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Outside of Milt Brown with his 1962-1965 Apollo GT, very few individuals have ever succeeded in designing and producing their car. Many have tried, and most have failed. The stories of such indomitable personalities as Preston Tucker, Malcolm Bricklin, and John DeLorean are just a part of a recurring cycle. Briggs Cunningham, Sidney Allard, Bill Devin, and Milt Brown are among the tableau of designers and sportsmen-cum-automakers who had the inspiration and the will to dare the odds. Brown is one of the few whose automotive creation survived the proverbial test of time to become a collectible car and in 1979, a recognized Milestone car. Back in the early 1960s, Brown, an enthusiastic Northern Californian with an eye for design and an inborn mechanical ability, set about building an American equivalent to Ferrari, Aston-Martin, and Maserati — a true Gran Turismo. His timing was right, just on the heels of the Cunningham, Devin SS, and Nash-Healey. And he was quick to recognize the failings of these cars: heavy V-8 and inline six-cylinder engines and bulky passenger-car suspensions. An engineer first, Brown set about designing a platform that would alleviate some of the performance and handling problems that had stalled his predecessors' cars. He took advantage of Buick's all-new 215-cubic-inch V-8, an engine that would deliver the power necessary for a sports car yet be compact and light enough (just 318 pounds) to allow his exceptional handling characteristics sought. Brown knew that a lighter-weight engine would produce a more agile car. He also had the technology at his disposal to build a rigid chassis to furnish the ride and handling characteristics he wanted. And best of all, he didn't have to design a single suspension component. It was all there for the taking. With the introduction of the Buick Special in the fall of 1960, Brown found all the componentry he needed for Apollo's driveline and suspension. He engineered his ladder-type frame with a 97-inch wheelbase, built from sturdy four-inch square tubing with .125-inch walls. A standard Buick Special front cross member was welded to that frame, making it possible to install the entire front suspension — including the steering — as furnished by Buick. The Buick Special rear axle assembly was also used and located by four rubber-bushed links. The two lower links ran forward from the axle housing to the frame side rails, while the upper pair splayed outward from the differential to the frame rails. It was an extremely efficient design, with the upper arms taking both longitudinal and lateral axle loads because of their triangulation. Coil springs and telescopic shock absorbers (heavy-duty Monroes) were used all around, and a one-inch-diameter anti-roll bar (50 percent stiffer than the Buick Special's) was installed in the front. Brown modified some of the Buick components to accommodate better the Apollo's specific needs, including a more extended pitman arm to speed up the slow Buick steering, softer front springs to take into account the car's lighter overall weight, increased caster angle, and lightened wheel spindles and steering arms. The Apollo's running gear balance was made up of other General Motors' components: Corvette steering "U" joint and tachometer drive and the Borg-Warner T-10 four-speed transmission. The rear brake drums were also Chevy parts, as were Apollo's front spring pads, which came from the Corvair. The Buick Special was tapped again to supply the radiator. By sourcing all of the necessary driveline and suspension parts through GM, Brown had a sports car platform that was both feasible and practical to produce. What he needed next was a body to place atop it. Origins The original 1962-1965 Apollo GT body was designed by engineer Milt Brown and his long-time friend, Ron Plescia. The two had met in their senior year in high school. "We were a couple of pretty unconventional guys," recalls Brown. "I drove an MG TD, and Ron tooled around in a Crosley Hot Shot. The Crosley had an aluminum body that looked like a squashed tin can," says Plescia, "but it gave us a great idea. Build a new body for it!" Brown recalls that they had figured to build the new Crosley body in about a week. "It ended up taking us months," he says, "but we learned a lot from the Crosley, things that would help us design the Apollo years later." In college, Brown continued to tinker with cars, building America's first Formula Junior racing car. When he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, he headed for Europe in search of a job as a designer. He landed one at Emeryson Race Cars as a designer/draftsman. While Brown may have daydreamed about building his own sports car, it wasn't until he met a Canadian coachbuilder named Frank Reisner at the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix that Brown realized it could be done. "I asked Reisner what he did, and he said he built bodies for cars. I didn't quite understand until he pulled out a picture of the Intermeccanica Imp and explained that his company in Turin, Italy, built hand-made bodies and complete cars." Brown's mind was already abuzz with a plan when Reisner told him that he had figured out a way to build bodies for less money than Brown could imagine. What had started as a casual conversation led Brown to visit Intermeccanica after the race. The rest, as they say, is history. The two formulated a plan to have bodies and interiors built in Turin by Carrozzeria Intermeccanica and then have them shipped to an assembly plant in the United States, where they would be mated with an American-built chassis and driveline. Brown quit his job and returned to Oakland, California. Once home, he looked up an old friend, Newton Davis, who agreed to put up the money to start Apollo. Plescia, who had graduated from the Art Center School in Los Angeles, came on board as chief designer, and the whole company started of Davis's Oakland garage. What sounds more like the plotline for a "Let's go build us a car" movie script resulted instead in the Apollo GT coupe, one of the most trenchant sports car designs of the 1960s. Recalls Brown: "The E-Type Jaguar had just come out, about six months before we started on the Apollo, and we wanted to have that same look, with the long hood line and low profile. That's what we had as an image when we started to design the car." Assembly Though partially inspired by the new E-Type Jaguar, Ron Plescia says that it was the incredibly sleek sports cars of Enzo Ferrari that influenced his final design for the 1962-1965 Apollo GT. "Ferrari had really gotten a hold of me emotionally. Everything I drew for a long time had that sharp Monza look about it." Certainly, there was no way not to see traces of the Ferrari 250GT Spyder California and Jaguar XKE in the Apollo. Still, there were other influences outside of Brown's and Plescia's, which were to shape the final design of the Apollo. To make bodies easy to build, coachbuilder Frank Reisner laid down some ground rules that the Apollo design had to follow. Brown says Reisner asked him to avoid sharp radiuses, creases, and compound curves. " 'Keep everything gentle and flowing,' he said. That influenced us quite a bit." The original Apollo design was an aluminum-bodied fastback without rear quarter windows. That's how the prototype appeared when it debuted in the October 1, 1962, issue of Automotive News. Before going into production, however, Reisner commissioned famed Italian designer Franco Scaglione, creator of the Alfa Romeo BAT and Sprint Speciale, to do a final rendering of the Apollo. Working from Plescia's original designs, Scaglione added a larger backlight, rear quarter windows, and a new, bolder grille — all for the better. Brown and Reisner later called upon him to design the Apollo convertible in 1963. Though initially planned to be an aluminum-bodied car, Reisner found that he could produce the bodies for less if they were made from steel. "As it turned out," says Brown, "we needed less sub-structure for the steel bodies than for the aluminum, and the car ended up weighing 200 pounds less." Each Apollo body was hand-formed in sections over wooden bucks and then welded together. The completed bodies were mounted to the frame, the body/chassis unit was painted, the interior upholstered, and then shipped to Oakland, California, to be mated with the driveline and suspension. In August 1962, the first production Apollo 3500 GT coupe, was delivered and introduced at Spencer Buick in San Francisco. Following the San Francisco debut, Brown took the car to Hollywood and had a premiere showing at Phil Hall Buick on Sunset Boulevard. When Hall saw the Apollo, he gave Brown an order for the entire first year's production of 25 cars. It looked like instant prosperity. It wasn't. Hall made what one could call, in retrospect, an error in judgment. He advertised the car as "The 1963 Apollo Buick." General Motors was not at all pleased with the advertisement and offered Hall a simple, straightforward ultimatum: Stop selling Apollos or stop selling Buicks! Brown had pushed up production in Italy with orders for three cars in just the first week. Suddenly there were bodies arriving for cars that weren't sold and Brown had something his company wasn't structured for: inventory. It was then that George Finley entered the picture. Finley had been a dealer representative for Lincoln-Mercury, and he decided to take an Apollo and set up a national dealer network. "He was a natural-born car salesman," recalls Brown. "We had managed to sell only six cars in six months. George sold 33 cars and signed up seven dealers in one year!" Financial Problems Ironically, the better things became with orders for the 1962-1965 Apollo GT, the worse they got for the company. Neither creator Milt Brown nor his backer, Newt Davis, had ever done a cost analysis on the production and marketing of the Apollo. At around $6,000, they weren't charging enough for the cars, and in fact, with research and development costs for the new convertible and 2+2 models factored in, the company was actually losing money on every car it sold. GM's former chief stylist, Bill Mitchell, later told Brown that he could have sold the Apollo for $10,000 and gotten it. Hindsight? Perhaps not. The price for the coupe finally reached $9,000, but Apollo was so far in the hole that it would have taken more than $100,000 to get the company out of the red. "When we were building two cars per month, we were making a profit," says Brown, "so we went to four cars per month, and then eight. That was our big, fatal mistake. We had begun to order more cars than we could afford to build. Suddenly we had 15 bodies in the factory and not enough operating capital to finish them; we were going broke with a car that for all intents, was a success!" When Brown couldn't pay the bills, the bank came in and closed Apollo down. Coachbuilder Frank Reisner hadn't been paid either, and he, too, was now in big financial trouble. He showed up on Brown's doorstep one morning and said that something had to be done or Intermeccanica would go out of business. With both men facing the same probable outcome, they decided to seek out a new financial partner. It turned out to be Vanguard, a Dallas firm that had expressed an interest in buying the company. The deal allowed Brown to complete the cars he had in inventory, pay Reisner, and have another 15 bodies built in Italy. The new models were to be marketed by Vanguard under Vetta Ventura. Unfortunately, the newly financed company lasted only three months, going into bankruptcy in 1965. Brown left, and Davis went looking for another investor. There were none, and Davis sold the company's assets to a Los Angeles attorney, Robert Stevens. Stevens saw promise in the car and bankrolled a new company, Apollo International, in Pasadena, California. It lasted less than a year and accounted for roughly another 14 cars, mostly convertibles. When Apollo International closed its doors, that was the end of the road. The Apollo was gone, once and for all — and Brown was out of the car business. Davis had gotten his investment back by selling the company's assets, and Reisner had moved on to building such memorable Italian sports cars as the Griffith GT, Omega, Italia, and Indra. Performance Although Apollo was a dismal failure as a company, the 1962-1965 Apollo GT itself was an undisputed success. Despite its uneventful and brief sales history, the automotive press heaped praise upon the Apollo time and time again. Road & Track, Hot Rod, and Car and Driver all found the Apollo GT coupe a consummate sports car, particularly for its styling and craftsmanship. In November 1963 Road & Track wrote: "Our experience in the Apollo has been both brief and pleasant. The car is quite comfortable (even for extra tall occupants) and well-finished. In general, the Apollo is a very appealing automobile, put together with loving care under the supervision of [Milt] Brown and [Newt] Davis in this country, and Frank Reisner, head of Intermeccanica, in Italy. The whole conception is basically sound and the company directors have proven to R&T that they are interested in producing a quality automobile and have the interest of the customer at heart." In July 1964, Hot Rod said that "Workmanship is of the highest quality — panels fit well, doors close with authority and the interiors are comparable to cars costing twice that of the Apollo." Race driver and automotive columnist Denise McCluggage, writing in Science and Mechanics magazine, lofted the Apollo to its highest praise when she said it was comparable to the Ferrari 2+2, Corvette Sting Ray, and Aston Martin DB-4. It was without question the right car at the right time, lacking only those two all-essential ingredients, marketing and money. In all, a total of 88 cars were produced — 76 coupes, 11 convertibles, and the prototype 2+2 coupe. In retrospect, the Apollo could be classed as something of a successful failure. Having been recognized as an American Milestone Car and a valuable collectible automobile, the Apollo has proven that success in the automotive world is not always measured by financial statements alone. Source: auto.howstuffworks.com Images: Intermeccanica; hagerty.com; mycarquest.com

Pininfarina has also evolved a perfect streamlined body with flap-concealed headlamps for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. The wrapped rear window remains in position as on the new Triumph TR4 hardtop in open trim. It was presented at the 1962 Geneva Motor Show. Source: www.classiccarcatalogue.com Images: Pininfarina

This one-off was built on the Alfa Romeo 2600 chassis. The “scudetto” works as air intake and is responsible for the cooling, and it had a significant influence on the sharp front design, along with the pop-up lights. It was later transformed into coupé. Images: Pininfarina; www.alfabb.com

Presented at the 10th Tokyo Motor Show, designed and built by Scaglione of Italy based on the Prince Skyline 1500 saloon using the 1862cc 4 cylinder engine from the Prince Gloria. Though widely admired it remained a one-off.

The GMA T.33 or Gordon Murray Automotive Type 33 is a sports car manufactured by Gordon Murray Automotive. Designed by Gordon Murray, the T.33 is the manufacturer's second model after the T.50 supercar. The design of the GMA T.33 is inspired by the GTs of the 1960s, such as the Ferrari Dino and Lamborghini Miura. Murray utilized a 2-seater coupé configuration for the T.33, with the body built entirely in carbon, mounted on a structure of carbon fiber panels glued to an aluminum frame. The rear wings of the T.33 open in the opposite direction of travel to give access to two trunks, with a total capacity of 25 liters. The T.33 is powered by the same V12 as the T.50, produced in cooperation with Cosworth, with 3.99 liters of displacement and four valves per cylinder, with a power output of 615Hp at 10,500 rpm and 451 Nm of torque at 9,500 rpm. The V12 is mated to a standard 6-speed extra manual or optional 6-speed automatic with paddle shifters, with power sent to the rear wheels Source: Wikipedia Images Courtesy of Gordon Murray Automotive

Few motorsport formulae can match the sheer drama and excitement of the controversial Group B Rally era, which brought hitherto unseen supercar performance levels to the special stages. Although the formula only existed for four years, its impact on the sport and the wider consciousness was wholly disproportionate. Having won only one round of the World Rally Championship in 1984 with its aging two-wheel-drive 037, Lancia opted to develop a replacement for the final round of the 1985 Championship onwards. Dubbed the Delta S4, the new car bore a distant resemblance to its road-going counterpart; However, in predictably outlandish Group B fashion, it would replace the standard Delta's steel monocoque chassis with a carbon-fiber-clad tubular spaceframe, in which the engine was relocated to the rear. The S4 also employed an ingenious 'twin-charging' system, whereby a supercharger operated in sequence with a turbocharger to reduce turbo lag and improve driveability. At the same time, power from the prodigiously powerful 550 bhp engine was transmitted to the road via a sophisticated Hewland-developed four-wheel-drive system. Some 28 Group B Delta S4s were constructed, of which the majority were campaigned by the factory Martini Lancia squad and the remainder by the semi-Works Jolly Club and Griffone teams. In addition, 200 road-going Stradale versions were constructed to obtain the necessary homologation. Both this car—chassis number 202—and its sister car, 207, were completed in time for the 1985 RAC Rally, in which they were entered under the Martini Racing banner and piloted by Henri Toivonen/Neil Wilson and Markku Alen/Ilkka Kivimäki, respectively. From the outset, it was clear that Lancia had hit on a winning formula: Alen dominated the first half of the rally before Toivonen fought back bravely to take victory by just under a minute from his more experienced teammate. That the two Lancias had taken wins on 41 of the rally's 63 Special Stages underlined the pace of the new car. Perhaps what was most significant about the S4's showing here was that it won its maiden event outright. No other vehicle that competed in the World Rally Championship in Group B can claim such an achievement. Following the RAC, this particular car was used by both Toivonen and Alen as a T-car on the Monte Carlo Rally, the first round of the 1986 Championship. In the rally itself, the charismatic Finn—paired with new co-driver Sergio Cresto—used chassis 215 to take a hard-fought win, fittingly on the twentieth anniversary of his father Pauli's victory in the same event. After that, chassis 201 was again used as Toivonen's T-car in the next round of the Championship in Sweden and the non-championship Rally Costa Smeralda in mid-April. Tragically, the third round of the Championship in Portugal had witnessed the dark side of Group B when the Ford RS200 of Joaquim Santos crashed into the crowd, killing three spectators and injuring more than 30. For Lancia, worse was to come: On the Tour de Corse in early May, Toivonen—driving chassis 211 on this occasion—lost control on a remote part of the island and plunged down a ravine, the car bursting into flames on impact. Both driver and co-driver perished in the accident, which resulted in an immediate development freeze for Group B cars and their replacement with Group A cars for 1987. At the end of the traumatic 1986 season, and with the Delta S4 now obsolete, several were sold to privateers for use in slalom, hill climb, rallycross, and ice-racing events. Chassis 202 was used by Roberto Rosselli in slalom events before being sold to Adriano Raffagnato in 2008. During Raffagnato's ownership, the car was used in several rallies, including the Rallylegend Star in San Marino and the Group B Rallyelegenden in Austria. Poignantly, the vehicle was also driven by Harri Toivonen—younger brother of Henri and an accomplished rally and long-distance sports car driver himself—in a demonstration during the 2016 Rally Finland to mark the thirtieth anniversary of his brother's passing. Chassis 202 remains a wonderfully original and evocative example of this highly significant Group B titan. Restored to its original specifications, it retains numerous period features, such as the original Kevlar-shelled Sparco seats (still embroidered with the names of its illustrious driver and co-driver) and Halda Rally Computer. Notably, the accompanying Abarth Classiche Certification documentation states that only the left front portion of the frame was replaced, which did not affect the car's torsional rigidity. With five wins from twelve rallies in that fateful 1986 season, the Lancia Delta S4 remains perhaps the ultimate Group B projectile; this example was driven to victory by the formula's most celebrated son in its first outing as a model undoubtedly adds to that allure. Text & Images Courtesy of RM Sotheby's

255+ bhp 1,995 cc DOHC supercharged inline four-cylinder engine with Bosch Kugelfisher injection, five-speed manual transmission, front and rear independent double-wishbone suspension, and Brembo/Abarth four-wheel disc brakes. Wheelbase: 2,240 mm Changes to the FIA Group B regulations at the dawn of the 1980s prompted rally competitors to design purpose-built cars that required a small number, just 200 examples, of homologated road-going models to be sold to the public. Working with Abarth, now part of the Lancia-Fiat group, engineers created project number 037 to replace the vaunted Lancia Stratos HF. Despite its less-than-auspicious name, 037 was conceived with input from some of Italy's best: Abarth, Pininfarina, and Dallara. This racer was designed to recall the Lancia Beta-based Montecarlo/Scorpion, and it was bodied from Kevlar and reinforced with fiberglass panels. It also featured a steel sub-frame that was visible when its massive bonnet and boot access panels were opened—although it didn't look much like the Montecarlo/Scorpion, the Pininfarina-penned 037 featured a handful of design cues that served as a visual nod to Lancia's past, including a unique "double bubble" roofline. A 2.0-liter, supercharged four-cylinder engine powered the first 037s, and an enlarged 2.1-liter one eventually followed. The engine was supercharged instead of turbocharged to improve throttle response and to quell turbo lag, and it was initially rated at 255 horsepower. The introduction of water injection helped boost that figure to 300 horsepower, while the 2.1-liter variant raised that number to 325 horsepower. German firm ZF supplied the 037's robust rear end. The mid-mounted engine sent power to the rear wheels via a five-speed manual gearbox, making the 037 the last of its kind before all-wheel-drive became commonplace in the WRC. A total of 28 examples of the Evolution 1 037 were assembled, and about 207 Stradale versions were eventually assembled to comply with FIA regulations. The 037 made its racing debut at the 1982 Rally Costa Smeralda in Italy, but it wasn't until 1983 that Lancia experienced real success with the car. Despite competition from the AWD Audi Quattro, the 037 prevailed, with Walter Röhrl and Markku Alen behind the wheel. Chassis 210, registered as TO Y88743, was campaigned during the 1983 World Rally Championship season, and it helped the automaker capture the manufacturer's title over Audi. The Martini Racing team used it for several races during the season. The Tour de Corse, taking place from 5–7 May, was driven by Jean-Claude Andruet, but it failed to finish. Later that month, at the Acropolis Rally, this car finished 5th overall at the hands of Bettega and Perissinot. Following its impressive result in Greece, Pentti Airikkala and Juha Piironen would finish in 5th place once more at the 1,000 Lakes Rally. Finally, in early October, chassis 210 was used as a test car at the Rallye Sanremo for the Bettega/Perissinot duo. After its racing career, Fiat sold chassis 210 to a noted French collector. After being driven in several editions of the Tour Auto in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it found its way to the current owner in Italy. It is in excellent condition, swathed in the distinctive Martini livery, and it is ready to be displayed or enjoyed for its incredible performance. This 037 represents a unique glimpse into an iconic era of Italian rally history, particularly the short-lived but revered Group B rally cars. Text & Images Courtesy of RM Sotheby's

One of just four Scuderia Ferrari works cars built to contest the World Sports Car Championship in 1963, the 275 P, chassis no. 0816, saw incredible success for the factory team in period. The car was entered in just two works outings for 1964, taking overall victory at both the 24 Hours of Le Mans, driven by Jean Guichet and Nino Vaccarella, and the 12 Hours of Sebring, driven by Michael Parkes and Umberto Maglioli. What makes this Ferrari all the more special, is the recently revealed fact that it also took victory in its very first factory outing a year earlier in 1963. Thanks to RM Sotheby’s close relationship with Ferrari Classiche, the Private Sales team has been able to further research the history of the 275 P, and while the car has not yet been submitted for certification by Ferrari Classiche, it has been confirmed via factory documentation that chassis no. 0816 is also the overall winner of the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans, where it was driven by Ludovico Scarfiotti and Lorenzo Bandini. While 0816 was not originally scheduled to compete at the 1963 edition of Le Mans, Ferrari Classiche’s detailed documentation on the Scuderia Ferrari Works cars has confirmed that the original entrant—0814—was severely damaged in a practice accident at the Nürburgring just one month prior to Le Mans. Factory documentation confirms that 0814 was still being repaired during Le Mans, and rather than submitting new paperwork for a replacement entry, Scuderia Ferrari simply sent 0816 to Le Mans, under 0814’s identity. This new information makes chassis no. 0816 the one and only Ferrari to have won the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, placing it amongst a mere handful of race cars to have done the same. Following its Scuderia Ferrari racing career, the 275 P was sold to Luigi Chinetti’s famed North American Racing Team (N.A.R.T.), who campaigned the car a handful of times in the United States, including twice more at the 12 Hours of Sebring. In 1970, the 275 P was sold to renowned collector Pierre Bardinon’s world-famous Mas du Clos Collection in France, where it has remained for the last 48 years. Seldom-seen publicly over the course of the Bardinon family’s ownership, the 275 P is presented via RM Sotheby’s Private Sales division in highly original, never fully restored condition, retaining its matching-numbers engine, gearbox, and body. “This 275 P is without question the most historically important sports racing Ferrari campaigned by the Works team and we are tremendously honored to offer the car for private sale on behalf of the Bardinon family,” says Augustin Sabatié-Garat, European Auction Manager & Car Specialist, RM Sotheby’s. “As the pinnacle of the Scuderia works cars, the 275 P offers the perfect juxtaposition to the 250 GTO on offer in our Monterey auction—which represents the pinnacle of Ferrari’s privateer GT cars. The other three 1963 Scuderia cars remain in long-held, significant private collections, and this is certainly the most important of the four built, making RM Sotheby’s presentation of the 275 P truly a once-in-a-generation opportunity.” Text & Images Courtesy of RM Sotheby's

The world’s most important, desirable, and legendary motor car The third of only 36 GTOs built; considered by marque experts to be one of the most authentic and original of all GTO examples One of four upgraded in period by Scaglietti with Series II GTO/64; one of seven to ever receive this more aggressive and successful coachwork Driven by Edoardo Lualdi-Gabardi to victory in the 1962 Italian GT Championship Key contributor to Ferrari’s victory in the 1964 International Championship for GT Manufacturers with its class win in the 1964 Targa Florio Over 15 class and overall wins during the 1962–1965 seasons 1st in class at the 1963 Targa Florio, driven by Gianni Bulgari and Maurizio Grana 1st in class at the 1964 Targo Florio, driven by Corrado Ferlaino and Luigi Taramazzo Inspected by both marque specialist Marcel Massini and Ferrari Classiche representatives Exclusive access to some of the world’s most prestigious events and rallies, including to the famed GTO club and tours TARGA FLORIO, PALERMO, SICILY, 26 APRIL 1964 The weather is warm and dry on this spring morning in Sicily and fans begin lining the public roads of the towns and winding mountainous stretches surrounding the city of Palermo. The 48th running of the legendary Targa Florio is only minutes away, and it is proving to be yet another glorious battle of man and machine against the clock and the elements of surprise that make motor racing purely a sport for the most daring gentlemen drivers in the world. This is, after all, the oldest sports car race in the world, and victory here is more than a fleeting moment of glory – it is a matter of national pride and a global contest that pits the racing teams from Italy against those of the U.S., Germany, England, and France. The challenges for drivers are seemingly endless – elevation changes, blind corners, switchbacks, and of course, the danger of thousands of spectators standing mere inches from the road as sports racing cars roar by at well over 100 mph. But in merely seven hours and 10 laps of the 72-km road course, the winner of the Targa Florio will be crowned and, with him, the all-important points toward the International Championship for GT Manufacturers will be awarded. The starting grid is a veritable who’s-who of star drivers: Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Bob Bondurant, Masten Gregory, Innes Ireland, Jean Guichet, Hans Herrmann, Joakim Bonnier, and Graham Hill. But the Italian fans have arrived to disappointment as Scuderia Ferrari has recused itself from the race while Carroll Shelby has arrived in force with four competition Cobras, serious backing from Ford in Detroit, and his sights set on the Italian Prancing Horse. Not to be discounted by any means, Stuttgart’s Porsche army was sent to Sicily by Huschke von Hanstein with five Works cars, 904/8s and 904 GTSs, purpose-built for precisely this type of endurance race. Ferrari, of course, is the defending victor, having won the International Championship for GT Manufacturers in both 1962 and 1963 in the over-two-liter category, thanks to the stunning force of the GTO. But for the 1964 season, the FIA made further adjustments, such that the resulting classes amounted to “under two liters” and “over two liters,” the latter of which now included the powerful over-three-liter cars. This resulted in much stiffer competition for Ferrari as the GTOs were now officially in the same class as the larger capacity lightweight Jaguar E-Types, Aston Martin DB4 GT/Project cars, and the AC Cobras. Ferrari was also denied homologation status for its latest sports racing car, the 250 LM, so the 250 GTO was placed into service for one more year. And so, as the racing season for 1964 began, the stakes were exceptionally high. Ferrari was off to a great start for this third race in the Championship, having won both at Daytona and Sebring in the weeks previous, but without the Scuderia fielding its own Works entries, victory is therefore left to the privateers . . . and the GTO. Corrado Ferlaino is one such privateer. An entrepreneur, engineer, and future owner and president of the Naples football team, he is in his early 30s. In December of 1963, before the start of the season, he purchased chassis 3413, a 1962 Ferrari GTO with successful hill climb history and Series I bodywork. In January, three months before his first race in the car at the Targa Florio, the car was sent by the factory to its official coachbuilder at Scaglietti on Via Emilia in Modena, where the GTOs of course were all bodied from the outset. This car was upgraded to Series II coachwork with no rear spoiler. This implemented the latest development in the GTO’s design and signified an improvement aerodynamically for the model, and owner/drivers certainly desired the latest technological offering from Ferrari. Designed by Pininfarina, this improved bodywork was lower, wider, and shorter, with a more aerodynamic, steeply raked windshield, larger tires, wider track, and the engine sitting lower, all with the aim of improving handling and balance – a critical consideration on the curves and shorter straights through the towns and seaside hills along the coasts of Sicily. In fact, this bodywork upgrade was considered so desirable that three additional cars originally built with Series I coachwork were upgraded to this new design, two of which (including this car), featured an extended roofline in the style of the 250 LM. Aside from its aerodynamic intent, retrospectively it is considered an absolutely stunning addition to the car’s presence and renders the car’s profile not only supremely elegant, but extremely sporting and decidedly muscular. Once the car arrived in time for the Targa Florio, it proved to be an extremely challenging event. Only 28 cars finished the race, while over 30 never even crossed the finish line, due to accidents or mechanical failures. Joakim Bonnier came out strong, taking the lead in the Porsche 718 GTR, followed by Edgar Barth in an eight-cylinder 904. By the third lap, Gianni Bulgari, driving a Porsche 904 GTS, had taken the lead. The lead changes continued over the course of the race, lap by lap, driver change after driver change. The Detroit-powered Cobras failed to finish, all exiting the race with incident or mechanical issue. The Ferraris, however, were in their element and on their home turf, deftly maneuvering each 40-minute lap, one by one, until Ferlaino and Taramazzo crossed the finish line victorious, securing a class victory and 5th place overall, as the first in a series of four Ferrari GTOs to successfully finish the race. Most importantly, this victory contributed a maximum 14.4 points toward Ferrari’s Championship hunt – points which proved critical at year-end as Ferrari continued its battle with Shelby’s Cobras and ultimately beat the Americans by a very close count of 84.54 to 78.3. Simply put, Ferrari would not have won the Championship without this car’s all-important victory. Analysis of the points totals awarded to the manufacturers over the course of the ’64 season, race by race, clearly indicates that Shelby would have otherwise won the Championship at the end of the year, if Dan Gurney in his Cobra had beaten Ferlaino in his Ferrari at the Targa Florio. As such, chassis 3413 is effectively the car that won the championship for Ferrari in 1964! GRAN TURISMO OMOLOGATO The Targa Florio class-winner, chassis 3413, is an absolutely outstanding example of the breed and among the very best of Ferrari’s 250 GTOs. Never again would the factory develop and build a so-called production GT car purely for the sake of racing. The 250 GTO’s rise was prompted by the creation of a new International Championship for GT Manufacturers in 1962, for which the 250 SWB Berlinetta was deemed to be insufficient. Longtime Ferrari engineer Giotto Bizzarrini knew that a fresh model would be required to remain competitive with the latest machines from Aston Martin, Jaguar, and Shelby American. The SWB’s front profile was too oblique to exceed 155 mph (the front end lifted at high speeds), and the rear dimensions could not accommodate the ever-widening tires. For one of the first times in its history, Ferrari utilized a wind tunnel to test new coachwork, which eventually featured an extended, lowered nose, and a steeper windshield to reduce drag while maximizing downforce. The hood profile was lower than its predecessor’s, in part because the new tipo 539/62 COMP chassis allowed for the engine to be mounted closer to the ground. To retain full homologation eligibility, the new car retained general 250 GT chassis dimensions and the three-liter short-block Colombo V-12, which in tipo 168/62 competizione form featured six carburetors and larger valves (as in the Testa Rossa). The revised tipo 539 chassis was improved with lighter tubing, stiffer springs, and dual Watts linkages that stabilized the rear suspension. A new five-speed gearbox was fitted to provide maximum acceleration and top speed. While the early 1962 examples featured bolted-on rear spoilers, starting in 1963 the spoiler was formally integrated into the coachwork. For 1964, of course, the Series II bodywork that was adopted was applied to the final three GTOs built, referred to as GTO/64, and retroactively upgraded to four Series I cars as referenced earlier. CHASSIS NUMBER 3413 This car is just the third production GTO built, completing factory assembly in late April 1962. It was the first GTO example to feature Series I coachwork details such as a small radiator intake, narrow brake ducts, hood fasteners, and sail-panel vents. Scaglietti’s coachwork also featured a bolted-on rear spoiler and turn signal lamps below the headlights. Fitted with a tipo 168/62 competizione V-12, the GTO was finished in rosso cina, and the interior was trimmed with traditional blue cloth upholstery. In the first week of May, the Ferrari was driven by the legendary Phil Hill as SEFAC Ferrari’s official practice car for the upcoming Targa Florio. By this time, of course, Phil Hill’s importance to international American motor racing and indeed the Ferrari factory was well established. Not only had he already won Le Mans multiple times, he was also the first American Formula 1 World Champion and, quite indisputably, one of the world’s most talented and highly respected racing drivers. His presence behind the wheel of 3413 is a rare honor few cars in the world enjoy. A few days later, the GTO was officially sold to Mrs. Arnalda Colombo, who purchased the car on behalf of her husband, the famed Italian privateer Edoardo Lualdi-Gabardi, one of the most charismatic and successful privateer drivers of the era and a personal friend of Enzo Ferrari who very consistently received the finest, special cars from the factory. Born in Milan in 1931, Edoardo Lualdi-Gabardi began racing at the age of 19 with a Fiat Topolino in the 1950 Mille Miglia. In 1953 he began campaigning a Vignale-bodied Ferrari 166 MM spider, mostly in hill climbs. A year later his connection with Ferrari deepened when he began racing a freshly acquired 212 Export. He soon drove the first 250 MM berlinetta in competition, and a personal highlight was his triumph over champion racer Armando Zampieri’s Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. In 1956 Lualdi-Gabardi acquired the first of four Ferrari 250 GT ‘Tour de France’ examples he would own, and it increasingly became his weapon of choice during an aggressive competition campaign from which he emerged as the 1956 Italian Hill Climb Champion. By the early 1960s the privateer was campaigning 250 GT SWB examples (including one of the rare SEFAC hot rods), and he later owned two GTO examples (including the featured car). Having purchased many Ferraris during this period, Lualdi-Gabardi soon found himself on Maranello’s preferred client list, and he apparently lunched with Enzo Ferrari frequently over the years. A crash in 1972 eventually forced the hill climb champion to permanently retire from racing, but not before he had triumphed (or earned class wins) in no fewer than 116 races, a remarkable feat by any measure. Lualdi-Gabardi immediately began campaigning 3413 with great success in Italian hill climbs, starting with a victory at the Coppa Citta Asiago on 13 May. This was followed by a slew of class wins during the next month at hill climbs at Bologna-Raticosa, the Coppa Consuma, Bolzano-Mendola, and Trento-Bondone. The GTO then achieved several outright victories, starting with the Trieste–Opicina hill climb on 22 July, followed by the Trofeo Sarezzo-Lumezzane and the Coppa Faglioli in September, and the Coppa Autunno at Monza in October. Lualdi-Gabardi experienced such success in 3413 that at the season’s conclusion, he was declared the class champion for the 1962 Italian GT Championship. In early April 1963 the GTO experienced a final overall victory with Lualdi-Gabardi at the Stallavena-Bosco Chiesanuova hill climb, and four days later the car was sold to its second owner, Gianni Bulgari, the scion and eventual president of the Bulgari watch company, who was no stranger to the race track and actively campaigned sports cars in period alongside the greatest gentlemen drivers. Bulgari first entered the Ferrari at the Targa Florio on 5 May, during the third round of the 1963 International Championship for GT Manufacturers, and achieved immediate success finishing 1st in class, 4th overall, with Maurizio Grana as his co-pilot. Six months later he won the Coppa FISA at Monza. In merely its first calendar year, the feats of success that 3413 achieved are virtually unbelievable – feats of victory that speak not only to the talents of the drivers behind the wheel, but also to the world-class engineering at Ferrari that placed the GTO miles ahead, developmentally, of its competition on the track. One must consider the competition against which the Ferrari entered these races. Whether on the most legendary race tracks in Europe or local hill climbs in Italy, the GTOs were virtually on another level entirely, repeatedly and aggressively beating the competition. These were indeed the years in which the indelible image of a V-12 front-engined sports car, liveried in racing red with an iconic prancing horse became the international symbol of Ferrari’s racing dominance. All these successes transpired before 3413 was driven to class victory at the Targa Florio the year after by Taramazzo and Ferlaino, at which point of course Ferlaino had commissioned the upgraded GTO/64 coachwork. Ferlaino raced the 250 at least three more times in 1964, earning a class win at the Bologna-Raticosa Hill Climb in late May and 3rd overall at the Mugello 500 KM a month later. Shortly thereafter, 3413 was acquired by Dan Margulies, a dealer residing in London. At some point prior to December 1965, the front coachwork around the nose was slightly modified, with twin vertical vents for brake cooling added in place of the prior rectangular driving lights. In late December 1965, the car was entrusted to Maranello Concessionaires driver David Piper for the Redex Trophy at Brands Hatch where he claimed an outright victory, fittingly in 3413’s final period race. By the time the highly respected racing driver Piper got behind the wheel, he had already been very successful in single-seater racing, specifically Formula 2 and also Formula 1, and continues to remain active in the collector car hobby. VINTAGE COMPETITION In 1967 the GTO was sold by Margulies to Jack Le Fort, a fellow Englishman who ran the car twice at the Prescott Speed Hill Climb before selling it a year later to noted collector Neil Corner. In fact, the car’s entire vintage racing career and subsequent chain of ownership is not only incredibly illustrious, it includes the collection of gentlemen who are rightfully considered among the foremost motoring enthusiasts in the world and whose association with 3413 further serves to confirm the importance of such a car. In 1970 Corner entered the GTO at a race held in conjunction with the Bugatti Drivers Club Meeting at Silverstone, and shortly afterwards the car was acquired by respected collector Lord Anthony Bamford of Stoke-on-Trent. Both Corner and Bamford have owned some of the rarest and most sought-after cars in the world, including multiple GTOs, no less, and their attention to acquiring the very best is impeccable. Lord Bamford attended the English Ferrari Owners Club meet at Prescott in July 1972 and retained possession of the spectacular GTO until the 1980s, when he sold the Ferrari to collector Nigel Moores. In 1988 Moores sold 3413 to Japanese collector Yoshijuki Hayashi, though the car remained domiciled in the UK. The Ferrari participated in European vintage events during this ownership, including the GTO 30th Anniversary Tour in September 1992, and the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June 1993 (British restoration and racing expert Tony Merrick drove the car at both events). The GTO was purchased from Hayashi in April 1994 by Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones of London, then Chairman and CEO of L’Oréal and a respected motoring enthusiast in his own right – in fact, his association with the Ferrari brand is well established and includes serving on the board of directors of Ferrari SpA. Notable events in his ownership included a showing at the Coys Historic Race Festival at Silverstone in 1994 and 1995. In January 2000, this highly significant Ferrari was purchased by the consignor, an esteemed collector based in the Pacific Northwest, who has continued to present, race, and rally the car at premium vintage events. In Dr. Gregory Whitten’s collection, the car kept company with the absolute best of the best and, over the years, this very collection has contained one of the finest Ferrari 250 LMs in existence, a superb SEFAC Hot Rod Le Mans class-winner, a 14-louvre Tour de France and an Alfa Romeo P3, to name but a very small sampling. In concert with an exceptional career in business, typified by an applied mathematics doctorate from Harvard, nearly two decades of work with Microsoft, and most recently the leadership of the financial software company Numerix, it is perhaps to be expected that Dr. Whitten’s passion for detail and expertise are embodied in his ownership of this GTO. Much to his credit, 3413 was regularly exhibited and driven around the world, including four appearances at the Cavallino Classic between 2001 and 2008 and four seasons in the Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge between 2001 and 2009. Chassis 3413 also participated in the GTO 40th Anniversary tour in September 2002; the Monterey Historic Races in August 2004, 2008, and 2011; the GTO 45th Anniversary tour in 2007; the Goodwood Revival Meeting in 2011; and the GTO 50th and 55th Anniversary tours, respectively, held in 2012 and 2017. The car was furthermore presented during the GTO celebration at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it was reunited with 17 of its GTO brethren. The car is most certainly one of the most actively campaigned and successful GTOs in the world. A LEGEND WITHOUT EQUAL Examples of the 250 GTO are very rarely offered for sale, let alone publicly, and 3413 is now available for the first time in over 18 years. As the third example produced, and the first to originally feature standard design details, 3413 is also notable as the primary steed in Edoardo Lualdi-Gabardi’s 1962 Italian GT Championship and a major contributor in 1964 to Ferrari’s final victory in the International Championship for GT Manufacturers. As one of only seven examples to be clothed in Scaglietti’s scintillating Series II coachwork (and one of two to feature the extended roofline), this 250 GTO is quite simply the most important Ferrari ever offered publicly. In 2018, the car was inspected onsite and in person by representatives from Ferrari’s Classiche department, and interested parties are encouraged to speak with an RM specialist to review the report from this visit. Noted Ferrari historian and expert Marcel Massini also recently inspected the car and considers it one of the very best examples, pointing to its successes with Lualdi, its originality, and all its numbers-matching components (engine block, gearbox and rear axle), which are included with the car’s sale. Specifically, it should be noted that while the original gearbox and rear axle are currently fitted, the original engine block was astutely removed years ago for preservation, and is included with the car. The car is currently fitted with a 250 GT engine block built to GTO specification, thereby affording the new owner both the benefit of originality with the ability to drive the car as intended in vintage rallying or competition. In the annals of automotive history, no initials loom larger than GTO. Claiming rarity, a long pedigree of mechanical development, beautifully sculpted coachwork, and an overwhelmingly successful competition record, the Ferrari 250 GTO has justifiably evolved into the world’s most desirable collector car: an instantly recognizable shape, a distinctive exhaust note, and a lustful presence that no other car in the world can claim. The rarity with which the model is publicly offered for sale confirms the desirability of the car and the ultra-exclusive members-only club that its ownership signifies: at any given point in time, 36 or fewer collectors can claim to be GTO owners. It is a club with virtually immediate access to the world’s most important automotive events, in which the mere arrival of a GTO is an historic occurrence and which there is never a barrier to entry. GTO owners count among their ranks captains of industry and luminaries of automotive collecting and, for many, acquisition of these cars is regarded the crowning achievement in an almost impossible hunt. The superb state and quality of 3413 further adds to this extreme rarity and makes its offering, quite literally, the opportunity of a lifetime – a moment in one’s collecting span that is quite likely unrepeatable. For one collector, then, there is no higher honor, there is no greater custodianship of history, and there is no greater achievement in the search of the world’s most important car.

While the Colombo-designed V-12 engines of Ferrari’s road and race cars stole the hearts and minds of well-heeled individuals and enthusiasts during the early 1960s, there is no question that the marque’s smaller-displacement Sports Prototypes played an important role in the development and coming-of-age of the marque. Taking to the track for the first time in the 1961 season, the 246 SP pioneered Ferrari’s mid-engined racing efforts, beginning a glorious line of automobiles that culminated with the voluptuous 330 P4. A myriad of V-6 and V-8 engines were built in the early era, and swaps were frequent, allowing Ferrari to experiment with the best options for each race on the calendar. Success followed on the track, with the Works Scuderia Ferrari Dino SPs taking overall victory at the Targa Florio in 1961 and 1962, as well as the Nürburgring 1,000 KM in 1962. After being completed by the factory as the second of two 2.4-liter 248 SPs, chassis number 0806 was shown at Ferrari’s annual pre-season press conference at Maranello in February 1962. It remained in Italy before being flown to New York and then trucked to Florida in March in advance of the 12 Hours of Sebring, which was a very important race on Ferrari’s calendar as the opening round of the 1962 Manufacturers’ Championship. Chassis number 0806 had originally been designated to Stirling Moss and Innes Ireland but instead was given to Buck Fulp and Peter Ryan to race under the banner of Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team as car #36. They went on to finish 3rd in Class and 13th overall, perhaps plagued by their engine’s appetite for fuel. Returning to Europe after the race, the engine capacity was raised to 2.6 liters (changing its model designation to 268 SP) prior to being raced as a Scuderia Ferrari entry at the Nürburgring 1,000 KM with Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez in #93. However, on the seventh lap, 0806 spun into a ditch, ending its race. The car would not race again for the remainder of the 1962 season. Towards the end of the year, the car was converted to 196 SP specifications by Ferrari, its final engine change and indeed the same engine it is fitted with today. Ferrari’s 196 SP engine was effectively half of the tipo 163 competition V-12. Still boasting a displacement of 330 cc per cylinder, but with six cylinders, the engine had a total displacement of 1,983 cc. Power was quoted at 210 bhp at 7,500 rpm, thanks to the fitment of single overhead camshafts with two valves per cylinder. Additionally, the engine was topped with three Weber 42 DCN carburetors. The car itself tipped the scales at a dry weight of only 600 kg. It goes without saying that the 196 SP was an absolute rocket on the track. In late 1962, chassis 0806 returned to the United States with Luigi Chinetti and was purchased shortly thereafter by Doug Thiem of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Thiem first entered the car in February 1963 into the USRRC National at Daytona, where he placed 5th overall. Thiem would continue to race the car at USRRC and SCCA events around the country, achieving successful results at a number of events, including a 2nd in Class at the Elkhart Lake June Sprints, 3rd overall at a USRRC race in Pensacola, and a respectable 4th in Class at the Road America 500. Thiem sold the 196 SP in December 1963 to the well-known New York–based racer Bob Grossman, who subsequently shipped his newly acquired Ferrari to the Bahamas for the Nassau Speed Week races. Entered in the Governor’s Trophy, 0806 placed 1st in Class and 7th overall on race #90. Two days later, Grossman’s second and final race with the 196 SP was in the Nassau Trophy Race, where he placed 2nd in Class and 15th overall. Grossman sold 0806 in early 1964 to Tibor Szaba von Imrey, a Hungarian living in New York City. He raced the car throughout the 1964 season at tracks along the east coast, including Lime Rock, Vineland, Watkins Glen, and even at the Players 200 at Mosport in Ontario, Canada, where he finished 7th in Class and 13th overall. Passing through a handful of owners in the late 1960s, including Kirk F. White, the car finally found its way back to Luigi Chinetti, who subsequently sold it to noted Ferrari collector Pierre Bardinon. Bardinon was one of the earliest and most well-known and well-regarded of Ferrari collectors. The Bardinon Collection, notably named Mas du Clos, was kept at his world-class private racetrack in Aubusson, France. Upon arriving in France in 1972, Bardinon shipped the 196 SP to Carrozzeria Fantuzzi of Modena, where it was given a new rear panel to the style of a high-tailed 246 SP. This new panel has since been removed and is included as a spare. In either configuration, with its shark nose and low, svelte coachwork, it is considered one of the most beautiful race cars ever designed. Chassis number 0806 remained in the Mas du Clos Collection for the following 12 years until it was sold in 1984 to another highly regarded European Ferrari collector, Fabrizio Violati, owner of the Maranello Rosso Collection in San Marino. Violati kept the car on display in his collection until 1999, when it moved back across the pond and into another world-class collection with Rob Walton. Dyke Ridgley, Scott Taylor, and Skip McCabe then performed a complete mechanical and cosmetic restoration to its original 1962 Works configuration. With a few modern racing adjustments, including new fuel cells installed within the original tanks, the Dino then took to the track in historic racing events. Maintained by the current owner’s staff for the last 15 years, 0806 remains largely “on the button.” With proper preparation, the car is ready to be driven in vintage racing and concours events, where it is highly eligible. Its most recent concours showing was at the 2010 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, where it was awarded Best in Class for Racecars from 1956–1964. It is also worth noting that chassis number 0806 is accompanied by a large history file comprised of documents from throughout its life. The car has also recently undergone a thorough inspection by a Ferrari Classiche representative. Text & Images Courtesy of RM Sotheby's

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the four Marzotto brothers earned themselves an enviable reputation in Italian racing circles. Vittorio, Giannino, Paolo, and Umberto were all very talented drivers in their own right. Thanks to their family fortune, earned in the textile business, they had the money to afford both the lifestyle and machinery required to firmly assert their place as some of the best gentleman racers in Italy. The Marzotto brothers were arguably the Scuderia's most important customers in Ferrari's earliest days. They not only kept the company on its feet by owning multiple Ferraris between themselves, but they also earned Ferrari great fame through their success on the race track. Count Giannino won particular fame as one of the few racing drivers to win the Mille Miglia twice, a feat which immediately catapulted him among the likes of Tazio Nuvolari. Winning his first Mille Miglia in 1950 wearing a double-breasted brown suit, Giannino's spirit captured the hearts of Italian fans everywhere. Despite owning multiple Ferraris with his brothers, Giannino's relationship with Enzo was strained, perhaps due to both men’s naturally competitive nature. Nevertheless, Enzo himself wrote in his book Piloti, Che Gente . . . that Giannino was an excellent driver, saying he “would have been a great professional pilot and perhaps even a champion."men's The spectacular Ferrari offered here is perhaps the Marzottos' most significant car of the twenty-some Ferraris that the brothers owned. Completed by the factory on 2 February 1950 and delivered to Umberto, chassis number 024 MB's first outing was in the Targa Florio, where a clutch problem, unfortunately, sidelined the car. The car's next outing was at the Mille Miglia with Umberto and co-driver Franco Cristaldi. It crashed heavily and returned to Ferrari, where it was entirely rebuilt. After their accident at the Mille Miglia, the Marzottos were looking for even better results in 1951. Giannino thought success could be achieved by utilizing new bodywork for 024 MB that emphasized weight reduction and improved aerodynamics. Rather than fit the car with traditional coachwork from Touring, Fontana of Padova and the soon-to-be-famous sculptor Franco Reggiani were commissioned to create a streamlined body with maximum efficiency and performance. The result, lovingly nicknamed "Uovo" ("egg" in Italian), was an automotive design like no other. Heavily inspired by Reggiani's previous aeronautical training, the Uovo took the shape of a jet, minus the wings. The bare Ferrari frame was superimposed over a tubular structure reversed and bonded with Peraluman plates, which created light but rigid outer shell. One hundred and fifty kilos more lightweight than similar Ferraris of the time, it was fitted with twin shock absorbers and a regulator for its Formula 2 brakes. The car was equipped with a 156-liter gas tank range of over 550 kilometers. The windshield was as upright as possible and was made from crystal. Marzotto was pleasantly surprised that the crystal provided excellent visibility due to not creating "annoying reflections." Conceived and executed by Giannino from start to finish, the Uovo is the epitome of a car envisaged by a racing driver without limitation of imagination and financial means. Marzotto's only wish for his excellent creation was that the hood was 15 cm lower – the raise was due to the factory not delivering the ordered monoposto radiator in time. Curiously, Marzotto took Enzo's advice to place the driving position as far back as possible, allowing the driver to feel the tail movement at its height – although this did cause severe oversteer. It debuted at the Giro di Sicilia, still unpainted in bare aluminum and with an enormous aircraft headlight on the left. It led with a 20-kilometer advantage on the second. Still, it was forced to withdraw because of a broken O-ring in the different period photographs from the start of that year's Mille Miglia at Brethat showcase just how groundbreaking the design was. Many pictures of the car from this event exist, and the unique Ferrari appears to be at the crowd's center of attention in almost every photograph. Reminiscing about the race, Giannino Marzotto remarked, "I felt very comfortable in my Uovo – led by the three carburetors with 186 bhp – whose sheer speed appeared competitive with that of the 4.1-liter Ferrari. Torque and acceleration could be lower . . . but the handling . . . was much better. As a driver, this was a privilege.” Surely, a heavily modified privateer entry leading a Works car caused several heads to roll in Maranello! Looks aside, most notably, the Uovo held a significant portion of the lead, 30 kilometers on Ferrari's 4.1-liter Works entry, before it was forced to retire due to tire problems. It can be argued that the Uovo would have emerged victorious had it not been sidelined. While the Giro di Sicilia and the Mille Miglia both resulted in DNFs for the Uovo, the car's third race, the Giro della Toscana, proved much more fruitful; Giannino Marzotto and Marco Crosara crossed the finish line in 1st place overall. After a successful 1951 season, Giannino started to be much less involved in the family business and, in 1952, raced only twice. He established the Scuderia Marzotto to lend his many Ferraris to his friends to keep racing under the family name. Returning to the Mille Miglia in 1952 with Guido Mancini and Adriano Ercolani, the Uovo once again ran consistently within the top 10 entrants before retiring. That year's Trento-Bondone hill climb saw the Uovo finish 1st overall with Giulio Cabianca behind the wheel, with a further 4th overall and 1st in class finish at the Coppa della Toscana a few days later. The final known event in Europe for the Uovo was the Avus Grand Prix in September 1952, where it finished 4th overall. For the winter of 1953, the Uovo returned to the factory, which was thoroughly overhauled in preparation for the 1953 Mille Miglia. It did not compete, however, as Giannino Marzotto drove a 340 MM Spider instead, which he went on to win the event. In late 1953, the Uovo was shipped from Italy to Mexico, where the Marzotto brothers intended to enter that year's Carrera Panamericana. Although the Ferrari was allegedly used in practice, neither the Marzotto brothers nor the Uovo would ultimately participate in the race. The Marzotto brothers returned to Italy, though the Uovo would remain in Mexico. The Uovo saw action at several racing venues in California, including Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach, Bakersfield, and Willow Springs, in 1954. There, the Uovo was purchased by Carlos Braniff. He resold the car to Ignacio Lozano of Newport Beach, California, the publisher of La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper based in Los Angeles. Lozano was a regular in the Southern California racing scene, competing in mainly British cars, but this would be his only Ferrari. Lozano sold the car to Pete Lovely before passing to Dave Andrews and, subsequently, Harvey M. Schaub of Sun Valley, California, in 1964, who began restoring the car. Upon Harvey's death, the Uovo was passed onto his wife Lucille and purchased by noted Ferrari dealer and historian Ed Niles in 1982. Shortly after that, it was acquired by Jack du Gan, who picked up the car from Niles in California and took it home, across the country to Florida. In du Gan's ownership, the car was shipped to England, where the restoration was completed just in time for the 1986 Mille Miglia, some 35 years after it raced at that event. Further sorting would follow, and the car was run there once more with du Gan in 1987 before being acquired by the consignor, who returned it to its native Italy. The Uovo would remain a regular highlight of the Mille Miglia for the next few years and be displayed at Ferra50th-anniversaryrsary celebrations in the summer of 1997. Seldom seen outside of the consignor's collection, the Uovo is displayed only at the most prestigious events, such as the Atto Unico, the 2013 gathering of all of the Marzotto brother's cars at their historic home, Villa Trissino Marzotto. The Uovo returned to Modena in 2014 to be shown in the Museo Enzo Ferrari. The previous owners collected an impressive assortment of period photos, documents, articles, and exchange of letters with Giannino Marzotto; they were also able to purchase the wooden model of the Uovo from Franco Reggiani. In one of his last interviews in 2011, Giannino Marzotto comm, ": "I wanted to drive the Uovo more often, even in the 1953 Mille Miglia, but fate willed otherwise. A perverse apathy—or other commitments—they escaped its charm." The opportunities that Uovo provides its next owner with are limitless. Having competed in the Mille Miglia period, it is welcome to return to that event as well as several other historic races. The Uovo is undoubtedly the living expression of one of the most outstanding personalities of the Italian early fifties racing world. As it has never been shown at any concours event, it would surely be welcome at the most exclusive concours around the globe. It would be a clear highlight and award contender for its unique design and incredible history. Text & Images Courtesy of RM Sotheby's

By the 1980s, former Lamborghini test driver and development engineer Claudio Zampolli had relocated to Los Angeles and established a thriving business servicing the supercars of the wealthy and famous. But his dreams did not end there: Determined to build his supercar, Zampolli teamed up with music producer Giorgio Moroder as an investor in the late 1980s and embarked on his journey to create an exotic like nothing that had been seen before. Zampolli wanted something that would grab headlines and knew that an innovative V-16 was the answer. Inspired by the engine layout of the Lamborghini Miura, Zampolli's creation had a transverse-mounted 6.0-liter V-16 with a five-speed manual gearbox. The stunning bodywork was penned by legendary designer Marcelo Gandini, also known for designing the Miura, Countach, Stratos, and countless other iconic cars. Zampolli's partnership with Moroder dissolved after the first prototype, and the cars, initially marketed as the Cizeta-Moroder V16T, went into production wearing only the Cizeta name. Ultimately, only nine examples were completed in the V16 T's initial run due to production delays and the model's complexity. For Zampolli, however, Cizeta was a success: His dream of building an exclusive design supercar had been accomplished, and the final result was nothing short of spectacular. Given Cizeta's backstory, cost, and exclusivity, it is no surprise that each V16T produced has an interesting backstory. This car, chassis 101, is no exception. After Brunei became an independent country in 1983, the Sultan of Brunei and his family used a portion of their vast oil wealth to build the most extensive car collection the world had ever seen. Commissioning approximately 2,000 cars from all different manufacturers, the Royal Family singlehandedly kept many luxury brands in business through the tough years of the 1990s. Their search for the money for the most exclusive and technically advanced car could buy led them to Cizeta. The Royal Family purchased three of the nine Cizeta V16Ts built: This blue example and two black examples. Chassis 101 was ordered by Hong Seh Motors of Singapore on behalf of the Brunei Royal Family. Hong Seh was the official Ferrari dealership in Singapore, and many cars from the Royal Family's collection were ordered through them. Finished in blue with a blue leather interior and right-hand drive, chassis 101 was used in press photo shoots throughout Italy and displayed at the 1993 Geneva Auto Show. Nearly all 983 kilometers (~611 miles) on the odometer at the time of cataloging are believed to have accumulated during factory testing in this period. Interestingly, chassis 101 has horizontal slats over the side air intakes like the prototype, while most other examples have vertical slats. Chassis 101 was shipped from Modena to Asia in March 1993; for unknown reasons, it remained with Hong Seh Motors in Singapore for over 25 years and was never delivered to Brunei. Pininfarina subsequently heavily modified the other two V16Ts purchased by the Royal Family with Ferrari flat-12 engines and irreversible structural changes. One of those cars remains in an incomplete, disassembled state, while the other is displayed in the Marconi Museum in Tustin, California. Chassis 101 is the only V16T from the Brunei Royal Family's collection to have escaped this fate and today remains just as it arrived in Singapore. The current owner purchased chassis 101 from Hong Seh Motors in 2020 and returned the car to driving condition after its two-and-a-half-decade stay in Singapore. It has recently had all the fluids changed, the cooling system serviced, and the fuel system cleaned. With its innovative transverse-mounted V-16 positioned close to the passengers, the owner reports that it is a thrill to drive with a unique sound, unlike any other supercar. The Cizeta V16T is a rare but exciting supercar that remains one of very few post-war sixteen-cylinder production cars. With incredible performance, a stunning design, fascinating history, and utmost exclusivity, this V16T will stand out wherever it goes. Images & Text Courtesy of RM Sotherby's

Starting his career at Alfa Romeo in the 1950s' Giotto Bizzarrini quickly earned a name for himself through his work for Ferrari, where he helped to develop the 250 Testa Rossa and was responsible for leading the team that built the 250 GTO. In 1962, Bizzarrini went out on his own, and in partnership with Iso, he helped to create the Iso Grifo and Rivolta alongside Giorgetto Giugiaro. Bizzarrini started building cars under his name in 1963, further developing Iso's' AC/3 into the Bizzarrini 5300 Strada and 5300 Corsa. Rather than fit these cars with the seemingly obvious choice of an Italian V-12 engine, Bizzarrini chose to utilize Chevrolet's' small-block 327 cu. in. V-8. At the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, Bizzarrini entered an all-new racing car dubbed the P538. Clothed in gorgeous spider bodywork penned by Giugiaro, it was equipped with that 327 cu. in. Chevy V-8 small-block (which converts to 5.3-liters, explaining the P538 nomenclature). Although the car looked promising, both P538s entered in that year's' Le Mans failed to finish, one dropping out of the race due to a steering arm failure in the third hour and the second being disqualified due to a pit-lane violation just two hours after that. In the years that followed, Bizzarrini's' finances fell into disarray, and the company declared bankruptcy in 1970. For the P538, an FIA rule change limiting displacement to 3.0-liters eliminated it from European endurance racing. However, the P538 did qualify for some Can-Am, and Formula Libre events, which made the car attractive to a handful of privateers, and a handful of cars were produced after the company went bankrupt. The P538 presented here was one of several cars produced after 1970. It was commissioned by Frenchman Jacques Lavost (who would later become director of the French Iso and Bizzarrini owners club) and built by Bizzarrini and his former company foreman Salvatore Diomante. This car boasted a handful of differences over other P538s, including more oversized air intakes for the engine within the doors and triangular roll bars over the driver and passenger. Photocopies of a handwritten letter written in French by Lavost in 2001 chronicles his story of the car, stating that it was completed in 1979 following nine years of construction. A copy of his previous French title remains in the history file, showing that it was registered 6714 ZX 92 in France as of 1994 under his ownership. Lavost retained ownership of chassis number B04 until April 2001. By 2002, it had passed into the ownership of Davide di Bernardi. That year it was issued a certificate of identity by the ASI and was restored in the mid-2000s. In 2013, the car was purchased by its current owner, a California-based collector, and it has remained with him ever since and is still fitted with a 327 cu. in. Chevrolet V-8 engine is topped with four side draft Weber carburetors with a unique crossflow manifold built by Diomante. The engine was rebuilt upon the consignor's purchase in 2013 and has seen limited use since. Quite simply the ultimate Bizzarrini, the P538 is as stunning to behold as it is to drive and would be a welcome stablemate to any of the myriad of automobiles that Giotto Bizzarrini played a part in developing. Text & Images Courtesy of RM Auctions

The Alfa Romeo BAT (or Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica) is a series of Italian concept cars. The cars originated from a collaboration project between Alfa Romeo and the Italian design house Bertone that began in 1953. Three cars were built: the BAT 5 in 1953, the BAT 7 in 1954, and the BAT 9 in 1955. Franco Scaglione designed all three vehicles. Alfa Romeo contacted Giuseppe "Nuccio" Bertone of the Bertone design house and commissioned three concept vehicles to research the effects of drag on a car. The idea was to create vehicles with the lowest possible drag coefficient. All the cars featured large rear bumpers and curved fins. They were built upon the Alfa Romeo 1900 chassis. The three vehicles were presented at the Turin Auto Show in 1953, 1954, and 1955. The lowest drag coefficient of the three cars was 0.19, an achievement even by today's standards. For each vehicle, Alfa Romeo provided a five-speed gearbox and a powerful four-cylinder engine that produced more than 90 horsepower (67 kW), good enough to propel the car to a top speed of 125 mph (201 km/h). All three original BATs have been restored. The cars have been displayed at the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, CA, from 2005 until July 2017. They appear at car shows such as the Concorso Italiano and Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. In 2020, RM Sotheby's sold all three cars as one lot at their auction for US$14.840 million, including the buyer's fee. BAT 5 was the first of the Bertone-Alfa Romeo BAT project. It was first shown at the Turin Auto Show in 1953. The design of the model was based on a study of aerodynamics. The shape of the front aims to eliminate the problem of airflow disruption at high speeds. The design also aims to do away with any extra resistance generated by the wheels turning and achieve a structure that would create the fewest possible air vortices. In practice, these rigorous criteria would allow the car to reach 200 km/h (120 mph) with the 100 hp (75 kW) engine mounted as standard. Bertone's design was for a high-light car (1,100 kg (2,400 lb)), with side windows at a 45-degree angle concerning the vehicle's body and a large windscreen that blends in with the almost flat roof. The rear windscreen is divided lengthwise by a slim pillar and flanked by two fins tapering upwards and slightly inwards. The car had a drag coefficient of 0.23. The second BAT was shown at the Turin Auto Show in 1954, a year after the BAT 5. For this design (as for the other BAT models, though less evidently), Bertone added elements from his experience working on wing profiles in the aeronautical industry. The result was the shape of the large, curved tail fins. The nose was lower than the BAT 5, and the protrusions where the headlights would usually be stuck out even further. The headlights were located next to the nose and moved down when used. The drag coefficient of the BAT 7 is 0.19. The BAT 7 features in the Top Gear book Daft Cars by Matt Master. The third BAT was shown at the Turin Auto Show of 1955, the BAT 9 (also known as BAT 9d). It was made to look more like the current Alfa Romeo models than the other BATs. The BAT 9 did away with the marked wing lines of the previous models in favor of a cleaner, more straight line. The tail fins, which in the other two models had an authentic wing-like look, were sized down into two small metal plates, much like the tail fins in production on American and some European cars of the time. Test Source: Wikipedia Images Courtesy of RM Auctions

Despite its name and strong resemblance to the streamlined 1952 W194 Le Mans racer and the iconic 1954 300SL Gullwing road car it spawned, the 1955 300 SLR was not derived from either. Instead, it was based on the wildly successful 2.5-liter straight 8-powered 1954–1955 Mercedes-Benz W196 Formula One champion, with the engine enlarged to 3.0 liters for the sports car racing circuit and designated "SL-R" for Sport Leicht-Rennen (eng: Sport Light-Racing). All were the work of Daimler-Benz's design chief Rudolf Uhlenhaut. Mercedes team driver Stirling Moss won the 1955 Mille Miglia in a 300 SLR, setting the event record at an average of 157.650 km/h (97.96 mph) over 1,600 km (990 mi). He was assisted by co-driver Denis Jenkinson, a British motor-racing journalist, who informed him with previously taken notes, ancestors to the pace notes used in modern rallying. Teammate Juan Manuel Fangio was second in a sister car. After missing the first two races at Buenos Aires in Argentina and the 12 Hours of Sebring in the United States, where Ferrari scored a victory and a second place, respectively, the 300 SLRs later scored an additional 1-2-3 world championship win in the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod, Ireland, and a 1-2 at the Targa Florio in Sicily, earning Mercedes victory in the 1955 World Sportscar Championship. Further non-championship trophies were also scored at the Eifelrennen in Germany and Swedish Grand Prix. However, these impressive victories became overshadowed at Le Mans when the once again leading 300 SLRs were withdrawn after a horrific accident involving a team car driven by Pierre Levegh. Even with the innovative wind brake, the car's drum brakes had been unable to prevent Levegh from rear-ending an Austin-Healey, causing his vehicle to become airborne. Upon impact, the ultra-lightweight Elektron bodywork's high magnesium content caused it to ignite and burn in the ensuing fuel fire. An uninformed race fire crew initially tried to extinguish it with water, only making it burn hotter. Eighty-four spectators and Levegh lost their lives in the highest-fatality accident in motorsport history. Mercedes withdrew from racing at the end of the 1955 season and would remain withdrawn for three decades. Daimler-Benz made two road-legal 300 SLR coupés, known today as Uhlenhaut Coupé. One of these two cars once served as the personal car of its designer, Daimler-Benz motorsport chief Rudolf Uhlenhaut, hence the name. Before the Le Mans accident, he had ordered two of the nine W196 chassis built to be set aside for modification into an SLR/SL hybrid. These were intended to race in the Carrera Panamericana, which was canceled because of safety concerns following the Le Mans disaster. The resulting coupé featured a significantly more sculpted body than the 300 SL fitted over a slightly widened version of the SLR's chassis, with signature 'gull-wing' doors still needed to clear its spaceframe's high sill beams. Before the project could be seen through, however, Mercedes announced a planned withdrawal from competitive motorsport at the end of 1955, in the works even before Le Mans. The hybrid program was abandoned, leaving Uhlenhaut to appropriate one of the leftover mules as a company car with only a sizeable suitcase-sized muffler added to dampen its near-unsilenced exhaust pipes. With a maximum speed approaching 290 km/h (180 mph), the 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé quickly earned the reputation of being the era's fastest road car. A story circulates that, running late for a meeting, Uhlenhaut roared up the autobahn from Munich to Stuttgart in just over an hour, a 137 mile/220 km journey that today takes two-and-a-half. US auto enthusiast magazine Motor Trend road tested the car, as did two English journalists from Automobile Revue, who spent more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) behind its wheel. After a high-speed session at four o'clock in the morning on an empty section of autobahn outside Munich, the latter wrote: "We are driving a car which barely takes a second to overtake the rest of the traffic and for which 120 mph on a quiet motorway is little more than walking pace. With its unflappable handling through corners, it treats the laws of centrifugal force with apparent disdain." One Uhlenhaut Coupé has been preserved by Mercedes-Benz and is displayed at its corporate museum in Bad Cannstatt. Its only sibling was sold from the museum in May 2022 to a private collector for EUR 135 million ($142 million), with the proceeds used to establish the Mercedes-Benz Fund. The price was the highest ever paid for a car at a private sale or public auction. Text Source: Wikipedia

During the mid-70s, the Porsche factory reigned supreme with dominant performances from their rugged turbo-powered production racecars. By 1979 the factory began to switch its efforts to the new 936, 956, and 962 prototype, non-production based racing cars. This change spelled the end for the factory Porsche 935. However, demand still existed for the continued development of the ferocious 935. Fortunately, some years earlier, Porsche had given its blessing to several racing teams with close ties to the factory to purchase components and drivetrains and then designed and produced their upgraded chassis and bodywork. While these newly constructed vehicles were still generally referred to as Porsche 935s, in reality, they were entirely new designs that advanced the 935 concept to a new level of speed and sophistication. The pinnacle of these independent efforts was the overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1979 by the Kremer 935 K3, the last production-based car ever to win overall at Le Mans. The Kremer Brothers of Cologne, Germany, had enjoyed a close relationship with the factory since 1970 and were allowed to proceed independently with further development of many models of racing Porsches. They built their first variant of the 935, the K1, in 1976. By 1981, Kremer was ready to produce its fourth version of the Porsche 935, the K4, inspired by the factory Moby Dick 935 produced by Porsche in 1978. The factory gave Kremer's drawings, parts, and the Moby Dick car on commission to build the new K4. 01 is the first of only two K4s produced and, due to Kremer's constant development, bore little resemblance to an early factory 935. The K4 had evolved into a different vehicle, built on a full tubular chassis, with only a roof and windshield supplied by the Porsche factory. 01 was fielded by Kremer Racing in Europe during the 1981 season and was driven by Bob Wollek to TWO WINS and six podium finishes. Text Source: Canepa

Built to contest the World Sportscar Championship, the 375MM was Ferrari's most potent weapon. Many examples were made to contest LeMans, such as the Mille Miglia (MM), which it is named after. While they were designed strictly as competition machines, a handful, as little as five, were sold as road-going examples called Speciales. Film director Roberto Rosselini ordered the Ferrari 375 MM (chassis #0402AM). Mr. Rosselini was a frequent Ferrari customer and owned many early models. 0402AM began life as a Pinin Farina-bodied competition spyder finished in red. After a front-end accident with a tree, the car was returned to Ferrari, where repairs were made to the chassis before being sent to Scaglietti for passenger car coachwork. As this was Sergio Scaglietti's first road-going Ferrari, an impressive and elegant coupé body was created. In the front is an oval grille housing two running lights and blinkers. The fenders have a similar pattern to the original spyder and gently flow from front to rear. A hood scoop, side engine bay vents, and no front fenders add to the vehicle's sporty appeal and pay tribute to its competition heritage. Under the bonnet is a V12 engine fitted with weber carburetors and around 330 hp. The body comprises lightweight aluminum and Boranni wire wheels at all four corners. Years after it left Rosselini's care, it was found by its current caretaker in an underground garage located in the suburbs of Paris. After restoration, the car won Best in show at Pebble Beach in 2014. (conceptcarz.com) Another 1954 one-off Ferrari 375 MM coupé (chassis #0456AM), bodied by Pinin Farina, was believed to have been ordered by Rosselini for his wife, Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, even though she never took delivery of the car. Text Source: Ultimate Car Page

Images Courtesy of Artcurial Auction House With the Visa 1000 Pistes, Citroën successfully won the World Rally Championship's junior category. In October 1985, the French manufacturer announced its intention to compete for outright victories with a newly developed Group B version of the BX road car. Among its chief rivals would be its sister company, Peugeot. Still, there would be no synergy benefits Citroën Competitions decided to go alone and design a new engine and car from scratch. Bucking the trend of mid-engined machinery raced with great success by Peugeot and Lancia, the ever-quirky company decided to take a page out of Audi's book instead. Known as the BX 4TC, the new Group B featured a four-cylinder engine mounted ahead of the front axle and drove all four wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox. The engine used was a revised version of the Peugeot 505 Turbo unit, which was good for around 380 hp. Very much a Citroën, the BX 4TC also featured the company's famous hydro-pneumatic suspension system. Due to the location of the engine, the car had unusual proportions with a relatively long front overhang. For the BX 4TC to compete in the World Rally Championship, it had to be homologated. This required Citroën to produce 200 road-going copies. Similar to the actual rally cars, the road-legal versions had a detuned engine rated at around 200 hp. These were built in time for the BX 4TC 'Evolution' Group B racer to receive the green light before the start of the 1986 season. While Citroën did make the required numbers, the French company struggled to find buyers for them, and it is believed only 86 were ever sold to private buyers. The BX4 TC debuted at the Rallye Monte Carlo, with examples for Frenchmen Jean-Claude Andruet and Philippe Wambergue. Both drivers retired but not before Andruet had clocked consistent top-ten stage times. He then finished sixth in Rally Sweden, scoring ten points for Citroën. The BX4 TC made only one more World Rally Championship appearance; in Greece, where three cars were entered. All three retired, and shortly after that, Group B was canceled. A BX 4TC raced in the French national championship but would not run in the WRC again. With a single sixth-place finish, the BX 4TC is often described as the worst of all Group B cars. It lacked proper development and was underpowered and too heavy compared to the Lancia Delta S4 and Peugeot 205. Out of embarrassment, Citroën reportedly set about actively buying the homologation specials in private hands and then destroyed the vast majority. Of the 20 'Evolution' models, it is believed that as many as 16 also suffered a similar fate. As a result, the BX 4TC may not only be the worst but could also be the rarest of all Group B cars. Source: Ultimate Car Page

Images Courtesy of Artcurial Auction House The Citroën BX 4TC was built to contest Group B rallying. Sixty-two examples were eventually built. Power was from a 2,141cc dual overhead cam four-cylinder engine fitted with a single Garrett T3 turbocharger and a Bosch Multi-Point electronic fuel injection system. A five-speed manual gearbox backed the 200-horsepower engine. They had a four-wheel-drive system and ventilated disc brakes at all four corners. The suspension was an independent Hydropneumatic Double-Wishbone setup. The styling of the BX 4TC differed entirely from the standard BX. In the front was a very long nose due to the engine, which was mounted longitudinally, unlike the regular BX setup. The 4TC competed in just three rallies before the Group B class was banned in late 1986, following the tragic death of Henri Toivonen in his Lancia Delta S4 at the Tour de Corse Rally. The most successful finish in the World Rally Championship competition was sixth place in the 1986 Swedish Rally. Car Highlights Outstandingly Well-Preserved and Unrestored Example One of Approximately 40 Known Surviving 4TCs Just Three Owners from New The result of a Multiyear Search for the Best 4TC in the World An Exceptional Group B Rarity with Less than 16,000 Km Technical Specs 2,141 CC DOHC Inline 4-Cylinder Engine Bosch Multi-Point Electronic Fuel Injection Single Garrett T3 Turbocharger 200 BHP at 5,250 RPM 5-Speed Manual Gearbox with 4-Wheel Drive 4-Wheel Ventilated Disc Brakes 4-Wheel Independent Hydropneumatic Double-Wishbone Suspension Source: Gooding & Company; Concept Carz

All images: 2019 © Christian Martin courtesy of Artcurial The Serenissima Ghia GT is a one-off design penned by the great Tom Tjaarda and conceived by Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata and Alejandro de Tomaso. The truth is that de Tomaso had just bought the storied Italian coachbuilder Ghia in 1967, and he wanted the Count to leverage the name of his racing team Serenissima into sales of a high-end sports car. Giovanni Volpi had inherited an expansive estate and a noble title from his father. Still, his tastes were more inclined toward motor racing than polo, so he established his racing team – Scuderia Serenissima. The Count bought his race cars from Enzo Ferrari, with whom he had an excellent relationship until the now infamous “Palace Revolt” when a group of top engineers left the company abruptly after an argument with the boss. Some of these former Ferrari engineers established a new company, Automobili Turismo e Sport (ATS), to build racing cars, and the Count supported them. When Enzo learned of this, he flat out refused to sell him any new race cars, this left the Count in a difficult position, and it directly led to the creation of the car you see here. At first glance, the Serenissima Ghia GT looks like something from the factory of De Tomaso; this should be no surprise as it was developed by Ghia shortly after Giorgetto Giugiaro had designed the De Tomaso Mangusta. American car designer Tom Tjaarda was assigned the project to design the Serenissima Ghia GT, he took some of the Ghia design languages of the Mangusta when creating the new car, and a few years later, he would design the much loved De Tomaso Pantera. All three of these cars share an apparent familial similarity, and many initially assume that the Serenissima Ghia GT is an unknown De Tomaso prototype. “I was friends with De Tomaso, who owned Ghia (…) De Tomaso was an amazing character, very dynamic and full of life. We built a well-designed coupé with him, which had incredible suspension. It went round corners completely flat.” – Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata. The team at Ghia developed the new Serenissima as a concept car for the Ghia stand at the Turin Motor Show in 1968; it wasn’t just a rolling shell. However, this fully functioning prototype could have been put into production with minimal effort. The car was initially fitted with a Massimino 3.5 liter V8 engine, but this was replaced relatively quickly with an Alf Francis M-167 V8 engine with the same capacity. This new engine features twin overhead cams per bank, three valves per cylinder (two intakes and one exhaust), dry sump lubrication, four Weber 40 DCN14 carburetors, and a power output of 320 bhp at 7,500 rpm. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a five-speed Serenissima (Francis) gearbox and a limited-slip differential. The interior of the Serenissima is instead well appointed for a concept car; it has twin bucket seats, a center console with an array of switches and buttons, a plethora of gauges in the dashboard, a radio, a gated shifter, and what appears to be air conditioning. The Serenissima is a fascinating historical what-if, it’s a car that could have been put into production but wasn’t, and there’s little doubt it would have proven just as popular as the Pantera if it had been. It’s survived in original condition to the modern day but now requires a re-commissioning before any driving is attempted. Source: Artcurial; Silodrome