Ferrari 125 S
Encyclopedia
- See also the Ferrari 125 F1Ferrari 125 F1The 125 F1 was Ferrari's first Formula One car. It shared its engine with the 125 S sports racer which preceded it by a year, but was developed at the same time by Enzo Ferrari and famed designer, Gioacchino Colombo....
, a Formula OneFormula OneFormula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
race car sharing the same engine
The Ferrari 125 S (commonly 125 or 125 Sport) was the first vehicle produced and built by automaker
Automaker
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....
Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
of Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Although preceded by Enzo Ferrari
Enzo Ferrari
Enzo Anselmo Ferrari Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian race car driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari car manufacturer...
's Auto Avio Costruzioni 815
Auto Avio Costruzioni 815
The Auto Avio Costruzioni 815 was the first car to be fully designed and built by Enzo Ferrari. Legal issues with former associates Alfa Romeo prevented Ferrari from creating the Ferrari marque. The 815 raced at the 1940 Brescia Grand Prix, where both entries failed to finish due to engine problems...
of 1940, the 125 S was the first vehicle to bear the Ferrari name when it debuted on May 11, 1947 at the Piacenza
Piacenza
Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...
racing circuit. Like the 815, it was a racing sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....
, but unlike its Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
-powered 8-cylinder predecessor, the 125 S featured a V12 engine
V12 engine
A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....
(the "125"), a trait it shared with most Ferrari cars of the following decades. The 125 S was replaced by the 159 S
Ferrari 159 S
The 159 S was designed to be the successor to Ferrari's first vehicle, the 125. Unlike its predecessor, which won six of 14 races earlier in 1947, the 159 had a short racing life and was quickly converted into the 166 SC for the following racing season....
for 1947.
Chassis
The 125 S used a steel tube-frame chassis and had a double wishbone suspension with transverse leaf springLeaf spring
Originally called laminated or carriage spring, a leaf spring is a simple form of spring, commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles...
s in front with a live axle
Live axle
A live axle, sometimes called a solid axle, is a type of beam axle suspension system that uses the driveshafts that transmit power to the wheels to connect the wheels laterally so that they move together as a unit....
in the rear. Hydraulic power drum brake
Drum brake
A drum brake is a brake in which the friction is caused by a set of shoes or pads that press against a rotating drum-shaped part called a brake drum....
s were specified front and rear.
Engine
The 125 S was powered by Gioacchino ColomboGioacchino Colombo
Gioacchino Colombo was an Italian automobile engine designer.Colombo was born in Legnano. He began work as an apprentice to Vittorio Jano at Alfa Romeo. In 1937, Colombo designed the 158 engine for the Alfetta and caught the attention of Enzo Ferrari. Ferrari asked Colombo to design a small V12...
's 1.5 L (1497 cc/91 in³) 60° V12
V12 engine
A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....
. This engine
Ferrari Colombo engine
Ferrari's earliest cars used engines designed by Gioacchino Colombo, who had formerly designed Alfa Romeos for Enzo Ferrari. These V12 powerplants ranged from the diminutive 1.5 L unit fitted to the 125S to the 3.3 L unit in the 1966 275.Enzo Ferrari had long admired the V12 engines of...
produced 118bhp (74 kW) at 7,000 rpm with a compression ratio
Compression ratio
The 'compression ratio' of an internal-combustion engine or external combustion engine is a value that represents the ratio of the volume of its combustion chamber from its largest capacity to its smallest capacity...
of 8.5:1. It was a dual overhead camshaft design with 2 valves per cylinder and three double-choke Weber
Weber carburetor
Weber is an Italian company producing carburetors, currently owned by Magneti Marelli Powertrain S.p.A., in turn part of the Fiat Group.The company was established as...
30DCF carburettors.
Examples
Both of the two 125 S cars built in 1947 were dismantled, and their parts are thought to have been re-used in production of the 159 or 166 models.Chassis 010I
Recently, the chassisChassis
A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...
with serial number 010I was used in the restoration of a 125 S. It is rumored that 010I is actually s/n 01C. The story goes that 01C was re-stamped as 010I, and sold to a customer as a new car. Upon taking receipt of the car, the new owner immediately exclaimed, muletta!, which means "mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
" in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, as he could clearly see that his supposedly new car was in fact a used, well-raced car. Ferrari made a new invoice for the car, including a considerable rebate given the car's second-hand nature.
Still in 166 Spyder Corsa configuration, the car was recently sold to Symbolic Motors. Close inspection of the chassis and its serial number led to the discovery of an old stamping that could possibly read 01C. It had been covered by an aluminum plate which bore the serial number 010I. Subsequently, the car was sold to its current owner, who refitted the chassis with a body similar to the factory's 125 S replica, which was built by Michelotto in 1987. The alleged 01C made its public debut at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is an automotive charitable event held each year on the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California, considered the most prestigious event of its kind. It is the finale of a week long festival of classic cars events in the Monterey area every year...
, and was entered as a "Ferrari 125 S". The car continues to be the subject of much debate among Ferrari historians and enthusiasts; recent developments indicate that the restamped serial number was in fact a correction and not an alteration.
Racing
The 125 S debuted at the Circuito di Piacenza, driven by Franco CorteseFranco Cortese
Franco Cortese was an Italian racing driver, who started the Mille Miglia a record 14 times .He started with Itala , then Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, and Scuderia Ferrari...
, but was unable to finish the race, despite a favorable showing against the strong Maserati 6CS 1500s.
Fourteen days later, the 125 S claimed Ferrari's first victory at the Grand Prix of Rome on Caracalla
Caracalla
Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...
, where it was also driven by Cortese. The car had spun a bearing in practice, and was repaired in the shop of Tino Martinoli, who later came to America with the Ferrari Indy car
American Championship Car Racing
Since 1916 there has been a recognized United States national automobile racing National Championship for drivers of professional-level, single-seat open wheel race cars. The championship has been under the auspices of several different sanctioning bodies since 1909. Since 1911, the Indianapolis...
team.
The 125 S won six of its fourteen races in 1947, though drivers Clemente Biondetti
Clemente Biondetti
Clemente Biondetti was an Italian auto racing driver.-Biography:Born in Buddusò, Sardinia, into a working class family, Biondetti began racing motorcycles in 1923 but in 1927 turned to automobiles...
and Giuseppe Navone were unable to win the 1947 Mille Miglia
Mille Miglia
The Mille Miglia was an open-road endurance race which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 ....
in it.