http://www.drcreview.com/news.asp?art=169 Really interesting thread. Thanks, Ryan. I like this Jag inspired Roadster.
Actually, there were two such AMBRs ... 1. BRIAN BURNETT's DEUCARI won the AMBR in 1979: Son of HRM illustrator Rex Burnett and co-founder of the Nostalgia Drags, Brian Burnett was a Nor-Cal Ferrari dealer (Ferrari of Los Gatos), so what better than a V-12 powered, Borrani wire wheeled, bright red 32 roadster? Dick Magoo Magugorac stretched the frame and hood to make the engine fit, and finished the car in typical perfection to earn the '79 AMBR trophy. Current owner Ed Hegarty has worn out many tires, and the leather upholstery, driving it regularly. Ed is also a member of the B'ville 200MPH Club and the current caretaker of the Bertolucci/Westergard built Buddy Ohanesian '40 Merc. 2. JAMES ELLS' Ferrari-powered Deuce Roadster won the AMBR in 1987: James Ells' 87 AMBR winner was built in the Roy Brizio shop with a Wescott body, full custom independent suspension by Ron Covell, a sleek 3-piece aluminum hood, rolled pan, and V-windshield for a low, smooth, modern look. It also has racked up many cross-country miles. Cliff Hansen is the current caretaker of the car and owns several other Brizio built rides.
@Ryan - Great post! ... while reading it, the first Italian-inspired HOT ROD that came to my mind was not the Brizio or Magoo built Ferrari-powered Deuce Roadsters (pictured in my previous post) ... but rather ... Steve Moal's California V-8 Special (built in 1995): Steve would be the first to tell you that this one-of-a-kind creation was very much inspired by the style and precision of Italian sports cars (e.g., Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati).
Steve, his son's (David & Michael), and the rest of the crew at MOAL COACHBUILDERS took that "Italian inspired Hot Rod" concept even further in 1999 with Tim Allen's Licorice Streak: ... and in 2002 with Eric Zausner's Torpedo:
Ryan, great post! I love these inspiration write ups. As for the head fairing, I agree that it would be very cliche to add one to your mental roadster. What would you think of a chrome roll bar behind the head? Not too big but enough to be functional and somewhat stylish. Gated shifters are also one of the coolest things in my books also. Functional and good looking in my opinion. The lock out is also very cool.
Personally I think that you can't use too much inspiration from these sports cars as the car will end up looking like some mishmash that instead of relating to one thing or the other it just doesn't relate to anything. I really think a Hot Rod would be cool to use some influence from such a cool car. I think the paint scheme on a Hot Rod would be awesome and many other things as well but it just needs to be a Hot Rod still instead of a wannabe Ferrari.
Totally agree... Some of the above would constitute more of a "theme car" which in my humble opinion is not something you want to strive for.
I love old American steel, but honestly, almost every 50's Ferrari ever made is unbelievably beautiful. Some more than others, but even the worst hardly quality as worst of anything. To me 50's Ferraris are right up there tops of my dream list.
Funny, lately I've been thinking the Jim Hall Chaparral 2D is my favorite car in the whole world: . . . an American-built car designed to compete against Ferraris and Porsches in the 60s. I can't find any builders making replicas of the 2D, seems like a missed opportunity to me.
This simply is not true. Ferrari team cars were never painted black during this era. Ferrari team cars have always been a variation of Chinese Red or "Rosso Cina." The current shade used on their F-1 cars has been criticized for being too far away from this and too close to the red of its sponsor Marlboro. There have been times where they clandestinely ran cars under other peoples' names/colors. There are also of course the colors of the cars their national distributors ran, which were quasi-team cars but were normally owned by the distributors or their patrons (Ecurie Francorchamps: Yellow, NART: White with blue stripes, Von Neuman: silver, etc.) This particular car appears as it did in period during Alan Conell's ownership when he was racing it in the SCCA E clas.. HE painted it black. Previous to that it was painted white. It was also painted red at one point. When it raced in Buenos Aires it was white with red, blue, and yellow stripes running across it. And as far as it being restored by Ferrari, I could be wrong but I don't think that is correct either. I know Ferrari Classiche vetted it for the sale, but I am almost positive the car was restored by Symbolic Motors at the behest of the car's current owner/consigner who is a long term client of theirs. Sorry. Cris
Yeah, I haven't done any of my own research on the car... as well, none of the particulars are at all relevant to why I featured it. I got all of my info from the RM auction information packet that they sent to the press: But again, I've really got no idea if the above is true. I didn't gather any of the research myself.... and in the end, I'm not that interested in the car's history... just it's presence for this article.
In any case, here is a shot of the car taken in '58... supposedly... and, as you can see, it's black....
Cars are cars. Going to a car show beats a stick in the eye any day of the week. One of my favorite local shows is Wheels of Italy. It's cool to see the chassis set ups and motors. Looking in any of these cars gives one some good ideas on how to fit everything inside your project. The cockpits are so small and minimal because the car itself is so low to the ground. Everything you need, nothing you don't.
That's all right! (proud to be italian!) Another thing: "PROVA" means "trial" and was the licence plate used (a lot of time ago) when GT cars had the permission to run the street under "special circumstances" only. True some one abused... Spectacular post! Thank you!
I like the little leather strap and buckle on the rear deck too The shift gate doesn't look all that difficult to fabricate. There's another pic where you see one coming up through the tunnel. Probably easy to do as well (if you are Bass, that is...)
If you have a couple hours to kill, go through these albums. Some wonderful european machines. http://www.flickr.com/photos/michisbilder/collections/72157601670622926/ Plenty of stuff like this.
thats a bad machine. I’m going to build this car, and I think I’m going to use a 360 Ferrari f-1 motor, and trans that I have. what do you guys think? I guess I won’t be able to post pics of the build on the HAMB. <p>
I like the engine and upholstry having the same color and "sheen". The gated shifter is of course something hot roddders should have adopted long ago. The aluminum rimmed wire wheels are beautiful. I wish I had thought of that on my old Sportster. I would have been easier and cooler than polishing wheels every week.
Ferraris are all about hot rods. You can take most of the interior bits of chrome and switches of 50, 60s and 70 Fiats and find either a Ferrari or a Lamborghini that they fit on. Those canted headlights on the Lamborghini Muria? Straight off the Fiat 850 spider, The signature round tailights on the 308 are 850 Coupe / 128 Rally lights. Why would you put bits off cheap cars on exotica? Same reason you find Vega sterring boxes, airplane gages etc. in US hot rods. It was all about an end and how you got there in the end didn't matter as much as what you end up with. I've always thought there is some link between the US hot rod movement of the 50s and Italian cars and I think it goes back WWII and stuff like the Carrera Panamerica and the speed magazines of the time. GI went to Europe and saw the incredible prewar cars like Alfa, Mercedes, Horsch, etc. Maybe they "appropriated" something handmade and fast for a few days. They came home with a lust for this stuff and built what they could out of what was available.
The 250TRs are my absolute favourite machines in the entire world. I would trade my left leg for one and somehow learn to clutch with my right foot. LOL For those interested in stats, they're actually a little hard to keep track of by year sometimes because, as one gent said, they were almost purely racing cars. I believe there were somewhere near 35 and 39 actually built though some had slight bodywork differences. Although they did show up for quasi-street use as my parents almost bought one for the MASSIVE price of $6,500 in the early/mid sixties. It belonged to a dentist who raced it and my folks were total roadster freaks. The thing that makes me cry to this day is that the only reason they didn't buy it was that it seemed too expensive to have to pay $6,500 AND then have the interior redone with two seats. I remember them telling me this story in passing, many years ago. Sometime in the early eighties I began researching the cars and fell in love. At the time, a 'barn find' style car was still vaguely affordable to a regular human being. Then the classic car investment craze hit, a nice one went at auction for around $2 mill, and off went the prices into the stratosphere. Well, ces la vie. At least I can still look at wonderful pics like this and enjoy the fantasy. But one day, I'm soooo gonna slice and dice a Datsun Z car, rebody it, and make my own poor man's version. Some ricer is gonna be PISSED! LOL
As beautiful as that 250TR is, IMO a Ferrari is a Ferrari and a Highboy a Highboy, and "ne'r the twain shall meet". Both are fantastic cars each with their own charms, I just don't think that continuity can be achieved in inter-breeding. For example this years AMBR winner. That's my 2c worth.
FWIW, BMW made a fiiiine V-12 back in the 80's-90's, and stuffed tens of thousands of them into 850 luxo sedans. Ne reason you cant pick one up at the pick-n-pull for a few bills. Just ask McLaren how well the BMW 5.0 V-12 runs!
John Shaft: Instead of a Z car how about a street rod chassis with a birdcage body covered with aluminum panels.
The z car would make a good platform for a 2/3 scale Junior Johnson banana car. No fair! Euros always did corners, lowboys are another story
</SPAN>quote=ehdubya;3640893] No fair! Euros always did corners, lowboys are another story [/quote] G'day Ehduba, I think you misunderstood my quote of the once famous fraze "n'er the twain shall meet". I meant, they'll never meet in the middle or IMO there's no in-between.
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