For Road & Track: Ferrari 225 S ‘Tuboscocca’ by Vignale
“1952 must be called the year of 225…” That’s a quote from a standard work on Ferrari, and sums up the appeal of owning a 2.7-litre V12 225 Sport: a car as suited to racing as it was to showing off in the Parc de Bagatelle, Paris...
Starting in 1951-1952, Carrozzeria Vignale had taken over from Touring as the main provider of competition bodywork for Ferrari. With Giovanni Michelotti at the drawing board, Vignale produced stunning spider and berlinetta bodywork for factory and privateer racers, as well as slightly showier road car designs for the world’s super-rich.
It should be noted at this point that when 34 Ferraris were entered in the 1952 Mille Miglia, that figure could well have represented a sixth of total Ferrari production to date. The company was in its infancy, yet was dominant in motor racing and delivering elegant, expensive GTs to the world’s wealthiest.
Year by year, the capacity of the Colombo-designed V12 was increased from the 166’s two litres to 2,715cc in the new-for-1952 225. That year, with the help of additional, big-capacity cars, Ferrari was highly placed in most European events, including a clean sweep for the 225 S at the Monaco Grand Prix (held that year for sports cars) and, in 3.0-litre guise, a 225 S Vignale coupé came first overall in the Mille Miglia.
The latest car featured the familiar Ferrari tubular chassis with a rigid rear axle, double-wishbone independent front suspension and drum brakes. Leaf springs were to be found front and rear. Where some of the 225 Ss differed from others was in a variation of chassis tubes, known asTuboscocca. Keeping things simple, this meant that by adding tubes to the periphery of the chassis, it was not only strengthened, but it also made the separate bodywork a more integral, rigid part of the whole structure.
This particular 225 S Berlinetta, available from Classic Driver dealer E. Thiesen Berlin GmbH, is one such ’Tuboscocca’ and its thick history file shows that not only did it compete in period in events such as the Liège-Rome-Liège rally, Reims and Montlhéry, it was also no stranger to the show circuit. On 25 June 1952, chassis 0190ED was entered in a concours d’elegance at the Parc de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris.
History does not reveal the outcome. However, with recent runs in the modern Mille Miglia retrospective, and the possibility of an entry to any one of the world’s top concours, racing or regularity events, there is no doubting that this Ferrari 225 Sport is as desirable – and competitive – now as it was over 60 years ago.
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