• One of only two examples factory-equipped with the larger 2.5-liter engine; the ultimate version of the early Testa Rossas
• Widely considered one of the most beautiful body designs ever created
• Originally owned and driven in competition by the highly influential Ferrari distributor and racing impresario John von Neumann
• Achieved 21 top-three finishes, including 10 overall or class victories among over 40 period races
• A true icon of the California racing scene with a famous original livery
• Currently fitted with a roaring 3-liter Colombo short-block V-12 engine; accompanied by its original matching-numbers 625-specification engine
• Well-known ownership history, including a 30-year period of fastidious single-owner care
• Documented with period photos; copies of letters; and excerpts from Cavallino magazine, including a feature article by respected motoring author Michael Lynch
• An impossibly rare, exquisitely shaped, and powerfully specified touchstone of sports-car racing’s most glorious epoch

JOHN VON NEUMANN

To understand the 625 TRC’s place in Ferrari’s history, we need to start with the man who commissioned these cars and his pivotal role in bringing the Italian marque to California, one of the most influential markets for Ferrari at the time.

Born in Austria in 1921, John von Neumann’s father Heinrich was a prominent surgeon, and in 1939 the well-off family emigrated from Vienna to New York following Hitler’s rise to power. Fascinated by all things mechanical, particularly automobiles, von Neumann enlisted in the military and thanks to his fluency in several European languages, served in military intelligence for much of World War Two.

Relocating to the sunnier and altogether more optimistic climate of post-war Los Angeles, a young John kicked off his glittering career as a salesman with Roger Barlow’s International Motors. A skilled pilot, von Neumann was soon immersed in the burgeoning sports car scene and became a founding member of the California Sports Car Club.

Von Neumann’s fascination with Ferrari began in 1954 with the purchase of a secondhand 2-liter 500 Mondial, adding a dedicated showroom at 1767 N Cahuenga Boulevard to his rapidly expanding empire in 1957. Trading as Ferrari Representatives of California, von Neumann’s new venture was, along with Luigi Chinetti on the other side of the country, largely responsible for putting the Prancing Horse on the map in North America. Keenly aware of what his customers wanted, von Neumann is also often credited with a pivotal role in the development of Ferrari’s legendary 250 California Spider. A true legend from an era that formed the competition and commercial success that Ferrari enjoys today, von Neumann’s prowess on the racing track and in the showroom will forever go down in Ferrari history with the other great entrepreneurs and racers like Luigi Chinetti, Jacques Swaters, Georges Filipinetti, Colonel Ronnie Hoare, and Enzo Ferrari himself.

THE 625 TRC

Although the majority of Ferrari’s four-cylinder sports cars built in the period 1953–1957 were sold to privateers, competing for class wins on both sides of the Atlantic, a small number of special cars were built to contest for outright honors. Following the terrible disaster at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1955, the AC de l’Ouest announced the capacity for the prototype class would be restricted to 2.5 liters for the 1956 edition of the classic endurance race. Ever the opportunist, Enzo Ferrari married Lampredi’s proven and enormously successful Tipo 625 Grand Prix engine with Maranello’s latest four-cylinder sports racing model, the 500 Testa Rossa. Designed as a replacement for the 500 Mondial under the direction of the recently recruited engineer Vittorio Jano, the new model’s distinctive red crackle finish on the cam covers led to the now famous model name Testa Rossa (Italian for “Red Head”) being used for the very first time.

Uniquely bodied by Carrozzeria Touring, the three 625 LMs struggled against the more powerful Jaguar D-types after William Lyons convinced the race organizers more than 50 had been made to qualify for the production category (in fact, Gordini and Talbot were the only other manufacturers to adhere to the new rules) and co-drivers Olivier Gendebien and Maurice Trintignant did well to finish in 3rd overall.

When Ferrari updated the Testa Rossa to meet the new Appendix C regulations announced by the FIA at the end of 1956, the changes were largely cosmetic—and here, Scaglietti managed to create one of the best-looking Ferraris ever made. Just 19 were constructed, of which six went to North American customers, and they proved competitive in the Class E Modified category.

The idea of “hot-rodding” was very much alive in California during the 1950s, and looking to exploit the TRC’s sweet-handling chassis, John von Neumann approached Ferrari to build him a more powerful “hot-rod” version. Enzo once again turned to the race-proven Tipo 625 engine as the most expedient way to achieve his American customer’s goal. Von Neumann would ultimately order just two of these Italian hot-rods, and the extra engine capacity resulted in an impressive 25% increase over the standard 500 TRC’s output of 180 brake horsepower at 7,000 rpm. It should also be highlighted that Ferrari’s race department took this as inspiration and further developed the larger-capacity four-cylinder TRC into the legendary V-12-powered 3-liter 250 Testa Rossa. One of the earliest prototypes (0704) started life in a four-cylinder guise with a TRC-derived chassis, while the other (0666) looked virtually identical to the TRC. Ferrari took notice of how successful the 500 TRC was in its smaller engine classes on the track and knew they had the formula for a winning car with a larger engine transplant. Thus, the genesis of Ferrari’s greatest sports racer, the 250 Testa Rossa, can be found directly in the 500/625 TRC.

While the Factory prepared von Neumann’s pair of 625 TRC hot-rods, few could have predicted the incredible impact they would have on the global racing scene in the months and years to come. For 1957 John von Neumann was all set to go racing; pilots like Richie Ginther and Ken Miles (not to mention the team principal himself, an accomplished driver) were ready to go head-to-head with the best European exotics and American iron that entrants like John Edgar and Tony Parravano could muster. The new 625 TRC proved a race-winner from the outset, with von Neumann beating locals Julio Mariscal at the wheel of a Jaguar D-type and a young Ricardo Rodriguez in an OSCA at the Avandaro circuit near Valle de Bravo, outside of Mexico City, at the model’s maiden outing in April of 1957.

0680 MDTR

Completed on 26 June 1957, chassis 0680 MDTR was the latter of von Neumann’s 625 TRCs, and unlike the earlier car (0672 MDTR), he took delivery in Europe with the plan of contesting select rounds of the European Mountain Championship. Debuting at the Gaisberg hillclimb in his native Austria on 15 August, von Neumann’s time of 10 minutes, 29.2 seconds was good enough for 7th overall, and 10 days later at Lenzerheide in the Grosser Bergpreis der Schweiz, von Neumann achieved a 2nd in class with a time of 7 minutes, 23.6 seconds. Period images of both events confirm 0680 ran with the same Appendix C windscreen installed on all TRCs; the 625 is set apart from its 2-liter siblings by the distinguishing feature of twin humps on the bonnet to accommodate the larger engine.

Arriving in California soon afterward, 0680 was configured in von Neumann’s iconic livery of dark silver with a red center band, a driver’s side aero-screen, and passenger tonneau, and it initially wore the temporary Italian registration plate (BO 84689), a legacy from its European sojourn. The car was also fitted with red leather seats with classic white piping, a trademark seat for many of the 250 Testa Rossa customer cars. Making its North American debut at the inaugural meeting held at Laguna Seca in November 1957, 0680 was kept in reserve for the preliminary race, but von Neumann drove it to great effect in the main event, leading most of the race until gearbox trouble caused him to slow a few laps from the end—resulting in a hard-fought 2nd-place finish.

This would prove 0680’s only outing in California in 1957, but the sister car was raced with great success throughout 1957, achieving 15 victories across the West Coast and Nassau Speed Weeks. Respected journal Road & Track ran a road test on the 625s in their December edition, with von Neumann and Richie Ginther both rating the car as the “… best handling and easiest of all Ferraris to drive in a race.”

The following year proved pivotal in the 625 TRC’s history. Both cars were campaigned alongside von Neumann’s 250 Testa Rossas, ex-works 335 Sport, and ultimately the fearsome 412 Sport, another bespoke car built for the team. The von Neumann outfit would typically enter just one TRC at each event, with the second kept as a backup, and it has taken careful examination of period images to reveal which of the two cars appeared in each race.

Von Neumann personally favored 0680 over the other Ferraris in his stable for the first half of the 1958 season (including the first customer-delivered “pontoon” 250 Testa Rossa), finishing 3rd overall and 2nd in class at Pomona and 4th overall and 1st in class at Palm Springs in February an