For sale: one-of-a-kind Ferrari with fascinating history

By Marc McLaren

| 18 Apr 2018

Ex-Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 625 Targa Florio Vignale added to Monaco sale

A gorgeous and super-rare Ferrari that was raced by numerous motorsport luminaries but ended up in a Naples scrapyard is going to auction in Monaco next month – for an estimated £4-6million.

The 1953 Ferrari 625 Targa Florio Vignale will be offered for sale at Bonhams' Monaco auction on 11 May, alongside a bevy of other beautiful and historically important cars including Ayrton Senna's Monaco GP-winning McLaren MP4, a Ferrari F1 car raced by Gerhard Berger and a 1959 BMW Roadster once owned by King Constantine II of Greece.

If we were rich, though, it'd be the 625 Vignale that we'd be buying – not least because of its life story.

Chassis #0304TF / 0306TF – we'll get to that bit – is one of only three 2.5-litre 4-cylinder twin-overhead camshaft 625 Targa Florio cars to have been built.

However, legend has it that Enzo Ferrari was never very keen on the trio's original Autodromo bodywork, and so commissioned Alfredo Vignale to remodel one of them. Vignale duly did so, turning this car into a two-seat spider.

Not long after, on 29 June 1953, it made its public debut in the Autodrome Grand Prix race at Monza, Italy, with Ferrari's new driver Mike Hawthorn at the wheel and a 2.5-litre 4-cylinder engine inside it, the original 2.9-litre having by now been transferred to its sister car.

Unfortunately for Hawthorn, his arrival at the circuit was delayed due to the fact that he'd only just finished competing in the Rouen Grand Prix. Still, despite his obvious fatigue, the future World Champion was able to drive the car to two creditable fourth-place finishes at the home of Italian motorsport.

The race over, Ferrari again decided to remodel the car. This time, Enzo entrusted the work to Carrozzeria Scaglietti, who significantly reduced the radiator grille, giving it the distinctive front-end you see today.

Next up was the Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti, where the car was this time driven by Umberto Maglioli – although only after a falling out with his teammate Paolo Marzotto, who also fancied the 625 Targa Florio.

"I tried the 4-cylinder and had no doubt that it could be the car to win…it was light, agile and with enormous torque, it was the ideal car," he recalled. "I said to Ferrari that I intended to compete with it, but there was no way of convincing him. He insisted I raced the twelve. I said, ‘As you like…I’ll take the lead, I’ll stop 10 metres from the finish line and I’ll let Taruffi pass me."

Maglioli duly raced the 625 Vignale and finished third, with – you guessed it – Marzotto placing first in his 250MM Vignale spider.

Its Italian racing career over, the car was sold to Argentinean driver Luis Milán, and it is at this time that the second chassis number is thought to have been added; both are currently stamped into the chassis.

Milán and a succession of other South American owners continued to race it in Brazil and Argentina, entering it into such gruelling events as the 1000kms de Buenos Aires and the 500 Miles of Argentina. Finally, in the mid-1960s and no longer in quite such a pristine state, it was sold back to Italy and disappeared from view.

And there its story might end, were it not for Ferrari historian Franco Lombardi.

He recalls, “It was around 1974/75 and I was in contact with a nice chap – Raffaele Ruggiero – a local car guy, a wheeler and dealer who had located a couple of good GT cars for me in Naples.

"One day I had a call: ‘Franco I have found an old racing Ferrari, a rusted sports barchetta in a local junkyard. Any interest?’. ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘What kind of engine is in it?’ ‘It’s a V12, but it looks different from any other Ferrari V12 I’ve seen.’ ‘OK, I’ll came and have a look.

“A few days later I landed in Naples and Raffaele was at the airport to pick me up. The car had left the junkyard and the owner had moved it to a small garage in the heart of the old town. The wooden door of that small recovery finally opened and an old Ferrari Vignale sports car was rolled out.

“It was in awful condition, but its original aluminium skin was all there. Finally, we opened the hood and I could see the engine. Yes, it was a V12, but I had never heard of a side-valve V12 Ferrari… Obviously the car had ended-up with a Ford Lincoln unit inside.

"No number was apparently evident on its rusty chassis, but the car came with a supposed identity ‘0304TF’ and a South American history.

“I didn’t buy the car – scared by the complexity of its restoration and, even for those happy days, the required price was rather stiff."

The car was instead bought by one Giuseppe Medici of Reggio Emilia, who then embarked on a restoration project. A Tipo555 F1 engine was installed inside it and the bodywork was fully restored, and now back in tip-top shape it was entered into the 1984 and '86 Mille Miglia Retro races.

A couple of further sales later, in March 2002, it passed to its current vendor, in whose hands the car was given a more complete restoration. It was subsequently raced in prestige events including the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, the Mille Miglia again, Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano and the Tour Auto.

The car is now described as being in "exemplary condition", and is expected to fetch a hefty price when it goes to auction on 11 May. We'll let you know how it does.