1950-1955 Ferrari 340/342/375

For most automakers, "racing improves the breed" has usually been more brag than fact. Not at Ferrari. Auto Avio Costruzioni, the Ferrari organisation's official name in the early Fifties, believed so much in the truth of that old saw that it sold its newest racing cars to private competitors, who not only ran against the factory team but often beat it.

A larger engine was one of the first competition spin-offs to benefit Ferrari road cars. Designed by Aurelio Lampredi, it was conceived around the prevailing Grand Prix formula, which limited displacement to 1500 cc supercharged or 4.5 litres unsupercharged. Enzo had tried the former, but decided that the bigger, normally aspirated engines worked much better. Lampredi's design followed the earlier Colombo engine in having two banks of six cylinders arrayed in a narrow vee, with a single overhead camshaft per bank and two inclined valves per cylinder with hairpin-type springs. Beyond this, though, the differences were considerable. Bore-centre spacing was spread from 90 to 108 mm to allow for greater displacement, roller cam followers were used instead of the Colombo's plain finger-type, intake ports were separate instead of siamesed, and cylinder barrels screwed into the head rather than being pressed into the block. With all this, the Lampredi block ended up 5.1 inches longer than the Colombo's-42.1 inches in all-thus making it the so-called "long-block" Ferrari twelve.

The Lampredi engine first appeared as a 3.3-litre unit in the 1950 Mille Miglia mounts of Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari. The latter's engine was punched out to 4.1 lifers by the Swiss Grand Prix in July, and displacement was bumped to the intended 4.5 lifers in time for the Italian GP at Monza in September. Just a month later, a new roadgoing Ferrari called 340 America, powered by the 4.1-lifer version, was shown at the Paris Salon. Adorned with open Touring bodywork in the style of the original 166 barchetta, it was described in factory literature as having total displacement of 4101.68 cc from a bore and stroke of 80 x 68 mm. Power was declared as 220 bhp at 6000 rpm with three twin-choke Weber carburettors and 8.0:1 compression. A single-disc clutch transferred power through a 5-speed gearbox, while the rest of the chassis was simply a scaled-up rendition of the now-familiar Ferrari platform. Apropos of its name, several of the barchetta-bodied 340 Americas were sold to Americans: Bill Spear, Jack Kimberly, and Henry Manney (the last subsequently sold his car to John Edgar to be raced by Jack McAfee).

An improved chassis quickly followed, displayed at the Brussels show in January 1951 as the 342 America. Intended strictly for off-track grand touring, it featured a new fully synchronised 4-speed transmission, a much heavier rear-axle centre section, and wider tracks. A complete car wasn't seen until the Turin show that spring, but was distinguished by its left-hand drive-an "America" model for America. The roadgoing 340 was short-lived, as the 342 went into production for model year 1952 to replace it. However, both types were built concurrently for competition, the type of race determining which would be run. Production was extremely limited in either case, and both types gave way to the 375 America in 1953. The 375 was essentially a big-engine version of the Colombo-powered 110-inch-wheelbase 250 Europa (see entry), identical in all respects save displacement and output. Again Ferrari aimed at Americans, who he believed would want-and could better afford-the big engine's extra performance. The 250 was intended for Europeans, who had to contend with high-priced fuel and high taxes on large-displacement engines. But Europeans who could afford a Ferrari in the first place could also afford these costs, and they wanted the extra power too: 300 bhp at 6300 rpm for the touring cars, 340 bhp at 7000 rpm for the competition models. There was also a sports-racing derivative on a 102.3-inch wheelbase, the 375 Mille Miglia. Available in roadster and berlinetta styles by Pinin Farina, it was the fastest "roadgoing" Ferrari yet. An even hotter version, a factory-team racing roadster called 375 Plus, arrived in 1954 with 4954.34 cc and 344 bhp at 6500 rpm. It promptly won that year's Le Mans 24 Hours and the Carrera Panamericana.

Bodies for all these Lampredi-engine Ferraris came from the usual sources, including Touring, Ghia, and Vignale. (The last was notable for the distinctive long-hood/short-deck berlinetta designed for Carrera purposes by Giovanni Michelotti, and thus known as 340 Mexico). But Pinin Farina was increasingly on the scene, and would soon become Ferrari's carrozzena of choice.