Top 10 most expensive cars ever sold at auction

Taken from Motor Sport, August 2007

The announcement in 2005 that Porsche would in the next year return to sports car racing with a purpose-built prototype met with a mixed reaction. Aficionados were excited that the most successful producer of such vehicles was back in town. Potential customers were enthused at the prospect of being able to buy one – although this wouldn’t be possible until 2007. But a slice of the racing demographic were rather less impressed when Porsche pulled the covers off its new racer, appropriately named the RS Spyder. You see, by entering LMP2 – that’s one class below the all-winning Audis – against a raft of privateer outfits was rather like Kevin Pietersen announcing his intention to join Flax Bourton cricket club of the Western League.

As it turned out, the Spyders didn’t have it all their own way. I journeyed to Sebring last year to watch their first race: neither car finished, a small transmission component failing over this track’s bumps. But the car was quick and, lest we forget, it was not a full factory team. Just as it had done in Can-Am 34 years before, Porsche had teamed up with Roger Penske’s huge operation. After that difficult introduction in Florida, the Spyders began to flourish and their eventual class title included an outright 1-2 at Mid-Ohio.

Porsche’s decision to use the Spyder moniker was entirely justified. Generations of road-going and racing Italian exotica have used the title, but the car which the majority of the population associate with that name assumed universal notoriety the day James Dean lost his life behind the wheel of one. (The car was to be called the 550/1500RS, but the American importer Max Hoffman suggested that it would be easier to sell given a name.) The significance of that crash on September 30, 1955 isn’t lost on Porsche; its own 550 Spyder, currently idling in the pitlane at the company’s Weissach test track, is, I am promptly told, the chassis produced immediately after Dean’s. I think that rates as provenance.

Motorsport has advanced immeasurably since the 1950s, and the clean, organic shape of the 550 sits uncomfortably against the brutal aero-management philosophy of the later car. But before we drive them, there are similarities to be explored and explained.

The first lies in the reason for their existence. Porsche’s commercial approach to motorsport was shaped by its 550 Spyder project. As the car evolved from Walter Glöckler’s Spyder, it was raced as it was developed. No two cars were the same and, as the programme progressed, a strategy emerged: Porsche would use only new vehicles for major events, and sell them after each race. And so was born its customer motorsport department. Today’s Spyder follows the same brief: yes, Porsche is trying to win in the American Le Mans Series, but this is also an exercise designed to sell cars and make money. And if you take one look at Porsche Motorsport’s new HQ at Weissach you realise how clever this strategy has been. Last winter alone it built 250 GT3 Cup cars, at least two dozen RSRs and three customer Spyders. That’s enough volume to be considered a manufacturer in its own right.

Other similarities? Well, their engines are mounted amidships – and other than that I have to confess I’m struggling. And anyway, the new car is being warmed.

This Le Mans-type racer is, at first, an intimidating device. Every surface appears to be a brittle, costly slither of carbon fibre, and its tiny cabin is littered with electronic gizmos and widgets whose operations are unknown but whose cost is, I assume, significant. You clamber in over the side, drop into the hard carbon seat, adjust the mandatory HANS device to be comfortable under the belts, and are then harnessed in place the way you imagine those aboard Saturn 5 might have been. Scope for head and neck movement is limited to furtive eye flicks.

The motor fires quickly and loudly. It displaces just 3397cc and is forced to breathe through 44mm restrictors, but somehow the alchemists in the engine shop have squeezed from it 503bhp at 10,300rpm and 273lb ft at 7500rpm. So, as long-serving Porsche engineer and tester Roland Kussmaul – a man with a direct link to every post-956 racing Porsche – asks me not to bin it, it’s time to consider three simple facts: 503bhp, 775kg, cold slicks.

After some technical gremlins in the season opener at Sebring, Porsche’s RS Spyders dominate the 2007 American Le Mans Series, winning the remaining 11 races in the LMP2 divison

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The car’s aggressive appearance and disjointed boarding procedure has prepared you for the worst, but an unexpectedly friendly character is confirmed within 100 yards of pulling away: it’s easy to drive. A simple foot clutch gets you moving, after which the Spyder becomes a strictly two-pedal, two-paddle device. Flick the right paddle to shift up, the left to shift down. It sounds simple. And that’s before you suss the uncanny accuracy with which the electronic systems blend the changes. Like any race transmission, it likes to work under maximum duress, and there’s significant slip from the cold rubber, but even so I have never driven a car that assists its driver so comprehensively.

The traction control system has many different maps for changing weather conditions and is understandably set to ‘full wally’ for my purposes, allowing me to lean on the rear axle from cold (although the car will still spin with the traction control on, apparently) and marvel at this six-speed transmission. Flat shifts from second to third send only the faintest flutter through the body. Remarkably, it’s even smoother coming back down the ’box. From 140mph in fifth, the driver simply flicks the left paddle, then waits the few milliseconds it takes for the black box to assimilate the difference between crank and cog speeds and apportion the precise number of revs to bridge that gap. This process is seamless, making a mockery of jerky road-going equivalents.

And the brakes – 380mm front and 355mm rear carbon discs – are mind-blowing. With some tyre temperature, it’s now possible to carry more corner speed and thump down the straights. Acceleration is strong up to about 140mph, but then begins to tail off because the Spyder runs more wing than a Fokker Triplane. Lift off the throttle at 155mph and it decelerates like a modern road car using half its braking performance. This means that the Spyder’s initial retardation is aerodynamically assisted, that you can punch the middle pedal as hard as you dare, bracing yourself in the belts as the car pulls 3g. But as speed is shed, so is aero effect, and this means that, just at the point your brain tells you to push a touch harder on the pedal, actually you must reduce pressure in preparation for mechanical grip’s takeover. It’s a strange feeling, but becomes instinctive fairly quickly.

“The car’s agility is difficult to comprehend, it slices through turns”

The car’s agility, though, is more difficult to comprehend. Weissach is a technical circuit shrouded in concrete obstacles, yet the Spyder slices at 100mph through turns which a GT3 RS couldn’t manage at 65mph. The final banked right-hander generates in the region of 2.5 lateral g, and after 10 laps my neck is throbbing. Modern racing drivers need to be incredibly fit.

Given the vigour with which it spun its V8 into life, you could assume that the new Spyder’s starter motor is as powerful as the 550’s engine. The air-cooled flat-four has been warming for a few minutes, but I lean in and switch it off. Whereas I was desperate to jump in and drive the other, I want to walk around the 550, absorb its shape and details. Only time will tell if future generations will stalk around surviving RS Spyders 50 years from now.

The 550 is a tiny racing slipper of a car, a machine shorn of everything superfluous, thus reducing mass and therefore maximising performance. Its shape was dictated by lengthy spells in a wind tunnel, and yet, like so many contemporary designs, its basic beauty suggests that function played no role in its creation.

Turn the key and that opinion changes. The opposed-four motor fires with enthusiasm. Brush the throttle pedal lightly and the rev-counter’s needle immediately fidgets through 2000rpm and energy fizzes into the lightweight body.

James Dean with his 550 Spyder, nicknamed ‘Little Bastard’. He would be killed in a road traffic accident on Route 46 on his way to the Salinas sports car races in 1955

Litho

There is little about the controls that would concern the driver of any air-cooled 911: floor-hinged pedals, familiar typefaces and a gear lever jutting from the floor. As enjoyable mechanical operations go, there are few to rival the gearshift of a healthy 550. Whereas the later car works its magic with competence, the joy in the old-timer lies in its action. The throw is relatively long, but the linkage has little slack and those last few inches as the cogs engage remind us why a manual gearbox is so special.

People in the 1950s must have been staggered by this car. Its Type 547 engine is now a thing of legend, and with a reliable 125bhp at 6500rpm from 1498cc, such status is well deserved. Kerb weight is in the region of 490kg, giving a power-to-weight ratio of 255bhp per tonne. It was very expensive at the time – nearly $7000 brand new – but so exceptional was its engineering, so strong its performance, there really was no competition substitute.

The 550 also features among Porsche’s top-10 sales, with Gooding & Co achieving .33m for a 1955 ‘French Blue’ model at its 2016 Amelia Island sale, putting it ninth on the list — The 550 also features among Porsche’s top-10 sales, with Gooding & Co achieving $5.33m for a 1955 ‘French Blue’ model at its 2016 Amelia Island sale, putting it ninth on the list

Porsche

There are some interesting similarities and differences at work here. For starters, despite its huge power advantage, it’s the modern Spyder’s engine which is better contained by its chassis. The 550 accrues speed with disarming ease. Contemporary tests show that standard cars could hit 60mph in a little over 8sec and top 120mph, but its braking performance and mechanical grip is, predictably, a long way short of that potential.

No matter, it has balance to spare. And this is the most striking similarity between two cars separated by half a century: both were created to allow the driver to flourish. Not only was the 550 the fastest sub-1500cc sports car of its day, it was also the easiest to drive, and when you’re trying to sell cars for endurance racing, that last point is important. Its chassis is remarkable. Lightweight, mid-engined sports cars are not famous for being forgiving souls, but this one is happiest slithering about deep into the meat of third gear. I’m certain the fastest way to coax it around Weissach would be to lean on the front axle until understeer sets in and then stabilise the throttle. But there is such a temptation to introduce more right foot and feel the back arc around that you soon find yourself adopting what can only be described as the line of maximum slip. Light, accurate steering and skinny radials only serve as further encouragement. You can see why these cars proved so devastating at Le Mans: the combination of useable performance and mechanical strength was irrepressible. In 1955 Helmut Polensky and Richard von Frankenberg finished fourth there, beaten only by two D-types and an Aston DB3S, cars with engines twice the size of the Porsche’s.

The 550/4 RS Spyder of Johnny Claes and Pierre Stasse on its way to a class win at Le Mans in 1954

Getty Images

“The modern RS Spyder continues the lineage begun by the 550”

And what an engine this four-cam motor is. It loves to rev. The shove is impressive from 1500rpm to around 5000rpm, which is when the induction noise assumes a more serious tone, and it hammers on to 6500rpm. They were capable of revving well into the sevens, and driving it now, I can only assume that some ran them harder even than that, such is the mechanical smoothness and lack of inertia felt.

It’s an addictive machine. You exit the final right-hander in third gear, grab fourth and, as the air rushes over your head and the 550 begins to wander, you begin to wonder how something with a quarter of the horsepower of Porsche’s latest toy can prove almost as thrilling. Even more remarkable is the fact that this particular example feels as though it could lap for hours, but then I suspect it is rather expertly maintained.

The modern RS Spyder is an incredible machine: so amenable, so nimble, so damn fast. It continues the lineage begun by the 550, and even though this sounds like an emotionally clouded observation, strands of that gorgeous little silver car’s DNA are very much apparent in the yellow monster. Long may such genetic excellence continue.

Top 10 most expensive cars ever sold at auction

Taken from Motor Sport, August 2020

To Mr Ferrari, the only Formula 1 car that mattered was his current one; retired grand prix cars were redundant. But that’s not how many of us may see it. Old F1 cars, whether they carried great drivers to famous wins or became over-optimistic duds, represent more than simply money. They represent our memories, their provenance connecting us to our past, or even to years and decades before our own lives, to times that exist only in old photos, films, books and magazines. Old F1 cars matter. And the one you see here, pictured in the flesh for the first time in 30-years, matters more than most – perhaps most of all.

Ferrari 312T chassis ‘023’ carried Niki Lauda to four of his five grand prix victories in a dominant 1975 campaign in which he took the first of his three World Championship titles, ahead of two more race wins early in 1976. In many ways this is the car upon which Niki Lauda’s legend was built. The story of how this car re-emerged, almost exactly as Lauda left it, right down to the scuffed seat and worn steering wheel, is told on page 67. Suffice to say this car is arguably the perfect example of an ‘old F1 car’.

Overhead view of the cockpit and seat of the Niki LAuda 1975 Ferrari 312T — Chassis no023 was only ever driven by Lauda and remains in exactly the state the Austrian left it

The Ferrari 312T also represents the best of the 1970s, a decade that grows ever more radiant the further we travel from it. To many who lived through them, those years were a bleak hangover to the golden optimism of the ’60s – but in F1 terms, they were wonderfully garish, loud and brash to match the clothes, music and wallpapers of the time. To Ferrari and its 70-year unbroken F1 history, the decade represents a glorious reawakening. Mauro Forghieri created a car in which the blunt- speaking, buck-toothed Austrian – initially considered by many to be little more than just another upstart pay-driver – snatched Jackie Stewart’s unclaimed crown as the benchmark racing driver of a new generation.

“Once thought a pay-driver, Lauda snatched Stewart’s benchmark”

From 20 available world drivers’ and constructors’ titles, Ferrari claimed seven in the 1970s, a tally matched only by Lotus. Tyrrell and McLaren shared the rest, three apiece. More than mere statistics, more than the unprecedented constructors’ title hat-trick between 1975-77, the 312T represents the spirit of a blazing age in which Ferrari finally unlocked all its pent-up potential that went largely untapped since the 1950s.

But where did the root of that Ferrari and Forghieri dominance come from? The answer begins in 1974 and the decision by Maranello to end its time and money consuming sports car programme to focus entirely on returning to the fore in F1, beginning with the curiously angular 312B3 flat-12.

The design was developed into a successful machine, but failed to bring Ferrari its first constructors’ title in over 10 years, partly due to the relative inexperience of its lead driver.

Of course, the driver was Lauda, and he was paired with the hugely experienced and capable Clay Regazzoni. Ferrari’s F1 focus, and the completion of its private Fiorano test track, just across from the main Formigine Road factory, enabled it to test constantly, and Lauda was always available. He realised his future, and the team’s, depended upon exploiting all advantages. After creating a new F1 car, Ferrari could run extensive tyre testing for Goodyear.

If five differing wing sets were available, then Ferrari would test each pair individually, studied and extended to its potential in great detail. Every minor alteration and change would simply be tested fit to bust until the sun went down and the brief Emilian dusk settled over Fiorano. Since it had this luxury of its private test track, there was never a problem with booking public circuits, while transporting the cars from the factory to test venue meant wheeling them out of the shop door.

Once Ferrari had all these assets in place, it was able to tackle F1 more seriously than any rival. In this way, it could compensate for some distinct shortcomings, particularly in chassis engineering, which would occasionally leap out of the bushes and beset them in coming years, notably once aerodynamics became increasingly sophisticated.

Side view of the Ferrari 312T in which Niki Lauda won five grands prix — Sleek 312T went against the grain with not only its gearbox, but in suspension and aero design too

But for three halcyon years, 1975-77, Ferrari was on top of its game. It became the first F1 team in history to put together a hat- trick of three consecutive constructors’ titles – a remarkable feat at the time.

When its 1974 campaign ended in the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen – where the drivers’ title was decided between Regazzoni’s Ferrari 312B3-74, Jody Scheckter’s Tyrrell and eventual winner Emerson Fittipaldi’s McLaren M23 – Ferrari took stock.

Its direttore tecnico Mauro Forghieri could reflect upon a year of adequate flat-12 engine reliability, though failures at the Österreichring and Monza proved costly. The 312B3-74 chassis survived without major changes, other than detailed aerodynamic tweaks, but Forghieri felt the basic concept offered more potential.

Lauda at Monza 1975 — Lauda at Monza ’75, where he sealed his first title

It was actually on September 27, 1974, before Ferrari set off for that US GP, that the new year’s prototype 312T model was unveiled to the press at Fiorano. Forghieri in effect was following Derek Gardner of Tyrrell and Robin Herd of March’s path in ’72, seeking further concentration of mass within the wheelbase to produce a highly nimble car, which might seem too nervous to the average F1 driver but which the likes of Ronnie Peterson or Niki Lauda could turn into a formidable weapon.

Where the 1974 car’s suspension coil- spring/damper units had been mounted on each side of the chassis footbox, with a spidery forward tube subframe picking up the leading elements of the lower wishbones, the redesigned 312T tub carried all its major front suspension components on the forward face of its monocoque’s front bulkhead.

Long fabricated top rocker aims actuated steeply inclined Koni dampers, with co-axial tapered wire rising-rate coil springs, whose feet were anchored in a cast magnesium tray, fitted to the bulkhead. The monocoque’s front end was considerably narrower than its predecessor, and the tub used Ferrari’s familiar hybrid construction technique in which the stressed-skin structure was reinforced internally with steel strip and angle framing.

Disc brakes were mounted outboard at the front, inboard at the rear. Up front, a system of links and levers actuated an exquisite little anti-roll bar, which was bracketed to the centre of that assembly, and a trailing top link from the upper arm fed back into the tub, passing through an air duct section designed to feed water radiators slung either side, just behind the front wheels. Long side ducts fed air through oil coolers each side ahead of the rear wheels, while beautifully moulded GRP body sections included a sharp-pointed shovel nose, with a full-width airfoil wing. Sidepods served the regulation deformable structures, which overlapped the monocoque sides. The cockpit surround and engine cover-cum-tall airbox were formed in one moulding, smoothing airflow onto the centre-strutted rear wing while curled flip-ups moulded ahead of the rear wheels faired airflow around the broad Goodyear tyres.

Rear suspension was by reversed lower wishbones, replacing the original toe-steer restricting parallel-link system in an apparently retrograde move, although it saved weight. Like McLaren, Ferrari felt it could control toe- steer with careful set-up tweaks in assembly.

“In testing at Fiorano, Lauda found the new car far more demanding”

Compared to the 1974 312B3 model, the wheelbase of this new Ferrari 312T was increased nominally to 99.1in, while front track was 59.4in and rear track 60.2in.

The most significant technical innovation was the new transverse gearbox, which mated conventionally to the rear of the flat-12 engine, but with most of its mass concentrated ahead of the axle line, within the wheelbase, thanks to its gearwheel shafts being aligned laterally instead of longitudinally, as was the norm. Gearbox input turned through 90-degrees by bevel gears to enable the gearbox shafts to be arranged laterally, final-drive then being via spur gears. Ingegner Franco Rocchi’s hugely experienced engine team had worked hard on the flat-12 engine, and in its latest form, 500bhp at 12,200rpm was being claimed.

Ferrari-312T-045 — Dials could show over 1200rpm and would read Niki’s oil pressure loss in Monaco ’75

In testing at Fiorano, Lauda found the new car far more demanding to drive than the B3-74, as predicted, but equally, its ultimate limits seemed much higher, and with practice, he was able to drive closer to those higher limits for longer. The maturing driver was soon lapping Fiorano at 1min 13sec, compared to Art Merzario’s best of 1min 14.2sec set in the original Forghieri B3 car 15 months before.

At Vallelunga, further testing meant Lauda lapped in 1min 7.5sec, a second inside the best B3-74 testing time of 1974. Back-to-back testing between the B3-74 and the new 312T at Ricard- Castellet proved the new model’s superiority. When the team returned from racing the old B3-74s in South America at the start of 1975, Lauda got down to 1min 11.9sec at Fiorano, and two brand-new 312Ts were readied for the trip to Kyalami for March’s South African GP.

Niki drove the prototype car chassis ‘018’ while ‘021’ was for Regazzoni. The intervening two chassis numbers ‘019’ and ‘020’ were, according to Ferrari, allocated to the last two B3 models. Neither of these raced; ‘019’ was heavily damaged in a testing accident and subsequently broken up, while ‘020’ went into storage for potential future display duties before sale to a private collector.

Chassis ‘018’ remains isolated as the 312T prototype, and ‘021’ began the transverse- gearbox flat-12 series, which would encompass the future types ’T2 to ’T5 and included 26 further Ferrari chassis built during 1975-80.

Niki Lauda pulls out of the pits in his Ferrari 312T at the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix — Lauda was sixth in Austria ’75

Blick/RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Lauda won the minor non-championship Silverstone International Trophy race in the new 312T’s second outing. He then added victories at Monaco, Zolder, Anderstorp, Ricard-Castellet and Watkins Glen, while team- mate Regazzoni won the minor ‘Swiss GP’ at Dijon. Such success brought Ferrari its first constructors’ title since 1964 and Lauda his first drivers’ title. Ferrari made 30 starts that season, including the initial B3 outings in South America and South Africa – where Regazzoni raced one of the older cars – and it achieved eight victories from 24 finishes. Ferrari added one second, four thirds, two fourths, three fifths, two sixths, a seventh, eighth and ninth, as well as a lowly 13th.

Lauda and Regazzoni amassed nine pole positions and six fastest laps during that memorable Ferrari season. They proved that the combination of their skills and the latest Ferrari’s power, reliability, and now handling, was by far the fastest in F1.

Lauda only failed to finish once – the Spanish GP at Barcelona, in which he and his team-mate collided on the opening lap. Ferrari’s first transversale F1 season was the more competitive 1970s equivalent of Mercedes-Benz domination in the ’50s.

Ferrari Engine — The flat-12 struggled in wet race after taking pole

This was despite the new car’s debut at Kyalami in which Lauda crashed ‘021’ during practice when he slithered off on another car’s spilt oil. His engine lacked power during the race, and it was later found that its fuel metering unit drive belt had stripped some teeth and slipped, restricting output to some 440bhp, less than the rival Cosworth DFV.

Lauda’s Silverstone victory marked the debut of the third 312T to be built, chassis ‘022’. Another new chassis, ‘023’, was then made ready for Niki’s use at Monaco and he won, despite falling oil pressure towards the finish caused by leakage through a defective pump seal. The engine was dangerously close to seizure in the final laps, with Lauda sensibly declutching and coasting through the corners, while Fittipaldi’s McLaren closed rapidly just before the finish to no avail. Regazzoni crashed ‘018’ heavily at the chicane.

Niki Lauda leading the 1975 Monaco Grand Prix in his Ferrari 312T — Lauda cleverly managed an ailing 312T to hold off Fittipaldi and claim the Monaco ’75 win, Ferrari’s first victory there in 20 years

Klemantaski Collection/Getty Images

For the Belgian GP, new exhaust systems were fitted to improve low-speed pick-up. Normally the three front and three rear cylinders on each bank fed individual tailpipes. Now a balance pipe linked the front and rear set of manifolds each side before they merged into a titanium twin exhaust. One of the pipes split in practice, so the older system was refitted. Lauda had another manifold split, and he lost 300rpm on the straights for the last dozen laps but won by 19 seconds.

Anderstorp’s Swedish GP was a lucky Ferrari win. Lauda took second when one Brabham faltered, and he took the lead in the last 10 laps when the other slowed due to increasing track debris on its rear tyres, while Ferrari’s harder rear tyres were unaffected.

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The fifth 312T, ‘024’, made its debut at Ricard-Castellet for the French GP but its engine failed early on, sidelining Regazzoni. Lauda drove ‘022’ away into the Mediterranean heat haze. Despite late understeer due to tyre wear, he was uncatchable.

The rain-swept British GP at Silverstone became a lottery, but Ferrari was never in contention once Regazzoni spun from the lead and Lauda had a bungled stop for rain tyres.

While Lauda had luckily won in Sweden at Brabham driver Reutemann’s expense, Reutemann won at the Nürburgring at Lauda’s expense, Niki leading handsomely until a tyre puncture. The Austrian GP was another rain- stopped farce, then for the major Italian GP at Monza, Ferrari introduced new cylinder heads to improve mid-range torque for the slow-speed chicanes. Yet one of the new engines had failed in pre-race testing on Regazzoni’s ‘024’, so Lauda’s ‘023’ used a standard unit. Regazzoni – the Italian- speaking driver – was given the ‘high-torque’ race engine. They started 1-2 and finished 1-3,

“A combination of driver skill and the car’s power made it the fastest team in F1”

Regazzoni victorious in front of a delirious tifosi while Lauda, handicapped by a minor damper problem, fell behind Fittipaldi’s McLaren after holding the lead for 45 of 52 laps. Ferrari’s finishes and Niki’s points haul sealed the titles for Ferrari and Lauda. Monza-headed engines were then used at the Watkins Glen finale.

Eleven days later, on October 26, 1975, Ferrari’s ’76 car, the 312T2, was unveiled at Fiorano. Its development was similar to the 312T, but the previous year’s cars would run into the first races of the new season. For the 312Ts, this meant the 1976 Brazilian and South African GPs, as well as the US GP West at Long Beach, plus two non-championship British F1 races. The T2’s actual debut came at Brands in the Race of Champions in March.

Rear view of the 1975 Niki Lauda Ferrari 312T — Chassis 023’s last race was the US GP West at Long Beach, before a short spell as a spare car

The Brazilian GP opened the new season, with Ferrari fielding 312Ts ‘023’ for World Champion Lauda and ‘024’ for Regazzoni, the Austrian winning from pole while Regazzoni led before a stop to change a damaged tyre. At Kyalami, Regazzoni’s ‘022’ broke its engine, while Lauda’s ‘023’ was hampered in qualifying by an oversized tyre, leaving McLaren to steal pole. Lauda led the race, but from lap 20, his car’s left-rear tyre began to deflate. His brake balance reversed during the race yet, by clever use of lapping backmarkers, he managed to hold off Hunt’s McLaren long enough to win by 1.3sec. He also set the fastest lap, but it was now evident that Ferrari’s 1976 advantage over the opposition was nowhere near as marked as it was in ’75. A new T2 made its debut at Brands Hatch while old ‘021’ appeared on loan to Scuderia Everest for Giancarlo Martini, as part of a new Fiat/Ferrari effort to bring on young Italian drivers. Martini qualified second slowest and then crashed on the warm-up lap when a brake snatched.

“Lauda beat Hunt, but Ferrari’s lead over its rivals had reduced”

The proven 312Ts ‘023’ and ‘024’ were driven by Lauda and Regazzoni at Long Beach. Regazzoni dominated as he took pole, led all the way and won, while Lauda took second after flat-spotting a tyre and gear selection woe.

This was the final appearance of the factory Ferrari 312Ts as the next race was the Spanish GP in which it introduced the new ‘low-airbox’ regulations to which the replacement 312T2 had been tailored. Before that race, the Scuderia Everest 312T ‘021’ again emerged with Martini, at Silverstone. He qualified and finished 10th, marking the ignominious end to Ferrari’s original trasversale series.

Niki Lauda bounces over the Long Beach track at the F1 Grand Prix in 1976 — Into the unknown: Niki Lauda hits the streets of 1976’s new F1 grand prix at Long Beach. Lauda finished second to Ferrari team-mate Clay Regazzoni

RMA/Bob Harmeyer

Ferrari 312T

Chassis #023 F1 grand prix race history

Date	Race	Driver	Result
11.05.1975	Monaco Grand Prix	Niki Lauda	1st
25.05.1975	Belgian Grand Prix	Niki Lauda	1st
08.06.1975	Swedish Grand Prix	Niki Lauda	1st
19.06.1975	British Grand Prix	Niki Lauda	8th
07.09.1975	Italian Grand Prix	Niki Lauda	3rd
05.10.1975	US Grand Prix	Niki Lauda	1st
25.01.1976	Brazilian Grand Prix	Niki Lauda	1st
06.03.1976	South African Grand Prix	Niki Lauda	1st
28.03.1976	US Grand Prix West	Niki Lauda	2nd

Chassis no023 was also the T-car at the 1975 Austrian GP, plus the Spanish and Belgian GPs in ’76. It had a 100 per cent race finishing record, and won a total of six grands prix, twice the number of any other T-series chassis built between 1975-80.

Sebring 12 Hours	Phil Hill/Olivier Gendebien	2nd o/a	First GT
Targa Florio	Giorgio Scarlatti/Pietro Ferraro	4th o/a	First GT
Nürburgring 1000Kms	Michael Parkes/Willy Mairesse (4-litre)	2nd o/a	First 4.0 Prototype
Le Mans 24 Hours	Jean Guichet/Pierre Noblet ‘Eldé’/‘Beurlys’	2nd o/a 3rd o/a	First GT 2nd GT
Trophée d’Auvergne	Carlo Mario Abate	First o/a	First GT
RAC Tourist Trophy	Innes Ireland Graham Hill Michael Parkes David Piper	First o/a 2nd o/a 3rd o/a 5th o/a	First GT 2nd GT 3rd GT 5th GT
Bridgehampton 400Kms	Bob Grossman Charlie Hayes/Ed Hugus	2nd o/a 3rd o/a	First GT 2nd GT
Paris 1000Kms	Pedro RodrÍguez/Ricardo RodrÍguez John Surtees/Michael Parkes Jean Guichet/Pierre Noblet Lucien Bianchi/Willy Mairesse	First o/a 2nd o/a 4th o/a 5th o/a	First GT 2nd GT 4th GT 5th GT

Daytona 3 Hours	Pedro RodrÍguez Roger Penske	First o/a 2nd o/a	First GT 2nd GT
Sebring 12 Hours	Roger Penske/Augie Pabst Carlo Mario Abate/Juan-Manuel Bordeu Richie Ginther/Innes Ireland	4th o/a 5th o/a 6th o/a	First GT 2nd GT 3rd GT
Targa Florio	Maurizio Grana/Gianni Bulgari	4th o/a	First 3.0 GT
Spa 500Kms	Willy Mairesse Pierre Noblet Jo Siffert	First o/a 2nd o/a 3rd o/a	First GT 2nd GT 3rd GT
Nürburgring 1000Kms	Pierre Noblet/Jean Guichet	2nd o/a	First GT
Consuma hillclimb	Paolo Colombo	9th o/a	First 3.0 GT
Rossfeld hillclimb	Paolo Colombo	15th o/a	First 3.0 GT
Le Mans 24 Hours	‘Beurlys’/Gérald Langlois van Ophem Pierre Dumay/‘Eldé’	2nd o/a 4th o/a	First GT 2nd GT
Trophée d’Auvergne	Carlo Mario Abate	3rd o/a	First GT
Freiburg hillclimb	Carlo Mario Abate	11th o/a	First 3.0 GT
RAC Tourist Trophy	Graham Hill Michael Parkes	First o/a 2nd o/a	First GT 2nd GT
Ollon-Villars hillclimb	Carlo Mario Abate	5th o/a	First 3.0 GT
Coppa Inter-Europa	Michael Parkes	2nd o/a	First 3.0 GT
Tour de France	Jean Guichet/José Behra Lucien Bianchi/Carlo Mario Abate	First o/a 2nd o/a	First GT 2nd GT

1.1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe

2. 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 R streamliner

3. 1962 Ferrari 330 LM 250 GTO by Scaglietti

4. 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO

5. 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO

6. 1964 Ferrari 250 LM by Scaglietti

7. 1957 Ferrari 335 Sport Scaglietti

8. 1967 Ferrari 412P Berlinetta

9. 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196

10. 1956 Ferrari 290 MM

Mercedes 17.3-litre 150 HP ‘Brookland’ Semmering Rennwagen

Laurin & Klement Type S2 Sportswagen

Mercedes 22/40 HP ‘Colonial’ Double Phaeton

Benetton B191

Chevrolet Corvette SS Project XP-64

Ford GT40 Mk II

Spirit of America Sonic 1

Itala 120 HP Works Racing Car

Bugatti Type 35B Grand Prix

5. 917/10 Spyder

4. 959 Paris-Dakar

3. 911 GT1

2. 956

1. 917K

GTOs triumphant – 1962-63

Specification