Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Crushed Cars

[Hans E. Hansen (FList]

Bill:

You don't have it quite right.  You're referring to the Grand Sports.
Penske was involved in their long controversial history, as were
others.  The story goes that 5 were built, and then GM brass
ordered them destroyed after they enacted a ban on racing.  They
disappeared for a while, were presumed destroyed, but now all
of them are accounted for.

A couple of years ago, clear evidence of a 6th Grand Sport surfaced.
Even Penske recalled a 6th car, and there is a photo of 6 cars
lined up.  The newest version of the story goes that the GM
employee ordered to destroy them set fire to one of the cars
and perhaps some other lesser cars.  He pointed to the burnt
mess as evidence that he carried out orders.  It was probably
him that smuggled the 5 remaining cars out.

Hans.

On 2/28/08, red5hilser [at] aol.com <red5hilser [at] aol.com> wrote:
> Hey Larry: The Chevrolet Division of GM did the same thing to all the 
> Corvette race cars that they had loaned to Roger Penske for the season back 
> in 'the days.' Only thing was, that the GM employee in charge of the 
> crushing, being the car-nut that he was, misplaced one. It's still out there 
> somewhere. I read about it in R&T years ago. I think they were raced in the 
> old Trans-Am series.
>
> And as far as the long-gone 1961 156 shark noses, Phil Hill drove an exact 
> replica (except for the nose badge) that Chris Rhea had built for his 
> documentary film in Wolfgang von Tripps. After about 20 minutes of track 
> time, Phil came in and said that it was very apparent?that it was?nothing 
> like the original factory?156. Unlike the Team cars, this one was well built 
> and?didn't have?the rather shoddy construction or?feel of Enzo's machines.
>
> IMHO, the only reason that Hill won the WDC was that the V-6 Ferrari engine 
> had a 40-50 horsepower advantage over the Brits. Not withstanding that his 
> only rival, Tripps was killed in the last, and deciding race held at Monza
> On real drivers courses, the 156 didn't do too well, with Stirling Moss 
> winning at Monte Carlo, and I think, the old Nurburgring. Somebody out there 
> will have to check for?me on the latter.
>
> Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: LarryT
> Subject: [Ferrari] Crushed Cars
>
>
>
> Howdy -
>
>    I assume everyone knows that Enzo had some of his race cars (like the
> shark nosed F1 cars that took Phil Hill to become World Champion) crushed
> after they became obsolete.  Just heard the 1st 2 prototypes of the XKE were
> also crushed.
>
>    I'm wondering why they crushed them?  Protecting secrets? eccentric?
> some other reason?
>
> Larry T (66 MGB, 74 911, 78 240D, 91 300D)
> www.youroil.net for Oil Analysis and Weber Parts
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>
>
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