Saints and Winners

For me the early 60s GT racing scene represents a golden era.  Bridging the gap between the relatively straightlaced/amateur milieu of the 40s/50s and the over commercialisation that gathered pace through the 70s/80s, the early 60s in particular saw the creation and development of several truly great cars which would have a lasting influence on design well beyond the decade.  These cars came about thanks to a crop of markedly brilliant designers, new thinking/materials for the construction of chassis/bodies, allowing very light kerb weight, and a focus on extracting unprecedently high power outputs from small capacity engines.  Thus we were treated to the Abarth coupes based on the Fiat 600/850 and the Simca 1300, the Alfa Giulietta/Giulia Zagatos and GTAs, the Porsche 356s, early 911s and 904s, OSCA 1600s, Bonnet Djets, Lotus Elites and Austin Healey Sebring Sprites.

 

Although manufacturers such as Abarth, Alfa Romeo (via the Autodelta S.p.A. subsidiary) and Porsche entered and ran cars in the higher profile events, several independent teams were expert competitors and the factories did good business with these, supplying cars and parts.  Often demonstrating their expertise by beating their supplying maker’s team, these included, Scuderia Ambrosiana, OASC, Martini Rossi, Squadra Foitek, Scuderia Lufthansa, Jolly Club, Brumos, Vasek Polak and Equipe Nationale Belge.  However, there was another which operated the dream ticket of running – in varying early 60s seasons – Alfas, Abarths, Ferraris, OSCAs and Porsches: Scuderia Sant Ambroeus (‘SSA’).  Here are notes about and photographs of some of these fabulous SSA-entered cars.

1960

SSA tackled the 1960 Targa Florio with 3 cars – a Ferrari 250 GT LWB for Edoardo Lualdi/Giorgio Scarlatti; Alfa Romeo Giulietta SVZ for Pietro Laureati/Scarlatti; Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ for Alfonso Thiele/Sergio Pedretti (‘Kim.’)

1961

Best result for SSA at the 1961 Targa Florio was 10^th overall, (3^rd in class), for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ of Pedretti/‘Tom.’  Similar cars were driven by Hans Bauer/Roberto Sgorbati, (12^th and 5^th) and Ivanhoe Avorio/Carlo Facetti, (DNF).  An OSCA 1000S was driven to 15^th and 1^st in class by Umberto Bini/Giancarlo Rigamonti.  A Lancia Flamina Sport Zagato was taken to 17^th and 3^rd in class by Giulio Cabianca/Elio Zagato.  Cabianca was killed shortly after the race, in June, in an especially tragic testing accident at the Modena circuit.  Zagato became the second generation proprietor of the eponymous Milanese Carrozzeria.  Along with Alberto della Beffa, Franco Martinengo, Alessandro Zafferri and Eugenio Dragoni, Elio had established Scuderia Sant Ambroeus in Milan in 1951.  A second Flamina SZ was run for Marino Guarnieri/Brian Whitehouse, but this failed to finish.

A public-roads circuit, almost 16 miles in length was located at Pescara, midway down the Italian east coast.  The season’s Pescara Grand Prix, (a round of both the World Sports Car Championship and the FIA GT Cup), was the last race to be held there.  The event saw a large, (12 cars), and eclectic entry from SSA – 2 Ferrari 250 GT SWBs, 5 Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZs, a Giulietta SVZ, OSCA S100, Fiat Abarth 850, Bandini 750 and a Fairthorpe Electron, (one of two Electrons run at Pescara).

As the Coventry Climax-engined Electron is a little known car today, an example is illustrated below, (courtesy of Martin Collins, http://fairthorpe.blogspot.com/):

1962 

Two SSA entries to the Targa Florio failed to start the race – the Ferrari 250 GT SWB for Lualdi/Giorgio Pianta, and an Abarth Simca 1300 Bialbero for Bini/Lanzo Cussini which suffered suspension damage in practice.  A Porsche 718 RSK driven by Umberto Maglioli/Tommy Spychiger was a non-finisher, but the other three SSA cars – all Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZs – ran well and finished in mid-field.

Karl Foitek and Ricciardo Ricci represented SSA in an Alfa Romeo TZ2 at the 1962 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours.  The car ran over 200 laps but failed to finish because of a clutch failure.

1963

The lead SSA car at the Targa Florio was again a Ferrari, this time the legendary 250 GTO.  A strong race was driven by Maurizio Grana/Gianni Bulgari, resulting in 4^th place overall, 1^st in the GT3.0 class.  However, the two other SSA cars this year were non-finishers - an Abarth Simca 1300 Bialbero for ‘Kim’/Giampiero Biscaldi and a Ferrari Dino 196 SP for Lualdi/Bini.

Results from the year’s ADAC 500 kms event at the Nurburgring reveal SSA’s approach to a meeting with an emphasis on the smaller capacity Sports/GT/Touring classes.  Two Fiat Abarth 850 TCs (Turismo Competizione) were entered for Mario Saruggia/Giani Prada, (finished 8^th, 2^nd in class), and Paolo Renigra/Carlo Zuccoli, (finished 9^th, 3^rd in class), and two Fiat Abarth 1000 Berlinas for Angela Fontana/Attilio Zuppini, (finished 12^th, 2^nd in class), and Walter Schneider/Fulvio Sestilli, (DNF).  Representative examples of these two models are shown below:

1964 

At the Targa Florio, SSA ran two Alfa Romeo TZs, an SZ, two Ferrari 250 GTOs and a Porsche 904 GTS – just imagine being in the garage in which that fleet was being prepared!  That preparation was certainly successful – the TZs finished 3^rd and 4^th, 1^st and 2^nd in class, one GTO was 5^th and 1^st in class and the SZ came 5^th in class; the second GTO and the Porsche were, however, non-finishers.

The Targa Florio class-winning Roberto Bussinello partnered with Bruno Deserti was classified 13^th (9^th in class), again driving an Alfa TZ, at Le Mans.  Bussinello twice drove in the Italian Grand Prix, in 1961 and 1965, in a De Tomaso and a BRM (P57) respectively.  SSA entered a second TZ for Giancarlo Sala/Biscaldi and this also made it to the finish, in 15^th, (10^th in class).

The SSA TZs also ran well at the Nurburgring 1000 kms, Biscaldi/Ernst Furtmayr won the GT1.6 class in 13^th overall, closely followed by Bussinello/Pianta in a sister TZ in 14^th/2^nd.  A third TZ  driven by Jean Rolland/Fernand Masoero retired with engine trouble.  The team entered a Giulietta SZ for Girolamo Capra/Fernando Wissel and this was a finisher – 8^th in class.

1965 

Once again, a Ferrari spearheaded the SSA Targa Florio campaign.  A 250LM was available, and, driven by Luigi Taramazzo/Oddone Sigala, it gave the Scuderia an 8^th place finish, 1^st in the GT Nazionale +2500 class.  A novelty at this event was SSA’s entry of a pair of the 1 litre ASA RB coupes.  The design originated at Ferrari, featuring the Columbo 4 cylinder engine, mechanical layout by Bizzarrini and Giugiaro styling.  Anticipating the same potential brand-dilution dilemma that would surround the marketing of the 206/246GT Dino however, it was decided that the car should not be presented as a Ferrari.  Agreement was reached for Autocostruzioni Società per Azioni, Turin to manufacture the car, with both coupe and spyder versions.  Production was ongoing from 1963-67 with just 90 examples built.  Considering that the cars had to run in the P1.6 class with only 1000cc of engine capacity, their results were quite respectable – Pianta/Giorgio Bassi 18^th, 3^rd in class, and ‘Kim’/Giuseppe Bardini 23^rd, 4^th in class.  An Alfa Romeo TZ was the team’s fourth entry.  In the hands of Capra/Maurizio Pinchetti it was 17^th, 3^rd in class.

Another notable event in 1965 for SSA was the GT Grand Prix of Mugello.  Best result for the Scuderia was 3^rd overall and in class for the Ferrari 250 LM of Sigala/Taramazzo.  Winning the Touring 2.0 class was a BMW 1800 Ti driven by Ricci/Pietro Corbellini which was 6^th overall.  A similar car with drivers Luigi Raniero, Romano Gozzi and Paolo Renier was 11^th and 2^nd in class.  An Alfa Romeo TZ and a Lancia Flavia also competed, but both retired. 

For around 15 years the Scuderia raced with much success, developing the careers of a great many drivers, three of whom progressed to Grand Prix level status, including Giancarlo Baghetti, (run by the Scuderia in the 1961 British and Italian Grands Prix), Ludovico Scarfiotti and Roberto Bussinello. 

After a period of reduced/lapsed activity from the late 1960s, SSA was ‘resurrected’ in 1995.  It again ran down after a time, only to rise for a third time in 2019 and has been recently active on the Historics scene, as is evident below in a photograph taken at the 2021 Vernasca Silver Flag event: