Gorgeous flowing lines. An unrivaled racing pedigree. Rare as they could possibly get. The Ferrari 330 Testa Rossa LeMans ticks all the boxes to be one of the most special cars Ferrari has produced.
It was the product of an era where Italian cars dominated motorsports, a true testament to Ferraris's legacy and capability as a race team and manufacturer. Its bountiful history has meant that now it is one of the most expensive Ferraris that money can buy.
Let's take a look back at this marvel of design and engineering and work out all the reasons that make the 330 TR such a special bit of kit.
Racing Roots
The 330 was a race car. It wasn't the kind of race car that we see nowadays that could have a complete spare car and enough parts available for the mechanics to build another one, no. It was Ferrari's project that had been built from the ground up in order to fit in with new regulations at LeMans.
Up until this point Ferrari dominated the LeMans circuit. Having won the previous three consecutive years with a front-engine Testa Rossa, the last of these victories marked the end of an important era for Ferrari and racing in general.
The 330 was the product of all that Ferrari had learned in the years prior. It was built on the chassis of the legendary 250 that preceded it. This chassis number #0808 was kept in the Ferrari factory team for years. When they crashed it, it was mended and raced again. When the regulations changed the chassis stayed but everything else upgraded.
LeMans’ new four-liter restriction meant that chassis #0808 needed to be lengthened to allow for a bigger four-liter engine water-cooled V12 taken from Ferrari’s Superamerica. This block was combined with Testa Rossa style cylinder heads which had six 2-barrel Weber carburetors fitted.
With that kind of Ferrari magic, #0808 went on to become the most powerful Testa Rossa, pushing out 400HP through a 5-speed manual transmission. This new race-ready Ferrari needed a new name, and so in 1962 the Ferrari 330 TRI/LM was born. The "I" in the technical name refers to the independent rear suspension.
Ferrari entered the 330 in the experimental class which meant that their rivals would be 3 Maserati Tipo 151s, one of Maserati’s last front-engine designs. When the race was underway, all the Maseratis dropped out by the halfway mark, the 330 had a huge opportunity and took it. In the end, it finished 42 miles ahead of the 250 GTO which came in second place.
The Ferrari victory at Le Mans was an expected outcome as the 330 was the product of tried components that pushed the limits of the experimental class regulations. Drivers Phil Hill and Oliver Gendebien were in pole almost for the entire race which took them to their third Testa Rossa victory at LeMans in a row.
The 330 TR Since
After the 330's showcase at LeMans, it went on to be sold to the NART racing team. Under them, the car was raced again the following year in LeMans 1963. However, the car was involved in a big crash, after the driver was luckily pulled out uninjured, the car never raced again.
After this, the 330 began to exchange hands in the upper echelon of the car collector world. Originally the racing team had two bodies made for the smashed car that had been gloriously designed by Fantuzzi, the first being an open-top spyder with a rear roll hoop but this was discarded for a coupe body was fitted.
The first owner was Hisashi Okada who had ownership for nine years, in which he drove the car daily on the roads in and around New York City. The next in the line to the 330 was Pierre Bardinon, owner of the amazing Mas Du Clos collection.
He purchased the car through Stanley Nowak and went straight to Fantuzzi where he asked them to make an exact copy of the 1962 LeMans winner. The car was meticulously brought back to its 1962 LeMans glory. The overhaul included its original engine and chassis.
Bardinon sold the car in 2002 to Rob Myers for $5,800,000 USD. After this, it went to auction through RM Sotheby's in Monterey, CA in 2002. It sold at this auction for $6,500,000 USD including fees to Jim Spiro, a money manager from New Orleans.
Spiro drove the 330 in road rallies and used it to get through the city. However, the car narrowly avoided the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when, two days prior to the storm, Spiro drove it 10 miles west of the city to a friend's garage.
The current owner Gregorio Pérez Companc, an Argentinian businessman who paid €7,000,000 including a buyer's premium in an RM Sotheby's 2007 Maranello auction.
The 330 is the only one of its kind and it's rare that a car has its complete history available to view. It's not going to get any cheaper but neither is a Picasso or a first pressing of a Beatles album.
The history and pedigree of this kind of car are what separates it from the rest. A chassis that won LeMans 3 times back to back, was crashed and rebuilt numerous times. It's a miracle that it's still here, and that is what makes it quite so special.