Ferraris in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s

Late last year I met the Australian author, Barry Farr, who has followed Ferrari since his primary school days and has been a member of the Australian Ferrari Club for the past 33 years. This passion for the marque has lead him to spend the last five years comprehensively researching all the Ferraris that came into the land down under during the 1950s and 1960s. The result of his research is a thorough description of every one that landed in the country during those two decades.

Interestingly, those that bookend the 65 cars covered: the 1952 212 Inter Berlinetta and the 1969 365 GTB/4 (Daytona) still reside in Australia. However, a good many of the competition cars now reside overseas including the three 250LMs, three Monzas and the 250 TR Prototype. The book also includes a 365 P2 and a 330 P4 as well as the 125 F1 that became the foundation vehicle for Tom Wheatcroft’s Donington Collection in the UK. Barry also found two 555 Super Squalo F1s and the 246 F1 in which Phil Hill won the Italian GP at Monza in 1960 had also come into the country. The road cars include one of the six 400 Superamerica Cabriolets as well as one of only three right hand drive versions of the 275 Competizione Clienti cars.

His limited edition (299) book on the subject is now available to purchase. It’s a large, hard cover, landscape book (15″ x 12″) consisting of 176 pages printed on high grade art paper with 530 colour and black and white images and it covers all Ferrari formula race cars, sports cars and road cars even if they made a fleeting visit only for specific race meetings.

If like me, you enjoy classic Italian machinery and the history that surrounds them, you need to have this book! To learn more about this book or to place an order for your limited edition copy, please email barry.farr09@gmail.com indicating your preferred delivery address. Price is AUD175 plus postage and handling.

I am happy to recommend this limited edition book – so often the heritage of vehicles is lost and what Barry has done is to ensure that future generations can relive the excitement of the early history of one of the great Italian marques with respect to how they were used here in Australia.