A Few of My Favorite Things

            With Ferrari as the featured marque at the recent Ault Park Concourse d’Elegance I thought it would be fun to look for some of my all-time favorites of this iconic manufacturer and post them together. I’ve already blogged about the 1955 250 GT Europa  and also posted a ton of pics of some other worthy Ferraris as well. But here are four more pieces of Italian artistry that I would love to own. And until all that money comes in from the wife of that Nigerian diplomat, the best I can do is look at and share some magnificent machines owned by someone else.

            The oldest is the 1950 166mm Barchetta. The 166mm was a sports car with a racer’s heart. The mm designation stood for Mille Miglia and was added to celebrate the company’s 1948 victory there. The following year this car finished first and second at the 1949 Mille. That was followed by a 166mm driven by American Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti winning the first post war LeMans.

            With a distinctive body by Touring covering a 2 liter V 12 SOHC and a tight, responsive five speed gear box, these cars are part of racing history. The word barchetta literally translates as “little boat” and often referred to a small, open cockpit car with rounded, boat like shape. One look at this, and better yet, a listen to the growl of the engine, it’s easy to see where Rush got their inspiration for the song “Red Barchetta.”

            My next car for this blog is technically not a Ferrari. In the 1960s Ferrari was facing some competition from other European auto makers who were putting out high performance cars with smaller engines and smaller price tags. These smaller cars were winning races in divisions that Ferrari’s big V 12 didn’t qualify.

            Around this time, Ferrari designer extrodanairre, Sergio “Pinin” Farina (later just known as Pininfarina) was trying to talk Enzo Ferrari into letting him make a midengine sports cars to compete with the other cars out there. When Enzo finally relented he said he didn’t want it to be branded as a Ferrari and use a smaller V 6 engine. The Dino name honored Enzo’s son, Dino, who had died in 1956.  

            By the time the 246 came along it was sporting a 2.4 liter V 6 running 195 horses. It came in two styles: the GT and the GTS convertible. What I’ve always wanted was a GTS but the GT was the only one I saw at the Concourse.

            Next on the list is a 1985 288 GTO. Based on the 308 which was a great car to look at but didn’t run with the same zeal of other Ferraris, the 288 had the V 8 engine mounted longitudinally and given twin turbochargers that produced 400 hoursepower. The wheelbase was increased and the weight was reduced. It was basically built to meet the 200 car minimum rules for FISA Group B racing where it fared quite well against the competition, including the then highly prized Porsche 956.

            Finally I have included a 1990 F40. First introduced in 1988 to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Ferrari line, the F 40 may not be the most beautiful Ferrari to look at but at the time it was the most technologically amazing vehicle being made. Take for example the body. It had steel space frames adhesive-bound to carbon and Kevlar-fiber components. All included this baby weighed in at under 2500 pounds. And that included the mid mounted 3.0 liter V 8 twin turbo that brought a whopping 476 horsepower and could run at a top speed of 201 miles per hour.

            Let me know if you have any favorite Ferraris. Leave a not here or drop me an email at turnerbudds@yahoo.com.