Equipment
RHD. Marchal headlights and fog lights, silver painted Borrani wire wheels, Dunlop Racing tires, driver's head fairing, metal passenger's seat cover.
Condition
Excellent paint and upholstery. Restored like new by its multi-generational owner. Bought by Francois Picard and obligingly stamped by Ferrari with the chassis number of Picard's 735 Sport, 0556MD. Traded back to Ferrari, it raced for the Scuderia at the Venezuela GP in 1955 driven by Harry Schell and Eugenio Castellotti, finishing 1st in class and 5th overall. Then sold to Porfirio Rubirosa with two class firsts at Nassau and one at Sebring in 1956. Later sold to Charles Hassan, then Robert Ready Davis who stored it at a Rambler dealership in the Bay Area after the differential siezed. It was purchased there by Robert Phillips in 1960 a U.S. Navy Supply Corps Lieutenant J.G. He has owned it ever since, compiling a series of racing appearances and at least one cross-country trip during Navy reassignments which culminated in his promotion to Rear Admiral and Paymaster of the Navy before retiring in 1988. Then began a comprehensive personal restoration that brought the Mondial 1st in class and the Enzo Ferrari Trophy at Pebble Beach in 2008. Documented with a (rare as hen's teeth) 2003 Ferrari Classiche Heritage Certificate and a voluminous history file. It is just a cool thing, with a marvelous history of 58 years' continuous custodianship.
Market commentary
Befitting a meticulous Porkchop (Naval line officers' vernacular for their Supply Corps brethren) the research and documentation accompanying this 500 Mondial sets a new standard for "comprehensive". Some years ago Adm. Phillips and I discovered a connection when in the mid-Sixties he was quartered on USS Navarro (APA-215), the station ship in DaNang, Vietnam where I was an even more junior officer enamored of my recent purchase of an Alfa GTV. Little did we know our orbits would intersect fifty years later in the nexus of Ferraris -- at the time I probably didn't even know what a 500 Mondial was. As he related at the auction, the car is, first, a big check to the IRS, then his grandkids' college tuition. Oh, the transaction value? It is no more than the car's history and condition deserved. The new owner should be proud to carry on the tradition.