Last movie car of the day: Ferrari in "The Racers"

IMCDb.org: "The Racers, 1955": cars, bikes, trucks and other vehicles

will give you most of what you wish to know.

Paul M

 

Ah yes know this car well! It truly has a exciting story. I will do my best to fill in all the blanks with help and excerpts from others.... also some recent Mille/dog fight racing footage .

Some call it the most Beautiful Ferrari to ever perform in a Holly wood film. The sleek lines of the 1953 Ferrari Tipo 166MM epitomize the notion of automotive beauty, especially when we see the red racer hurtling through the verdant countryside in the 1954 film The Racers. But this was not some replica made to look good through film slight of hand.

It appears that chassis no. 0272m is one of two 166MMs whose bodies were designed by Ferrari in-house, and constructed by Carrozzeria Autodromo of Modena, Italy.


On March 21, 1953, Dr. Alberico Cacciari, Pinnazzo di Castelfranco, paid 2,750,000 Italian Lire ( $ 1,230) for this fast Ferrari. The sleek Spyder immediately began its racing career, as Enzo intended. Its second race was the 1953 Mille Miglia where it finished 56th overall and a very credible third in class. Cacciari's co-driver was R.H. Bill Mason, who today is best known for being the father of Nick Mason of Pink Floyd fame For the rest of the year Cacciari entered a string of races with such delicious-sounding names as Coppa Braccini, Saline-Volterra, Coppa d'Oro Siricusa and the supercortemaggior sports car race in Merano.

Thanks to the optimism of Hollywood writers, this 166MM was portrayed as the winner of the Mille Miglia in 1954. The car was shipped to Hollywood so Kirk Douglas and Cesar Romero could be filmed in it against a blue screen. Apparently, front-end makeovers were popular in Hollywood even back in the '50s. Such was the fate of No. 0272M, along with a tacked-on external exhaust for its movie role as a "Spyder Burano".

Faithful to the Hollywood love 'em and leave 'em tradition, after filming, Twentieth Century Fox had no use for our star or any of the other race cars. Tom Carstens of Tacoma, Washington, purchased the 166MM and the rest of the Burano team cars in order to acquire an HMW single-seater after which he lusted. He arranged for his talented driving friend, Pete Lovely of Seattle, to take No. 0272M off his hands for a mere $ 2,800.

Lovely campaigned the car in several West Coast races, back when cars were driven to the track, raced, and then driven home.

In 1958, Nick Reynolds of the Kingston Trio owned the car. Communing across the Golden Gate Bridge, Reynolds was frequently stopped by the local constabulary for headlights that were too low. Tired of the harassment, he had the nose altered to bring the offending beams up to regulation height.

Both in the hands of the works drivers and privateers the 166MM proved to be a very commendable racer, with a large number of class and overall victories. The most famous of these victories was scored at Le Mans in 1949, where Ferrari scored a victory the first time out. The winning car was entered by Lord Selsdon, but the later North American Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti did most of the driver, 23 hours to be precise. The only reason Lord Selsdon took the helm of his Ferrari was to apply with the regulations.

The 166MM was a big success on and off the track and contributed greatly to metamorphosis of the Scuderia Ferrari racing team to a full fledge manufacturer of road and racing cars. After being abandoned for a number of years, the Colombo engine was revived and would form the basis of the 250 GT series power plant, which had an identical bore as the 166MM engine.

Recently we have raced prepped/retrofitted and been on site support for 0272. Continually takes a working vacation back to the Mille Miglia to do what she does best.

Today s/n 0272M is the sole survivor of the two Autodromo Spyders; its sister car recieved a Fantuzzi designed body similar to the Touring Barchettas and is currently undergoing its certification process here with us at Redline Restorations.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8c1-58mOyk[/ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=RGRV9gSSkLY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=1HVLuIIUDEA

 

Yes, I know that Hans Tanner said the body was by Autodromo, but when in my custody, I asked Pete Coltrin (journalist living in Modena) to inquire, and all the Autodromo employees denied EVER making a car body. They made only bus and truck bodies. As far as I'm concerned, the body maker is still a mystery. Here are pix from the early 70's.
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On that youtube video above, Did you see how close he came to hitting that oncoming car!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's in the first 5 seconds of the video!

 

His wife was riding along shotgun! trust me he did not hear the end of it.

 

I vaguely recall Pete Lovely telling me about this car. He didn't really know it was the car used in "The Racers" until he saw the movie, and in particular the scene where the battery in the trunk was shown boiling over. His car had the same false compartment in the trunk, not where the battery would normally be located. Ahhhh, that explains it!

 

As presented by Redline Restoration - 2011 Best of Show - Le Belle Macchine d'Italiaocono.
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Is that Bernie Ecclestone in the plaid shirt?

 

Great photo! Who hit the warp 9? 2 yrs have past since...?!

 

It seems quite clear that the "Autodromo" bodies were built by Ferrari. Scaglietti may have been involved as there is an old interview where he says he built a few bodied in 1953, which weren't exactly very pretty. I have always linked this story to the "Autodromos" three of which were built around April 1953.

 

I gave myself a Christmas present this year. My daughter gave me an Amazon gift card and, while looking for an appropriately racy (in the go-fast-in-cars sense) movie, I came upon The Racers. It is only available in VCR tape (the DVD version on Amazon is in Spanish format and cannot be played in the U.S.). I got a ex-rental tape for around 40 bucks. Others are available from $39 (used) to $119 (New).
I saw the movie at a drive-in while in high school (1955). I loved it then and I love it now. The story is typical sappy Hollywood but the racing footage is wonderful. I was working in a lumber yard in those days to keep gas in my Mustang racing motorcycle (quarter-mile dirt) so I didn't get to Monaco, Spa, Nurburgring and the Mille Miglia. This old movie is as close as most of us will ever get.
Sadly, while searching the net for information on the cars, I looked up Kirk Douglas: age 97, (suffered stroke in 1996)and Bella Darvi. She was Polish (real name Bayla Wegier, born 1928). From her pictures, it seems she really was beautiful. Acting, however, was not her strongest point. She was discovered in a French sidewalk cafe by Darryl Zanuck. Her screen name is a combination of "Dar-" (for Darryl) and "-vi" (for his wife Virginia). After a series of minor roles in minor pictures, she had to sell her jewelry and clothes to pay gambling debts. She died by her own hand (head in gas stove) in Monte Carlo, age 42.
Buy the movie. You will be transported to the European Racing Circuit, c. 1955. Not a bad deal for $39.
Buzz (500 F2)

 

I just watched the movie on youtube, the quality is a bit grainy but hey it was free! It's a great car movie worth watching.

 

I would doubt it, but after your post, I looked again and think it is amazing how much it looks like it could be.

 

Does anyone own an English DVD copy of this? I would be interested in purchasing it, or somehow making a copy if someone has a VHS? Thanks!

 

How about that, just did that two days ago. It's standard def. and grainy. I'll check it again and send it if it's worth while. It'll take a couple of days, send me your info email. [email protected]

 

The two videos are great.Having owned a Ferrari in Italy for 4 years and put on a lot of kilometers on in Italy and Sicily, the driver in the open road segment showed excellent skills in his diving.Anyone who gets a chance to drive a Ferrari in Italy will find it an unforgetable experience.Don"t miss it.As far as I know it has never been established where there bodies were designed or built. Scaglietti,Carrozzeria, and Autodromo may or may not have been involved with the body work in addition to work done at the factory. Feb 18, 1953 the chassis was completed, the engine was completed Jan 25 1953 and there is a date on the steering box of June 2 1953. The C.O.issued March 3 1953 the same date the car of was sold to Dr Alberto Cacciari of Pnnazzo di Castelfranco for lire 2,750.000 or US$ 1230.Filming started during the Mille Miglia in early May of 1954 and then the car was shipped to California in July to finish off the filming. The rest of the provenance is shown ,but only in part, on the Barchetta pages. I have numerous additional notes going up to June of 2011. tongascrew

 

A Pete Lovely story from the era: (who I worked for years ago)

note: Pete was rather infamous for his dislike of trailers being pulled by vehicles. Thus why his later years when racing Formula 1 he had the VW flatbed transporter with the Lotus 49B on the back -- and the first days of vintage racing when he had the Williams F1's on other VW flatbed transporters. At one point there were three VW flatbeds hauling F1 racecars down the Interstate! His first "open trailer" ever was purchased just before the Phoenix F1 race when he brought the Lotus 49B for a vintage exhibition there behind his Vanagon "box" as none of us had time to go with and drive the '59 VW transporter)

Remember in the 50's/60's, Interstate 5 through central and southern Oregon wasn't the route that it is today. Thus Pete's usual trip route was to turn in Portland onto 26 over Mt. Hood to Bend and through Klamath Falls. (semi-trucks still take this route today to avoid snow and the passes in southern Oregon)

There are many famous stories as told by Pete over the years about driving the racecars to an event taking this route. Usually a station wagon with gear was following. Whomever was driving would zoom down the highway and before pulling off the highway would downshift a gear to get the engine and floorboards/firewall as hot as possible. At this point you'd pull onto the side of the road and crawl beneath the dash and pull a blanket over oneself. You'd usually get a good nap in before getting cold or until the crew came along and you swapped drivers. Just keep rotating as you dealt with the cold weather until in Sacramento / San Francisco.

One thing a lot of people in the era couldn't figure out was why Pete was so fast at times. Usually he had 800-1000 miles in the racecar the prior two days -- and the new wheel bearings he inevitably had installed/adjusted in Seattle were inevitably a bit more free moving by race day...

From what I remember, he did the above trip three times with this particular Ferrari before he sold it to get something faster. He did it numerous times in various other racecars over the years as well. It's a "typical Pete" story to be honest.

note: Pete saw the movie "The Racers" in Seattle at the premiere itself. I heard the story numerous times over the years. From what I remember, Tom just wasn't 100% sure of exactly what all the cars were when he actually did the deal! Pete just thought he was getting a good deal on a potentially fast racecar and was happy with what he ended up getting.

 

An illustration for the last post (sorry for the hijack from "The Racers"). Hi, M!
(picture credit to Jeff B., taken at an Open House Day at Pete Lovely Volkswagen in Fife, Wa., c. 1988?)
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That's just great. Thanks for posting!