Museo Stradale
Dominic's Auto Museum
One man's passionate quest to survey finest motorcars in the world
#0030 - Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa Scaglietti Spyder, 1956
Photographed: Radnor Hunt Concours d'Elegance, 2007. Owner: not recorded; believed to have been sold as of 2009
The First Testa Rossa: The red head moniker starts here, in 1956. By now, Aurelio Lampredi's Tipo 131 motor, a 2 litre 4-cylinder block, has already won two world championships thanks to the skill of Alberto Ascari in the Ferrari 500 F-2. As part of this motorsport pedigree, the motor was employed in the 500 Mondial sports-racing spyder, the car whose name derives from Ascari's victories. But the Mondial is a bit long in the tooth by 1956. So, as for the Colombo-designed V-12, Lampredi's four-banger is revamped. Tweaked by Vittorio Jano, the Tipo 131 is given new life in this, a new series of sports-racing cars to be handled almost exclusively by Enzo's early workhorse firm, Scaglietti.
The diminutive motor has one-third the cylinders of the famous V-12, one-third the Weber carburetors of the V-12, and therefore one-third the number of aspiration and ignition problems that can surface during a race. Those two side-draft Webers gulp fuel much more modestly than the V-12's six carburetor, full-race setup. So, as Alain de Cadenet points out in the Victory by Design series, Enzo Ferrari was "hedging his bets" by building both V-12 and 4-cylinder racing cars. The V-12 cars had power and speed, whereas the 4-cylinder cars had fuel efficiency and reliability.
As for the name itself, what makes the Testa Rossa so interesting is that it isn't a proper Ferrari series. True Ferrari series stick to one basic motor configuration, but the Testa Rossa is a flexible idea—anything with red cam covers works. And so the name was attached to both the 4-cylinder Lampredi short-block in the 500 Testa Rossa, as well as to the Colombo Tipo 125 V-12 in the 250 Testa Rossa everybody knows so well. Thus, it was almost fitting that, in the eighties, Pininfarina's post-modern revival, the Testarossa (one word) attached yet another motor to the name. This would be the flat 12-cylinder originally developed in the rakish 365 GT4, and then updated in the 512 BB—cars descriptively referred to as Berlinetta Boxer.
As for the pontoon-fendered 250 Testa Rossa, the connection between that glorious sports-racer and this lesser variety is found in both the chassis and live rear axle, as well as in the Scaglietti coachwork. However, the respective Scaglietti bodies differ in terms of aesthetics just as much as the respective motors differ in terms of potency, probably more so. Visually, most 500 Testa Rossa cars are brutish, rather squared at the corners with a linear shoulder along the flank. Its descendant, the 500 TRC, so named to conform to the F.I.A.'s Appendix 'C' regulations, reformed this clumsiness, becoming the trimmest and, for all intents and purposes, prettiest 4-cylinder Ferrari sports-racer; it was also the last.
What's Under the Bonnet This Time?: Within the annals of history, this is one giant huzzah for Ferrari—that they used so many different motors. Ferrari, the man and the marque, were always dedicated to the idea of the motor—the heart of a car. Yet, unlike so many others, Ferrari used a wide varierty of configurations during their first full decade of operation and, more remarkably, many of these saw great success. The 4-cylinder series—Monza being perhaps the most noteworthy—stand as a great counterpoint to the oft-lauded V-12 cars, as well as to the unparalleled Dino V-6 program. Contrast this proliferance with the prominent British marques of Aston Martin and Jaguar, both of which lived squarely on the in-line 6-cylinder. In Germany, Porsche lived for nearly two decades on the air-cooled 4-cylinder, then on a family of larger 6-cylinder developments, before Le Mans lust settled in and made things interesting. Of course, in Italy the greatest contrast to Ferrari would be the grand touring marque, Lamborghini, which survived for decades on what was basically the same Bizzarrini-designed quad-cam V-12.
The point in comparison is not to diminish that which isn't Ferrari, but to ennunciate the craziness of the Ferrari idea. Take this 500 Testa Rossa, for example. Here we have the Tipo 131 motor, which in 1956 is about 5 years old and has already achieved everything that could be expected. Concurrently, the factory is producing two other 4-cylinder powered sports-racing spyders: the very slippery Monza, whose capacity has now hit about 3.4 litres in the 860, and the 625. Astride, there were big 410 series V-12 cars, lithe 250 V-12 cars, as well as a few different Grand Prix competition cars. In all, the factory registry lists 12 distinct models for 1956, (not including one-off show cars or coachbuilding exercises, but 12 seperately designed, individuated models). Under these circumstances, it would seem pointless to prolong the life of the aged Tipo 131. Ferrari obviously thought otherwise.
How crazy was it to take an old motor, rework it mechanically, and design a completely new car around it when so much newer, better, faster equipment was at hand? We might only suppose that because it was possible, it was done. But talk about hedging your bets, if you count the 750 Monza cars that were still quite active on the tracks of Europe and the Americas, Ferrari was covered in the 4-cylinder department by a 2.0 litre (the 500 Testa Rossa), a 2.5 litre (the 625), a 3.0 litre (the 750 Monza), and a 3.4 litre (the 860 Monza). And at that, Ferrari built 17 of the 500 Testa Rossa. Given the circumstances, Ferrari were high-volume, hand-built sports cars. (It seems a wonder anybody would consider these automobiles rare.)
Customer Cars: The upside of building so many different cars, including three different 4-cylinder sports-racing spyders, was the bounty on offer for privateer racers. While no cutting edge affair fit for works employment, the Tipo 131 was still robust. Jano's update to the motor did make the little Testa Rossa an advance over the old Mondial, yet, the Testa Rossa was reserved for a complimentary role alongside its more powerful stablemates. This approach satisfied the factory and the clientele, both of which may have raced alongside one another in the same event, and signified a period of great freedom for Enzo Ferrari—the ability to experiment with any and every motor and chassis configuration because, at the end of the day, somebody out there would buy the finished product and race it. Post-War motorsport enthusiasm on the private entry level was an excellent laboratory for factory development, as exemplified by the number of different Ferrari racing cars designed and built during the 1950s.
Chassis 0650 MD/TR: Of course, Ferrari's "customer car" clientele extended to America, where sports car racing was becoming increasingly popular. 0650 MD/TR came to the U.S. new in 1956, and has remained here ever since, active in racing for much of its life. The car's most notable wins can't be considered major, in a sense that they were not of stirring importance to Ferrari, but they do show burgeoning American interest in sports car racing during the fifties, and how Ferrari was an integral part of that new enthusiasm. With Bruce Kessler, chassis 0650 MD/TR won the very first race at Lime Rock, Connecticut in 1957. Then, later that year, notable American driver Pete Lovely took 0650 to victory in the very first race at Laguna Seca. It has also been printed that ex Ferrari team driver Richie Ginther raced 0650, but this I have not been able to confirm.
So how fast is it? Well, if you've seen those Victory by Design specials, you'll note Alain de Cadenet always says, "now that's something to think about," whenever he's inferring the car he's describing is fast. So, in keeping with that theme, here's something to think about: The aged Aurelio Lampredi short-block 4-cylinder is still able to provide 190 horsepower at the rear wheels, (not at the crank, but down on the pavement). And the chassis, though nothing revolutionary, is still incredibly light, keeping the car's total weight in the neighborhood of 1,500 lbs. The 500 Testa Rossa also has an improved live rear axel, something the Ferrari engineers picked up from Porsche, and of course it benefits from all the tractibility of the 4-cylinder motor and the short wheelbase. The result is a racing car that's easier to drive than its bigger brothers, but can still top 160 miles per hour without hesitation. That is quite a package, particularly if you're a privateer in the late 1950s. To use another de Cadenet-ism, "you couldn't go wrong, could you?"
Sources:
Ferrari, Design of a Legend: The Official History and Catalog, 1990, Gruppo Editoriale, Ferrari Technology by Gianni Rogliatti, p.220-223
Family Classic Cars, At the time of writing, they are selling chassis 0650 MD/TR. But be careful, the website will talk to you. Updating this item, #0650 MD/TR is no longer available, but their inventory is worth a browse nevertheless.
Victory by Design, by Tony Maylam and Alain de Cadenet: General Ferrari information.
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