It might not be powered by a 12-cylinder engine, but the four-cylinder Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa is more worthy than most to be included on the Prancing Horse’s ‘all-time-greats’ list. With its voluptuous open Scaglietti body, this swift and nimble sports-racing car took the fight to much more powerful opposition and helped forge Ferrari’s motorsport pedigree at a time when the marque was less than a decade old.

The car’s lighter, simpler and more torquey powerplant was the work of Ingegnere Aurelio Lampredi. For years prior to the introduction 500 Testa Rossa (so named after the scarlet cam covers fitted to the engine, the first Ferrari to receive the now-hallowed nomenclature!) in 1956, Lampredi’s four-cylinder motors had been doing the business in Formula 1 and endurance racing. In the latter, the four-cylinder 750 Monza had helped Ferrari to beat Mercedes-Benz to the 1954 World Sportscar Championship – an almighty achievement.

The two-litre engine in the 500 Testa Rossa was fundamentally the same as those found in the preceding customer 750 Monza and 500 Mondial, though enhanced to near-Formula 1 specification. The ample 140bhp coupled with a sub-700kg weight, radical coil-spring suspension and a synchromesh gearbox resulted in performance that defied its on-paper credentials. In 1956 alone, this stunning sports-racing Ferrari racked up more than 30 class and overall victories across North America and Europe.

On a more objective level, this is a truly wonderful car to drive. From behind that wide wooden-rimmed steering wheel, cocooned in that cockpit looking out across that long flowing bonnet, the 500 Testa Rossa is a car that begs to the driven harder and harder. And that engine… No, it’s not a 12 cylinder. But as a result it has a character all of its own. It’s gruff and noisy and begs to be revved higher and higher, at which point you’re rewarded with more and more power and acceleration. Modern hypercars? Pah!

As the accompanying copies of its original Ferrari factory build sheets show, this Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa Spyder – chassis number 0650 MDTR – was completed on 19 July 1956. The car was acquired new by the North American entrepreneur and sports-car racing stalwart John Von Neumann, who upon delivery promptly repainted it silver with a blue central stripe.

The famous sports-car racing stalwart John Von Neumann was chassis number  0650 MDTR’s first owner

Von Neumann’s fascinating story is a long and twisting tale. The son of an affluent Austrian Jewish doctor who used his influence to emigrate his family to America prior to the outbreak of World War Two, Von Neumann ultimately settled in Southern California, revelling in the region’s burgeoning car culture. A man of distinguished taste (and remarkable wealth), he developed a penchant for exotic European sports cars, first buying then selling Jaguars, MGs and Healeys. At this time he also co-founded the California Sports Car Club, which would become one of the Sports Car Club of America’s greatest strongholds.

This Ferrari counts over 60 North American races on its period competition résumé

With the wind in his sails, Von Neumann founded Competition Motors, which would go on to distribute Volkswagen, Porsche and Ferrari cars across the West Coast. And to fan the flames of popularity, he raced his wares as much as possible in the fiercely competitive sports-car races he helped to conceive for over a decade. A man with a voracious appetite for cars and an enviable business acumen, Von Neumann did more than any other to put European marque’s on the western side of the American map. His name might not be as recognisable as say Briggs Cunningham or Phil Hill. But John Von Neumann’s influence on the North American motorsport scene certainly makes him worthy of similar note.

Nineteen-fifties SCCA – the golden era of North American sports-car racing?

Back to chassis number 0650 MDTR. Von Neumann raced this Ferrari just thrice before selling the car to Bruce Kessler in February of 1957. Known by the contemporary media as ‘The Racing Rabbi’, Kessler was just 21 years of age at the time. In four months, he raced the Testa Rossa four times, scoring class victories at each meeting. Kessler sold chassis number 0650 MDTR to Howard Wheeler in June of 1957, though when Wheeler’s mother unexpectedly passed away in July, John Von Neumann kindly agreed to buy the Ferrari back. It was Von Neumann who put a young Richie Ginther in the car at Ponoma, the Hollywood-born Formula 1 Grand Prix winner finishing a fine third.

The Seattle-based Volkswagen dealer Pete Lovely bought this 500 Testa Rossa in August of 1957 together with Fred Armbruster. In his first four outings, Lovely scored two podiums and two victories, the last of which – The Pebble Beach Cup – was notable in that it was the very first race held on the world-famous Laguna Seca circuit in California. Ironically, Lovely passed Von Neumann for the lead on the 43rd of the race’s 53 laps. Though the car was advertised for sale at the end of the year in MotoRacing, come the Orange Bowl National Championship Sports Car Races at the Masters Naval Air Station in Florida in January of 1958, Lovely was back out in the car. It was to be his last outing with chassis number 0650 MDTR – after retiring with a bent engine valve, Lovely and Armbruster took the car to Von Neumann’s workshop to be repaired. Less than a month later Von Neumann became the proud owner of this Ferrari for the third time.

Sticking Richie Ginther in the car for the next two races proved a masterstroke in marketing for Von Neumann, who quickly sold chassis number 0650 MDTR to one Sam Weiss from Sacramento. Weiss saw out the rest of the year with this Ferrari, before Von Neumann sold it again at the beginning of 1959 to George Harms, who continued to campaign it extensively well into 1960.

Satisfyingly, chassis number 0650 MDTR remained in the North America for almost 65 years, passing through the hands of a small number of US-based collectors, the last of whom boasted a world-class stable of 1950s road and competition Prancing Horses. That all changed in the summer of this year, when we were able to source the car for a European client of ours and return it back across the Atlantic for the first time since 1957.

Boasting a clear and comprehensive history, as verified by the leading Ferrari historian Marcel Massini in his accompanying report, this 500 Testa Rossa Spyder is among the most desirable 1950s sports-racing Ferraris we’ve ever encountered – a diminutive yet awe-inspiring automotive jewel, powered by a brutish four-cylinder engine and clothed by Scaglietti in a body we can only reasonably describe as desperate in its beauty. Whether it’s a historic road rally such as the Mille Miglia, a world-class concours d’elegance such as Villa d’Este or simply a stolen summer Sunday blast, we are confident that chassis number 0650 MDTR’s new owner will revel in owning it.

SOLD