TAZIO ISSUE 14

Inside:

• Mercedes W 196 R Streamliner. This was the moment not to be missed. Just days after the 1955 Mercedes W 196 R Streamliner set the record as most expensive race car ever to be sold in public – €51 million, $53.9 million – Mercedes Heritage CEO Marcus Breitschwerdt gave us the full debrief. There is Moss, there is Fangio, you have all the technology Mercedes could throw at it. This was a spaceship in mid-fifties Grand Prix racing. We paint the complete picture of chassis #00009/54.
• James Dean’s Porsche 356 Pre-A Speedster. More star power from the fifties. James Dean raced his Porsche 356 Pre-A Speedster on just three occasions before trading it in for a Porsche 550 Spyder, exactly 70 years ago. The Speedster changed hands a couple of times and was ready to become an anonymous parts donor when the current owner picked it up. Sheer luck, but his curiosity was aroused when he got hold of a book on James Dean. An automotive quest started and led to the identification of the only car Jimmy Dean ever raced competitively.
• The 1965 12 Hours of Sebring. Sixty years ago, the Sebring 12 Hours became a duathlon: racing and swimming. A downpour meant water ran ankle-deep across the straight and in the pitlane. Open cars became bathtubs. Yet, racing continued. Sebring also meant Chaparral’s breakthrough in the international sports car scene. Through the archives of Dave Friedman and Revs Institute, we look at a race that would never be allowed to run today.
• Maserati Grantrofeo Barchetta. Early 1990s, Alejandro de Tomaso was the last of the artisans. Enzo was gone, Ferruccio was enjoying his wine more than his cars, and Alejandro felt Fiat’s grip tightening to relieve him of ownership of Maserati. De Tomaso gave Maserati one last opportunity to shine, with the lightweight Barchetta, offering supercar performance for a lower cost. An ambitious plan, but after just two seasons of racing, the Grantrofeo Barchetto single-make series folded. Underdeveloped, yet all the signs of greatness were there, we discover some thirty years later.
• The road to Ferrari’s first F1 win. In the 1951 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Froilán González handed Scuderia Ferrari its first (of currently 248) victories in Formula 1. A more than symbolic affair, as Ferrari’s win started the transfer of power from the once invincible Italian force in motor racing – Alfa Romeo – to Ferrari.
• Just ahead of the 2025 F1 season opener, Martin Brundle gives us his candid opinions on this year’s title candidate, his own career, and how he was portrayed in the ‘Senna’ series on Netflix.
• Market watch: BMW E30 M3 Group A. DTM, WTCC, BTCC, the M3 was successful everywhere. This is also why it is still a very popular choice for historic racing and track days, and why the prices for cars with confirmed history have gone through the roof. We hear from specialists Amspeed and Eric van de Poele, DTM’s very first champion with the M3 in 1987.
• Peter Stevens on the end of tobacco sponsoring in racing.
• And of course, the regular columns from Hurley Haywood, Steve Soper and Christian Geistdörfer.