This May 20, an RM Sotheby’s auction in Cenobio (in the heart of Lake Como, Italy) is going to have a Ferrari as one of its great stars. And it is not a model that has rear tires wider than 30 cm, nor does it present better aerodynamics in the wind tunnel, nor does it resort to turbos in the engine or carbon fiber parts in its bodywork.
Extreme simplicity
In fact, any layman who sees it will think it’s nothing more than an old car with simplicity taken to extremes: a small size (it’s 3.78 meters long), a plate in the middle A set of dotted clocks that don’t even have a speedometer (and the rev counter is huge), two leather sofa-style chairs at home and a gear lever with gears indicated in Roman numerals. Because it doesn’t have it, it doesn’t even have a hood, because this car wasn’t designed to carry it. So why is it expected to sell for up to 5 million euros?
Of course, when the words ‘Ferrari’ and ‘classic’ come together, we can already start to think that what we’re looking at could be worth 100 times more than is visible to the naked eye . But, apart from that, in this case we are talking about the Ferrari 166, the sports car with which the Ferrari legend started competing. And that, of course, adds more zeros to the price tag.
V12 2.0 D 140CV
The 166 MM appeared at the 1949 Paris Motor Show and bears these last two letters in honor of the Mille Miglia won in 1948 by Clemente Biodetti at the controls of the 166 Sport. And although you look at it so simple, it became an infallible weapon on the circuit with its 140 hp 2-liter V12 engine, double exhaust pipes and competitive pistons in a 100-liter fuel tank.
The 166 MM, capable of exceeding a top speed of 200 km/h, managed Ferrari to win again at the 1949 Mille Miglia (what today would be called the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans . And again this model won the 1950 Mille Miglia.
Only 25 copies
The unit you are viewing is chassis 0024M, the tenth of 25 examples that were built with the Barchetta body, one of the most highly prized by collectors. And his ‘life’ was not easy even though he was successful.
It was painted white and blue at the 1949 Paris Motor Show as a tribute to the flag of Argentina, as was an automobile club from the country that commissioned it. He was sent to the South American country and made his debut there on January 15, 1950 with a victory in Mar de Plata under the control of Carlos Menditegue; It was the first time that Ferrari had won a race in South America.
It was then returned to Maranello and there it was sold to Luigi Francesco Zaccaria, who bought it only to run in the 1951 Mille Miglia (finishing eighth). After only ten days of racing it passed into the hands of April Palmer, who used it in the Coppa della Toscana on June 3, 1951, and in Susa-Moncenicio (July 21), finishing eleventh in the latter.
Sorry replacement
More Italian owners came, who always treated it as a mere tool and sold it when they no longer needed it. and in 1954 its then owner decided to replace the barchetta bodywork with another berlinetta (i.e., the closed and ‘turismo’ type). This was the beginning that pointed to the serious decline of the car, as in 1956 its next owner, already living in Los Angeles, removed the engine and gearbox and replaced it with a Chevrolet V8. In other words, the car no longer had the look or engine it had left the factory with.
Luckily, there comes a time when these very special cars are saved by someone who knows how to appreciate them and know what they will be worth in the future. In this case there were two of them, Stan Novak and Gary Schonwald, who bought it in 1974 and made it a difficult priority to find and buy the original engine and gearbox.
Renaissance’
And the next step in the return to its origins was made already in 1986 by Keith Method, who took the car from the United States to England to restore and hand-built a barchetta body identical to the original, which has always been Was lost for … Already in its basic version, the car has lived in Japan, back in the United States…
If you’re still wondering why this car could cost so much, the fact that the 166 was Ferrari’s genesis in competition is compounded by the fact that very few units were built. And besides, it is normal that it takes up to 10 years for a unit of the 166 MM Barchetta to come up for sale or auction. So you can already imagine how the billionaire collector must be waiting for the bidding to open as soon as possible.
