If you thought Ford Vs. Ferrari told the entire story, think again. Long before Carroll Shelby became the king of Cobra and before Ken Miles went onto Le Mans glory in the mid-1960s, both men took the wheel of something unexpected a decade earlier: a Ferrari. In 1955, each took the wheel of a privately-entered 375 Plus Spyder, fielded by Tony Parravano. While, it wasn’t a Scuderia Ferrari car, it was red, loud, and deadly fast and for a brief moment, Shelby and Miles were part of the Prancing Horse’s story just not the way you’d expect.
Next month at the upcoming Monterey Car Week auction, RM Sotheby’s will offer one of the most significant Ferraris ever, driven by racing royalty: the 1955 Ferrari 375 Plus Spyder by Sutton which is estimated to fetch between $5.5 and $7.5 million.
Now this isn’t your typical concours car. It is a one-off racer with a dash of California hot-rod culture and Scuderia Ferrari bones. Chassis 0478 AM was born from Enzo’s biggest engine experiment of the 1950s, Aurelio Lampredi’s Tipo 113 4.9-liter V12, which was developed for long-distance endurance racing, and ideal for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the equally gruelling La Carrera Panamericana race that ran through the spine of Mexico.
While Ferrari built just eight chassis with this engine and one of only two Tipo 102 chassis built, this particular one was different as it was commissioned by California construction magnate Tony Parravano. The 375 Plus made its competition debut back in May 1955, with Jack McAfee scoring a podium in Santa Barbara.
The following month, McAfee lined up once again at Santa Rosa, though the car didn’t start. But it was Carroll Shelby, who took over in July that year, at the Seattle Seafair who truly lit the fuse, winning the main event, and later recalled:
“I drove that big 4.9 Ferrari of Tony’s at Seattle and won, and drove it again at Palm Springs and crashed. That Ferrari turned into being one of the best. It was the lightest, fastest Ferrari I ever knew.” – Carroll Shelby
His words also appeared in the October/November 2019 cover story in Cavallino magazine, penned by historian Alan Boe.
The great Ken Miles stepped in that September at Santa Barbara and he took third in the prelims but didn’t finish the main event. Then came Shelby’s high-speed crash at Palm Springs in December, which ended the car’s frontline run under Tony Parravano.
But the story of Chassis 0478 was far from over, because Frank Arciero, a local team boss with a knack for spotting talent, bought the car and sent it to Jack Sutton, a British aircraft metalworker turned racecar coachbuilder. Sutton’s alloy bodywork gave the Ferrari new life and better handling. Over the next four years, Bob Drake and Dan Gurney (over 17 instances) campaigned the car relentlessly on the West Coast circuit.
The Sutton-bodied 375 Plus became a fixture at several venues like Pomona, Riverside, Paramount Ranch, and Santa Barbara, scoring six overall victories, multiple second-place finishes, and even an impressive 176.913 mph run at Bonneville with Bob Drake behind the wheel.
Gurney’s dominant wins in 1957 and 1958, particularly the back-to-back victories at Paramount Ranch and Palm Springs, caught the eye of Ferrari’s U.S. importer, Luigi Chinett,i and eventually helped catapult Gurney’s career onto the famed Scuderia Ferrari F1 team.
After the car’s racing career ended in 1960, the Ferrari was acquired by casino magnate Bill Harrah, who displayed it in his Nevada museum for nearly 25 years. It then passed into the hands of a Swiss collector who restored it and ran it in four Mille Miglia Storicas. In 1996, the car became part of a private U.S. collection, where it has remained for nearly three decades, appearing only occasionally. Most notably, Dan Gurney himself, got back behind the wheel at Sonoma Raceway in 2000.
Still wearing its unique Sutton bodywork today, this 375 Plus continues to retains its matching-numbers chassis, engine, and rear axle and comes backed by a full history file compiled by Ferrari expert Marcel Massini.
To sum it up, if you are a Ferrari collector, Chassis 0478 offers unmatched provenance in spades, owing to its association with a long list of legendary names from the world of American motorsports. Shelby, Miles, Gurney, McAfee, and Drake all drove this exact machine in the period. Afterall, this is a machine that once dominated the field, and helped shape legends before the world knew their names. The current estimate sits between $5.5 – $7.5 million.
Source: @Darin Schnabel /RM Sothebys
