Why? Truthfully there were a lot of rumors but the real answer he took to his grave. Only a handful of the cars from the 50's through to the late 80's wound up in museums or private hands. Many were simply destroyed unlike his sports racing cars which he seemed to have a greater passion for. The British teams like Lotus and Cooper in the 50's and 60's especially would sell many F1 cars to customers but Ferrari never did sell any F1 cars to a customer. Sports cars yes F1 cars no.

Now with the clienti program Ferrari will sell their cars but they still maintain control by servicing them and sending mechanics to support them when they are displayed as part of the contract.

Humm.

Like Dominique Francon destroying the statuette in the movie The Fountainhead – because others did not deserve to have it. Or Steven Mallory (sculptor from the original book) who thought the greater sin was actually people seeing it, but not understanding the true beauty of it.

Curvhog......is that the Gurney Weslake V12 car in your avatar? Sure looks like it.

wilmywood8455 - 22 October 2009 08:33 PM

Curvhog......is that the Gurney Weslake V12 car in your avatar? Sure looks like it.

Yes. If I had a wide angle lens just to the right Dan was seated with his wife doing autographs and pictures. This was several years ago at a vintage race weekend honoring him at Sears Point.

I think that car was from his collection but there is another owned by I think Lou Sellyei that AAR restored which ran at the Monterey Historics in 2006 with Bobby Rahal driving. In a field that was primarily Cosworths the sound of the V12 was unreal.

http://www.allamericanracers.com/wine_country_classic.html

ipso - 22 October 2009 02:51 PM

I’ll bite – why would Enzo purposefully have his cars destroyed?!

Stanley Kubrick had all his original 2001 A Space Odyssey spaceship models destroyed at the end of production because he was afraid the studio would churn out cheap copies – which ultimately they did, much later – but they were forced to build everything from scratch.

I believe you; I just can’t imagine a reason why Enzo would purposefully destroy a car.

Ferrari often scrapped cars and/or used the parts for other cars. I know it sounds crazy, but Enzo Ferrari had no particular attachment to his cars. If they won, fine. If they didn't, he had even fewer qualms about getting rid of them.

For Ferrari, racing was a business. Keeping old cars around or selling them to people who might come back looking for spares cost more than it was worth, so those early cars were scrapped when they were no longer useful.

Ditto Greywolf. Most were "destroyed" in the terms that they were stripped for usable parts, including aluminum body panels and the bare chassis tossed on the scrap pile. Most of the race cars that survived were those that passed into "private" hands while still actively competing. (most extant sports ferrari racing cars in particular left factory ownership in this manner). A few decades ago I worked in a resto shop where we rebuilt and serviced several such cars. Components like suspension uprights, gearboxes etc (primarily cast parts) had many serial number overstampings on them. When --and if-- "deciphered" these showed exactly which race car they had been previously used on. Some parts had been on 5-6 different cars through the years. The only time he truly "cared" about a car was when it was actively racing ...recall the translated quote " ... and the car?" While we've derailed here, let me share my favorite Ferarri story. '63 Lusso in for resto for the original owner. during rust repairs I discover two different serial numbers written on the interior body shell panels. The front half is one car, the back half another. This car was bought new from Ferrari. Its back half was from one of the first Lussos built, documented as having been totaled by its French owner within a couple months of his taking possession. Imagine a manufacturer pulling that stunt today--clipping a wreck to build a new car--ouch the lawsuit! That's my take on how he regarded cars--including out of date race cars--a pile of metal parts from which to keep the operation rolling and continue racing. Results mattered--metal didn't.