1954 Ferrari 625 Roadster

Scuderia Ferrari faced little competition during the 1952 Formula One season as the Alfa Corse team was unable to fund a new car and was forced to withdraw from competition. BRM had built two V16-powered cars but they too withdrew from competition before an April race at Valentino Park, Turin. Lacking worthy competition, the World Championship organizers decided to run their races for Formula Two. Despite the larger field and a greater variety of cars, Ferrari won all events with six of those Grand Prix victories going to Alberto Ascari (he missed the Swiss event because he was qualifying for the Indianapolis 500).

Formula Two regulations were used to determine the World Drivers' Championship for the years 1952 and 1953, making Formula Two the highest level of racing for those two years. Enzo Ferrari was clearly ready for Formula 2 competition which allowed 2-liter naturally aspirated engine.

Early Ferrari vehicles were powered by the Colombo-designed Tipo 166 V-12. The four-cylinder engine built by his replacement, chief engineer Aurelio Lampredi, had a 65-percent reduction in moving parts and weighed nearly 93 pounds less. It was lightweight, simplistic, and reliable with dry-sump lubrication, dual sparkplugs powered by twin magnetos, and a pair of win-choke Weber carburetors. Although having eight fewer cylinders, the engine produced 15 more horsepower than the outgoing Tipo 166.

Paired with a four-speed transaxle, the drivetrain was installed in a simplified and short-wheelbase chassis of 2,160 millimeters. At the front was an independent double-wishbone setup while the rear used a DeDion axle. Drum brakes provided the stopping power. With minimalist monoposto coachwork, the 500 F2 weighed approximately 1,235 pounds and had a top speed in excess of 149 mph.

During the 1952 and 1953 seasons, the 500 F2 won 30 out of 33 races in which it participated. Ferrari's team consisted of Ascari, Nino Farina, Piero Taruffi, and Luigi Villoresi, with Ascari becoming Maranello's first Drivers' Champion - and back-to-back champion. Farina and Taruffi finished 2nd and 3rd in Championship driver's points in 1952.

Ferrari built six examples of the 500 F2, all stamped with three-digit numbers ranging from 001 to 006. Privateers were able to purchase their own examples midway through the first season, and five such cars were built with standard even-numbered competition chassis numbers. Known as 'starlet' cars in Italy, one of the examples was driven by Rudi Fischer to a fourth-place finish in the 1952 Championship driver's points standings.

Many of the 500 F2 were later upgraded by the factory to 625 F1 configuration with the fitment of 2.5-liter engines.

This particular example, chassis number 0540, began life as chassis number 0208F, the fourth of the five 'starlet' 500 F2 examples. It was acquired new by Belgian marque distributor Jacques Swaters for Ecurie Francorchamps. It raced in seventeen events during 1952 and 1953, with an overall victory at the 1953 AVUS Grand Prix, along with a pair of 2nd place finishes - at the 1953 Helsinki Grand Prix and the 1953 GP Frontiers.

In preparation for the 1954 season which had shifted back to F1 qualifications, the car returned to Ferrari to be upgraded to 625 F1 specification. Ecurie Francorchamps then ran the car at seven more races in 1954 before trading the car back to the factory for a 750 Monza.

In 1954, all of the surviving Scuderia Ferrari Works 500 F2 cars were updated to 625 F1 specifications and re-numbered from their three-digit Works chassis numbers to four-digit even-numbered cars and resold to privateers. This example, after being issued chassis number 0540, was sold to Marquis Alfonso de Portago in early 1955 and raced in four Formula One events during that season (Turin, Pau, Bordeaux, and Silverstone). The car's best finish was an 8th place at the Pau Grand Prix in April.

Donald Healey acquired the car near the close of 1955 and would retain it for five years, when it was sold to Ian Sievewright, who campaigned the car once at the Shelsley Walsh national speed hillclimb in August 1964. Mr. Sievewright sold the car in 1967 to Pierre Bardinon's Mas du Clos collection. Following a restoration in the late 1960s, the car was sold in 1983 to Jacques Setton of Paris, selling it a decade later through Uwe Meissner's Modena Motorsports to Pierre Fandel of Bitburg, Germany. The car participated in the 1994 through 1996 Meissner-Fandel meeting at the Nürburgring, and in its final year, it was driven by former factory team driver Maurice Trintignant (who had won the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix in one of the sister cars).

Carlos Monteverde purchased it in the late 1990s and sold it in 1998 to David Vine of Plymouth, England, who used it in various vintage events including the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Goodwood Revival, the Monaco historic races, and Coy's Historic Race Festival. An individual in Cologne, Germany became its next custodian in December 2000 and it would remain with him for 21 years. Ferrari Classiche inspected the car in April 2022, confirming the correct chassis and engine, and that the gearbox is the correct type.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2022