1956 Ferrari 290 MM, in the same livery raced by Fangio in 1956. Photos by Tim Scott, Fluid Images and courtesy RM Sotheby’s, unless otherwise noted.
After losing to Lancia in 1954 and Mercedes-Benz in 1955, Ferrari took victory in the 1956 Mille Miglia very seriously. Though Maserati was the only other manufacturer fielding a team, Ferrari still developed a new racing car, the 290 MM, just for the event. Juan Manuel Fangio was tasked with driving one of the new Ferraris, and the legendary driver delivered a remarkable solo performance that helped Ferrari sweep the top five spots. One of four such model ever built, the 1956 Ferrari 290 MM raced by Fangio to a fourth-place finish will cross the auction stage in New York City on December 10.
Ferrari intended the 290 MM to replace its other racing Barchetta, the 860 Monza, which itself had been developed to counter the dominance of Mercedes-Benz. While the 860 Monza was powered by a 3.4-liter inline-four producing 280 horsepower, the 290 MM received an all-new 3.5-liter V-12, which upped output to 320 horsepower and raised the car’s top speed to 280 Km/h (174 MPH), a gain of 20 Km/h (12.4 MPH).
Like the 860 Monza, the 290 MM was built around a tubular steel chassis; rode on a wheelbase of 2,350 mm; used an independent coil spring front suspension and a live-axle rear with a transverse semi-elliptical spring; shifted through a four-speed manual transmission and carried drum brakes in all four corners. The change in engine added 44 pounds to the 290 MM’s weight, but the new car still tipped the scales at 1,936 pounds.
To hedge its bets, Ferrari entered a total of five team cars in the 1956 Mille Miglia. One 290 MM, driven by Eugenio Castellotti, would depart at 5:48 a.m. (thus carrying the number 548), while Fangio would leave 12-minutes later, behind the wheel of number 600. A pair of 860 Monza would be driven by Peter Collins (departing at 5:51) and Luigi Musso (departing at 5:56), while a single long wheelbase 250 GT, car number 505, would be driven by Olivier Gendebien.
Fangio crosses the finish line of the 1956 Mille Miglia. Photo from the Alexis Callier Collection, courtesy RM Sothebys.
The weather during the 1956 Mille Miglia was atrocious, and period accounts talk about torrential rain, hail and high winds that plagued the event. Always a dangerous race, the 1956 Mille Miglia resulted in numerous crashes and three driver or co-driver fatalities, despite attempts at improving course safety in the wake of the 1955 Le Mans tragedy.
At various stages of the race the Ferraris were challenged by the factory Maserati of Piero Taruffi and privately entered Mercedes-Benz 300 SLs, including one driven by Wolfgang von Trips, but it was Maranello’s time to shine. Eleven hours, 37 minutes and 10 seconds after departing, Castellotti crossed the finish line to take the win, followed by Collins (with co-driver Louis Klementaski), Musso, Fangio and Gendebien, giving Ferrari a podium sweep plus two.
Fangio would never again pilot the 290 MM he drive in the Mille Miglia, but its racing days were far from over. In the 1956 season, under Scuderia Ferrari ownership, chassis 0626 would be raced by Phil Hill, who helped to deliver a podium finish at the Nürburgring 1000km, and by Wolfgang von Trips, in his first drive for Ferrari. At the end of the season, chassis 0626 was sold to Temple Buell in Denver, Colorado, who continued to campaign the car internationally with drivers such as Masten Gregory, Eugenio Castellotti, and Joakim Bonnier. Under Buell’s ownership, the 290 MM saw its first and only victory, in the 1957 Buenos Aires 1000 kilometers.
Following the 1958 Cuban Grand Prix, the Ferrari was sold to Robert Williams, who campaigned just a single race but retained the car until 1961, when it was sold to SCCA race James Flynn of Syracuse, New York. Flynn raced the car intermittently through the 1964 season, and first offered the car for sale in 1966. The Ferrari would pass through two more owners before entering the Mas du Clos Collection of Pierre Bardinon in 1970, and it would remain in his care for 34 years before being acquired by the consignor.
Despite its lengthy competition history, chassis 0626 has never been crashed and is said to carry its original frame, body, engine and transmission. Very few competition cars from this period survived intact, and this alone makes it appealing, but its ties to Fangio will likely make it among the most significant competition cars to hit the market in recent years. With this in mind, RM Sotheby’s is predicting a selling price in excess of $28 million, which would make this the most valuable automobile ever sold by the auction house.
For additional information on the upcoming “Driven by Disruption” sale, visit RMSothebys.com.
UPDATE (11.December 2015): The Ferrari sold for $28,050,000.