68 Ferraris have been on display plus a Dino engine and the Ferrari-powered Hydroplane 'Arno XI' have been displayed or have been parked outside. 012I, the 166 C Cycle Wing Spider was the oldest car and used by RM Auction as a preview for their upcoming Monaco-auction. As you can expect from RM, the car was well accompanied by valuables like 206 S Dino #006 and one of the few original Daytona Spiders, # 14415 and even a power boat, Hydroplane 'Arno XI', that is powered by a Ferrari 375 GP52-engine with engine # 001.
006 was entered for the 1966 season by British official Dealer Maranello Concessionaires and Mike Parkes achieved a win in class at Eagles Trophy Brands Hatch and soon afterwards sold to Sweden where it did stay with only minor exception. Some funny details can be told about 006. It suffered a bad damage when driven into a small river. In 1969 the original engine was replaced by a Volvo-engine! A Lancia-heart did follow in the 1970s before a Dino engine was implanted again. The car has been a frequent participant of the Ferrari Maserati Historic Challenge from 2004 to 2008. The car has been restored for the last two years in its 1966 Maranello Concessionaires-livery it showed when participating in 1,000 km of Nürburgring. The original engine block stamped 006 will be included in the lot.
14415 is one of the few Daytona Spiders in European specification. It was Blu Dino originally with a remarkable White stripe on the flank and found its way to the US soon. It was repainted in Red after suffering damage and finally brought into its livery of today in elegant Black. This is again one of the examples where you are torn between the original colour and the current one. Seeing it in its original Blu Dino would have been something.
Another classic car that has been observed in Germany quite often was #0438MD, a 500 Mondial Spider that was delivered new to Porfirio Rubirosa from the Dominican Republic before it was sold to and raced by John von Neumann. This car was Blue as well when new and repainted Red at some stage. A very short ownership of Ed Niles is associated with the car as well. 0438MD had various changes of the engine being installed what led to several changes in the car’s nicknames: in 1956 it was called Monzetta when it received a 3 l-Monza engine Tipo 105 and Mondilet a year later after having received a Chevrolet V8-engine. After Niles’ ownership, engine #0538 was installed. It came to Germany in 1998 where it was owned recently by Dr. Ulrich Schumacher who had purchased it from Classic dealer Klaus Werner, who, different to Paris’ Retromobile, did have no Ferrari on display in Essen.
The most impressive display at Techno Classica in my view was the restoration project of 275 GTB/2 #7991. The car’s body was shown in bare metal, awaiting its respray. The matching engine was shown separately side by side to the car’s body. What can become of a good 275 GTB was shown by Dutch Michael Goudsmit, who offered #7531 in a Grigio Ferro livery. Useless to say, that Helmut Eberlein always brings a classy range of cars to Essen, the F40 CSAI-GT Michelotto #90508 and the very elegant Boano #0533 shall be representative for this.
Obviously on display only and not for sale have been the beautiful ex-Aga Khan California SWB # 4095 and a further Daytona Spider, #17073, in rare Oro Chiaro livery. 17073 is not only the very last GTS/4 produced, but a car with a very low number of owners. Greg Garrison purchased the car when new and it was auctioned after Garrison passed away in 2005 at Gooding’s Pebble Beach auction in 2007, purchased by its current German owner for around 2 million USD.
Lukas Hueni from Zürich usually changes his display from Retromobile to Techno Classica. So he did again this year, bringing 250 LM #5907 and the beautiful 250 Europa #0333 in Verde Savid to Essen.
All those gems outshone the “rest” of the Ferraris on display, including Enzo #129989 and Gerhard Berger’s 643 F1, #129, amongst others.
We are looking for the silver jubilee edition in 2013 already, it will be worth visiting if you combine a special reason to celebrate with the usual quality of Techno Classica as the biggest bazaar for historic motorcars.
To return to the start, of the ten Dinos –seven Berlinettas and three GTS- being present, eight have been on offer for sale of which five had been sold already during the fair.