Ferrari 375MM Berlinetta - Brutal Truth (Part 2)

And what a brutal-looking Berlinetta the 375MM is. From the covered headlights, past the bug-catcher screen on the bonnet, the sliding side-windows and enlarged rear wheel arches to the slots behind the rear wheels, it was an out and out racer. Both 0320’s and 0322’s 4.1-liter engines were disassembled after Le Mans and the bore increased to 84mm, to bring the engines up to full 375MM specification. The capacity was then 4493.73cc and the compression ratio 9.0:1. A look at the specification sheet of a 375MM engine will show a mixture of parts taken from the 375 itself to parts from the Tipo 340 and even the old Tipo 275 engine of 1950. The engine number of 0320AM was and remains 70/M.

The capacity was then 4493.73cc and the compression ratio 9.0:1.

At the 24 Hours of Spa, 0320AM retired on 25 July, driven by Ascari and Luigi Villoresi, and then retired again at the race in Senegallia with Villoresi at the wheel. It then won the 12 Hours of Pescara, with Mike Hawthorn and Umberto Maglioli driving. After this, the car was reconditioned by the factory and fitted with new brakes.

Franco Cornacchia’s Scuderia Guastalla then entered the car in the Carrera Pan Americana in October along with four other 375MMs. This has to be seen as a quasi-works effort and 0320AM was driven in this long race by Mario Ricci and Foresi Salviati. However, when Umberto Maglioli’s 0358MM lost a wheel on the fifth stage, Maglioli took over the driver’s seat of 0320AM.

Maglioli took 0320AM from eighth place to sixth overall at the finish. Averaging over 138mph, Maglioli and 0320AM set a public road record that has yet to be broken. Imagine: this car must have reached more than 170mph on the straights, with Maglioli hanging on grimly to the steering wheel, foot to the firewall, riding a chassis suspended on cart springs and brakes that were next to useless at such speeds. You certainly didn’t want to make a mistake in a car like this.

Maglioli took 0320AM from eighth place to sixth overall at the finish.

The points from this race gave the factory enough to claim the 1953 Manufacturers’ Championship ahead of Jaguar. Just one more race remainedinthe1953 World Championship and Maglioli won again in 0320AM at the Circuit of Guadeloupe in December.

Ferrari built 26 375MMs in total. Nearly all 375MM bodywork, in both spider and berlinetta form, was built by Vignale and Pinin Farina, with one coupé by Ghia. Some were pure competition cars while a few were made for Ferrari’s wealthier clientele and were luxuriously upholstered. Some even had bumpers! The cars built for King Leopold of Belgium, Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini were especially eye-catching.

Our feature car, after its racing season in 1953 was over, was sold in 1954 to Luigi Chinetti Motors in New York and imported into the United States. It was initially purchased by Walter Luftman of Rye, New York. Luftman kept 0320AM for barely a year before selling it in late 1955 to Mark and Louise Schellenberg of Denver, Colorado (Mark Schellenberg has owned many significantcars,includingtheprototype250GT Tour de France berlinetta). Sometime later , after a minor road accident, the nose was modified by Charlie Lyon of Denver, who also returned the rear window to the original style first created by Pinin Farina.

In 1958, 0320AM was brokered by Dick Merritt to William Boulder of Colorado and Then went onto Williamde Creeft of California. Sometime after 1964 it changed hands yet again, selling to a Mr. Gene Curtis. Then, in 1974, 0320AM was restored by Steve Griswold of Berkeley, California, and sold two years later to another great enthusiast, Bob Sutherland of Denver. In August 1976 0320AM competed at the Monterey Historic Races and was displayed at the Pebble Beach Concours, winning its class. Bob Sutherland showed 0320AM several times over the next 17 years, also racing the car at Watkins Glen, Elkhart Lake, and in the 1989 Mille Miglia.

In August 1976 0320AM competed at the Monterey Historic Races and was displayed at the Pebble Beach Concours, winning its class.

After being sold on in March 1993, 0320AM was soon restored again by Wayne Obry and then sold in 1999 to British enthusiast Sir Anthony Bamford, who showed it on 4 June 2000 at the Louis Vuitton Concoursd’ Elegance, winning the Best of Show and the TAG Heuer ‘Cheating the Wind’ trophy .

Sir Anthony sold 0320AM in July 2006 to the Present owner, Paul Vestey. Staying in England, the car was further restored in August 2006, when Shapecraft Ltd enlarged the rear wheel arch fairings and reshaped the nose to its original style with non-covered headlights, so it looked as it did at Le Mans in 1953.

Paul recalls vividly what the 375MM is like to drive. ‘Where do I start?’ he says. ‘Well, you sit in, turn the key, start it up and it sounds like two D-type engines. Of course, it’s virtually a 4½-liter Grand Prix engine set in a Berlinetta body. So there’s lots of noise going on. Gearbox is quite nice, though first is noisy, clutch is OK, off you go. There is a hell of a lot of torque; that engine is like a turbine. The Colombo engines always have a fair bit of valve gear noise but this Lampredi-designed engine doesn’t have that. The steering is firm, brakes are OK; it’s a surprisingly civilized car.’

Fast, too. ‘The fastest that I’ve had it up to is about 120mph, but the thought of Maglioli driving it in Mexico at over 170mph beggars belief – he must have been scared! I bet he didn’t get paid much either!’ says Paul. ‘When you think of who drove it – Hawthorn, Ascari, Villoresi, Maglioli – it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.’

Here’s a car that has a great racing history and has been driven by no fewer than three world champions (Alberto Ascari, Nino Farina and Mike Hawthorn), and is one of the three original Ferrari factory competition berlinettas that ran at the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hours. It’s eligible today for Classic Le Mans, Mille Miglia, Pebble Beach, in fact all the world’s greatest motoring events, and is one of the world’s truly great cars.

Dean Batchelor, in his book Ferrari – the early Berlinettas and Competition Coupes (Dean Batchelor Publications, 1974), wrote that: ‘These cars were, and are, not for the timid or faint of heart. They required muscle, stamina, and full attention to every detail of driving to survive, let alone win a race.’

The Colombo engines always have a fair bit of valve gear noise but this Lampredi-designed engine doesn’t have that.

Today,the1962-63 Ferrari 250GTO Berlinetta is regarded as both the most beautiful and expensive Ferrari in the world, recent examples changing hands for more than $35m. To your author’s heretical eyes, the 1953 Ferrari 375MM Berlinetta, with its muscular , aggressive presence, is more desirable than a 250GTO, fast, sounding equally wonderful and just being a real brute; a man’s car if ever there was one. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it?