Ferrari Mailing List: Fw: Fabulous Ferrari 250 P sports prototype racer ...

[Larry T (l02turner]

Here's a newsletter I get - very good Ferrari content -- sorry about the dk blue background color -

 

LarryT

 

"In God We Trust"

From: Ultimatecarpage.com

Sent: Monday, August 09, 2010 9:21 PM

To: Ultimatecarpage.com Subscriber

Subject: Fabulous Ferrari 250 P sports prototype racer ...

Dear Ultimatecarpage.com visitor,

A few weeks ago we highlighted the Ferrari 330 TRI/LM, which was the last front-engined car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This past weekend we had the good fortune to run into a Ferrari of the type that scored the very first mid-engined win at Le Mans a year later. The occasion was the Monterey Pre-Historics at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the car in question this 250 P. It was one of the three works cars entered for the 1963 Le Mans and held a commanding lead until a fire brought about a premature end to the sports racer's race. Fortunately one of the other 250 Ps survived long enough to take the checkered flag. By that time it had already taken a second at Sebring behind a sister car and scored a victory in the grueling Nurburgring 1000 km.
It was clear that Ferrari had made the rather big jump from the front-eng ined TR to the mid-engined P with incredible ease. The Italian manufacturer's secret was the continued use of the powerful and ultra-reliable 'short block' V12 engine. Most of the other mechanicals, like the chassis, had also already been used for the V6 and V8 engined prototypes. Combining the two could just as likely have led to far more problems.
After Le Mans, our feature car was repaired at the factory, and was not to return to the track until the start of the 1964 season with a victory in the Sebring 12 Hours as the immediate result. The 250 P was raced for another season before it was retired into the stable of Ferrari's man in America, Luigi Chinetti. He later had the car fitted with a rather unusual body by Michelotti but that oversight has thankfully been rectified. In recent years the car was in Italy for a complete restoration and we know of no other event where the car appeared before this week.
We took the rare opportunity to get enough shots for a 12-shot gallery to illustrate our detailed article. All of you eager to see the car in action will get a second chance this weekend as the 250 P has also been entered for the inaugural Monterey Motorsports Reunion.

Enjoy the links:

Ferrari 250 P	12
Produced in:	1963
Last updated:	08 / 09 / 2010

Kind regards,

Wouter Melissen

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