1947-1953 Ferrari 166

Enzo Ferrari made his mark in the Twenties as a team driver, then team manager, for Alfa Romeo, and in the Thirties as the driving force behind Scuderia Ferrari, an independent concern that built and raced modified Alfas. After World War II, he began moving toward dual-purpose sports-racing cars of his own design, assisted by the patronage of Enrico Nardi. Ferrari had set up shop in Maranello, near Modena, but his facilities were small so his early cars were produced in very limited numbers. In fact, they were virtually handcrafted customs. Just three Ferraris were built in all of 1947, followed by nine in 1948 and 30 in 1949. All were powered by a classic, small-displacement V-12 designed by Gioacchino Colombo in 1946. The three 1947 cars were 1500 cc road racers designated Tipo (Type) 125. Two then received bored-out 1902-cc engines and were retagged Type 159. Their engines were enlarged again in 1948, to 1995 cc, to create the Type 166, the first of the true roadgoing Ferrari sports cars.

Until recently, Ferrari model numbers always reflected the rounded-off cubic-centimeter displacement of each cylinder (Type 166s had precisely 166.25 cc). Designations also included letters, which meant different things at different times. For example, the first cars carried the suffix "C" for Corsa (Italian for "race"), and they were indeed designed more for the track than the street. Later, Ferrari used "C" (Competizione) on his single-seat racers and substituted "I," for "Inter," on the sports-racing models. Just to confuse things, there was also a 166 Sport early on, though no more than two were likely built, both compact notchback coupes. The final member of the 166 family was the lovely Spyder Corsa, a cycle-fender two-seat open racer.

Serial numbers initially had three digits, with odd numbers for "street" machines and even ones for competition types. However, the dual-purpose nature of early Ferraris quickly rendered this distinction academic. Appearing in 1947, the 166 made an auspicious competition debut in April 1948, when an open-body Sport driven by Clemente Biondetti won Sicily's gruelling Targa Florio road race. Biondetti won the Mille Miglia a month later with the same car carrying the Allemano coupe body more familiar today. It was the first of what would be eight outright Ferrari wins in the demanding Mille Miglia, and Enzo commemorated it by using the "MM" designation on subsequent examples of this chassis.

Now widely termed the "Colombo engine," the 166 V-12 would, with further development, be a Ferrari mainstay until well into the Sixties. A 60-degree design, it employed a single chain-driven overhead camshaft on each cylinder bank to operate two inclined valves per cylinder via rocker arms and finger followers. Each valve was closed by two hairpin-type springs. Carburetion was by a single twin-choke Weber instrument on Inters and Sports, triple twin-choke Webers on MMs. Both fed through siamesed intake ports. Block, heads, and sump were cast of aluminium alloy, with cast-iron cylinder liners. The six-throw crankshaft ran in seven plain bearings, as did the conrods (although one car, the 1949 Le Mans-winning 166 MM, had needle bearings in the rod big-ends). The rods were split at 40 degrees to the centerline, which permitted removing both rod and piston through the top of the engine's small-bore cylinders.

Horsepower of the 166 engine has been variously quoted as between 110 and 150 bhp at 7500 rpm. This is explained not only by the two carburetion setups but different compression ratios, some high enough to permit running on alcohol fuel. Regardless, a single dry-plate clutch and 5-speed non-synchromesh transmission (later 166 MMs had synchronised third and fourth gears) carried power to a live rear axle.

The 166 also set a pattern for roadgoing Ferrari chassis that would persist for many years. Wheelbase varied with each model, but all 166s shared a tubular-steel ladder-type design with oval-section main tubes and round-section cross-tubes. Front suspension was independent via unequal-length A-arms and a transverse leaf spring, while the rear axle was located by a semi-elliptic leaf spring and a pair of parallel trailing arms on each side. Houdaille vane-type lever-action hydraulic shock absorbers were standardised after the first few cars built. Brakes comprised large-diameter

luminium drums with cast-iron liners and hydraulic actuation. Steering was by worm-and-peg. Reflecting Enzo's racing orientation, all 166s had right-hand drive. Though the Sport was likely Enzo's first attempt at a road car, the 166 Inter was the first Ferrari to see serious production-if 37 units qualifies as "serious." Carrozzeria Touring seems to have supplied most 166 bodies of all types, but virtually every Italian coachbuilder of the day contributed a few. Among them were Allemano, Bertone, Ghia, Ghia-Aigle (a Swiss firm), Pinin Farina, Stabilmenti Farina (founded by Pinin's brother), and Alfredo Vignale.

Of all 166 body styles, the most famous and popular is Touring's Mille Miglia barchetta roadster. The nickname, which did not appear in Ferrari literature, means "little boat," and was prompted perhaps by the full-length bodyside crease suggesting a "waterline." It was this design that would be copied by Tojeiro of Britain for the AC Ace and its Shelby Cobra evolution (see entries).

The first barchetta was also the first Ferrari with a four-digit serial number (0002), again with even numbers for competition cars and odd numbers for road models. The barchetta style also appeared on the later 212 Export and 340 America chassis (see entries). Each was basically stretched from the 166 design, but had the same appealing lines and distinctive Ferrari identity.