1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial Series II - Jay Leno's Garage

to run I see J allows garage once again we're being visited by true automotive royalty this is a 1955 Ferrari 500-mile series - this is of course one of the cars that made Ferrari the legend it is today's one of the most beautiful sports cars ever built it has been under the stewardship of the same owner for the last 58 years he was a young sailor he bought it as a young man he fixed it up put it together did all the work himself he's like one of the greatest Ferrari owners it's just the kind of guy I love full of passion didn't have a lot of money did it on a Navy man salary let's bring him in Admiral Robert Phillips how are you sir good day J so you're a young sailor when you got this I was 24 okay that's a young sailor today that's very long shot so and what did you pay for this car when you bought it well I went to the bank took out a loan for 2/3 of my year salary I paid two thousand two hundred and twenty-five dollars but that was a lot of money for a wreck race car wreck race car my folks said you've taken leave of your senses car itself is 50 1955 and you bought it in 59 to 60 but in 1960 it was worn out so did your dad try to discourage you from this it was kind of too late yeah oh you bought it for yes yes don't ask for vision yeah exactly exactly but of course back in the day Ferrari obviously was a cut above the other sports cars but not I mean it was the top of the heap but the heap wasn't that big I mean back in those days max bell Chomsky was beating Ferraris with his fur oh that's right it was just another race car admittedly a thoroughbred but a race car one that was severely wrecked so you dragged it to your house your parents house no I was stationed at the Naval Air Station Oakland and on the air station we had an auto hobby shop oh and I talked to them Jake the man that ran the shop and he allowed me to move some of the lockers from the back walls and put this back in that corner oh and little by little I took it apart and disassembled this son of a 1954 Formula one motor I learned auto mechanics on this and it was years before I found out that not all cars had dual ignition right not all cars had a similar head that went all the way to the crankcase no funny things that you found about these all these other cars and we should explain this is a four-cylinder Ferrari yes two litre to the leader and but no less a Ferrari certainly no and in those days the four-cylinder actually had more torque with bottom and pull exactly then the v12 yes because the v12 wasn't much what was that well they had to later they had two and half later they had some three liters created but the torque that you got in the tutoring class from a four cylinder was considerably better and of course being lighter yes cars about fifteen hundred and eighty pounds really well before you put forward two gallons of gas in that tank it's 40 gallons Wow well that way you could not have to stop us off in the Sebring and of course and you drove this across the country didn't you I was in Oakland when McNamara shut down my base and shipped me to Turkey and after my tour in Turkey I came back and I was on the East Coast well the Navy doesn't move your toys right so I stuck a muffler on there with some flex tubing and drove from Oakland to New York see nowadays this is a multi gazillion dollar car you ever foresee that day will you ever tempt it along the way someone say which maybe is to ground I'll give you six for right now I mean did that happen I have received over the years countless letters offering me certain amounts of money for this car in the earlier years the number weren't very high in 2008 before it even showed up at Pebble we had a million dollar cash offer right but you know that's I didn't buy it as an investment or for the money of it I bought it because I wanted to race something faster than my mga right right and this was it I mean it certainly turned out to be a good investment yes Uncle Sam think so oh yeah there you go and the color is fascinating because it's the only blue for this is French blue is French facing blue Bugatti blue explain that story how it got to be French racing well as you well know back in the 50s you raced your country colors they were from Italy it was a red car if you were from Germany it was a silver car right if you were from Britain it was British racing green right this car was bought initially by Francois Picard a Frenchman and he asked the factory I want my car blue so they painted it blue later on that year it was traded back to the factory and it was sitting on the factory floor when Enzo gets a letter from president amenities of Venezuela president Amin has wanted to put his race his first race on the world sports racing car map and so he sent this letter to most of the major racing manufacturers in those days people like Oscar and Porsche and Jaguar Maserati accepted because the letter offered one-way fare to get the cars across the ocean and there was a $50,000 first-place prize Wow so this is a trade in used car sitting in Enzo's garage and he says send that one and so it shows up in Venezuela I'm with two other factory team cars but they didn't change the color of the paint they put the Scuderia sign symbol on the side and so when it raced a venezuela harry shell was a top notch a driver in those days got about halfway through the race and was passed by one of the Maseratis Castellani had blown the rear end out of his car about the second corner so he put castellani in the car he proceeds to go out and run laps that were within two seconds of one fagio and his three liter maserati in this two liter car Wow so it's either the car or cost light or accommodation but that was the time that's the only time that I know of that a team for I was not read by his country colors that was blue and this is not the sophisticated suspension of Ferrari we think of today Ferraris are always pretty straightforward the edge of the Magnificent but suspension and brakes were pretty much I don't want see standard issue but you know whatever work about six months before this car was built they tested a coil spring independent front suspension on a formula car in Barcelona it did very well and at that point in time the factory changed over so the 1955 750 Moses and the 500 mundial series - all have coil spring front suspension they got rid of the transverse leaf right at the time they built these cars they also changed the chassis totally this one has flowing dramatic steel tubes in there they're oval they're curved no crinkles it's just amazing work that is done at so that's the suspension on this for the day was very very much new to Ferrari oh ok so what but it's a drum brake car it's a drum brake car these currently they came off the Ferrari 340 which is a much heavier car and two and a half inches wide and 15 inch diameter so there's plenty of braking here the linings in those days were not that good with modern linings today you'll find have you step on it it slows down right in the old days you've got on a brake pedal in the squeezed it was like squeezing a brick is going to slow just sort of prongs yes exactly because Ferrari really didn't go to just brakes until I think there was I think in 58 or so there was a car one of the cars went I think it was sold to a privateer who puts discs okay yeah because I remember Jaguar beat them at Lamar oh yes and that had the full wheel disc that's one for anyway man well let's take a look at the motor ok then I'll do the other side because I don't think most people have seen or even aware that there is a four cylinder Ferrari motor just two hands yep I have it Wow there you go you just see those magic words Ferrari on there and it really makes it right there now how did you come about this car did you find it on a used-car lot was it did somebody call you I was at a party in San Leandro and somebody meant we discussed the fact that the night before there then there was a red sports car that was the elusive California Highway Patrol was only for catch it he drove all the way from Vallejo down in the Eastern Shore minutes really out fast senator and got away and people were trying to guess what it was and someone says well it was probably a Maserati or a Ferrari and somebody mentioned well there's a Ferrari for sale up in in Richmond so the next day in California on each side of the bay refinery challenge so I drives up there I go to this Rambler dealership I go into this front door and there's a lady behind the counter I says I understand you have used Ferrari for sale here and she looks up and says Sonny this is a Rambler dealership we don't deal with Ferraris and somebody behind the other counters say we might be storing one out back you might go look so I go out into this warehouse and off in the back corner there's forlorn piece of junk it's dark blue people have taken their spray guns and taking patterns on the side before they do repair jobs right it was covered with filth it was money the hood was stashed in a passenger compartment it was on jack stands no wheels and there was this a wooden box of differential parts twisted mangled blue color from extra heat well it seized it wrote America the previous fall and so I said well that's not a Ferrari that's that's a Devin Devin Devin he built those fiberglass exactly you can make kick cars your chassis Chevy engine whatever it is like well I wonder what motor it was so I grab a rag from the floor and I reach in and I wiped it off cover Ferrari I've got to save it and that's where I took like came down yes take this one says that's how I found it I bought it from a traveling toy sales written around her dealership traveling toy salesman a wholesale distributor well that's funny and it looks like a big motor but it's a 2-liter it's a 2-liter it's a four-bagger it's a it's it looks large because the construction has dual overhead cams they it's it came right from the 5-3 design of 1954 second half of the year Formula One Ferrari the casting numbers on here when you take the valve boxes often are the same ones that are on the formula car it is smaller because it's two litre formula that one that year was two and a half liter so the bore and the stroke are just a little bit different everything else is that's that's the way it was a formula car but classic Ferrari set up two distributors yes even though you have it's a four cylinder of twin plugs per cylinder it's because the racing heritage if you have a condenser or a coil go bad on one side of the other you still have a running motor right the same thing with the valves there the hairpin fight valves where you got four count around one of those breaks the other ones still functions all right it's all in terms of redundancy for racing I love hairpin valves because I've got a couple of motorcycles that have them yes you watch it and you can you can literally pull them out by yourself what is a compression ratio in this I've said about eight point nine to one oh that's not bad for 1955 every gas you had then that's and the horsepower was was the dyno on this motor from 1950 spring of 1955 was 172 at 7000 now the v12 it was also a 2 liter how many horsepower was that I don't know the answer I can't I know all about flows to it it was about the same range well that's very different yeah yes this has all the torque at the baho yes and of course it's a 5-speed gearbox it's a five-speed trash crash transmission which was so no synchro than any big year no synchro in any year driving on the track that's not a problem right driving on the street that's a big problem so you have to double clutch all the time double clutch coming down always if you do it right going up you don't have to right right and on the track the same thing but it's a it's a stronger gearbox oh yes because it's the same gearbox it was in 750 Monza more powerful motor 240 horses and of course five speed in America was unheard of most cars came with a three-speed yes then you paid extra for for speed and just taking pistons on here they're absolutely domed when did the Hemis come out yeah later yeah well let's see what else can we see obviously this is for aerodynamics yes passengers well the requirement in those days that you had to have a sports car you had to have a room for a passenger right and of course the windscreen is not on that side so and you had to carry a spare tire you have a spare tire exactly listen before you had to have luggage before you had to have the wide width windscreen yeah to me this is the classic era this is this is that era when a guy could literally drive his car to the mall win the race and drive that same car home the race car was not that far removed from the road car to me that was a very exciting period the last time that happened I guess it was McLaren in 95 all the races I went to on the East Coast Lime Rock for Lime Rock and Vineland place like that I drove the car to the track took the muffler off puts the straight pipe back on and on the track we go and in those days a military kind of didn't sponsor racing but certainly approved it was was it bombs away LeMay was a general and they was very much a sports car enthusiast he astonished a lot of people in the hierarchy by allowing these sporty cars to drive on his runways that's right I remember when yeah he was bombs away with me right yeah he was the one that advocated using atomic bombs to build the national highway system through the Rocky Mountains just drop atomic bombs he blown up the Rocky Mountains I think you had a road all the way through yeah yeah whatever works but you know he was a car guy and we have for that but he that's where the was a CA a racing Seca was yeah if it weren't further of a maze Airport circuits I suspect a CC Seca would not survive the the 50s and early 60s I mean I just wanted today if a young sailor like you were 24 years old had an exotic sports car if the Navy would sail pull over there in the corner and be ok you know that probably wouldn't happen today well fine buying a five-year-old racing car today is probably not good sense yeah because the way technology moves something that's five years old is leagues and leagues behind back in those days it wasn't that far behind because I was still racing the cars were beating me were the Lotus 23 is in the RSK 550 Porsches all right liars not necessarily stronger but mortal nimble this is this is a very sturdy car the chassis members on here are oval to three-and-a-half inches by inch and a half it's it's sturdy there's design exactly for long distance road race but $2,000 in 1959-1960 would be the same as 25 30 times about 20 grand standard so that was a tremendous amount of money yeah manufacturer I met my wife she noticed before we were married my my check would but have these balances ago 47 cents what is this guy it took me nine months to get in running condition from what it was because nobody would fix it I had to learn how to do it so I learned auto mechanics on this Formula one motor and learned had a weld in formal aluminum I learned how to spray paint it was this is kind of an education machine for me yeah and the nine months coincides with normal human beings gestation period my mother referred to it as her first grandchild right my son refers to his sibling right and my wife says well you know I it's good to a reporter before she came a little hard now where did you get parts in 1960s new right to Ferrari did you use American parts and modify them in 1960 what we ended up doing was everything in the motor was okay a couple of the points were bad in the distributors it was reasonable the trans axle problem was a much larger problem but I found a friendly machinist in town in Oakland and I went out there and described to him what the hooks type joints looked like inside a ZF differential and he was able to say okay I consider us grind rollers that fit on that and put it together and it worked so that's the parts of that day it was mostly I just needed yet a racing again and I wasn't worried worried at all about making sure I had for a hearty parts here in party well yeah I mean now you know if you don't have Italian air and the tires they distract points you know butts back in the day yeah racing and tell us who designed this body Sergio Scalia he was a the artisan and I see that seriously he was a true sculptor he was not one that used body books early he would design the thing they were then make body books from that design and then hammer to those and when you feel under the front fenders up here you can feel the hammer marks yeah from that and hammering it aside yeah and I do have his signature on this car is unique because it's a signed original really yes oh there's a spare tire you got to carry yep well look at that Wow and when was that sign well in 2000 we went to a car show in Reading Pennsylvania pure Costigan II invited his good friend Sergey scagliotti to come and so he was there my son had a sharpie so we had him sign it oh and when we did the conservation project we type taped over it shot it did the paint so it's on there that's I don't know he's no longer with us yeah I know and he was a somewhat of a modest man oh very very much so yeah no he didn't like he didn't take credit for a lot of things you know and you know the work he did when you look at the lines the cars that he's done you've seen the Petersen Museum they have the scholar got a design Corvette right oh that's beautiful look lines are they're just beautiful if you look across the very front end of this car from a low down angle yeah this top line of the hood from the lower side looks just like the loo so many years later yeah so the design things that he did we're carried forward and the number 8 what's the significance of the number okay it's just a race number yeah the race number that was a sign for the first Grand Prix of Venezuela when it was run oh so little goes way back before you had it oh yes yes when we did the conservation project we tried to take a point in time that was significant and that race he had happen to have the race number eight so is the series two considered the best of the Mondial series the series two should not even be called series to which it should have a different name because there is so much different throughout the car most of the series one cars were riveted bodies right five of them or not they made eight of these or maybe nine and the engine is a total shift in 1952 who are not scary win the World Championship for Ferrari and a four cylinder car it had the narrow valve included angle engines now I'm pretty decided that this might work a little bit of a volumetric efficiency so for the second half of 1954 they had the wide include available ankle now this one is about 85 degrees the earlier ones are about 58 degrees so there's a lot of difference there but the motor is totally different from the series one cause you get back into the transmission it's a four speed on this series one cars it's a five speed here the chassis design for the series one cars is very ladder like straight pieces of tubing this one has those gorgeous form troops in there so it's a different car it shouldn't have been called a series two you know baby Monza maybe when they made it bigger motor they went to 857 they called her super Monza right so it could have been a baby but you can't change history anything else unusual about this car well there are a couple of things the first one is most interesting is that they steering box down here that steering box one of them on 1954 it was driven by Gonzales in 20 no to first place in a 375 plus that car was sold to Edgard here in Southern California he hired McAfee to drive the car with his co-driver Robinson they had a terrible accident killed Robinson so Hagar sent the car back to the factory to be rebuilt so he took everything apart put things on the Shelf about the same time this one was being built so it took this journey block off the shelf and put it in here serial number on this matches the one that was on the car that won them all now how did you find that out part of the 18 years worth of research that we did if I have the history but this car is yeah okay and you know probably what the longest owner of a Ferrari you've had this car 58 years I've had a 58 years and I think as an individual living person I have had longer than anybody else at least for competition cars right perhaps even for the street cars depending on how you call longest owner for somebody's estate all right and and now you're gonna be parting with it soon is that correct well I have done more with this card than i had ever dreamed possible yeah i bought it in the first place to go racing and I did that I've raced on the west coast I've raced on the East Coast I drove all the way across country on time and it's Sat from 1968 until 2000 moving from different duty stations stacks in the corner my son occasionally ladies bike against the side of old race car right we had a family discussion in 2000 what are we gonna do with that Louis I'd okay we need to put it back together right now so we started an 8 year restoration project and when we finished that project we had already been invited to show at Pebble Beach and that's what lit the fire under us to make it finished in eight years and we got to Pebble Beach it was an honor to be invited to Pebble Beach in the first place and after the judge came through and looked at the car and looked at the car and looked at the car I had a book and I presented to them I pointed out why the color was here Hawaii the lockout gear was there why the different things were they were they were based on other people's advice trying to beat them to any question they might have and it turns out that they couldn't find anything wrong so it's a 100-point car Wow and later on in the afternoon piero ferrari happens to be walking by with his entourage and I decided to well let me break into that little circle ask him he'd like to learn about this car so I brought him over and showed him the book and if you're a student of body language he comes over and he's like this looking and he I'm going through the book and I'm showing pictures and pretty sure he's holding on to this pretty soon he's helped me turn the pages of the book later on we're invited to go up to the holding pen these were going to get a trophy so as you know they do the Miss America trick they come out and they point to a third-place car right it wasn't us you come back up and they point to the second-place car what I'm gonna win a trophy for first place first time ever been to Pebble Beach Wow so we drive up on the ramp and we get the first-place trophy for the best competition Ferrari and Sandra button is standing behind the first lady with another trophy it was the enzo trophy for having the best Ferrari of all the Ferrari classes at Pebble Beach Wow I'm pinching myself saying I wake up back in the hotel this is a dream I didn't realize that I was pitching this car to Piero who was a decider of who was going to get the trophy he's don't talk were the ones that's the one so that was my trip to Pebble tea so you got to be Miss America [Laughter] very good let me bring someone in now cuz whenever I someone I know you're like when Oprah wanted to sell or going I said there's only one guy who can do that for ya it's David Gooding and he runs the Gooding auction David come on in good to see you my friend thank you compete you're crossing car yeah thanks for having me no no I don't want to do that so you're in charge of selling this piece of history yes so how do you do that what do you know what are you well look this is a car that we've been chasing and admiring for years and years I mean we did not know that we were actually ever gonna have the privilege of offering the car and it is a great privilege and honor to be to be representing this car and you know hopefully finding the fantastic new home for the next owner for the next custodian so when the Admiral called me I was actually astonished that we were we were chosen and we're just very proud to be to be honoring the car and it's been it's been great to spend time with the Admiral and get to know him better as well as with his family and getting to know the car better I mean I've had the privilege of writing in it you know a woman called me once they would know this story and she said my husband died 18 years ago he's got a car for sale what is it said it's a Ferrari I said how much you want for you he said it worth $400,000 and that's what I want to get for and I said okay what model is she goes let me get it she said 275 gtb that sound right and I said okay and you know you had that devil on one side the angel on the other I said look I'll give you 400 thousand for it but I think it's worth closer to three million she said oh I don't think it's worth I said I tell you what if you get more than three million you have to make me some chocolate chip cookies because well I will do that so he took it to you three point seven when we got the 3.4 million dollar repoint yes four million dollars that's right oh did you try to get my cookies actually and they were very good the most expensive cookies ever had in my life but they were very good but it was just funny because her husband had died 18 years ago and that was the figure that's what was worth 18 years ago you know and she was not really a car person and but it was just it was just it was like it was just fun yes it was just great what do you predict something like this so this Monday all because of its special history and provenance and the incredible racing history and condition of it we're expecting it to bring five and a half to seven and a half million dollars did you ever in your life think that that would happen no the numbers are just I bought it erase it I didn't it's not an investment these numbers are just I've watched the Ferrari market go crazy yeah yeah what did you first notice it hey wait a minute I might be under something here was it around 2000 when you said you were stolen it was it earlier than that J if you recall back in the 8089 timeframe if you bought a Ferrari and held on here for 13 months it would double in value sure and we saw that happening but this was just a real racecar sitting in the corner it wasn't ready to put on market now I had lots of offers in for lowball numbers but when we made the decision in 2000 to put it back right we started following the prices and saying this is crazy and no when you talk to Hagrid and you pay him for the coverage of southern areas that's crazy too right all right so you get to the point where it's it becomes very antsy driving it in downtown traffic to a cars and coffee sure because the guys in the four wheelers jacked up a neat car guy as they steal right over your direction you go to car shows and people come up with their shopping carts or baby carriages and they don't know there's one millimeter thick aluminum right let's stay away kind of thing so some of the nice things about it being very valuable are that it will probably go to someone who knows how to take care of it right one of the things that I I've talked to David about this a lot is that when I go to car shows in the last 10 years we've been to dozens we've got 30 some are trophies 6 best to show kind of trophies my good car show day is not with I get a trophy but if my voice is gone from practicing what Peter Mullan calls educational outreach right telling people they made for some other cars they were really really cars they raced they did well and this is something was in the early history Ferrari start setting up you know there are First World Championships we're in force over there cars most of the people out there don't know that right so I need someone when David finds someone here to be able to carry on with that kind of continuing education outreach will you be at the auction oh yes oh yeah how do you think the cars gonna get understand well that's true are you gonna drive it up absolutely that's gonna be it that's gonna be an emotional moment for you don't you think I maybe I a year ago is when I decided it was time and so it's in my mind already fairly solid this is this time for someone else to take a look right you know everybody every cars being sold eventually right we're not all you know we're just caretakers my dad said you gonna get out alive right right so yeah it's not like a real optimist you also tell me the dessert dessert without chocolate oh there you go now David can people go to your website do you have videos have you got more technical information they happy the car absolutely ya know if they go on our website there's an actual wonderful video primarily of Robert and the end the car so if they go too good and code calm they can they can go and see the the the video of the car there's also going to be information once the catalog comes out which will be about the third week in July the whole catalog description on this car as well as everything else that we have a couple of each will be posted up and then you can if you're at Pebble Beach of course you can watch it go live also you can log on our website and watch we do a webcast on the auction line well cool now can we take this for a ride we can I be anybody else driving this besides you when you said well there's one character who's driven had his hands on the steering wheel was Rubirosa Porfiry Rubirosa yeah there's good and bad stories about him yeah so you can put your hands on the same oh cool yes they're gonna let me overlook how exciting is this very cool well let's uh let's a dump David and you and I will go for a ride I'm very cool and Davey you could get that catalog together put those videos I'll go back to work I'll let you guys Hank thank you okay Center hub on the horn thing works just fine for breakfast okay right but first there you go that goes down there yep Center hub okay just there you go drop yourself down exactly and here's how an eighty-year-old falls on his nose there you go one leg goes up look at the other leg comes in looks pretty spry okay we got ignition ignition fuel pump fuel pump pull the handle pull the handle yes [Music] what a fantastic car thank you [Music] Wow to later right the Golden Age of the Pegasus with a Ferrari motor and it machine ready motor career liars right right what does have the Airbender yep I love hair it's a motorcycle watching us watch the run recognized for the gearbox is one even though there one more every can more tart the second third cop the country's going you know it's wonderfully it means that prices and but it's sad to know your family finding a race car like this rebuilding engine singing yeah yeah the thickness of the champey on I used to be turned off by you know they thought I'm talking I'm very much laughing I can't thank you announcers have been a lot of fun and it's been a real history lesson and thanks for preserving this piece is free it's really great you've got an amiable equable wife my friend you served your country you got to race some cars in all events well thank you so much guys next week of pride this thing [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 848,380

Keywords: jay leno's garage, Admiral Robert Phillips, Gooding & Company, Pebble Beach Auctions, David Gooding, V4, race car, Grand Prix of Venezuela, Scuderia Ferrari, Scaglietti, Caracas, Sebring, 100-point restoration, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette

Id: ibqZCt5Snow

Length: 36min 44sec (2204 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 12 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Plumsaround]

Not quite, if you check the video at 1:24 then you'll see he actually took out a loan from the bank which was 2/3rds of his salary at the time, crazy to think someone would do that for a wrecked race car!

[u/kdryan1]

Notice that instead of taking out on the street like they normally would they took it to an airport. Jay must truly have wanted to drive this car.

[u/sprchrgddc5]

$2,225 in 1960 = $18,943.02 in 2018

Imagine being paid $30k a year and then spending 2/3 of that on a wrecked Ferarri lol. Granted, a military officer gets a lot of extra pay nowadays that I assume aren't too different back then (housing, food allowance, uniform allowance, etc.)

[u/Trichinas_9]

Was planning to watch maybe 5 minutes, ended up watching the full video. What an amazing story for an amazing car.

[u/rld14]

He's selling it :'(

https://www.goodingco.com/vehicle/1955-ferrari-500-mondial-series-ii/

[u/Latham74]

100 point car at Pebble Beach, wow!

[u/snopro]

so what is it worth now?

[u/Bekabam]

He's a god damn admiral now, that's wild. Huge rank.

[u/[deleted]]

Now this is a screenshot worth taking a look at. I immediately thought these stories were similar.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/4chan/comments/83o97s/anon_tries_to_restore_a_lambo/