The creation of the 500 Mondial was an attempt to hold off competition from
Maserati,
Jaguar.
Aston Martin, and potentially from
Mercedes-Benz, until Ferrari’s redesigned V-12s could be fully developed and tested. Grand Prix cars with 4-cylinder engines had shown great potential in the late 1940s; in 1950
Ferrari designer Aurelio Lampredi illustrated this point by building an incredible
Ferrari 4-cylinder with 1984 cc (cubic centimeter) of total displacement.
4-cylinder engines were light and less complex with fewer reciprocating parts to reduce drag, and large cylinder bores allowed the use of big valves.. .and long strokes.. .to produce more torque with comparable - or greater - horsepower than a 12-cylinder engine of the same displacement. The engine, Tipo 110, was a double overhead cam (dohc) fed by two Weber carburetors and developed 160 horsepower at 7000 rpm and an incredible amount of torque.
A total of 12 Series l
Ferrari 500 Mondial Pinin Farina Spyders were built; 9 cars are known to survive today, and it is believed that this car may be the only completely original example extant, maintaining its factory numbered body, chassis and engine.
The word Mondial pays tribute to Ferrari’s 1952-53 World Championship (Mondiale) just prior to this car’s introduction, eventually leading to the big-engined four-cylinder cars headed by the famous (aka “infamous)
Ferrari 750 Monza 3-liter.
March 1, 2010, 6:09 am
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