One to Buy: 1 of 2 ex-JMB Racing 2003 Ferrari 550 GTC
/
In 2001, Ferrari made a successful return to Grand Touring competition when the Michelotto-developed 360 Modena campaigned by JMB Racing won the junior Team and Driver titles of that year’s FIA GT Championship.
Around this time, Ferrari’s interest in tackling the premier category was piqued by Prodrive’s immensely fast 550 Maranello which rapidly became the car to beat in the senior class.
Perhaps out of patriotism, rather than team up with Prodrive, Ferrari elected to commission N.Technology over in Milan to further develop the 550 GTC project started by Italtecnica.
Two copies of the N.Technology-built 550 GTC subsequently emerged during 2003, both of which were loaned to JMB Racing for that season’s FIA GT Championship. On January 28th, one of those two cars, chassis 2102, will be going under the hammer at RM Sotheby’s Paris sale.
In four outings, the undoubted highlight of chassis 2102’s brief career was leading the Spa 24 Hours for a quarter of the race. Unfortunately, engine failure ruled Fabio Babini, Philipp Peter and Boris Derichebourg out of a famous victory.
In its other three appearances, 2102 placed 19th overall (tenth in class) on its Donington debut, 19th overall at Anderstorp (eighth in class) and then failed to start on its final outing at Oschersleben owing to engine failure. After the Oschersleben event, JMB Racing switched to the brand new 575 GTC.
Having returned to Ferrari, chassis 2102 was then sold to Piero Nappi who used the car to win the GTM class of 2005’s Italian Hillclimb Championship. During a decade of competition, Nappi went on to rack up 40 class wins driving 2102 up Italy’s unforgiving mountain courses.
Following its acquisition by a new owner in 2017, chassis 2102 was sympathetically restored back to its 2003 Spa livery while the engine and gearbox were rebuilt. In March 2021, the 550 GTC, which retains its matching-numbers chassis, engine, and gearbox, was awarded Ferrari Classiche certification.
More recently, the car’s current custodian had Italtecnica recommission chassis 2102. Afterwards it completed a series of shakedown tests with Andrea Montermini behind the wheel prior to making an appearance at Ferrari’s Imola-based Finali Mondiali celebrations in October 2024.
