One to Buy: ex-Maranello Concessionaires / David Piper 1967 Ferrari 412 P
Ferrari created two top flight Group 6 Prototypes for the 1967 season which would be the last year for these epic unlimited engined leviathons before the FIA imposed a three-litre limit to curtail speeds.
The 330 P4 was intended for use by Scuderia Ferrari and ran a 36 valve fuel-injected motor while the 412 P was a less complex version with a 24 valve carb-fed unit destined for the Italian firm’s distributor teams.
Four examples of the 412 P emerged from the racing department in Maranello, two of which were rebuilt from 1966 cars while the other pair were brand new. The rebuilt cars went to Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team (0844) and Scuderia Filipinetti (0848). The brace of brand new machines were sold to Ecurie Francorchamps (0850) and Maranello Concessionaires (0854).
Together they played an important role in helping Ferrari secure the 1967 International Championship for Sports Prototypes.
As a consequence of their great rarity, unmatched beauty and enormous value, the opportunity to acquire a Ferrari P car from this golden era of motor racing are few and far between. However, Bonhams’ Quail Lodge auction on August 18th will see one of these exceptional Ferraris go under the hammer.
Chassis 0854 was the 412 P delivered to British Ferrari distributor Maranello Concessionaires. It was driven to third overall and second in class at the 1967 Spa 1000km (Richard Attwood / Lucien Bianchi), posted a DNF at the Le Mans 24 Hours owing to oil starvation (Richard Attwood / Piers Courage) and then placed seventh overall at the Brands Hatch 6 Hours (Richard Attwood / David Piper).
Piper subsequently purchased 0854 and continued to run it in non-championship events until mid 1969 at which point the car was sold to Chris Cord who used it on the street.
Today the car is offered in superb condition throughout with matching numbers chassis, engine, gearbox and even the original bodywork.
Reprinted below is Bonhams’ partial description for this rare opportunity to buy one of the finest and most desirable Ferraris in existence:
Chassis no. 0854
Engine no. 0854
Driven in 1967 to 3rd Place at the 1000kms of Spa (Attwood/Bianchi); at Le Mans (Attwood/Courage); and 7th Place at Brands Hatch (Siffert/Piper)
Secured vital Championship points for Ferrari to win in 1967
Winner of the 1968 Nuremberg 200km, Solituderennen and Swedish Grand Prix (Piper)
Unique and Spectacular Competition Ferrari
Icon of beauty and performance from Ferrari's Sports-Prototype Racing Heyday
Matching numbers chassis, engine, gearbox and original bodywork
The subject of an exacting nine-year restoration
Road legal, registered and regularly exercised
THE CAR OFFERED
In an era so perfectly encapsulated by Sir Jackie Stewart as being 'when sex was safe and racing was dangerous', Ferrari and Fantuzzi, aided by the Maranello marque's genius inhouse stylist Edmondo Casoli - aka the 'father of the 250GTO' created one of the most sexy, most beautiful pieces of performance engineering of all time. The 330P3/P4 and 412P cars represented the absolute zenith in a meeting of minds between stunning aesthetics and purpose in design before aerodynamic structures saw car bodies conform to what became the angular 'wedge' era. It is no exaggeration to say that cars such as this remarkably voluptuous, curvilinear 412P offered today could be the most beautiful competition car of all time.
This individual Ferrari - chassis serial '0854' - harnesses every perfect ingredient you could wish for - known history, including top level period racing, a succession of internationally renowned car collecting luminaries upon its ownership roster, thorough authenticity of components and even its bodywork, and an exceptionally high-quality restoration placing it in both immaculate cosmetic order, and road usable condition.
It is a landmark car from the most hallowed era of racing of the most coveted brand name in motoring history.
0854
With Ford moving from an annoyance to a serious rival, and Porsche resurgent Enzo Ferrari hedged his bets for the sports car 1967 World Championship of Makes, by running a works team, but also supplying a pair of customer cars to his closest allies in his strongest markets in Europe, Jacques Swaters' Ecurie Francorchamps and Ronnie Hoare's Maranello Concessionaires. Those cars were normally aspirated, 24 valve versions of the 330 P4, which in preference to the designation of 4 liters by the single capacity of one cylinder '330', were sold under the more simple distinction of 412, standing for 4 liters, 12 cylinders. They gave up a modest 30hp to the works entered fuel-injected 330s and were otherwise indistinguishable aesthetically.
RACING CAREER
Ronnie Hoare's team took delivery of 0854 in the spring of 1967, and had it liveried in his preferred scheme of a light Cambridge Blue stripe and tail over the Rosso Corsa body, if it was possible to do anything to make these cars look better, this was certainly it! The readied car was trucked to Belgium's Spa Circuit for the first race in World Sports Car Championship on May 1st. For Spa, Hoare elected to use noted British racer, Richard Attwood paired with Lucien Bianchi. Bianchi's Italian origin and adopted Belgian nationality made him a particularly appropriate pilot for the Ferrari. Bianchi brought with him a wealth of sportscar experience, with highlights having included winning the Sebring 12 hours in 1961.
Dry during practice, the historic undulating public road circuit in the forests of the Ardennes hills was wet for much of the race, compounding teething troubles for the cars. After an inauspiciously delayed start from carburetor starving issues - due to the steeply sloping start line area - which set 0854 back some three minutes behind the pack, Attwood and Bianchi were able to endure changing conditions aided by new Firestone wet weather tires, charging through the pack to run as high as second overall, before falling back one place.
Although unable to catch the nimble works Porsche 910 in second place, Richard Attwood brought this privately entered Ferrari home ahead of the Works 330 P4, in third place. And with that the Maranello Concessionaires team secured a valuable 3 points for the marque in its campaign for the year's World Championship.
In the 44th Anniversary race at Le Mans, Attwood was again tasked by Colonel Hoare to drive 0854 paired this time with fellow British driver Piers Courage. Mr. Ferrari had provided an upgrade of their new transaxles for the privateer cars also, so 0854 was perfectly aligned with the Works cars in this regard.
With the ever-present aim to finish above all, qualifying was cautious for Maranello Concessionaires and it would be to 17th, just behind the Gulf Mirages that Attwood would run from the drop of the flag. Lapping consistently and reliably for at least the first 12 hours, and by then up to 8th place, as dawn broke on the morning of June 11th, 0854 was becoming increasingly thirsty for oil, it becoming apparent that there was an issue with the oil pump which brought the Concessionaires' participation to an end late in the 13th hour.
Closing out the season for the World Championship of Makes was the Brands Hatch 6-hours race, in which British privateer David Piper would make his acquaintance with 0854, beginning a partnership that would last for the following two or three years. Piper and Richard Attwood brought 0854 home in a respectable 7th place after some delays.
Most intriguingly, those World Championship points secured by 0854 at Spa then proved to have raised Ferrari's overall 34, ahead of Porsche's total of 32. Enzo Ferrari's wise privateer plan had worked, securing his company's last World Championship win until 1972, and then only that once again ever.
As the Championship season drew to a close, Hoare decided not to continue running his racing team into 1968, due largely to adverse regulation changes, and he elected to part with 0854. Long-term private owner/driver David Piper was the logical purchaser and he chose the car with relish paying the princely sum of £15,000 for her.
As he would later recall - "The car was very nice to drive, very reliable, very fast indeed and I really enjoyed some wonderful dices in it. Of all the cars I owned and raced, I still regard it as a real favourite..."
A final 1967 European outing for 0854 came in the Paris 1000kms of Montlhéry, where on the banked circuit Piper paired up with Swiss Formula 1 driver Jo Siffert. The car's new ownership change had dictated a color change, and with Piper's British Petroleum sponsorship 0854 was resprayed 'BP' green albeit retaining the number 9 it had worn at Brands Hatch. True to form another dry start faded into wet weather racing and 0854 came home 5th and 2nd in Class.
Over the course of the 1968 and 1969 sports cars racing seasons, David Piper energetically campaigned 0854. Fortuitously for us today, he thought that the prospect of repairing the complicated aluminum bodywork might keep him off the track for extended periods and consequently he elected to replace it with glassfiber molded body panels. Remarkably, despite their scale the original tail and doors would survive through its later ownerships, but more on that later. Outright wins were secured at the 1968 Nuremberg 200 Kilometers at the Norisring, at the Solituderennen at Hockenheim and at the Swedish Grand Prix.
As a professional racer, David Piper chased any earning opportunities to compete on the track and into the European winter of 1968-9 he simply shipped the Ferrari off to South Africa and continued to race there, in what was known as the international Springbok Series.
As with any car that was driven extensively and consistently to its absolute limits, the 412P gained a few battle scars. David Pipe had long-since run the car in open cockpit Spider-bodied barchetta form, which proved a literally cooler alternative when racing in South Africa. Co-driving it with Richard Attwood, Piper finished 3rd in the Cape Town 3-Hours and 2nd in the matching Pietermatizburg race before in the January 1969 East London 500kms a minor collision sparked an unfortunate fire. Period images show the car to have sustained considerable aesthetic damage, however, some measure of the man and the damage can be judged from the fact that within a matter of months, 0854 was rebuilt and Piper resumed racing it after campaigning his own Lola T70GT plus works-entered Porsche 917 and Ferrari 312Ps in Europe.
The car reappeared at the Norisring in June 1969 sporting bright red barchetta bodywork, now with a broadened tail section. On that occasion Piper finished 8th and 0854 also contested the Solituderennen at Hockenheim, which he had won the previous year. This would be the last occasion that Piper would race the car, wearing race number 1. After promising runs in practice, he failed to finish. Of course, David Piper is best known for his involvement in Steve McQueen's Le Mans movie project, filming for which began shortly after he parted company with 0854.
POST RACING OWNERSHIP
At the end of 1969, Piper sold 0854 to its first US owner, Chris Cord of Philadelphia. It was a natural fit, Cord was steeped in the passion we all share for cars and literally had it in his blood as he was the grandson of E.L. Cord of the eponymous Cord company and Duesenberg fame. He was also stepson of Ned Doheny, the west coast oil baron and financier of Ernie McAfee. Over the years, the 412P was one of many important Ferraris he owned, including a Sunoco 512S, 250 GT0 and 250 LM.
Naturally, Cord did something with 0854 that many of its later owners including the current vendor have chosen to do, he put the car on the road, apparently modifying its bodywork to a roadster style and smoking it around the roads of Pennsylvania for the next couple of years - no doubt raising some eyebrows in the process!
From Chris Cord 0854 passed through the hands of famed local dealer Kirk White to the Michigan collector Carl Bross, who owned her only briefly, as he passed in 1971, shortly after buying the car. A jewelry dealer by trade, today Bross is credited as having been one of the first to have the foresight to collect and trade historic Ferrari, Maserati and other cars, perhaps understanding intrinsic value as he did for jewels and the potential for earning from them. On his death all of Bross's cars were sold to Anthony Bamford, at that point returning the 412P to British ownership, in fact into the very same stable that the Maranello Concessionaires' 1964 250 GTO was already residing within, as it does to this day. Resting with Bamford for a dozen years, the car returned to the USA in 1983, passing through racer/dealer Harley Cluxton to Jarold Evans of San Francisco.
In the first market boom of the late 1980s, 0854 migrated even further afield to Japan, becoming the property of noted collector and serial entrepreneur Hajime Tanaka. Tanaka's wealth stemmed from the hugely lucrative golf industry in Japan, where golf course memberships could be so expensive that the locals preferred to play outside of the country! Ferrari 412P chassis 0854 made the perfect showpiece for his TI Circuit (literally Tanaka International) which he built at Okayama, which would later host the Formula 1 Pacific Grand Prix races of 1994-95.
The collapse of the Japanese economy saw many significant cars there trickle back to the West and brought 0854 back into enthusiastic British ownership in the hands of sometime Maranello Concessionaires customer Sir Paul Vestey. In his custody the car was routinely enjoyed and seen at a variety of events in the UK, not least runs up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 1996 and at the Silverstone Historic Festival in 1997. To experience the car whenever he chose, he added cooling fans and took the car to the British equivalent of Motor Vehicle and had it registered for the road. While with him it was chosen to represent the anniversary of Ferrari in a feature in 'Motor Sport' Magazine, being piloted by Andrew Frankel, now of Intercooler.
American enthusiasm led recovery of the collector car market was lead in the USA and saw the 412P cross the Atlantic once more in 1997 heading to Seattle to live first with John McCaw and later with brother Bruce McCaw. In 2005, as the current owner's fascination with Ferrari, and the 1967 season in particular, was growing, he negotiated the purchase of 0854 - placing it in singularly appropriate custody in which it has been cherished ever since.
A fanatical purist and one with a perfectionist's eye for the details, the current owner elected to restore 0854 to its final racing guise within Maranello Concessionaires' ownership, as in the Brands Hatch 6-Hours race in July 1967. Through the extensive contacts and resources available to him, he presided over an exacting restoration, most importantly returning the majority of its original bodywork, including its numbered expansive tail section, doors and nose to the car. In doing so, the car is exactly as finally campaigned for Ronnie Hoare, for the most part wearing original bodywork upon its matching chassis, engine and gearbox. In this respect it is believed to be unique among surviving 'P' cars.
On completion in 2015, the 412P was shown here at The Quail in 2015 and more recently at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance also in 2019, where it received the 'ArtCenter College of Design Award'.
A TECHNICAL APPRECIATION
To gaze at the 412P today is an exercise in archeology as much as an appreciation of its beauty, its restoration is stunning and yet has left visible signs of its pedigree. The holes drilled to allow additional leather straps to secure its tail are still present, the aluminum of the driver's door is patched over where the illuminating light would have been at Le Mans, and a small area of the original paintwork is still visible teleporting one back to Brands Hatch '67.
And yet for all its beauty and authenticity, this is no show queen, it is road registered, passes inspection and has plates on it. If you happened to be at Lime Rock Park one day, or the Greenwich Concours and you saw 0854 it would without a doubt have been driven there and home again. To assist with such journeys, within the restoration a fan was added to the original vent into the cockpit providing some vital cooling when in use.
THE OPPORTUNITY
It is often said that we are only custodians of these cars and with many new projects including successive campaigns seeking modern-day success at Le Mans, and also manufacturing cars, 0854 is being used less frequently leading to the owner's decision to part with her. This resolution provides the most incredible moment of focus for collectors, the very real chance to own one of the best examples of an absolutely mythical period for Ferrari.
In this incredible year which saw Ferrari sports car racing reborn with the magnificent 100th Anniversary Le Mans win, here is a reminder of that previous chapter of dominance. The 1967 season's Ferrari fleet of 330 P4, and 330 P3/4 or 412P cars have long been regarded as the Maranello marque's crème de la crème in competition terms. Always coveted and held in the utmost tiers of Ferrari ownership in every respect this is a Ferrari of epic stature and one absolutely not to be missed.
