2023 Additions for Alfaholic

Nice to see a less common, non-Martini 037.

As an aside, many years ago, I sold a Wurth sponsored Minichamps German DRM Ford Capri on eBay. In exchanging a few emails with the seller, it turned out he worked for Wurth and had a collection specifically focused on Wurth sponsored racing cars. I'm sure he'd like this if he's still collecting.

Agree with the others that the 131 looks better in Alitalia but its still a fine looking machine. 037 looks great in Wurth colours

Now that the Walter Rohrl Fiat/Lancia rallying rabbit-hole has been well and truly excavated, I can get back to more normal additions – the next release in the PW F1 series. It’s back to the 1950s for an Italian - blue though, not red.

At the end of the 1957 season, a successful one as they had won the F1 World Championship with Juan Manuel Fangio, Maserati announced that they were pulling out of racing. This was due to the state of their finances, which had been adversely affected by the non-payment of a large order from South America. Maserati’s Sporting Director, Guerino Bertocchi, successfully argued that they should not cut all motorsport ties and should make their still competitive 250F F1 racers available to private entrants – American entrepreneur, Temple Hoyne Buell Jnr, and Roman, Gugliemo ‘Mimmo” Dei.

Buell obtained the two brand new 250Fs Maserati had built for the 1958 season, and Dei’s “Scuderia Centro Sud” took delivery of a third car, a 1957 model updated to 1958 specs. Unlike Buell who had the funds to support his racing efforts, Dei’s Scuderia Centro Sud operated on a more hand-to-mouth basis. Dei had no fortune to fall back on so funded his team from start money, prize money, and sponsorship from technical partners, and in some cases from the drivers themselves. The team had graduated to F1 in 1956 with a couple of Maserati 250Fs and had scored a couple of Top 5 results, and a 3rd place with American Masten Gregory in the 1957 Monaco GP.

It is another American who features as the driver of this model, hence the car being painted blue and white. Carroll Shelby’s European racing career to date had been in sportscars with Aston Martin, Porsche, Ferrari, and Maserati. He had returned to Aston Martin for the 1958 sportscar season, while also coming to an agreement with Scuderia Centro Sud for a couple of F1 outings. The first of these was the French GP in Reims, although he was an early retirement with engine failure.

For the next GP, the British at Silverstone, Scuderia Centro Sud had two 250Fs on hand, a red one for Gerino Gerini, and Shelby’s blue and white example. The American out-qualified his Italian teammate to line up 15th on 20 car grid – Gerini was 18th. Shelby was still 4.8sces away from Poleman Stirling Moss’ Vanwall though. Moss’ engine let go after 25 laps, leaving Ferrari to take a 1-2 with Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn. Shelby was the only Maserati to make the finish, in 9th place, albeit the last car across the finishing line, three laps behind the Ferrari pair.

Shelby switched to the Temple Buell 250F for the Portuguese GP, but DNF’d due to an accident. His last F1 outing of the year was at Monza for the Italian GP. He qualified and started the Scuderia Centro Sud 250F but after two laps came into the pits and took over Gregory’s Temple Buell car and raced to 4th.



PW – Formula 1 The Car Collection

Maserati 250F 2.5

Scuderia Centro Sud – Carroll Shelby

1958 British GP – 9th

A new one on me. Very nice

Jerry “Old Irish Racing” recently posted one of his excellent “Signature Projects” dedicated to John Surtees and his time in F1 with Ferrari. As an avowed Surtees fan, I was impressed with Jerry’s work and his choice of subject, as a few of us were. A few days later an email popped up in my inbox – Ian “Jager” had found a Surtees Ferrari F1 model for sale in Australia and for a very good price – “Did I want it?” You bet I did!

With GP Replicas and Tecnomodel having started to release quality versions of F1 Ferraris, the older Red Line models have been somewhat forgotten. I am still a fan of these models and am always happy to look at any of the racers I don’t have, and at times they can be had for reasonable prices.

“Big John’s” F1 career had begun in 1960 with a few outings for Team Lotus, including a 2nd place in the British GP. He switched to Reg Parnell Racing in 1961, for the first year of the 1.5-litre regulations but could do no better than two 5th place finishes with a Cooper-Climax. The team morphed into Yeoman Credit racing for 1962 and equipped with one of Lola’s new “Mk 4 - Climax” cars he took two 2nd place finishes during the year.

By now Surtees’ talent was obvious and Enzo Ferrari swooped for the 1963 season. Having trounced the opposition in 1961, Ferrari had not had a successful 1962, being unable to win any Championship GPs. Things began to turnaround for them in 1963, with new recruit Surtees winning the German GP at the Nurburgring in his V6 engined “156”, his first F1 success.

For the 1964 season, Ferrari had three different cars available for their drivers, as they sought to find the best option. An updated 156 was joined by the 158 and the 1512 – with V8 and Flat-12 engines of 1.5-lites respectively.

Surtees used a 156 for the first two GPs of the season, Monaco (DNF, gearbox) and the Dutch (2nd). Next time out, at Spa in Belgium, a new 158 was available (chassis 0006) and John used this car for the remainder of the season. He suffered engine failures in both Belgium and the next GP in France but then took the new car to 3rd place in the British GP. Ferrari’s season then turned around, the team winning the next three GPs.

Surtees got the ball rolling in Germany, taking his second GP win at the same track as his first, the Nurburgring. He had beaten Jim Clark’s Lotus to Pole by 0.4secs around the 22.8km circuit. They swapped place a few times in the early laps, but after Clark’s Lotus retired halfway through the race, Surtees was left to win – he ended up 1min 15secs ahead of Graham Hill’s BRM.

Bandini the won the Austrian GP with his Ferrari 156, before Surtees triumphed in the Italian GP. These results helped Surtees to the 1964 Drivers Title, and Ferrari to the Manufacturer’s.



Red Line Models

Ferrari 158 1.5

Scuderia Ferrari – John Surtees

1964 German GP - Winner

Really like that Ferrari, great shape and very nice model!