Monterey Car Week has one of the most extensive range of offerings of any motoring event around, from rallies and auto shows to concours events and road trips around the picturesque area. The memories you make there will stay with you for a lifetime. But for the lucky few the annual RM Sotheby’s Monterey Auction is the perfect place to take home something a bit more substantial like, say, this 1962 Ferrari 196 SP by Fantuzzi.
It is one of just five surviving examples of these Scuderia Ferrari Sports Prototypes built for the 1961-62 season and it comes with a fascinating history having competed in noteworthy events like the 1962 12 Hours of Sebring, Nürburgring 1000 KM and 1963 Nassau Speed Week.
This car is chassis number 0806, the second of two 2.4-liter 248 SP’s built, designed at a time when Ferrari was still experimenting with the ideal engine/chassis combinations for the various racing events they were competing in. It underwent two subsequent engine modifications, the first a capacity increase to 2.6-liters and then another one down to a 2.0-liter configuration, which it retains to this day. Weighing just 1460 pounds and producing 210hp, the 196 SP was and still is a rapid machine and it proved its mettle on the world’s racing circuits in its day.
This particular car achieved moderate success when raced as part of Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team and under the Scuderia Ferrari banner in a handful of European events whereafter it then passed through a number of collectors and amateur racing drivers such as Doug Thiem, Pierre Bardinon, Fabrizio Violati, and Rob Walton. In a few weeks a new owners name will be added to that list.
Chassis 0806 underwent a complete mechanical and cosmetic restoration at the turn of the century while part of Walton’s impressive collection and is a matching numbers example offered with a comprehensive history file and Ferrari Classiche certification. Having been awarded the Best in Class prize for race cars from 1956–1964 at the 2010 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, it remains in pristine Concours condition and is also mechanically spot-on to take on a variety of historic racing events. Just like the Monterey Car Week, this slice of Ferrari history is not to be missed.
Images courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
