Private Test

1960 was an important year for Ferrari, not because they won the World Formula 1 Championship - it was won that year by Cooper with Jack Brabham as World Champion - but because it was the year Enzo Ferrari had it forcibly brought home to him that a front engined Formula 1 car would no longer be capable of winning grand prix races. Cooper had already produced a car in the late 1950's and so had what could be called "the technology" and in
his usual brilliant way, Colin Chapman at Lotus had introduced the rear engined Lotus 18. Those two makes produced the top four drivers in the World Driver's Championship,, Brabham and McLaren ( Cooper) and Moss and Ireland ( Lotus) and between them Cooper and Lotus scored 72 points in the constructors championship to Ferrari's 24.

The crash programme to produce a rear engined grand prix car at Maranello swept into action over the winter of 1959. Discussions had taken place with Scuderia Centro Sud - who had one of those new Cooper chassis - and as a result of this the Ferrari engineers took a close look at it. It was even rumoured that Ferrari would loan Centro Sud a Dino 246 engine to put into one of their cars for the 1960 season but nothing happened.

So it was that over the winter of 1959 a rear engined chassis was designed and kept very secret.

In 1957, at the tender age of 21 I had gone down to Maranello as a youthful motoring journalist and was greatly helped by Romolo Tavoni the team manager of Ferrari who was also Enzo Ferrari's secretary. Whatever the chemistry was I do not know but certainly I was given permission to take pictures wherever I wished in the factory which have formed the basis of my collection. Looked at today they were not technically brilliant but at least they were pictures
and these were rare in the factory at Maranello at that time. During a visit to Modena early in April 1960, I was staying at my usual chosen hotel, the Albergo della Rocca in the village of Bazzano near Modena when I received a telephone call from Tavoni asking me to come to the Modena Autodrome that afternoon around 2.00. He explained that I would see something interesting but as it was a secret test all the doors would be locked. However he would tell the gateman I was coming and I would be let in.

I arrived to find Phil Hill, casually dressed, and factory test driver Martino Severi. We had a bit of fun as I had one of the new Austin Minis at the time and Phil Hill tried the car out on the circuit. Then a Ferrari truck arrived with a car all covered up on the back. It was uncovered and was the strangest Ferrari I had ever seen. It was the prototype rear engined Formula 1 car which was to make its quiet debut at the Monaco Grand Prix a month later.

Slowly the story emerged. The car had been tested secretly a week before in its unpainted state but the handling was not very good being light at the front, Severi reporting that the front wheels were lifting. This time both Severi and Hill drove the car for a number of laps round the circuit and seemed better satisfied.

The car was not as pretty as it was to become; the rear end treatment was simple and there were few ducts at the rear to aid cooling. The fact that it was using the 65 degree Dino engine made the car look heavy at the rear. The engine was one of the 246 Dino engines from one of the front engined cars even though it was clear this was going to be the car to be developed
for the 1.5 litre Formula 1 of 1961. There was great discussion between Severi, Tavoni and Hill and we can now see this test took place to decide whether the car should be entered for the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix just a few weeks away. Tavoni reported back to Enzo Ferrari and the decision was taken to run the car with Richie Ginther at the wheel. Between this test and
Monaco a few modifications took place and after Monaco this particular car was put away for a few months. The Ferrari records say it was chassis 0008 but when it raced at Monaco it was numbered 0001. It was dragged out again and extensively modified for Von Trips to run at Monza in F2 form and with a 65 degree 1500cc prototype engine. In the modifications the chassis was shortened and there were changes to the rear bodywork. Indeed by the time
the car ran a couple of weeks later in the Modena Grand Prix it had begun to look like the successful Championship winning 1961 shark nosed car which was to be launched to the press at Ferrari's press conference at the end of the year.

On that day at Modena I felt like an observer of someone else's secret. I was not to know that this rough looking prototype would become a Championship winning car within 18 months.

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