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Racing Taste
FERRARI 500 MONDIAL
RACING TASTE
Words: Carlo Brema
When you see the most famous horse in the world, the prancing one from Maranello, and you run your eyes along the Ferrari badge, immortal symbol of beauty and performance, you immediately think of some powerful V8 or the melodious roar of a V12 left screaming to the rev limiter. But if all Ferraris are special, not everyone of them have such generous engines under the hood and indeed, some 4-cylinder still managed to win the hearts of fans and not only thanks to motorsport victories.
The 500 Mondial is one example, and although is not the most famous model in the prancing horse lineup and also wears the same name as what is maybe the most unlucky and less beloved Ferrari of all time (the Mondial), only looking at it awakens in us that unbridled desire to know more, to know every facet of its history, told by those rusty surface and dents that enshrine its advanced age. Something that does not seem absolutely passed, is time, in fact, engineer Scaglietti work, even after 61 years, is still incredibly fresh and fascinating – at the same time sleek and streamlined for racing track use and sensual for use along a road that can enhance its driving pleasure, never mind if at front there’s only an in line 4-cylinder, because the 170hp 2.0cc knows how to scream too and takes advantage of the lack of any filter between you and your ears to catapult you into a world that seems to be taken from our deepest dreams, now as then. The 500 Mondial Scaglietti Spyder was actually born for the world of racing and thanks to the work of engineer Lampredi, who had to cope with new regulations, was equipped with a simple and reliable four-cylinder, which guaranteed more lightness, to the benefit of performance. Baptized Mondial just to pay homage to previous successes, it gained excellent feedbacks regarding private teams, but single seater cars were the best in the final standings. The best result scored by the 500 Mondial were a second place at the Mille Miglia in 1954 and the class victory at the 1956 24 Hours of Sebring.
As mentioned, the small size of the engine, alongside a full aluminum frame, allowed the 500 Mondial to maintain a low weight of about 720kg, which resulted in a much more predictable and more manageable behaviour at high speeds. It was in fact able to reach 235 kph and goes from 0 to 100 in just 6.8 seconds, and there were certainly no turbo or newfangled modern electronic: everything was the result of a team effort for which the common denominator was to offer the public a car at the same time beautiful and competitive.
Beauty, something now long forgotten in the name of performance, was and still is one of the key points of this “barchetta”. Look at it from all angles and you can still smell the fragrance of oil and petrol, the feeling of that torn leather softened by time and the incomparable touch of that big wooden wheel that is dominated by a large tachometer. Its line is typically Ferrari and even if not wearing a classic red dress does not intend to conceal its curved lines, designed by human hands and not by cold computers. Behind the driver’s seat, on the right, there is a bubble that incorporates a small headrest, useful especially with the use of a helmet, no matter if it’s a real race or a historical revival – the pedals are close together and force you to wear the right shoes, almost as if to underline that a car such as this should not be simply driven, but lived. Lived, as the emotions that you can spend, as when you are struggling with the unsynchronized gearbox and climb a gear, going to splash the tachometer needle up (more violently than usual) and you, after a look in the rearview mirror, throw headlong to find the best path, tilting your body, clutching the steering wheel stronger and planting hard your left foot in the cockpit. If it’s just a dream or not, the flavor of a vintage Ferrari is unique, then as now.
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