Friday's Ferrari

This car competed in the Coys of Kensington Ferrari GT Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997.

It's the 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB of Portuguese driver José Albuquerque, chassis #4037GT, which has the Gioacchino Colombo designed 2,953cc V12 engine which powered most of the Ferrari 250 series of cars. The 250 GT SWB was introduced by Ferrari at the Paris Motor Show in 1959.

Maserati 300 S

I took these photographs at the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association's International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

This is the 1955 Maserati 300 S of José Albuquerque, chassis #3054. The Maserati 300 S has a 3 litre straight-6 engine based on the 2½ litre unit of the 250F Grand Prix car with a lengthened stroke, and competed in the World Sportscar Championship races from 1955 to 1957. This particular car was very successful, being victorious in the hands of Jean Behra, Luigi Musso, Juan Fangio and Stirling Moss amongst others. It subsequently passed through various hands, including Lord Charles Brocket (who thankfully didn't do any lasting damage to the car) before being acquired by José Albuquerque, and is currently owned by Stephan Rettenmaier.

Here's José Albuquerque at the Old Hairpin during the HGPCA Race for Pre-1959 Drum-Braked Sports Cars behind the 1957 Ferrari 500 TRC of David Cottingham and leading the 1955 Lister Bristol of Tony Wood.

Friday's Ferrari

This photograph was taken at Silverstone at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting in July 1997.

It's a 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza, serial number 0520M, originally owned by Louis Rosier and in 1997 owned by José Albequerque who drove it in the Shell Ferrari Historical Challenge race.

Friday's Ferrari

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999 featured a round of the Shell Historic Ferrari Maserati Challenge. This is a photograph of one of the cars which took part in that race.

It's a 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB/C, serial number 07271, which was entered and driven by Jose Albuquerque from Portugal.

This is what the Wikipedia article says about the 275 GTB/C:

"275 GTB/C

For the 1965 racing season, 4 lightweight 275 GTB Competizione Speciales were built and equipped with 250 LM engines.

For the 1966 season, Ferrari decided to build 12 lightweight 275 GTB/C cars, they were constructed between the end of the 275 two-cam production run and the start of the 275 four-cam production run; even though they very much resembled the road-going 275 GTB, not one body panel was the same and underneath and very little of the road car remained.

Mauro Forghieri designed a special super-lightweight steel and aluminium version of the 275 GTB chassis. A regular suspension was fitted, but it was made slightly stiffer by the addition of extra springs. Scaglietti bodied the chassis with an ultra thin aluminum body; the panels were about half as thick as the ones used on the GTO and the Cobra - even leaning on the 275 GTB/C would dent the body; the entire rear section was reinforced by fiberglass to prevent it from flexing at the slightest impact. In all, this focus on saving weight made a difference of over 150 kg (331 lb) compared to the alloy bodied road cars.

Like the four 'Competizione Speciales', the 275 GTB/C was powered by the 250 LM engine. Somehow Ferrari 'forgot' to mention to the governing body that the 275 GTB had a six carburetor option, so only a three 'carb' engine could be homologated. Specifically for the 275 GTB/C, Weber constructed the 40 DF13 carburetor of which three would replace the six 38 DCNs found on the 250 LM. The rest of the drivetrain was similar to the 275 GTB, but strengthened slightly.

Two of the twelve built were sold for street use. Unlike the race cars, these street cars were fitted with alloy wheels shod with Pirelli tires. Competition cars were fitted with special Borrani wire wheels, shod with Dunlop's latest racing tires. It was this combination that would prove to be the weak spot of the 275 GTB/C; the tires had so much grip that they could overstress and break the spokes on the wheels. After the 275 GTB/C, no competition Ferrari would be fitted with wire wheels again.

A British-entered 275 GTB/C finished 8th overall, gaining class victory in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans".