Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]

Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]
Rotunda Car - Ferrari Testa Rossa 290 MM/250 TR [1956]

List of Owners
1956 : Scuderia Ferrari
1957 : Equipe Nationale Belge/Ecurie Francorchamps
1958-59 : Scuderia Ferrari
1959-61 : Jean Louis Lacerda (via Chico Landi)
1961-62 : Aguinildo Goes (via Jean Louis Soares)
1962-86 : Camillo Chritófaro
1986-91 : Stefano Sebastiani
1991-2003 : John Godfrey & Estate
2003-to date : Michael Malone

‘This Ferrari sports racing car has lived a number of lives, initially as a Ferrari works-entered 290 MM model during the 1956 racing season. It was then used by ENP/EF in Belgium for the 1957 season, then returned to the factory which loaned it out a couple of times during 1958, when it was believed to have been used as a development/test car. In 1959 the 290 MM 4-cam V12 engine was replaced by a 2-cam V12 Testarossa power unit when the car was sold to Brazil as a ‘new’ 250 Testarossa.

There it was raced between 1960 and 1962 until it was the victim of a major accident which cut the car in half, with the unfortunate driver perishing in the incident.

The undamaged rear part of the car formed the basis of an American V8 engined special, which was raced successfully through the sixties until considered no longer competitive when it was put to one side. It lay untouched minus its engine (used for another project) for a number of years before being discovered by an English domiciled Italian in 1986 and then brought to the UK.

He thought that he had the remains of another 250 Testarossa, chassis #0726, which had also been involved in a major accident; during the late eighties it was reconstructed as that car. It was sold to an English owner in 1991 who did more detailed research and established that in fact it was chassis #0606 and that it had been incorrectly rebuilt as chassis #0726 TR. Unfortunately he passed away before being able to do anything about ‘righting the wrongs’ and the current owner purchased it from his estate in 2003.

He eventually decided to get those wrongs righted, and entrusted it to Neil Twyman Ltd to return it the specification with which it had last left the Ferrari factory in 1959 and restore it to a livery as raced in Brazil in the early sixties. After four years of intensive research and labour the car is as presented today.’

[Introduction, Ferrari 290 MM/250 TR, chassis #0606: la storia by Keith Bluemel, 2019]

Displayed courtesy of Mr. Malone from Tuesday 27th August to Wednesday 4th September 2019.