The Ferrari 250 TR

Not many racing sports cars won consistently for five years in the postwar era.  And looked good doing it.  The Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa did.  In the States, it was outrun by "unlimited" sports cars like the Lister Jaguar and the Scarab.  But in Europe its only competition was the Aston Martin DBR1 or, on tight courses, the Porsche Spyder.

The Aston DBR1 won LeMans in 1959.  But the 250 TR won LeMans in '58, '60, '61, and '62 (if you count the 4-liter 330 TR derivative).  There were no significant changes to the chassis, although the body was adapted to meet changing regulations.  The 250 TR contributed as much to the Ferrari mystique as the earlier big bore sports racers, and far more than the sometimes competitive, sometimes not, Formula 1 cars of the era.

And here's a video with excellent audio of a 250 TR in the Tuscany hills:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hFPPOZ6vBY

The 250 Testa Rossa prototype (built and raced twice in 1957), restored to its appearance at LeMans in 1958.  By then
it was a semi-factory car, entered by Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team, driven by Dan Gurney and Bruce
Kessler.  Thus the blue/white center stripe in American racing colors.  It was DNF when Kessler crashed it in the rain.

The original 1958 250 TR was famous for its "pontoon" front fenders, which provided for better air circulation around
its drum brakes.  Factory cars were later converted to, and customer cars retrofitted with, disc brakes.  This picture is of
a combination that tore it up in California: Richie Ginther in Johnny Von Neumann's silver 250 TR.  Von Neumann
was the West Coast Ferrari Distributor; Ginther started out as Phil Hill's "navigator" in the Carrera Panamerica and
ended up as a Formula 1 driver for Ferrari, BRM, and Honda.

This 250 TR was used by Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien for the first of their three LeMans wins in 1958.  It had non-
standard (and more streamlined) bodywork, similar to the big bore Ferraris that ran ahead of it but DNF'ed.  It rained at
LeMans in '58 for 22 of the 24 hours.  Thus Hill's "rain shield" eye protection in this picture.

The 1959 TR refined the Hill/Gendebien car's bodywork with side extractor vents and a clear plastic hood scoop.  The
mechanical specification was the same: why fool with a winning formula?

For 1960, the FIA required a "real" windshield of specified height and a small suitcase compartment, in an attempt to
force racing sports cars back toward some pretense of actual real-world practicality.  Nobody had windshield wipers
that worked at racing speeds and the drivers hated the new regulations.  The 250 TR rolled on in its winning ways.
This is the 1960 LeMans winner (Gendebien/Frere) at the Goodwood Revival 50 years later.  

In 1961 the car became the TR 61 with a streamlined work-around of the FIA's mandated windshield height.  And the
beginnings of aerodynamics with a spoiler to keep the rear end planted.  This is the car that Hill/Gendebien used to
win LeMans--again--in as-restored condition at the Goodwood Revival.

Last of the line: the 330 TR/LM Spider LeMans winner of 1962 (the third victory for Hill/Gendebien).  Mechanically
 it was almost identical to the 1958 250 TR except for its 4-liter engine.  But ugly.  A year later,  LeMans was won by
Ferrari's rear-engine 250 P running in the Prototype class, followed home by two 250 GTO's.  The era of racing sports
cars had ended and the era of GT production cars and prototypes--with roofs--had begun.