1953 Ferrari 250 MM

At the Mille Miglia in 1952, Giovanni Bracco and Alfonso Rolfo drove an experimental 250 Sport to victory, the first series-built competition model to use the '250' appellation. It was the latest Ferrari sports racing car and despite the unmitigated racing successes of Aurelio Lampredi's large-bore tall-block engine during this period, Enzo Ferrari selected the three-liter V-12 engine designed by Gioacchino Colombo. The block was designed by Colombo but with Lampredi-style heads, hairpin valve springs, individual porting, and four-choke Weber carburetors. A 225-specification Colombo V-12 was enlarged to displace 250 cc per cylinder, with a total displacement size of nearly three liters. Compared to the Lampredi engine, it was smaller, lighter, and easier to maintain, and initially developed 240 PS at 7,200 RPM. This engine volume would soon power an entire generation of GT models, culminating in the 250 GTO.

This new engine was installed in an Export Tubolare chassis (0156 ET) with a 2,250-mm wheelbase that was originally designated as a 225 Sport, and clothed with Berlinetta coachwork by Vignale, similar to the 212 Export models. Dubbed the 250 Sport, Scuderia Ferrari loaned the car to Giovanni Bracco and Alfonso Rolfo for the Mille Miglia in May 1952. The 1,574 km endurance race traveled from Brescia to Rome and back to Brescia, and over 1,000 drivers and co-drivers participated in the 1952 event (502 cars, 272 teams, and 1,004 drivers and passengers). The 250 S had the quickest time in 12:09:45, beating the second-place Mercedes-Benz 300 SL driven by Karl Kling and Hans Klenk by almost five minutes.

Ferrari 250 MM : 1953 Season
In 1953, the 250 MM (for Mille Miglia) made its competition debut at the Giro di Sicilia, a 1,080 km race from Palermo to Trapani and back to Palermo. A wealthy young gentleman-driver named Paolo Marzotto had led the race with the 250 MM until Enna, conceded its position due to mechanical issues. A short time later, in April, Phil Hill won the Pebble Beach Road Races (SCCA National Sports Car Championship) in his first outing with a 250 MM Spider. (Hill also won in 1950 and later became the first American to claim the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1961.) Hill won the Santa Barbara Trophy in 1953 with his Spyder, and at the 3rd Annual Madera Road Race, he shared driving duties of his new Pinin Farina Berlinetta with Bill Devin. The car wore a white paint scheme with a large blue stripe through the middle, and placed first in the Modified +1.5 class.

A total of seven 250 MM cars were entered in Monza in June, with Villoresi winning in a Pinin Farina Berlinetta followed by Giuseppe Farina in a Vignale Spyder in third. Along with two DNFs, the other finishing positions for the 250 MM were fifth, sixth and ninth places.

At the 1953 Mille Miglia race, a total of eight Ferrari 250 MM cars were entered, with only one managing to cross the finish line. Chassis number 0282MM (Vignale Spyder driven by Giulio Cabianca and Gianfranco Roghi) finished in ninth position overall and eighth in-class. The Berlinetta driven by Paolo Marzotto and Marino Marini was in third place before a fire sidelined the car just a few kilometers before the finish.

Three Ferrari 250 MM cars competed in the 1953 Targa Florio with the example driven by Giulio Cabianca being the sole finisher, crossing the finish line in sixth place overall. José A. Nogueira Pinto and Casimiro de Oliveira earned a 1-2 victory with the Vignale-bodied 250 MM at the 1953 Portuguese Grand Prix , and another example placed fourth (the fourth car entered was DNF).

Five 250 MM cars were entered in the 1953 Coppa d'Oro delle Dolomiti with Paolo Marzotto winning the event with Cabianca's spyder. All five Ferrari 250 MM cars finished the race. At the 10 Hours of Messina, five 250 MMs were entered with Eugenio Castellotti / Giulio Musitelli winning the race, followed by Franco Cornacchia with Giovanni Bracco in second (fifth, sixth and eighth places were achieved by the remaining 250 MMs).

Cornacchia won the Trieste-Opicina hillclimb and Casimiro de Oliveira won the 1953 Coppa d'Oro di Sicilia. At the final major race of the 1953 season, Ruiz Echeverría and Villegas Becerril finished eleventh overall and seventh in-class with a Pinin Farina Berlinetta at the Carrera Panamericana.

Ferrari 250 MM : 1954 Season
Harry Schell and Alfonso de Portago drove a Ferrari 250 MM Vignale Spyder to second place (class win) at the 1954 1000 km Buenos Aires, an event organized on an Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz in Argentina. A more powerful Ferrari 375 MM finished first. Vittorio Colocci and Gaetano Spata finished seventh overall and fifth in-class at the Giro di Sicilia. Of the five 250 MMs entered in the Mille Miglia, three finished with the best result being fourth place overall and second in class by Clemente Biondetti. His 250 MM Barchetta had been re-bodied in 1953 by Carrozzeria Morelli of Ferrara. Biondetti's 250 MM with Morelli coachwork placed fifth overall and third in the Sport +2.0 class at that year's Targa Florio.

The Ferrari 250 MM's racing career continued into the early 1960s, scoring victories worldwide, including in South America, the United States, and Sweden.

Production and Coachwork
The 250 S was a 'one-off' while the 250 MM was a serial racing model that used 'MM' in its chassis number suffix, with even numbers (Ferrari racing cars used even numbers while the odd numbers were reserved for road-going models). A total of 31 examples of the 250 MM were built, most (18 examples) receiving coachwork by Pinin Farina in Berlinetta guise. Vignale bodied 13 examples with all but one as spiders. During the early 1950s, Vignale designed and built custom coachwork for approximately 155 Ferraris that included both road-going models and competition cars.

The 250 MM in spyder coachwork was displayed in 1952 at the Paris Motor Show, while the Berlinetta version was shown at the Paris Motor Show a year later.

Mechanical Specification
The 94.5 inch (2,400 mm) chassis was comprised of welded steel tubes and used a suspension setup similar to the one used on the preceding 250S. At the front was an independent arrangement with unequal-length wishbones and transverse leaf-springs with Houdaille hydraulic shock absorbers. The rear live axle was suspended by a more traditional setup of semi-elliptic springs and Houdaille hydraulic shock absorbers. Drum brakes provided the stopping power.

Engine Specification
The 2,953.21 cc (3.0 liter) 60-degree Colombo V12 had a 2.9 inch (73 mm) bore and 2.3 inch (58.8 mm) stroke. Mounted longitudinally in the front, it had a single spark plug per cylinder, two coils, and a single overhead camshaft per cylinder bank, actuating two valves per cylinder. With three Weber 36IF/4C carburetors and 9:1 compression, the engine developed 237 horsepower (240 PS) at 7,200 RPM.

The 250 S used a five-speed gearbox with a single plate clutch while the 250 MM received a four-speed, all-synchronized manual gearbox with a new multi-plate clutch.

by Daniel Vaughan | Apr 2023