Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Ferrari’s Forgotten Foray into the Indy 500
Transcript
- 0:00As part of Ferrari Fridays, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will
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- 1:54We got a lot of cool stuff happening, so onward.
- 1:56It is the month of May.
- 1:58And what are you talking about?
- 1:59In the month of May, the Indy 500.
- 2:01Let's talk about Ferrari's relationship with the Indy 500, as short as it may be,
- 2:06but interesting I guess you could say.
- 2:08Now, those of you that don't follow F1 all that closely, or maybe it's history,
- 2:13maybe you follow it now because of the Netflix series, drive to Survive,
- 2:17which I watch, you know, it's brought in a lot of new F1 fans definitely.
- 2:20But.
- 2:21Yeah, I don't know how many of these fans are actually then looking into
- 2:23the history of performing the one, which they should definitely should
- 2:25because the history's awesome, and your fifties and sixties and seventies is
- 2:30just, and the eighties is just cool and nineties, so the history is really cool.
- 2:33But anyways, for those of you that aren't all that familiar, between 1925 and 1928.
- 2:39More recently, 1950 to 1960, the Indianapolis 500 was actually
- 2:44part of the F1 World Championship.
- 2:46You could score points to go towards the championship at the Indy 500 racing Unit.
- 2:51No one really did for coming over from Europe, and one of the really
- 2:54only reasons that they included that.
- 2:57In.
- 2:58It was, the fact was that way they could say, Hey, we are a world championship.
- 3:02You know?
- 3:02So they could say they have races on all these continents because
- 3:04they didn't have one at that point yet in the United States.
- 3:06But they needed to have something to kind of, I guess, justify their title.
- 3:10They said, well, let's just include the Indy 500 it, but no one raced it.
- 3:13No, especially now, no one does because it always falls on the
- 3:16same weekend as the Grand Prix.
- 3:17Back then it did not.
- 3:19There was really no issues with it.
- 3:20I mean, I guess I should take that back.
- 3:22Maybe there was a little bit of issue.
- 3:23'cause the way qualifying was back in the day, you know, qualifying used to happen
- 3:27over multiple weeks for the Indy 500.
- 3:29You know, they condensed it way down this day and age just to
- 3:32kind of reduce costs in that.
- 3:33But back in the day, you know, you had.
- 3:35You're qualifying bump day car.
- 3:37You had all these things.
- 3:38So I mean, it was pretty hectic.
- 3:39And you had the month of May was for the Indy 500.
- 3:42You know, now you have like three races for IndyCar in the month of May.
- 3:45Now.
- 3:45It used to be, it was only the Indy 500.
- 3:47'cause you had practice, you had qualifying, you had bump
- 3:50day, you had all these things.
- 3:51So a little bit different.
- 3:53We're not so much worried about 19 25, 9 28.
- 3:55'cause you know, that was kind of a very, very different time in F1.
- 3:58I don't wanna say in in its infancy, so to speak.
- 4:00'cause it really wasn't so much, there really wasn't an F1 world championship.
- 4:04Let's just say 1950.
- 4:051960 is what we're gonna focus on more.
- 4:08'cause that's when, you know, really had the F1 world championship and
- 4:11that's the time when, you know, Ferrari was getting rather dominant.
- 4:14In Formula One, they wanted to have some representation over here.
- 4:18'cause one, hey, it is part of World Championship, but two, the prize
- 4:22money that was up at that time, I wanna say the 1952 race, it was
- 4:27over $230,000 was the prize pool.
- 4:30So I, and I can't remember what the winner got, but I mean, the amount
- 4:33of money that a driver could win.
- 4:36Back then was more, if not two to three times as much as they
- 4:40could win over in Europe, if they won every race they entered.
- 4:43I mean, it was huge, huge dollars.
- 4:45And one thing was exposure.
- 4:46Everything along those lines.
- 4:48You had a lot of guys, especially into the sixties when you had the great
- 4:52Jimmy Clark, you know, all those guys coming over and winning stuff because
- 4:56they could win a ton more money than they could racing over in Europe.
- 4:59You know, it was a different time back then.
- 5:00They raced everything and anything.
- 5:02But let's kind of get back into.
- 5:04The 1952 Indy 500.
- 5:08Prior to the Indy 500, I mean, the 1952 Indy 500 Fari had poked around with
- 5:13possibly going in and look at the rules and regulations, everything like that.
- 5:17But in 1952, they wanted to make a very serious effort.
- 5:22They basically had one full fledged factor backed entry with Alberto Ascari.
- 5:28It was the, uh, Ferrari 3 75 that they had sent over there.
- 5:33That was the one that they were going to go with.
- 5:35But there was also three private entries of these cars that
- 5:40were sold to independent teams.
- 5:42I guess you could say it was by Johnny Parsons.
- 5:45Johnny Morrow and Bobby Ball were also, but they didn't qualify.
- 5:48Lack of speed, and not to say that Asari was all that quick either.
- 5:52He only qualified 25th to meet the regulations and rules for the Indy 500.
- 5:57They had to modify.
- 5:59The 3 75, they linked in the chassis a bit.
- 6:03They did a few other things.
- 6:05Obviously increased their weight.
- 6:07But one of the big issues that the car had was the biani wire wheels.
- 6:12Now, when they got to the track in early May, other competitors, 'cause you know,
- 6:16back then everybody helped everyone.
- 6:18Everyone was gonna go around.
- 6:19You guys, they're gonna give you, hey, support, help, whatever you need.
- 6:21Because you know, you know, I. It's like a family environment and they told
- 6:25those guys don't run those wire wheels.
- 6:27They will not last.
- 6:28They won't be able to put up with it.
- 6:29And they didn't listen.
- 6:30They were telling 'em to switch to, you know, hella brain, magnesium wheels.
- 6:33They just didn't listen an interesting point because that's what ended
- 6:37up taking him out of the race.
- 6:38So, as I said, you know, Asari qualified 25th, he had worked his way up to ninth.
- 6:42So he was moving ahead, he was getting there, he was raising out
- 6:45how much, you know, retirement, what have you, everything like that.
- 6:48He got to lap 40, so there's 200 laps, not quite halfway, little more
- 6:54quarterway, but then the wheels failed it.
- 6:56It really wasn't that long of a race.
- 6:58Mm-hmm.
- 6:58Kind of like a side note was kinda interesting for this is they were
- 7:02running the F1 world championship.
- 7:04There were two races that a scar did not win outta that championship
- 7:08that year outta the eight world championship races that year.
- 7:111952, there's only two that Ari didn't win.
- 7:15Now one was Pierro to Rufi, won in a Ferrari, and all the other races won by
- 7:20Ferrari 'cause Karri won the last six.
- 7:23But anyways, the one in Switzerland, May 8th, was won by Pierro to
- 7:26Rufi in the Ferrari on May 18th.
- 7:28And the reason Karri couldn't be there because he had to be in
- 7:30Indianapolis to qualify for the race.
- 7:32So he wasn't at that one.
- 7:33And then the second race that goes towards the championship was the Indy 500.
- 7:38And so that was run by Troy Rutman won that race, but obviously.
- 7:42Ari retired in Lap 40 'cause of his bari white wheels.
- 7:46But the interesting fact is the last six races of the year, Ari won them all and
- 7:50that no, no competition, what have you.
- 7:52But that's just how brilliant of a driver aari he was.
- 7:55I mean, the guy's legendary.
- 7:57Now you got those guys back there, sari.
- 7:59You know, Newville, Gio, I mean, you just got some of
- 8:02those big names back in the day.
- 8:04What those guys could do, driving those cars.
- 8:06Unbelievable.
- 8:07I mean, just absolutely unbelievable.
- 8:08But yeah, so I was, that was, you know, kind of an interesting fact too for
- 8:11the F1 World Championship was that was pretty much in essence, he didn't win.
- 8:16All the races, he won the majority of 'em.
- 8:17And you know, the only one really in my eyes f won the race that he didn't win
- 8:22every four World Championship was won in Switzerland when he was qualifying.
- 8:25You really can't consider the Indianapolis race part of the World Championship
- 8:28'cause no one came over from Europe to run it, to include it in their points.
- 8:31It was just too much or concerted effort you had to miss the one race because of
- 8:34qualifying everything along those lines.
- 8:36But anyways, back to.
- 8:39Mr. Ska and the Indy 500.
- 8:41And like I said, you know, there was three other private entrants that
- 8:44were also bought, purchased Ferraris.
- 8:46They could not get up to speed at all.
- 8:49It was a head scratcher.
- 8:50Indy is a very unique place, and I think Europeans, I don't
- 8:56wanna say took it for granted.
- 8:57Oh, you just turning left, you know, hard.
- 8:58Could it be, but you know, Indie's a very unique track.
- 9:00One, you have a card that lasts, you know, it's that thing.
- 9:02You have to finish first.
- 9:03You gotta first finish during practice.
- 9:06And qualifying, they were scratching their heads 'cause they were not
- 9:10anywhere near qualifying times.
- 9:12They just did not have the speed.
- 9:14So they kept plugging away, plugging away.
- 9:16They got a lot of input and help from a bunch of American guys in the
- 9:20garages there trying to, you know, help them out, which is really cool.
- 9:23You'd have to imagine.
- 9:24The mechanics and the individuals that were in the garage for Ferrari
- 9:28probably didn't speak any English.
- 9:30Maybe a little, but probably hardly any, if any at all.
- 9:34So obviously you have that language barrier, you know, such a different time.
- 9:38You gotta think about this, Italy, you're 1952, you're only, you know what,
- 9:43seven years removed from World War ii.
- 9:45Italy was with Germany.
- 9:46I mean, there's still a lot of contention there with Americans towards Italian.
- 9:51So.
- 9:51That would've been interesting to see how that dynamic played out.
- 9:55You know, obviously racing, racing and people, hey, respect racers
- 9:58and, you know, everything like that.
- 9:59But, um, different times back then.
- 10:01It'd be interesting to see how that was.
- 10:03But again, what they had to do to modify that car to get it
- 10:08to meet the, uh, regulations.
- 10:10Ford, the Indy 500 really, really hampered that car and really kind of dug a hole
- 10:15for it to try and make that thing last.
- 10:17And that more than likely also played a role in the wheels not
- 10:20being able to put up with it.
- 10:21That's a lot of GForce.
- 10:22I mean, you have a front engine V 12 car, I think it was a right wheel
- 10:26hub that failed, which would make sense 'cause you're turning left.
- 10:29All that force, all the weight's getting pushed out there, you're turning.
- 10:32So it's giving that awkward pressure on it as you're also not only leaning
- 10:36on it, but you're turning as well.
- 10:37So it's creating that force against it.
- 10:40I don't know why they didn't bother changing the wheels.
- 10:42I mean, I don't know if it's something different, but you know, the other
- 10:44thing too, maybe it also had played a role in is, you know, they ran
- 10:49a different tire over in Europe.
- 10:53'cause uh, Indianapolis kind of had a Firestone tire only type deal going on.
- 10:58So they had to run those instead of what they ran over in England.
- 11:02For whatever reason, Enzo was in bed with the tire bang, financial
- 11:06Engelbert for a long time.
- 11:08But by this point in time, I wanna say they were running
- 11:11the Michelins, I think it was.
- 11:13Don't quote me on that.
- 11:14So they had to switch to the different tires.
- 11:18So I think that could have played a role with things as well.
- 11:21As we know tires can play a big role in how a cars
- 11:24manufacture, everything like that.
- 11:26Competing, I guess you would say in 8,500.
- 11:28That was pretty much his 1952 race.
- 11:30Now, that's not to say they didn't flirt with it a few more times,
- 11:33'cause again, a lot of money.
- 11:35Back then, Enzo had set up his driver contract.
- 11:38He didn't pay him much, but they got to keep, I think, three quarters of
- 11:42the prize money of the first money that they would win something on
- 11:45his Zions and then obviously fire.
- 11:46He gets to court wherever it was.
- 11:47They had something like that in the contract to do it.
- 11:49So obviously the amount that you can win at that was a big
- 11:52chunk of money on both ends.
- 11:54They didn't do anything 53 or 54, but they started flirting with it with a little bit
- 11:59in 55 and 56, not using their own chassis, but using, I. A Ferrari engine, you know,
- 12:05they compared it up and tried it out.
- 12:09Did a little bit of thing with the Curtis Craft, you know, that was the chassis
- 12:13to have back then, but they went with the inline six instead of the V 12.
- 12:17This time, a little lighter engine, everything like that, less weight,
- 12:21you know, they were pumping some good horsepower on that, and I
- 12:23don't know why I dropped it down.
- 12:24Maybe that had to do with regulations too as well.
- 12:27But they tried to do the car.
- 12:29That they were using in sports, car racing.
- 12:31That was the engine they were using.
- 12:33And obviously in sport, car racing, endurance racing, you have a
- 12:35motor that can last a long time.
- 12:37It's very, very durable.
- 12:38So made sense.
- 12:40It really didn't go anywhere.
- 12:42Due to the F1 race season, having their hands full Mercedes and F1 at Lamont.
- 12:48So obviously, again, you know, that's prepared.
- 12:49You know, Lamont was huge for Ferrari, so it really didn't go anywhere.
- 12:54Now, in 1956, I believe it was, maybe it was 57.
- 13:00The Maserati brothers, obviously now that they were out of
- 13:02Maserati, they had nothing to do with it 'cause it got sold off.
- 13:05They put together a Ferrari Asari made the attempt to qualify and
- 13:11he was five miles an hour slower than the the slowest qualifier.
- 13:14So he wasn't even close to making the field.
- 13:17So again, not understanding an oval track, maybe, I don't know.
- 13:21Back then he didn't have 20 engineers and all that kinda stuff, working
- 13:24on these cars and trying to sort things out and having sensors all
- 13:27over the car, but it was just slow.
- 13:29Again, maybe it was weight heavy again, you know, just everything.
- 13:31Trying to modify an existing.
- 13:33Chassis that we're using on road and courses and that trying to make an oval
- 13:38car, you know, everyone running over here, United States is running oval.
- 13:41So these cars were designed just to run oval.
- 13:43So it wasn't happening a, again, embarrassment, I don't know, not so much.
- 13:47'cause Ferra didn't have its huge presence over here in the States.
- 13:51Yet, it just wasn't happening yet.
- 13:53Connet, getting his stuff together, setting up shop over here, I wanna
- 13:57say in its infancy, but he was getting in there and everything like
- 14:00that, so that really wasn't there.
- 14:02'cause that'd been interesting.
- 14:03Connet taking a crack at the Indy 500.
- 14:06And for those of you, I. Yeah, listen, stay tuned.
- 14:09We got an episode coming up in the near future with Mr. Luigi Kennet
- 14:13Jr. And Bill Warner on the same show.
- 14:15It's gonna be a good one.
- 14:16But anyways, there was another instance that, so from my understanding, in 1968,
- 14:20Ferrari approached the Granite Tall.
- 14:22Those who don't know, the grant tallies, the family behind STP.
- 14:25And he was very interested about that turbine car because you
- 14:28know, Enzo was an engine guy and let's see what's going on there.
- 14:32And granted says, well how big's the checkbook?
- 14:34And that just went nowhere because obviously at this time when you're getting
- 14:38in that thing, that's when you know Ferrari was having big, big money issues.
- 14:42Whipping out the checkbook to do.
- 14:44It just wasn't gonna happen.
- 14:45Now here, here's a really funny story.
- 14:48How much of is it true?
- 14:49Who knows?
- 14:50But it is just one of those ones that you know what you want.
- 14:52Know what?
- 14:52It's true, who cares?
- 14:53It's a great story.
- 14:55In 1973, variety won.
- 14:57Have interest into 1973, Indy 500.
- 15:00What it was is Franco Roci Rocky roi.
- 15:05It's R-O-O-C-C-H-I.
- 15:06I get my Italian sex, so Roci.
- 15:09Roki, I don't know how you might pronounce it, but they asked Mario Andretti to go
- 15:13around with AKA Uncle Franco, as they were telling everybody that they would go meet.
- 15:20And all the engine shops, the builders, everything like that, they were all
- 15:23saying this is Mario Rettis, uncle Franco.
- 15:26And just kind of digging in and to see about building it and do it.
- 15:30And obviously Mario's well loved, so everyone's open
- 15:33arms, everything like that.
- 15:34But nothing came about it.
- 15:36But I think that's just a great story.
- 15:37I. And if you kinda look at some photos, Franco looks a little bit like Mario.
- 15:42He's got the same kind of hair, so I could see how they pulled it off.
- 15:45It's just a great story.
- 15:46Getting into the eighties, I don't know how many people are aware of it, but
- 15:50there's this big row between the FIA Formula One, all this stuff, and, and so,
- 15:55hey, we're gonna go pull out all this.
- 15:57You know, he always did it.
- 15:58They went as far, they built an act.
- 16:00An Indy car for 1986 was a 6 3 7.
- 16:03Did a race, but I don't know how many laps it did at ano.
- 16:07Some say Bobby RA Hall was supposed to do some laps.
- 16:11It, it didn't come to fruition, but look that car up 'cause it's beautiful.
- 16:15That is a gorgeous looking Indy car.
- 16:17That would've been awesome to see them running that thing in Indy car
- 16:21'cause it is absolutely stunning.
- 16:24Who knows?
- 16:24It came about it.
- 16:25The uh, program kind of was dropped and all the engine stuff like
- 16:29that was transferred over to Alpha Romeo, which they never really got
- 16:32anywhere in IndyCar with that engine.
- 16:34But that's something really cool.
- 16:36You should take a peek at check out the IndyCar Ferrari built for the 1986 season.
- 16:41It is gorgeous.
- 16:42Now, I don't know where that car's at now.
- 16:43I don't know if it's sitting over in the museum, anything like that.
- 16:47You don't ever hear hardly anything about it unless you dig it up.
- 16:50So they went out their knows where that car is sitting.
- 16:53If it is in the museum, let me know.
- 16:55I'd love to see this thing in person because this thing is cool.
- 16:57I mean, I don't know if they scrapped it, you know, back in that day,
- 17:00Hey, just a race car and whatnot.
- 17:01They scrap it for parts, who knows?
- 17:03But that would really, really be cool to see.
- 17:06Now, I know recently Ferrari, Florida with it because of the engine regulations
- 17:11that IndyCar was proposing, and I know there was a big push for IndyCar courting
- 17:16Ferrari, about having them come in 'cause of the name, everything like that.
- 17:19But it just really didn't go anywhere.
- 17:22Because obviously all the money they put in F1, but now with the cost cap in F1,
- 17:28you know, hey, maybe there was that thing, but obviously we know what happened.
- 17:30Ferrari went into world endurance, which was fantastic.
- 17:33It's off sea, back to Lama winning Lamont, everything like that.
- 17:37So that was awesome to see.
- 17:39Anyway.
- 17:40That was our little foray into Ferrari at the Indianapolis 500.
- 17:45Like I said, it's a pretty cool story.
- 17:46It's, it's not a very lengthy story because the only race, basically the
- 17:49one time they tried to qualify twice, but it really didn't get anywhere.
- 17:53He was out, you know, the scar was out in left forward.
- 17:55But like I said, I think the cool thing was is how dominant a scar was in F1.
- 17:59Back then, he couldn't race the first race in Switzerland because he was
- 18:02qualifying for the race, and then obviously he was racing in the Indy 500,
- 18:06which wasn't conflicting or anything.
- 18:07The Indy 500 was a points race.
- 18:09He falls out in LAP 40.
- 18:10Then subsequent the rest of the year, he wins the last six races of the
- 18:13season and becomes world champion.
- 18:15It would've been cool if they would've made a few more attempts at it.
- 18:18I just don't think what went into it to really make a concerted effort, I
- 18:22don't think it was there that much.
- 18:24You know, I think it would've been interesting if some people had made more
- 18:27of an effort using the Ferrari motor.
- 18:29Maybe, again, it's such a different discipline from F1 to racing over here
- 18:35in oval racing, everything like that.
- 18:37You know, there's so many.
- 18:38Specifics you built for an oval car, like compared to one that's going left
- 18:41and right would've been interesting to see that top made 'cause that would've
- 18:45been for a great story and great history and talk about catapulting Ferrari
- 18:49into the minds and hearts of Americans.
- 18:53If Ferrari had.
- 18:55Even like say finishing the podium, something like that, or actually had
- 18:58a very strong showing in the fifties, early sixties or something like that, if
- 19:01they really made a strong attempt at it.
- 19:03I don't know how much bigger Ferrari would've been here in the states.
- 19:06Kennet did an awesome job, you know, with them and obviously with Nat, but
- 19:10that would've been an interesting story and how much that might've would've
- 19:12catapulted or sprung them more into the minds and hearts of Americans and sped up.
- 19:17Ferrari's market share or whatever you wanna call it back then, you
- 19:21know, obviously it was minuscule 'cause they, they built hardly
- 19:23any cars, but it'd be cool to see.
- 19:25But anyways, like I said, as I always do, if you ever wanna reach
- 19:28me, you have any questions, ideas, answers, or anything like that,
- 19:31uh, corrections, please correct me.
- 19:33Just it's william@theferrarimarketplace.com.
- 19:36Shoot me an email.
- 19:37I'd love to hear from everybody.
- 19:39Like I said, we got some cool stuff coming up.
- 19:41They tuned, not quite sure when we're gonna get, we still have
- 19:44to record the episode with Mr. Kti Junior and Bill Water, but
- 19:47that's gonna be a really good one.
- 19:49My producer, Eric, and myself, are gonna be interviewing these guys, so that's
- 19:52gonna be a really, really good one.
- 19:54That might be our first one we foray into.
- 19:56Actually have a video as well on the YouTube channel because I think
- 19:59that'd be kind of cool to have.
- 20:00So I've been dabbling with that and going that route.
- 20:03So again, remember, check out the Ferrari marketplace.com, exotic car
- 20:07marketplace.com, check out everything going on at those two sites.
- 20:10A lot of cool stuff happening, a lot of stuff getting out.
- 20:13We've got some cool stuff on there until we speak again.
- 20:16Appreciate it, everyone.
- 20:17Have a good one.
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