Rare and valuable Ferrari 625 TRC Spider for sale
One of two Ferrari 625 TRC Spiders – often considered one of the most beautiful Ferraris ever built – fitted with a 2.5-litre engine will cross the blocks at RM’s Monterey sale from 15th-17th August, carrying an estimate of between £7-8.5 million. The car comes with a documented history that includes a successful racing career.
After the Le Mans disaster in 1955, engines were restricted to 2.5 litres for the 1956 race. Enzo Ferrari saw this as an opportunity to fit the company’s Tipo 625 Grand Prix engine to its 500 Testa Rossa chassis – Testa Rossa translating as “red head” in Italian, a nod to the red crackle finish of the car’s cam covers.
Bodied by Carrozzeria Touring, these cars struggled against the more powerful Jaguar D-Types during the 1956 Le Mans 24 Hours. However, Olivier Gendebien and Maurice Trintignant did well in bringing their car home in third. Appendix C regulations were announced late in 1956 and brought in largely cosmetic changes, allowing Scageltti to build the pretty body you see here today.
Meanwhile, John von Neumann, the son of an eminent Austrian surgeon who had relocated to the USA following Hitler’s rise to power, wanted more power for his 500TRC, and fitting the Tipo 625 was the obvious answer, delivering a 25 per cent increase over night
Von Neumann ordered two of these and chassis #0680 MDTR is the second of those 625 TRCs that made its debut at the Gaisberg hillclimb in his native Austria on 15th August 1957, coming seventh overall. Ten days later, the car would come second in class at the Lenzerheide in the Grosser Bergpreis der Schweiz. Period images of both events confirm the car had the same Appendix C windscreen installed on all TRCs, but was set apart from its 2.0-litre siblings by the twin humps on its bonnet to accommodate the larger engine.
The car was soon shipped to California, where it was finished in von Neumann’s iconic livery of dark silver with a red centre band, gaining a driver’s side aero-screen and a passenger tonneau. Red leather seats with classic white piping were also fitted.
The car would make its US debut at the inaugural meeting held at Laguna Seca in November 1957, where von Neumann led most of the main event until gearbox trouble saw him drop to second.
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Von Neumann personally favoured chassis #0680 over the other Ferraris in his garage, finishing third overall and second in class at Pomona and fourth overall and first in class at Palm Springs in February and April respectively, before breaking through for a maiden overall win in Hawaii the following month. He again finished fourth in the main event at Santa Barbara in May before Richie Ginther took over at Laguna Seca in June, winning the SCCA Regional. Von Neumann’s daughter, Josie, often drove in the Ladies Race, taking victory at the wheel of #0680 at Vaca Valley.
Chassis #0680 played the role of team reserve for the rest of the 1958 season; a tumultuous period followed in which John and his first wife divorced, and the car was ultimately sold. However, before the sale, the 2.5-litre engine (internal number 3) was removed and sent to Pete Lovely in Washington State, who installed it in Fred Armbruster’s Cooper Type 51 single-seater.
Sold, sans engine and transmission, to Stan Sugerman of Phoenix, Arizona, chassis #0680 was mated to a Chevrolet small-block V8 in time for the CSCC race meeting at Santa Barbara in 1960, and there are some lovely colour images showing the silver Ferrari racing up and down the West Coast in the C-Modified category in 1961.
The car passed to Corvette racer Emery Leroy “Red” Faris of San Leandro in August 1961 and was raced by him and Bill Sherwood, the latter taking the car to second overall in the Pacific Coast Regional Class C-Modified championship in the car’s fifth season of racing.
By late 1963 the Ferrari, now painted red, was campaigned by Danny Raffetto for several years, with colour pictures of the car documented in Randy Cook’s book Bowtie Ferraris.
Gerry Sutterfield, a Volkswagen dealer living in Mount Vernon, Ohio, bought the car in 1969 and would become a well-known collector of Ferraris. Sutterfield initially thought #0680 was a 3.0-litre, its 2.5-litre lineage was discovered when he removed the paint and located the serial number. He would sell it in Prancing Horse magazine, but it is still fitted with its Chevy small block.
The car went on to be owned by Phil Sledge from Burlingame, in the Bay Area of California, before passing to Richard L. Haskell, a professional ice skater from Salt Lake City, Utah, who owned various Ferraris, including a 275 GTB and 246 GT Dino. Haskell sold the car to a lawyer and pioneering Ferrari collector Ed Niles in 1972, and it would pass through several collectors’ hands, picking up a Tipo 128F V12 engine along the way.
Redemption would come when the car was purchased by Dr. Michael Callaham in 1981. Seduced by the car’s wonderful shape, Callaham embarked on a five-year restoration based on the car’s substantial history file. Lovingly Rebuilt by David McCarthy at the renowned Phil Reilly-run shop, the car got larger Testa Rossa valves and roller cam followers, topped by six Weber 40 DCN carburettors. A spare wet sump was obtained from fellow TR owner David Love.
The car returned to the tracks of California in 1985, becoming a regular fixture at Laguna Seca’s annual Monterey historic races up until 2011 and received an invitation to appear on the lawn at Pebble Beach in 1995.
By 2012, the car had been reunited with its 2.5-litre motor. It joined one of the most important Ferrari collections ever assembled, sharing space with cars from the California racing scene, including von Neumann’s earlier 500 Testa Rossa.
As it stands, chassis #0680 offers a host of opportunities. With a dyno-proven 322PS (236kW) from the current 3.0-litre Colombo V12 fitted, it would be an astute classic racer. Or, with the original engine sitting in the wings, you could return it to its iconic von Neumann livery and four-cylinder Tipo 625 configuration to become a star of the Concours scene. Either way, it will be one of the best historic Ferraris money can buy.
Images courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.