1957 Ferrari 250 TR at Speed

I’m in the annual short few days at home between the Pacific Northwest (Seattle) Historic Races last weekend and the Portland Historic Races this coming weekend. The first two weekends of July are always hectic, but it is my favorite time of year because of the fun back-to-back race weekends.

The Seattle weekend went great in my newly restored Titan MK6b Formula Ford, winning three of five races in the 21 car FF grid. We also got the FF fast lap of the weekend at 1:44.2. Needless to say, I’m very happy with the car and the restoration.

There are typically many fantastic vintage race cars at the NW Historics and this year was no exception. One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing John Shirley run his 1957 Ferrari 250 TR (Testa Rossa). This car is 250 TR #1 - the first one built - and it retains it’s original engine!!

The Ferrari TR, or 250 Testa Rossa, is a race car model built by Ferrari in the 1950’s and 1960’s. These cars dominated their arenas, with variations winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1958, 1960, and 1961. They were closely related to the rest of the Ferrari 250 line, especially the legendary 250 GTO.

In all, 34 250 Testa Rossas were built, from 1956 through 1961. The phrase “Testa Rossa” means “redhead.” The most well known, the 250TR, was produced from 1957 to 1958; only 2 factory cars and 19 customer cars were built. After the 250 GTO, the 250 Testa Rossa is the second most valuable Ferrari model, often valued at more than US$8,000,000. (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Seeing this car run at speed was fantastic - John didn’t hold back, he drove it hard all weekend! WOW, one of the most valuable cars in the WORLD racing in Seattle!

Testa Rossa 250 #4 sold in May of this year for $12,400,000, a new world record price for a car sold at auction.