Driving an 860 Monza in exclusive company
Join Robert Coucher in a sublime 860 Monza, as Ferrari celebrates its 70th anniversary with the Cavalcade Classiche
hree days of touring around beautiful Tuscany in the Italian sunshine are promised. And I’d be taking part in a glorious, ultra-rare Ferrari. Where do I sign? We are entered in the Cavalcade Classiche, along with 69 other Ferraris from all over the world, to celebrate Ferrari’s 70th anniversary. I join my friend Damian in his exquisite, freshly restored 860 Monza, one of only two constructed, and it has a fabulous racing pedigree.
The Cavalcade is based at the luxurious Augustus Hotel, which includes the Villa Agnelli, in the picturesque seaside town of Forte dei Marmi, a favourite with Italian gentry. Rosso Corsa of varying hues is the predominant colour, though many of the 70 cars taking part are silver, blue or Giallo Fly. While being checked and issued with rally numbers, they look stunning in the evening light.
The assembled Ferraris range from the earliest surviving example, the 125 S, to Sally and Dudley Mason-Styron’s enthusiastically raced and campaigned 166 MM, plus another from the United States, a 212 Inter from Mexico, a 340 MM from Argentina, Andrew Pisker’s 250 GT Tour de France, Brandon and Eileen Wang’s 250 GT SWB California, and a deeply patinated and raced 250 GT SWB
Competizione, mixing with numerous 275 GTBs, 330s, Daytonas, Dinos, a 288 GTO and the latest LaFerrari Aperta Settantesimo (literally ‘70th’, one of nine reserved for sale in this anniversary year) in menacing black.
The sunset at the beachside Augustus Lido is beautiful, the aperitivo is chilled, and dinner is delicious – with the promise of the most beautiful roads in Italy to come. But early next morning the weather forecast is not looking good, so Damian and I stow waterproofs where we can within the tight confines of the Monza. With our start time looming he clambers into the driver’s seat, allows the fuel pump to prime, gives the throttle two kicks, and pushes the starter handle on the transmission tunnel.
Mamma mia! The Monza’s engine is no delicate little V12 but a whopping great four-cylinder, and the sound is incredibly loud, angry and hard. Ferrari’s classic nomenclature is to name the cars after the individual cylinder sizes. So a 166 has 166cc for each of 12 cylinders, which equates to 1992cc, and a 250 is 250cc times 12, so 3.0 litres. Sweet, sonorous sewing-machine engines thanks to small bores. ‘Our’ brute has four 860cc cylinders, so almost 3.4 litres to play with. When it’s warming up you can almost hear each pot’s ignition.
Being careful not to bruise the prosciutto-thin ally bodywork, I insert myself into the tight co-pilot seat and peer out through Perspex – kindly, Damian has had a passenger’s ’screen fitted specifically for my benefit. It looks suitable, is easily removable and, as it turns out, will be incredibly beneficial.
We guide the still-warming 860 through the narrow streets to the centre of Forte dei Marmi and the startline. The full-race Ferrari is T
‘Its engine is a whopping great four-cylinder, and the sound is loud, angry and hard’
‘Research indicates that this is the only Ferrari sports car in which Fangio won a race’
truculent and does not really enjoy all this hacking about at low speeds. We line up, receive our time card and look at the Tulip map that directs us towards the magnificently ancient walled city of Lucca. Our start time clicks up, a Ferrari flag is waved and we’re off. Damian can’t resist a bit of showboating so he revs the 860, drops the clutch and the crowd erupts.
Then the rain starts. Hang on, that wasn’t in the invitation! We are fine behind our little Perspex windscreens but it’s time for me to don my leather helmet and goggles and Damian to flip on a flat cap – which instantly blows off, so we stop and retrieve it. I’ve done the Mille Miglia enough times to know that, when it rains in northern Italy, it pelts. I’d advised him to bring full motorcycle-type waterproofs including leggings, so we wrestle on the Gore-Tex kit. I’d noticed the experienced Mason-Styrons had waterproofed-up in their Barchetta from the off, so we are not alone. Elegance is forced to make way for practicality.
Even so, as the rain falls ever harder, my reading glasses become opaque, the Perspex ’screen mists up, and the road book starts coming to pieces in my hands. Water begins gushing in though various cooling orifices in the bodywork and we’re soon drenched.
Those in sensible Ferraris, the coupés with roofs and the cabriolets with functioning tops, are unaware of the conditions we seafarers are facing, although Andrew Pisker’s Tour de France is fogging up and the owner of the 288 GTO loses it in the wet conditions and takes the front and rear off. Fortunately, he’s near the factory. In the Monza, the conditions prove challenging for the driver – limited visibility and streaming wet roads unsuited to the non-existent grip of the cold, old-tech 16-inch Dunlop racing tyres. But what fun being able to flick the 860’s very obedient tail out at modest speed.
Only modest speed is not what this 1956 860 Monza, chassis number 0604, is about. This is a pure-bred racewinner with impeccable history. It was prepared as a works car for multiple World Champion and factory driver Juan Manuel Fangio, and in it he won the Sebring 12 Hours that year with Eugenio Castellotti, contributing to Ferrari’s 1956 World Sports Car Championship. Research indicates that this is the only Ferrari sports car in which Fangio won a race, so you can imagine how special it is to be blasting through Italy in this incredibly rare piece of Ferrari lore.
The Monza was then sold by Ferrari to successful American racer John von Neumann, who campaigned it with then-future F1 World Champion Phil Hill, and it came second at Pebble Beach in ’56. Hill said: ‘Fangio was the lead driver on the works team. He could have driven