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Ferrari 375 Plus Featured at 2014 Bonhams Goodwood

1954 Ferrari 375 Plus 0384 AM at Mille Miglia (photo: Marcel Massini)
1954 Ferrari 375 Plus 0384 AM at Mille Miglia (photo: Marcel Massini)

An ex-Scuderia Ferrari 375 Plus will headline the 2014 Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed Auction, scheduled for Friday, June 27th at Goodwood House in Chichester, Sussex, UK.

Philip Kantor, Bonhams head of motor cars for mainland Europe, said, “We are honoured to have been chosen to sell this wonderful car, which represents a key early stage in the Ferrari racing legend. It is very rare indeed for a Ferrari team works car with continuous history and undisputed identity to come to the market for sale by public auction. We believe it will attract interest from all over the world.”

Fitted with a 4.9-litre V12 engine developing 330 brake horsepower and clothed in Pinin Farina all-alloy open bodywork, the 375 Plus was entrusted by the Scuderia Ferrari works racing team to Jose Froilan Gonzalez and Umberto Maglioli, among others.

The 375 Plus model was an outright winner at Le Mans and Silverstone, as well as in the five-day Carrera Panamericana road race through Mexico, which Umberto Maglioli won at the stagggering average speed of 107 mph (173 km/h). His Ferrari 375 Plus averaged more than 150 mph (240 km/h) for more than five hours during the final stages of the epic road race.

Chassis 0384 AM being offered by Bonhams was the 1954 works entry driven by Maglioli in the Mille Miglia, then piloted to victory by the great Argentine star, Froilan Gonzalez, at Silverstone. In its last factory team outing it was co-driven by Maglioli and Paolo Marzotto in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The car then passed to well-known amateur racer and Kleenex heir, Jim Kimberly, in the USA, before being sold to Howard Hively, a Ohio Lincoln/Mercury dealer, in 1955. He campaigned the car at Watkins Glen, Nassau and Sebring, as well as in the 1957 Cuban Grand Prix.

Howard Hively then sold the Ferrari to Ohio resident and nuclear physicist, Karl Kleve. It later passed to noted Belgian Ferrari importer Jacques Swaters, founder of the Ecurie Francochamps racing team. Jacques Swaters had the car fully restored in Modena. Long-running title disputes over the car broke out between the Kleve and Swaters families, which Bonhams is glad to have been able to assist in resolving. (See USA Today article).

Bonhams will offer the car without reserve at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed this summer where last year Bonhams sold the ex-Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes-Benz W196 for £20m, the world record price for any car sold at public auction.

0384 AM will be sold with a spare period works block engine and its original body panels, still bearing traces of the 1957 Cuban Grand Prix race colours.

For additional information, visit Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed Auction.

[Source: Bonhams]