Winter, 1953/1954. Having sealed both the year’s Formula 1 and World Sportscar titles, Enzo Ferrari was jubilant but wary. Resting on his laurels was not an option, though in the face of innovative new cars from Lancia, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati, it was clear the technological arms race would be especially hard-fought. Formula 1 was the arena in which his cars would face the biggest challenge, so, Il Commendatore decided instead to throw the kitchen sink at a sports car to reassert his reputation as the purveyor of the world’s most exquisite motor cars and keep the mighty Mercedes-Benz 300 SLRs at bay.

While customers were offered the chance to buy and race the 375 MM with which Ferrari had won in 1953, Enzo greenlit the development of a small series of even faster and more powerful competition Spiders for his star-studded squadron of factory drivers. National pride was at stake, after all.

The Formula 1-derived 4.5-litre Lampredi V12 of the 375 MM was enlarged to a heady 4.9 litres in capacity and twinned with the four-speed gearbox from the Scuderia’s then-current single-seater, mounted at the rear. An innovative De Dion rear axle was integrated to the bespoke tubular chassis. The innovative package was cloaked in a muscular yet achingly pretty open body by Pinin Farina. Aptly christened the 375 Plus, just six even chassis-numbered examples were built for the Works Scuderia outfit, quickly earning the nickname Le Monstre from the French press.

A dress rehearsal. That’s essentially how the steely drivers of the early 1950s approached the Giro di Sicilia, such was the arduous 620-mile road rally’s similarity to the much more famous Mille Miglia that followed shortly afterwards. Of course, in the same vein, manufacturers relished the chance to challenge the reliability of their cars and identify potentially problematic areas to address before descending on Brescia.

For the Works Scuderia Ferrari team, that meant further exploring the limits of its new 375 Plus Spider’s Goliath 4.9-litre V12, which had just been tuned by Ingegnere Lampredi to pump out 347bhp at 6,800rpm. We imagine the car’s theorised top speed of 186mph was, at that time, equal parts awe-inspiring and unnerving.

With the winds of promotion thick in his sails, Works Scuderia Ferrari driver Umberto Maglioli is pictured ahead of the 1954 Giro di Sicilia with chassis number 0384 AM

A singular car, chassis number 0384 AM, was entered for the 25-year-old Italian factory Ferrari driver Umberto Maglioli, who’d become a firm favourite of Enzo Ferrari for his talent, calmness and dependability. Maglioli was fresh from promotion within the Scuderia’s ranks, after Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi had defected to the rival Lancia outfit – much to the chagrin of Il Commendatore. Maglioli’s win in the opening round of the 1954 World Sportscar Championship, the 1,000KM of Buenos Aires, vindicated Ferrari’s decision.

Much like the Mille Miglia, competitors in the Giro di Sicilia left the starting ramp in Palermo in one-minute intervals beginning at midnight and completed one lap of the 620-mile course – in this case snaking around the perimeter of the entire island. The starting order was determined by class, the slowest cars setting off first. The factory-entered 375 Plus was by far and away the most powerful entry and was therefore the last starter at 4am, as denoted by its race number 400.

Maglioli challenged Piero Taruffi for the lead in Sicily… until an off-road excursion put paid to the Ferrari driver’s race

It soon became obvious this would be a two-horse race for victory between Maglioli driving chassis number 0384 AM and the Works Lancia D24 of Piero Taruffi, which had set off a minute prior. Indeed, by the Enna checkpoint some four hours into the race, the pair found themselves simultaneously refuelling their cars.

Frustratingly, a mere 12 miles later, a downhill curve and the added weight of a full tank of fuel proved too much for the 375’s drum brakes to bear. It was a cruel case of what could have been, though the fierce pace of the 375 on the twisty Sicilian roads boded well for the less technical roads that comprised the Mille Miglia.

The motorsport world mourned Tazio Nuvolari in 1953, which prompted the Mille Miglia organisers to tweak the route for 1954 in order to encompass the Italian great’s hometown of Mantua. Incidentally, this notched the race’s overall mileage to exactly 1,000 miles, as per its name. There was also a significant change to the rules allowing a single driver to contest the entire race, rather than the traditional team of two.

Context is useful at this point. That meant more than 11 hours of solo driving, day and night, flat-out across an entire country, solely on public roads lined with hundreds of thousands of excitable – and unobstructed – spectators. The ‘Splendid Soloist’ of Biella, Maglioli was one such competitor to ‘go it alone’.

Suave, stylish and self-assured, Maglioli was a firm crowd favourite in Brescia ahead of the 1954 Mille Miglia 

The car with which Maglioli would challenge the might of the factory Lancia team for outright victory was one of the three Works-entered 375 Plus’, chassis number 0384 AM. Fresh from repair at Pinin Farina, the car bore a number of distinctive changes since Sicily, most obviously the longer and more pointed nose treatment, the ‘solo’ windscreen configuration and the streamlined headrest aft the driver’s seat. Beneath the bonnet, a further 25bhp had been freed from the engine’s mid-range, improving the car’s overall tractability.

Come 1 May 1954 and the start of the 21st Mille Miglia, the increase in power mattered little. Persistent drizzle had swept the Lombardy region and was trying its best to dampen spirits in Brescia. As the crudely painted number 545s signalled, this 375 Plus left the starting ramp at 5.45am, Maglioli using every ounce of skill to tame the ‘Fearsome Four Nine’ on the greasy roads out of Brescia.

When Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina suffered a nasty accident in the sister 375 Plus barely 15 minutes into the race, it fell to Maglioli to fly the Ferrari flag at the front. Maglioli was metronomic on the 543-mile outward leg to Rome, running as high as second position and keeping the Lancias of Piero Taruffi and Alberto Ascari honest. When Taruffi bowed out from the lead with a seized engine, Ascari assumed his place. By Florence, with 730 miles in the bag, Maglioli climbed to second and commenced his hunt of the double Formula 1 World Champion and former Ferrari frontman.

As trivial an issue as a loose split pin in the gearbox was enough to end Maglioli and this Works 375 Plus’ Mille Miglia

On the straight, flat and fast roads, the immense power of the 375 Plus elevated the Ferrari into a league of its own. And mercifully for Maglioli, the final stretch of the Mille Miglia from Bologna to Brescia was largely just that: straight, flat and fast. No sooner had victory firmly positioned itself in the forefront of Maglioli’s mind than disaster struck. A frankly trivial disaster in the shape of a tiny split pin that had worked loose in the gearbox and brought the otherwise rudely healthy Ferrari to a halt at the summit of the Futa Pass.

The crestfallen Italian climbed out of his stricken car, combed his hair, pulled his pipe from his pocket and relieved his tension by joking around with the large crowd that had quickly gathered around him. “I started to laugh like a mad man,” Maglioli was quoted as saying in Giannino Marzotti’s excellent book Red Arrows – Ferraris at the Mille Miglia. “I don’t wish to sound presumptuous, but I could have won that race,” he continued. “My car was still in perfect condition and could have easily overtaken the Lancia D24.” He was as bullish in defeat as he was gracious in victory.

The next race on chassis number 0384 AM’s schedule was the International Daily Express Trophy Race for Sports Cars at Silverstone, a 17-lap warmup for the British Grand Prix. Driving duties were assigned to José Froilán González, the stocky Argentinian who’d sealed his place in Ferrari lore (and the heart of Il Commendatore) by winning the Prancing Horse its first Formula 1 Grand Prix, coincidentally at Silverstone three years prior. 

How times change – chassis number 0384 AM lines up alongside the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 cars during the British Grand Prix meeting at Silverstone

In England, González had become fondly known as ‘The Pampas Bull’ for his searing speed and ‘all-arms-and-elbows’ driving style, which defied his generous physique. The record crowd and the press alike were no doubt frothing at the thought of the Argentinian putting on a characteristically emphatic show at Silverstone.

Not an hour had passed since he had won the heat for the meeting’s main event driving the Works Ferrari 553 F1 before González was summoned back out into the lashing English rain to start the sports-car race. Despite the Le Mans-style running start that, by its fundamental nature, was a clear handicap for González, it took a mere lap-and-a-half before he clinched the lead – a lead he would not relinquish. The treacherously wet conditions did nothing to diminish the daring and energetic fashion with which ‘The Pampas Bull’ commanded his ferocious 4.9-litre Ferrari on Silverstone’s fast, sweeping curves.

For all intents and purposes, González vanquished the opposition in the 1954 International Daily Express Trophy Race at Silverstone

Over the course of 17 laps, González vanquished the opposition, recording a record-breaking lap at an average speed of 85.68mph, lapping the last-placed car thrice, and crossing the finish line a full 15 seconds ahead of the next best finisher, an HWM-Jaguar. To cap an especially fruitful meeting for González, he went on to win the British Grand Prix.

Having ceded the Mille Miglia to Lancia (and, to make matters worse, his old employee Alberto Ascari), Enzo Ferrari was hell-bent on winning endurance racing’s crown jewel: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. And if any car was going to return Maranello to winning ways and excel on the long straights of La Sarthe, it was the 375 Plus. Fresh on the back of its success at Silverstone, chassis number 0384 AM was one of three 375 Plus’ fielded by the factory. It was unchanged save for the addition of two small rectangular cooling vents on the flanks ahead of the cockpit, extra spotlights in the grille and leather straps on the bonnet.

Umberto Maglioli returned to the cockpit of this Ferrari for the first time since the Mille Miglia, supported by Paolo Marzotto, the youngest of the five famous Marzotto brothers, known as much for their style as their speed. The all-Italian pair was given the race number three. José Froilán González and Maurice Trintignant helmed the sister number-four 375 Plus, while Louis Rosier and Robert Manzon were in the number-five.

Ferrari mounted an all-out assault on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, fielding three 375 Plus’ including chassis number 0384 AM for Umberto Maglioli and Paolo Marzotto

With the envelope of automotive performance further than it had ever been pushed before, Le Mans promised to be a real war of attrition. Especially looking at the miserable weather forecast. And so it proved. Of the 57 starters, just 18 crossed the finish line 24 hours later. At the sharp end of the field, an astonishing battle unfurled between the Works Ferrari ‘Four Nines’ and the new wind-cheating Jaguar D-types, which were more like ground-based aircraft with their newfangled monocoque construction.

In the end, the sheer power and unwavering reliability of the circa-350bhp Lampredi V12 would prevail in France. Jaguar’s valiant efforts were ultimately thwarted by persistent fuel-contamination problems, and Ferrari never really surrendered control. While González and Trintignant won Enzo Ferrari his first factory 24 Hours of Le Mans victory and indeed sports-car racing’s biggest prize, chassis number 0384 AM succumbed to gearbox failure eight hours in. The car had been running comfortably in second place.

This 375 Plus ran in a comfortable second place overall at Le Mans until a gearbox failure at around 11pm

There’s one anecdote from this Ferrari’s Le Mans we couldn’t not retell. When the cold, wet, black night fell, Marzotto was apparently given a ‘slower’ signal from his mechanics, prompting him to slow from 170mph to around 150mph on the circuit’s long Mulsanne Straight. Why exactly the signal was given remains unclear, but Marzotto later recalled how he found the slower speed ‘boring’. So much so that on one particular lap, he began to doze off and woke up just in the nick of time to make the sharp Mulsanne right-hander. He came around so quickly he remembered almost falling out of the car. Falling asleep in a 4.9-litre open Ferrari. At 150mph. In the dark. Unbelievable.

Umberto Maglioli famously went on to win that year’s infamous Carrera Panamericana driving a different 375 Plus, further sealing both his and ‘The Fearsome Four Nine’s’ place in Ferrari lore. Chassis number 0384 AM was also destined for competition across the Atlantic, though not in Mexico.

Following a mechanical overhaul back in Maranello, this 375 Plus was sold to the Chicago-based tissue magnate James H. Kimberly via the East Coast Ferrari concessionaire Luigi Chinetti Imports. ‘Gentlemen Jim’, as he was known on the North American motorsport circuit, had co-founded Kleenex and his vast wealth afforded him the chance to indulge in his hobbies: exotic European sports cars and motor racing.

After its Works career, chassis number 0384 AM enjoyed a successful spell on the fiercely passionate North American sports-car racing circuit 

By the time he’d taken delivery of his new ex-Works Ferrari in late autumn of 1954, Kimberly had already clinched the 1954 SCCA National Sports Car Championship in fine fashion, driving his ‘old’ 375 MM Spider. Not that he could resist wheeling the Plus out for a practice session at March Air Force Base in November. Kimberly later admitted that he never gelled with chassis number 0384 AM, not that the second-fastest time recorded during the 1955 Daytona Speed Week trials nor the podium finishes at the Fort Pierce air-force base less than a week later suggested it. For his final race with this 375 Plus, Kimberly teamed up with ‘Ebby’ Lunken for the 12 Hours of Sebring.

The 1957 Cuban Grand Prix marked this Ferrari’s final period competitive outing 

The Ohio-based Cadillac dealer Howard Hively acquired chassis number 0384 AM in the summer of 1955, promptly winning at Lawrenceville in Kansas. Hively lent the car to Charles Hassan for the main event at St. Joseph in Missouri – a race he dominated to win. Major events Hively further added to this Ferrari’s record included the Road America 500, the Bahamas Speed Week in 1955 and another edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1956. The car’s final competitive outing came in the 1957 Cuban Grand Prix in Havana, the grid for which was studded with such legendary names as Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss and Carroll Shelby.

No longer a competitive sports-racing car, Hively sold this 375 Plus in March of 1958 to Karl Kleve, the Cincinatti-based atomic scientist and collector who’d amassed a wonderfully eclectic assembly of old racing cars and aircraft. Stripped of its engine, componentry and body panels, which were stored in one of Kleve’s multiple barns, chassis number 0384 AM languished on a trailer, parked outside and exposed to the elements for many years.

The 4.9-litre Lampredi V12 numbered 0384 AM, meanwhile, was sold to the Michigan-based General Motors designer Fred Leydorf around 1970. A year later, by now in the ownership of the legendary American Ferrari disciple Kirk F. White, the engine was given to one Terry Myr from Michigan in lieu of a debt. Hold that thought.

Still in its Cuban Grand Prix livery, chassis number 0384 AM languishes on the Cincinatti property of Karl Kleve in the 1970s 

Fast-forward to 1989 and chassis number 0384 AM was removed from Kleve’s property and subsequently imported to Belgium by the collector-car dealer Michael Kruch, who’d allegedly acquired the car in Georgia from a Frenchman. Kleve reported the 375 Plus as stolen, though after further investigation, the Belgian authorities released the seized car to Kruch, satisfied with the validity of its title. Kruch sold this Ferrari to Philippe Lancksweert and Jacques Swaters, the latter of whom famously founded the illustrious Belgian Ferrari motorsport equipe Ecurie Francorchamps.

The pair commissioned a restoration, enlisting the most respected experts and artisan specialists in Italy to bring chassis number 0384 AM back to life. The exhaustive two-year project was overseen by Roberto Vaglietti from the Ferrari factory and the ex-Ferrari Servizio Assistenza Tecnica engineer Gaetano Florini. 

In the years that followed the completion of the restoration in 1991, Lancksweert and Swaters extensively exhibited and raced chassis number 0384 AM, including in the Shell Ferrari Maserati Historic Challenge series, the Le Mans Classic and at the Galleria Ferrari in Maranello. Karl Kleve, who’d triggered litigation concerning his contested ownership of the car he believed had been stolen from him, reached a settlement with Lancksweert and Swaters in 1999. Swaters subsequently assumed full custody of this Ferrari from Lancksweert in 2004. 

Karl Kleve passed away in 2003, triggering further dispute from his daughter Kristine Kleve Lawson, who’d been the designated administrator to his estate and was contesting the validity of the aforementioned settlement between Swaters and her father. This dispute was further compounded when Swaters learned of the existence of chassis 0384 AM’s original components, which were still on the Kleve property and due to be sold during a wind-up auction of the entire estate. Swaters argued that, as the owner of the car they belonged to, the parts were rightfully his. He litigated and the parts in question were removed from the auction.

Crucially, in 2009, Swaters was able to acquire the Ferrari’s original engine from Terry Myr, reuniting it with chassis number 0384 AM for the first time in almost 40 years. A towering figure in the world of Ferrari, Jacques Swaters died on 10 December 2010, aged 84. Swaters’ ownership of – and role in reviving – chassis number 0384 AM was given the best possible seal of approval when the car was sent to Italy to be certified by Ferrari Classiche in Maranello. 

The Ferrari 375 Plus was inherited by Swaters’ daughter Florence, the nuanced cross-continental ownership contest rumbling on with two further parties added to the mix, only serving to complicate matters further. Florence Swaters approached Bonhams, with a view to helping mediate between Belgium and America and ultimately selling the car for mutual benefit.

Sure enough, a (provisional) agreement was reached and chassis number 0384 AM – and all its corresponding original components - were sold by Bonhams at its Goodwood Festival of Speed sale in July of 2014. The 18.3m US dollars paid by the 375’s penultimate owner was a record public sum for a competition Ferrari. Alas, the saga of chassis number 0384 AM was not over. The then owner sought legal action against Bonhams because of titling issues relating directly to the car’s long-standing ownership contest.  

In 2015, a court case began in London involving all the concerned parties, in order to determine once and for all the ownership of this Ferrari and correctly distribute the funds of the auction sale. After almost 30 years of messy dispute, uncertainty and widespread intrigue, chassis number 0384 AM, complete with its original engine and accompanied by all the original components removed by Kleve in the late 1950s, was finally free of litigation and, as a result, controversy. It was without question the penultimate owner’s car. 

A prominent American Ferrari collector with a world-class stable of road and competition Prancing Horses, the penultimate owner of this Ferrari 375 Plus commissioned a comprehensive restoration. The exhaustive two year project was undertaken by Motion Products Inc., the award-winning Wisconsin-based Italian classic automotive restoration specialist. The brief from the outset was clear: to return chassis number 0384 AM to the exact specification in which Froilán González won the 1954 International Daily Express Trophy Race at Silverstone.

Motion Products Inc. in Wisconsin was charged with restoring chassis number 0384 AM to its 1954 Silverstone-winning specification

More pertinently, where possible, components that Karl Kleve removed from the car before its Ohio slumber in 1958 were painstakingly reintroduced. These included the entire nose section of the car fore of the bonnet, the removeable bonnet panel, the belly pans and the rear boot lid, complete with its unique fairing. Amazingly, when the fairing was removed from the boot lid during the earliest inspection and evaluation stages of the restoration, original dark-red lacquer from before the fairing was ever added prior to the 1954 Mille Miglia was revealed. This allowed Motion Products Inc. to create an authentic and exact colour match for the bodywork later down the line.

The most painstaking aspect of the restoration was reintegrating the accompanying original bodywork into chassis number 0384 AM 

As the hundreds of accompanying photos and documents chronicling the process illustrate, no stone was left unturned. The result is, as one would expect, astonishing. Upon completion of its restoration, chassis number 0384 AM headed for its new home, coincidentally just over 100 miles from where it once sat in an inconspicuous woodland lot for three decades, rusting and awaiting its revival.

Of the six Works Ferrari 375 Plus Spiders to have left Maranello, only four remain in existence today. And as you’d expect, they reside in the stables of the world’s foremost Ferrari collectors – collectors who, with these particular cars, distinguish themselves as true connoisseurs of the marque. Because if you truly understand and appreciate the abundant qualities of these ultra-rare, incredibly successful, ferociously powerful and achingly beautiful Ferraris, so much so that you’re inclined to add one to your collection, that’s exactly what you are: a connoisseur.

For us, chassis 0384 AM today represents peak Ferrari. With its provenance clear, the long-running dispute over its ownership finally put to bed and fresh from a restoration that, unusually, actually increased its originality, this 375 Plus Spider is without question among the most desirable Ferraris extant. And that’s before considering this car’s remarkable period competition history, which was witnessed first-hand by Enzo Ferrari himself. Let’s not forget chassis number 0384 AM was a factory Scuderia Ferrari entry raced competitively by Il Commendatore’s favourite driver Umberto Maglioli in arguably endurance motorsport’s two greatest races: the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Mille Miglia.

Its awe-inspiring victory at Silverstone in the hands of the ‘Pampas Bull’ José Froilán González, which geed the Argentinian up to win the Formula 1 British Grand Prix for Ferrari mere hours later, is one hell of a sweetener. 

SOLD