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1948 Ferrari 166 MM - Page 3

The next owner bought 0024 M on November 6, 1950. He was Luigi Francesco Zaccaria Terravazzi of Nerviano, Italy, and he paid 6.2M lira for the car. It was registered in Milan as MI 158426, and Terravazzi entered it in the 18th Mille Miglia on April 28, 1951. He co-drove with Aprile Palmer taking the wheel, and the car carried #344, which it bears today. The two finished 94th overall but 8th in class, which was respectable, and there are a number of photos of the car at the race.

Terravazzi sold 0024 M to Palmer shortly afterwards on May 14, 1951, and Palmer registered it on Novaro plates as NO 24870. Palmer campaigned the car only once more, at the 16th running of the Susa-Moncensio hillclimb on July 21, 1951. Carrying #90, he finished 11th overall, and this would seem to be the last time the car was raced. Palmer kept 0024 M for a year and then sold it on September 23, 1952 to Paolo Berio of Imperia, on the coast near San Remo. He registered 0024 M as IM 10193.

Berio arranged to have the car re-bodied as a Berlinetta by Carrozzeria Vignale, which fitted an aluminum coupe body similar to 0128/EX, with slotted taillights. Berio didn’t keep the car long, selling it on September 4, 1954 to Francisco Rizzoli in Turin, who paid 1.2M lira and registered it as TO 168833. Rizzoli handed off 0024 M only six months later to Ermani Garbuccio, also in Turin. Then Garbuccio died suddenly on July 6, leaving his children to inherit the car on March 14, 1956. They promptly sold it on April 17 to American Theodore Pala for a mere 200,000 lire! At this point, 0024 M was painted tri-tone white over blue over grey.

Ted Pala used it as a chase car to follow the 1956 Mille Miglia, then shipped the car uncrated to Los Angeles on the SS President Jackson for only $239.80. Pala registered the car in California as LGJ 694 and repainted the white portion of the body bright red. Pala began to have mechanical problems with 0024 M and removed the drive train, selling the rest of the car to Donald Oreck of Los Angeles in 1958 for $2,500. Oreck hired future Scarab lead mechanic Warren Olson to fit a Corvette 283-cubic inch V-8, gearbox and rear axle, and on completion, the car was written up by Wayne Thoms in Motor Trend’s July 1959 issue. Oreck sold the car in 1960 to Joseph Spencer, whose noteworthy contribution to 0024 M’s history was to get a parking ticket on September 3, 1961. He ignored it and a warrant for his arrest was issued in early 1962, by which time he had sold the car to Armand La Rue, who re-registered it as GWH 771, and it slipped below the radar. An original letter (included in 0024 M’s document file) from the Chief of Police of Beverly Hills was sent to La Rue asking for his assistance in locating the scofflaw Spencer! La Rue kept 0024 M until 1966 when he sold it to Peter Negri, who would own it until 1974.