During The ICE 2024 in St. Moritz, which has been cancelled due to weather conditions, I filmed this unique 1963 Ferrari 275 P.
It is the centenary year for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, arguably the most prestigious of all long-distance races. Scoring a victory is already quite an achievement and during the hundred-year history only a handful of cars have managed to win the race twice. Between 1949 and 1965, Ferraris won the race nine times, and it was long believed that no single Ferrari had done it twice. That was until 2018, when Ferrari Classiche discovered that the 275 P that had won Le Mans in 1964 had already done so in 1963 under a different chassis number. For good measure, that same dive into the Ferrari archives also revealed that chassis 0816 was also the winner of the 1964 Sebring 12 Hours.
For the 1964 Le Mans, there were four works Ferraris and two customer cars, going up against three Fords. Not raced since its Sebring win, 0816 was one of the four factory cars, driven by Jean Guichet and Nino Vaccarella. They led the way in a one-two-three victory, making 0816 the only Ferrari to win Le Mans twice.
For the 1965 season, Ferrari responded to the threat of the very well-funded Ford GT40 program with the new P2, again raced in 275 and 330 form. These featured revised bodywork and all-new four-cam engines. The surviving P cars were surplus to requirements and sold off to prominent customers. Following one final outing as a works car at Sebring early in 1965, chassis 0816 was sold to Major William Cooper. He raced the car with little success, predominantly at Elkhart Lake. It was then sold to Luigi Chinetti, whose North American Racing Team (NART) gave the car its final outing, at the 1969 Sebring 12 Hours. It failed to finish and was classified forty-seventh overall.
The following year, it joined the rapidly growing collection of Frenchman Pierre Bardinon. His stable of Ferraris was without equal and at one point included four outright Le Mans winners. During Bardinon’s ownership, chassis 0816 was understood to be a one-time Le Mans winner. As such, it was already very significant, as it was the last works Ferrari to have won at Le Mans. During the next forty years, the 275 P was beautifully preserved and only very rarely seen in public including at events at Bardinon’s own Mas du Clos circuit. In 2000, it was reunited with Guichet at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Pierre Bardinon sadly passed away in 2012, after which the collection was gradually dispersed by his children to pay the hefty French inheritance tax, which goes up to 45 percent. In 2016, a Ferrari 335 S from the collection was sold at the Artcurial Retromobile auction for nearly $36 million. Two years later, the 0816 was due to be entrusted to Artcurial for the same sale. There was talk of a potential new world record for what was then still understood to “only” be the 1964 Le Mans winner. A few weeks before the auction, the Ferrari 275 P was withdrawn from the sale due to “proceedings concerning the estate.” Reportedly, the Bardinon family and French authorities did not agree on the value of the collection and the amount of tax due.
Whether this resulted in additional research into the history of 0816 is not known, but some six months later rival auctioneer RM Sotheby’s announced that the car was back on the market as a private treaty sale. Poignantly, the Anglo-Canadian company also revealed that 0816 had not just won Le Mans once but twice, and scored a win at Sebring in 1964. This new information was discovered by Ferrari Classiche in documents that had apparently been stored for many years in boxes in a Maranello basement. This was rather convenient for most parties involved but considering the damage done to 0814 at the Nürburgring 1000 km, it is logical to conclude that 0816 did indeed win Le Mans twice.
What is a real shame is that Bardinon himself never knew that he owned what may very well be the most significant and valuable Ferrari sports racing car in existence. Although no sum was disclosed, RM Sotheby’s did find a new owner and today the car is again part of a very significant collection, which also includes a beautiful Ferrari 250 GTO. Today, the 275 P is in full running order and boasts a lovely cosmetic condition with just the right amount of patina. At a rare outing, it was shown at the 2022 Goodwood Revival to celebrate the upcoming Le Mans centenary and Ferrari’s seventy-fifth anniversary.
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*Michael - Automotive Mike*
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