Bandini and Scarfiotti, the P4 timed at 338kmh along the back straight.

Quick, but as it was to transpire, but not quick enough.

1967 Endurance Season…

In the first race of the season, at Daytona the new Ferrari was immediately successful leading the race from the fourth hour and taking the first two places, Amon/Bandini ahead of Scarfiotti/Parkes and a modified P3/4 entered by Luigi Chinetti’s North America Racing Team . All of the 7-litre Fords retired or were delayed by maladies.

The Scuderia did not enter Sebring, but Amon and Bandini won again at Monza with Scarfiotti and Parkes second, the factory Fords again did not enter the race. With practice laps only three-tenths of a second apart, Bandini’s Ferrari and Spence’s Chaparral raced wheel to wheel from the off, but Spence retired early leaving Ferrari the rest of the race.

Bandini took the lead with Scarfiotti second in 0858, Rodriguez was third for NART and Vaccarella in the Filipinetti car in fourth. Ferrari’s four-litre prototypes now dominated the first four positions. A failed attempt by Rodriguez at overtaking the second-place works Ferrari resulted in his retirement. Note that RM Auctions in their sale dossier of the car several years ago claim Bandini and Amon won driving 0858,  other independent sources say 0858 finished second.

At Spa, ‘Rainmaster’ Ickx prevailed in John Wyers 5.7-litre Mirage Ford, Scarfiotti and Parkes could do no better than fifth in 0858. Vaccarella crashed out of the Targa lead in his P4 at Collesano, his home town…

And then came Le Mans.

As noted above this was the last Le Mans run under the unlimited formula. Ford won the previous year but at Daytona they were well and truly beaten by the P4s. Ferrari missed the Nurburgring 1000Km to be better prepared for La Sarthe. Three P4s were entered by the factory, the fourth an Ecurie Francorchamps entry.

The big V8s had the legs in practice, as proved to be the case in the race, but the Scarfiotti/Parkes P4 0858 was never far behind. A crash eliminated three Fords, the Mairesse/Beurlys P4 moved into third with the works cars chasing the leading Ford Mk4 of Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt. That vastly experienced pair drove a superb race taking Ford’s second Le Mans. Nye noted ‘…the race was decided on the Mulsanne. All the 7-litre Fords topped 320kmh. The 330P4 could not better 310kmh and the poorer breathing of the 24-valve 412Ps left them gasping, slower still’.

The works Ferrari finished four laps behind, the first Ford and second and third placed (Mairesse/Beurlys) Ferraris covered a distance unprecedented at Le Mans. Mike Parkes said to journalist/Le Mans Winner Paul Frere after the race ‘Never in my life have I driven a car so hard for so long’.

The Brands Hatch BOAC International 500 was the final race of the endurance season and was to determine the championship for the year. Jackie Stewart joined Chris Amon in the works team to bolster Ferrari chances, Mike Parkes having badly injured his legs in an F1 crash at Spa.

Both chassis 0858 and 0860 had been converted to Spiders by the factory, removal of the roof and lightening the body saving around 40Kg. (Two independent sources claim 0858 was driven by Jonathon Williams and Paul Hawkins to sixth in this race, and that Amon/Stewart raced 0860 to second)

The race started at noon on Sunday under grey skies. John Surtees took an initial lead before Paul Hawkins replaced him in the third P4. After the first hour, Stewart had Spence’s Chaparral in his sights. Scarfiotti was behind him in another P4, followed by Jo Siffert in a Porsche 908. With regular driver changes and pit stops, the running order was continually evolving over the ensuing four hours. In the final hour, Amon was second.

With ten minutes to go, Stewart took the wheel, held the position and finished the race, securing the Manufacturers Championship for Ferrari, its 12th, defeating Porsche. Mike Spence won the race, the Chaparral 2F Chev finally taking a long promised win.

From P4 to Can Am 350…

With the endurance season over and regulation changes precluding the cars competition in the 1968 championship the factory modified two of the P4s, as mentioned earlier, 0858 and 0860 to better compete in the Can-Am Championship by lightening and modifying the cars, naming them 350 Can Am to contest the prestigious series in their most important market.

The cars were lightened considerably by becoming curvaceous Spiders instead of more curvaceous Coupes! Weight was reduced from 792Kg wet to 700Kg wet. The engine capacity was increased to 4176cc raising the power to 480bhp @ 8500rpm, the cars mechanical specification is as described above otherwise.

Fundamentally it was not enough.

Bruce McLaren had been contesting sports car races in the US since his Cooper days in the early 1960s. His first M1 McLarens were quick cars hampered by light but not powerful enough aluminium Oldsmobile engines. For 1967, he and Robin Herd designed and built the monocoque M6 powered by 5.9-litre, circa 525bhp iron Chev V8s and rewrote the record book in terms of dominance of this series.

The Bruce and Denny Show was underway. The Ferraris contested the series entered by Harrahs Casino who were also Ferrari distributors, and were comprehensively blown off along with the rest of the grid.

0858 From the US to Australia via Italy…

David McKay had raced his 250LM 6321 in Australia since 1965 but the car was getting older and ‘she was often racing out of class and racing against pure prototypes…During a visit to Maranello I broached the subject with Mike Parkes and the factory’s General Manager Ermano Della Casa. I had seen the P4s at Le Mans in 1967 where Mike and Scarfiotti had finished a gallant second to Fords’ 7-litre steam roller and had fallen in love with the car’.

‘To me it typified all the art, beauty and grace of the old world pitted amongst the brashness and might of the new…In due course I received word that I could buy 0858 for the considerable sum of US$30,000.

The car which raced unsuccessfully in the States at Laguna Seca, Riverside and Las Vegas would be fully rebuilt and shipped to Sydney by Christmas 1967. This would be in good time for the Australian Tasman rounds where Amon would conduct it in the sportscar support events and surely set a cat amongst the pigeons…’

Chris Amon raced a Ferrari 246T looked after by Scuderia Veloce during The Australian Tasman that summer and in 1969, the year in which he was Tasman Champion.

McKay ‘The less charitable said the factory wanted the car as far away as possible so that they could forget the ignominy of the Can-Am venture. The car had managed a fifth at Laguna Seca, eighth at Riverside and a DNF at Las Vegas with Amon who had surely wrung everything out of it’.

Note that some sources say Jonathon Williams raced 0858 and Amon 0860 in the Series, another source suggests Amon raced the car twice, at Laguna Seca and Riverside, and by Williams at the final round at Las Vegas. Australian Sports Car World magazine in a feature about the car published in 1985 wrote that who drove which car cannot be accurately determined.

Take your pick…I am inclined to either uncertainty, or, I imagine Amon would have related directly to McKay at the time which car he drove, and by the time McKay wrote his autobiography he had no vested interest in the car his financial investment in it having ended in 1968, vendors or their agents and their claims should be treated with the Caveat Emptor dictum in mind…

McKay ‘This should have turned me off but I comforted myself with the thought that there were no 8-litre McLarens in Australia and certainly no Bruce or Denny to worry us. Alas, it only required a local in his own device powered with a local 4.4-litre V8 to unravel our dream. (Frank Matich in his Matich SR3 Repco 4.4 V8).’

In fact the performance of Frank Matich in his self built car should not have been a surprise to either McKay or Amon. Matich had contested most of the 1967 Can-Am, including the three events in which Amon participated and was also flogged by the McLarens. Matich didn’t finish a race in fact…but the Sydney built, space-frame chassis, 400bhp Repco 4.4-litre V8 engined Matich was slightly quicker than the 350 Can Am and was match fit after a tough season in the US.

The Ferrari was not to have it easy in Australia that summer.

Again David McKay picks up the story ‘As starting money was imperative for such an expensive undertaking I sounded out all the major circuits. All were enthusiastic and all promised to pay a modest enough $350 a start. It goes without saying that when Geoff Sykes (Warwick Farm boss) set the standard, a ‘yes’ on the phone was sufficient to seal the agreement’.

‘There was great excitement at the wharf when the open crate carrying the plastic wrapped P4 was lowered over the liners side. There were a couple more huge wooden crates I hadn’t expected. These turned out to be another engine, gearbox, transaxle, suspensions, disc brakes, all manner of rose joints and sixteen wheels-in reality a second P4 apart from the simple tube-chassis and the brief, skimpy fibre-glass bodywork. That US$30000 was immediately halved in our minds and much of my initial disappointment at seeing the rather unattractive Can Am bodywork evaporated’.

‘Engineer Bob Atkin and I were keen to get the crate and boxes home to Wahroonga to prod the beast into life. This we did and again I felt disappointment. Where was the distinctive wail I heard in the cold air at Le Mans? It was now deeper, throatier but somehow more common, less exciting.

Unfortunately I never felt any warmth for the P4, certainly not its fault for the car was out of its milieu, away from the understanding hands which cared for it and probably thinking it was back in that coarse country, America, of which it had nothing but bad dreams.

I hoped a reunion with Amon would be beneficial but Chris was more involved with his Tasman Dino and his forthcoming battle with Clark and Hill in their Lotus 49 Ford DFW’s.’

Australian race record of ‘0858’…

Ray Bell was a journalist for Racing Car News magazine in the 1960 and 1970s, he wrote evocatively about the car’s race record on The Nostalgia Forum in 2002…

‘The first race for the car in Australia was February 10 at Surfers Paradise. It was the Saturday and it was clear that there were some shocks headed for the lap record after Matich recorded 1:10.2 in practice.

Matich dudded the start, however, but scorched around to be the first to take the lap record over the 100mph mark with a 1:10.6 (101.98mph) to Amon’s 1:10.7, reeling the Ferrari in after four laps and diving under it when a slower car baulked Amon.

Two more 5-lappers were scheduled for Sunday, with Matich and his 4.4-litre tube-framed SR3 leading away and getting a full second advantage on the first lap. The record was equalled as he took another win. In the second, Amon was a non-starter.

A week later at Warwick Farm came the race I speak of so often.

The report says Matich ‘left the Ferrari breathless…’ as he led Amon a merry chase. That they came past us side by side, with a Tojiero between them being lapped and grass clippings flying on one lap in the race shows that it wasn’t all that breathless!

Again, Matich was pressed to a new circuit record (these are outright records, faster than the Lotus 49s and the Amon Dino managed on the day) of 1:28.5 in staving off the Ferrari. Amon retired with reported ignition trouble on lap 7 or 8. (McKay advised the ignition leads were plucked off one bank of cylinders having been taped carefully out of reach of a half-shaft)

Check out the YouTube footage of this race…

The opening gambit of the Sandown Park report, the next week (February 25), was ‘This was the first time the Sandown crowd has had a chance to see Frank Matich really trying. The reason was, of course, that he had Chris Amon and the P4 Ferrari to worry him.’

Matich bogged down at the start (‘nearly burned a hole in the startline with wheelspin…’) and Chris led away, but after a lap or two ‘braking late for Peters, Frank closed on Chris and went under him as they accelerated out onto Peters (the back straight).’ Matich won by four seconds, took the sports car record down to 1:07.2 (Clark nobbled the outright record in the Australian GP on the same day with a 1:07.1) and Matich bowed out of any further contests. He wasn’t happy to go to Longford.

There, Longford, of course, Amon had the fastest time ever through the trap on the flying mile and lapped at 2:14.4 in practice to easily take pole.

In the Saturday race Amon set a new outright lap record of 2:12.6, four tenths quicker than Clark had done in the earlier preliminary event for the Tasman cars in the Lotus 49. This was 12.2 seconds better than the previous record, held by Bob Jane.(Elfin 400 Repco 4.4)

At that stage, it was only reasonable to conclude that Amon wouldn’t hold the record over the whole weekend, but the heavens opened and deluged the circuit for Monday, his P4 suffered a battery failure (McKay wrote that mechanic Bob Atkin simply overlooked to charge the dry cell Varley battery) and didn’t even start the soggy sports car race, and the open-wheelers paddled round with Piers Courages’ McLaren M4A FVA 1.6 taking the win.

In his book, McKay (David McKay’s autobiography ‘Scuderia Veloce’) describes the torment of choosing a driver for the car for the ensuing year. His choice might have been Big ‘Pete’ (Ian) Geoghegan, but there was pressure to give Bill Brown a go. There was also the possibility that Pete’s huge frame might not fit… he was put into the team’s 250LM for the year.

David Mckay again picks up the story ‘After the Tasman Series and Amon’s departure I decided to put Bill Brown behind the wheel despite certain misgivings. I liked Bill, he was a pleasant and helpful fellow who could be faster than some but rather more accident prone than others. He damaged the LM rather too frequently through overdriving…Yet I hoped Bill would mature, the red mists would disappear and he would conduct the P4 in accordance with my instructions. I had no illusions he would run with Matich, Amon hadn’t managed to…I had chosen the easy option rather than taking a chance and putting in perhaps the only local who would have given Matich a run for it-Pete Geoghegan.’

‘Pete was already four times AustralianTouring Car Champion and was sweeping all before him in his Mustang. More important, was his driving of the ‘old red lady’ (McKay’s 250LM) in which, despite his big weight disadvantage (Pete was a very big lad, morbidly obese, the medicos would describe it) he was re-writing her lap times. Perhaps had I not been so occupied with other events that year, had not been out of the country so much I would have bitten the bullet, asked Bill to step aside and given Pete the hot seat-but could he have fitten into that little space? We’ll never know now but in the light of subsequent events I was wrong and I am sorry Pete…’

Pete Geoghegan in that car would have been worth travelling a very long way to see, a driver of awesome world class ability as McKay alludes to, if you go back into the early days of Pete’s career he drove the Geoghegan family Lotus single seaters and 23B but in essence most of his career was spent in Touring Cars and other cars with roofs

Ray Bell…’Bathurst was the first outing on April 14 & 15, which I would have thought daunting enough. With wire fences, rough surface, two serious crashes injuring top drivers in the Gold Star event’s practice sessions and all, one might be a little careful in such a fast car.

But Bill was out to show his stuff. The first race was a 3-lapper mixed in with the open-wheelers. Bartlett won that in the Brabham BT23D Alfa with Bill second about 11 seconds adrift and just 1.6 seconds clear of Niel Allen in the Elfin 400 Chev after Allen had spun on the first lap. Bartlett had fastest lap in 2:19.1, Allen did 2:19.4 and Brown 2:21.6. Maybe he was being careful after all…

As the report points out, ‘The last time anyone went really fast on Mt Panorama was back in 1962, when both David McKay and Bib Stillwell equalled Bill Patterson’s flying eighth time of 169.81mph. It has been said often since that it would probably take a sporty car to better it.’

As mentioned above, Brown took the speed up to 181 mph, a big hike, but he was in pursuit of Allen at the time. The Elfin lapped in 2:18.4 but was parked at the top of the mountain when Brown scored his lucky win, with Geoghegan second in the LM, which improved its personal best time from 2:34.2 to 2:30.8 this first time the big fella got into it. Brown lapped in 2:19.6, just shy of the 100mph mark.

Warwick Farm’s annual RAC Trophy race was on May 5.

This was a prize event on the best circuit. Matich lapped in 1:29 for pole, Allen did 1:32.9, Brown 1:33.0 for the outside of the first row. But the Ferrari managed to get ahead of the Elfin off the line and was second into the first corner and stayed there as Matich built up a lead of about ten seconds over the early laps. Sand got into the throttle slides of the V12 engine, however, and the Ferrari retired to give Allen second spot.

This was the race where Matich ‘unwound a blinder on the last lap just to prove the car was still ‘with it’, chopping 1.2 seconds off his Tasman meeting record and leaving the new time at a staggering 1:27.3′

Lakeside on May 12 brought a pair of Scuderia Veloce 1 – 2s, but the opposition had died in the pre-race buildup. Matich cracked the lap record in practice with a 53.7 in his first appearance at the circuit since his crash there in 1965. Allen did a 55.3, Brown a 57.2.

The minor race came first, with Allen scoring a win and Matich fastest lap (55.2, new record anyway) with the Elfin taking the lead from the start as Matich eased away with a sick engine. Matich pitted, but continued, the Repco suffering a loose valve seat, which prevented him getting top horsepower as he nailed it to get that record in the book. Brown finished 1.5 seconds behind Allen and actually lapped two tenths faster at 56.3, both of them under Allen’s old record.

The main event was a twenty-lapper, and in the minutes before the race Matich declared himself a non-starter and Allen trickled back into the pits with a bolt out of the steering. Brown was able to walk it in (best lap 58.4) as Geoghegan showed all his abilities at the helm of the 250LM to fill second ahead of a Lotus 23B. His best lap was 59.3 and he was less than nine seconds behind at the finish.

There was yet another race, an eight-lapper, at the end of the day, with the 2.5 open-wheelers combining with the fastest sports cars. The report doesn’t clearly explain how Allen got to be behind Phil West’s Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT23A Repco, but he was and seemingly couldn’t do anything about it. Brown won as he liked, scoring another SV 1-2 with West second this time.

I would say that West got away best, then the brute force of the bigger engined cars overpowered him, only Allen was stuck behind him as Brown got through to the lead. Anyway, Allen spent the rest of the race back there in a frustrated third, ‘perhaps over-flushed with determination, hounded West in the best showing of brute tactics seen for a long while, the big Elfin almost running over the Brabham into BMC lap after lap as West stopped to look at the view and Brown scampered up over BP. Allen tried to go under into KLG, avoiding disaster by a hair’s breadth, and pushed the Brabham wheel to wheel round the Eastern Loop. This excitement was too much, added to by Geoghegan who forced the 250LM to the front of Scott’s Lotus 27 to fill fourth spot.’

Des White wrote well, didn’t he? He pressed on. ‘The big battle looked worse as the backmarkers were lapped, disaster being forever imminent as very slow cars found themselves caught up in the 140mph battle between Allen and West, the Elfin being stopped and pointed with a dexterity seldom seen these days. Allen failed to get through, perhaps through trying too hard, and it was disappointing to see him slipstream to the flag. Should the big power of the Elfin have carried it from Shell to the flag first? Maybe, and there been breathing space for the initial build up.” Best lap to Brown, 56.6, Allen did 56.7, West 55.9, winning margin less than two seconds (1.6, actually).

Ray Bell, ‘Probably the event dearest to McKay’s heart was the Surfers Paradise 12-hour…

And he had Jim Palmer over from New Zealand to co-drive with Brown. But Palmer wasn’t up to it, lapping over five seconds slower than Brown in practice and wearing himself out in the process. Matich, who was racing quite a lot during this year, even entered the SR3 in this race with Glynn Scott as co-driver (only 2.3 seconds behind Frank’s times), so this car was the pace as the race got going, Brown following it through the field after both started slowly (Le Mans start). Lapping slower cars soon after the start, Brown was pushed off line and ran over some tyre markers on the edge and holed the radiator. The P4 was out…

David McKay saw the race slightly differently ‘…I had asked NZ Champion Jim Palmer to co-drive with Brown. Jim was a fast, safe driver very much in the Spencer Martin mould. I erred by not having Palmer start the race…The field as in the past, was composed of fast and slow open and closed cars and as always the onus is on the overtaking car. A second or two lost by backing off the throttle to make sure the tortoise knew he was about to be swamped was sensible driving…Less than 15 minutes into the race, Brown came up behind a Fiat 125 saloon, on the approach to Firestone, a fairly quick left hander. The Fiat driver, unaware Brown was diving down the inside held his line. The P4 had nowhere to go but over the grass and a white tyre marker demolishing the nose and oil cooler…Brown bought the  mortally wounded P4 to a halt in front of our pit’.

Bell, ‘Matich’s Repco engine dropped its bundle very late in the race and Geoghegan and his brother Leo won the race in the Scuderia Veloce 250LM.

‘That was the end of the P4’s racing in Australia. Matich was to debut his SR4 with its 5-litre quad-cam engine in November, cementing his position as top dog in the field and enabling him to go on and take more outright records.’

Sale of ‘0858’ to Paul Hawkins…

Due to an error in paperwork, the car was invoiced to McKay rather than in Amon’s name, bringing forward the impost of import duty. The Customs Department provided extensions of time with the assistance of the Italian Chamber of Commerce who wanted the car to race in the Surfers 6 Hour and form the centre-piece of a Sydney trade show.

Under pressure to pay the duty, which was close to 100% of the cars purchase price!, or export it, McKay put the word out ‘…dear old Paul Hawkins had heard about the car being for sale from Chris Amon at an Oulton Park meeting. I was in the workshop when ‘Hawkeyes’ call came through ‘Is the car for sale?’ ‘Yes’, ‘How much?’ ‘US$30,000’. ‘If I buy it will you go me halves in a return ticket to Sydney?’. ‘Yes, ok’. ‘I’ll be there the day after tomorrow’. I’ll meet you Paul’

‘Simple and straightforward. Paul was making a name for himself as a successful sports car and GT racer and had been a favourite of Firestone…The car was to be shipped right after Surfers for Paul would drive it in South Africa’s sports car series with tobacco sponsorship and he would win’.

Paul raced the car in South Africa from November 1968 to January 1969 winning the Cape Town 3 Hour, GP of Bulwayo, Pietermaritzburg 3 Hour and the East London 500 Km.

As McKay mentioned above Hawkins was an Australian International plying his trade via his own team and as a ‘hired gun’ by works teams. He was racing a Lola T70 Mk3B Chev during the Tourist Trophy at Oulton Park, his car ending up in the trees, after probable suspension failure, poor Paul dying in the particularly gruesome accident and ensuing fire.

Both Hawkins and Alberto Ascari, the only two drivers to ‘Scuba Dive’ at Monaco both died on May 26, in an arcane bit of trivia. Mike Hailwood raced ‘0858’ at Magny Cours, first and Dijon DNF in May.

The car was sold in the realisation of the Hawkins Estate, through David Piper, who raced so many mid sixties sports Ferraris’ of his own, and occasionally as a works-driver, to Alastair Walker who raced the car back in South Africa in November-December 1969 with sometime GP driver Rob Widdows as his co-driver.

The car was uncharacteristacally unreliable, perhaps tired, ‘0858’ failed to finish the Kyalami 9 Hour, Cape Town and Bulawayo 3 Hour events. ‘0858’ was second at the Lourenco Marques, Mozambique.

In 1971 David Piper bought the car from Walker, still with its extensive inventory of spare parts, enough as McKay states to make a second car less chassis…which is what Piper did. Ferrari provided him with all the necessary P4 blueprints in 1974. Piper, Nye says ‘had the chassis made by the original people in Modena. Ferrari gave it the number ‘0900’, a serial number also applied to a Chinetti parts built 312P in the US’. Several run-on cars have been built by Piper since.

David Piper sold 0858 to Florida real estate man/Ferrari collector Walter Medlin in 1971. He retained it until it was offered for sale – having been seized by the US Internal Revenue Service to pay Medlin’s outstanding tax debt – via RM Auctions in 2009. The car was eventually restored by Talacrest in the UK, somewhat controversially in the eyes of some, to its Spyder/Barchetta specification.

Check out this website in relation to that process which has been supervised by David Piper. http://www.talacrest.com/Latest_News/Talacrest_Ferrari_330_P4_Chassis_No._0858_-_New_Videos/101.htm

At the outset I wrote that four P4s were built, three P4’s and one converted P3 ‘0846’...

In the best traditions of historic racing there are now more P4s than in period…there are three or four ‘run-on’ cars built by Piper’s concern. In addition, ‘0846’, written off by the factory after a crash and fire at Le Mans in 1967 has been reborn, recreated or replicated depending upon your view of it.

If you like a bit of light entertainment look at this exchange between subject matter expert DC Nye and said vehicle’s owner, the fun and games start at about post # 62. http://forums.autosport.com/topic/59074-ferrari-330-p4/page-2

I’m not suggesting ‘the experts’ necessarily know it all either.

Etcetera…

That ‘Australian’ spare tyre which was fitted as a consequence of our local sports car regs at the time. SV solution was a neat one even if the weight is well outside the cars wheelbase, where else to put it!? The yellow ‘Gatto Verde’ stickers were a gift from Alf Francis to McKay. McKay makes mention of it in his autobiography but not actually what the stickers mean/represent. Ideas anyone?

Bibliography…

David McKay ‘David McKays Scuderia Veloce’,  Paul Frere ‘Cars in Profile 246SP-330P4 Ferraris’, Doug Nye ‘The Potent P4…A Ferrari Fierce and Fine’ Sports Car World July/Sept 1982

Thanks to Stephen Dalton for the assistance in research material sourcing

Photo Credits…

Dick Simpson, Roderick MacKenzie, John Ellacott, wolseley680, WOT, Jim and Pat Smith, Ellis French, The Roaring Season, David Keep, oldracephotos, royckdboats, Mike Feisst Collection, Pete Coltrin, Harold Ellis, Glenn Paine, Geoff Lanham

Tailpiece…

Lets go out as we came in, with a fabulous shot, this time by Harold Ellis of Bill Brown, the sun gleaming off 0858 before blasting down the Longford public roads, big V12 howling at 180 miles per hour in February 1968…

Finito…