New at Old Irish Racing

Fab history (albeit unlucky for that car) and fan-tas-tic pictures as usual. Your scenes really bring the model's back story to life.

Dang you have some great models, also love the way you display them. The line up of the four Astons for the 1959 LM24H is superb. I do have an old Western Models version of the winning car, may have a couple of others too but nothing like the four of them. The Ferraris are splendid too, I have always liked the 250GTE.

Tasman Champ - Every old Ferrari race car history is like an onion. You have to peel back one layer of history at a time to get the full measure of its past and like an onion, there are usually many layers. This car is no exception and started life as a factory Ferrari Dino 246 F1 race car in 1958. True to his run of 1/43 scale models, John Haynes (Historics Replicars) utilized the basic molds of his production runs to make variations of cars. This famous Dino It has a rich history and a colorful one as you will see in this abbreviated story of its history.

Ferrari 256 V12 - New Zealand Grand Prix, 1960 - Historic Replicars
Like every old race car, once it was past its prime, it had little value. In this case, the Dino 246 F1 (Ch. #0007) that started life as a Ferrari team car in 1958, was finished with its prime-time race career in 1960. In those years, it had competed in fourteen F1 races and earned the distinction of the last front-engined race car to win a F1 race when Phil Hill drove it to victory at the 1960 Italian GP at Monza. By that time its Dino six-cylinder engine had been uprated to 2.5L. Its career at Ferrari over, it was sold.



New Zealander Pat Hoare bought the car using a Shell Oil connection from Ferrari a couple months after the 1960 F1 season. A 3.0L V12 from a 250 Testa Rosa had been installed and Hoare desired to race the car in the 1961 NZ Gold Star Championship and the car chassis was renumbered #0788F). At that time, grand prix drivers went to NZ and Australia to continue their racing during the summer down South. At the 1961 NZGP, Hoare raced against the likes of Brabham, McLaren, Bonnier and Hulme in Coopers, G. Hill in a BRM and Salvadori in a Lotus, finishing 7th.



In 1962, Hoare again raced the car in NZ against internationals that had come down to race in the precursor of races which became the Tasman Series Championship. At the NZGP, Moss won in his Lotus 21, Hoare finished 5th behind Surtees, McLaren and Salvadori in Cooper T53’s and Bandini in a Maserati 250F. In both 1961 and 1962 after the international stars went home, racing continued in NZ and Horae did well enough in other races to win the NZ Gold Star Championship in the 256 V12 in both 1961 & 1962.



By 1963, the car was truly past its prime and Pat Hoard tried to sell it, with no takers. In 1964 he had the car rebuilt into an aluminum bodied GT, which resembled a Ferrari GTO 64, but by most accounts was pretty ugly. The car remained in NZ up until 1970 when it was purchased by early vintage racing guiding light Neil Corner. The car was shipped back to the UK along with its original body panels (which had thankfully been preserved) and restored to its original 1958 Dino 246 F1 specification. The car is still a regular at vintage racing meets by current owner Tony Smith.

Change the word "Ferrari" to "Italian" and you get an idea on one of the reasons that cars from this country interest me so much.

I'm a big fan of this one - Ferrari, F1, and a local-ish history -what's not to like.

Thanks for the link to the article Jerry.  I had relatives in Dunedin when I was a small lad, including a 2nd cousin that had a very extensive model railway collection, but I haven't been there since the late 1970s!  I can't say that I remember there being a "GP" there!  Wigram and Teretonga are familiar names to NZ racing enthusiasts though.

The Sandown Circuit is very much in the suburbs of Melbourne and we visited the track many times when we lived in Melbourne between 2005-2007.  Similar to Aintree in the UK and Pukehoe it is built around a horse racing track.  Racing still occurs at the track, with the V8 series returning this year for their traditional 500km event, but it is constantly under threat of closure.  It is in the middle of a residential area and subject to noise restrictions, and the owners, the Melbourne (horse) Racing Club are constantly reviewing the motorised activities and the potential of selling off the land for housing.

Thanks for the additional information Martin. Housing creep and race car noise are problems here too with two well established local race tracks and movements always afoot to close them down. Portland International established in 1962 is in a city park, which puts additional pressure on government officials charged with making those decisions. Being the host of the largest sporting events in the state and a revenue source that helps fund the cost of other city parks, the arguments over noise (and carbon emissions) has not triumphed so far for outright bans, but that wolf is never far from the door.

I've always loved the racing Daytonas and this is a great one. Fab model too.