Ferrari 750 Monza 0538M

Ferrari 750 Monza [chassis 0538M]

When this came into the shop about 30 years ago, the Corvette V8 had been in it for decades. Carroll Shelby had raced it even after the Chevrolet installation. Unfortunately when the American engine was installed, someone had used a gas torch to “make space in the engine bay” and thus tubing, engine mounts, firewall, pedal box assembly and more were all damaged or missing. The bodywork although uncrashed had almost 1.0in of Italian “bondo” spread across its nose. Chemically stripped to make sure the aluminum was not damaged or work hardened (which happens with some forms of media blasting). The next thing to do was de-skin the aluminum bodywork from the steel chassis. Fix the frame and tubular structures. Fix the inner panelwork, inner fenders, floors, firewall and more. And then repair the aluminum skin itself and get it permanently mounted again.

What was unique about this car was that it was originally acquired by Tony Paravanno of Los Angeles. When first built, he went back to the coachbuilder Sergio Scaglietti and had the bodywork extensively modified after slapping US$500 onto the table to make happen and to include some styling changes he wanted. That was probably more than Sergio was paid to body it originally! But one could see in places where the bodywork had been originally created and the modified and that was cool.

As for a Monza, what make them unique were the big 3.0-liter 4-cylinder engines. Not particularly super fast on the top end ala the V12 engines — but way more torque and thus the choice of drivers like Fangio and others for tighter twisting road courses or street circuits as it exited the corners faster.

Attached are a few pictures from the parts of the restoration until we loaded it to brought it to the paint shop to be slathered in that fast Ferrari red color. I’ll post more pictures of it finished upcoming.

And yes — that is a newly constructed dry sump oil tank. The original was removed decades before during the Chevy V8 swap.

note: This was the first 100pt Ferrari at Pebble Beach in its class ever when finished. That was in August 1993.