Inside Nick Mason's car collection
PH explores Pink Floyd drummer's Ferrari fetish at Ten Tenths Racing
Mason's GTO has raced every year since '62
An early '62 car, it's raced every year of its life, originally campaigned by the Ecurie Francorchamps team, hence the yellow flash on the front wings. In fact, this livery is exactly how it ran 52 years ago, even down to that delicately stylised number 22. But in over half a century of competition, the car has evolved in some key areas.
Take the motor. It still runs the original 300hp 3.0-litre quad-cam V12 fed by six surprisingly petite twin-choke downdraught Weber 38 DCN carbs, but only for road events. Hallowes explains. "The thought of losing this engine when racing - which means this would no longer be an all-important 'matching numbers' car - doesn't even bear thinking about.
"That's why we've got the second 'sacrificial' engine for racing, as we like to call it. You never want to lose an engine, but if it has to be this one, it's less of an issue." A spare, original 250 GTO motor - that surely ranks alongside hen's dentures and rocking horse manure in the unobtainable stakes.
Original engine for road, spare for racing
Such is the collective enthusiasm from Mason and the guys at Ten Tenths to keep arguably the most famous Ferrari in the UK racing that they've had to teach an old 'dog' (but one with perfect lineage and brilliant genes) some new tricks.
Insight into a car of this calibre, and what it takes to keep it alive, as it were, is totally fascinating. The 'competition' motor - used every time the car gets rolled out at the Goodwood Revival, for example - gets higher lift cams among a few other choice modifications, with Hallowes explaining, "one does what one can within the rules." Quite.
Thrashing a priceless classic lap after lap means it can get a bit hot inside that tiny glasshouse, though. So to combat the heat build-up, the team uses a special ceramic coating from Zircotec for the 16-part serpentine full race exhaust system. The headers are a work of art. Just as in Formula One today, the principle is the same. "We need to get temperature out of the engine and down the exhaust," says chief fettler Ben de Chair. "The difficulty comes as we're trying to keep up with the evolution of modern race tracks with a historic car."
Ah yes, there's this as well
Boxing clever
The same is true of the Ferrari 512 BB LM Mason will be campaigning at this year's classic Le Mans. And with a massive 5.0-litre flat-12 boxer kicking out 420hp, a raucous bark and more heat than a Swedish sauna, anything to improve performance and reliability is welcome - especially with the multi-million pound budget it costs to go historic racing.
The motor dominates the car completely. "By the way the 450kg-rated crane was creaking when we dropped the engine and 'box back in, we know it's quite a weighty lump," says de Chair. Quite unbelievably, despite competing at numerous Le Mans in period and more than a few Classics since, the BB has only just had its first engine rebuild ready for racing this season, which proves how understressed the motor is.
Zircotec coating reduces heat
Burn baby burn
Once I've managed to elevate my lower mandible off the floor and compose myself, I'm forced to do it once more as we make our way through to the next hangar. Beside a trickle charging 599 GTO is the Ferrari 512S camera car, as driven in the film Le Mans. This thing has quite the background.
Owned by Steve McQueen's company Solar Productions and driven by Derek Bell, it was charred beyond recognition during filming due to a malfunction with the camera equipment. Mason later stepped in, adding it to his fleet.
The amazing stories continue as we mooch round the garage. The 365 GTB/4 Daytona next to the 512S - Hallowes favourite car in the collection. "Ali body or steel body, they're like a truck, but despite having so much grunt they're very, approachable, to drive." I note he chose the word 'approachable' after some deliberation, hinting they're not always well behaved.
All admiring the flat-12 out back
A whole line of Aston Martin Ulsters, a Maserati 250F, an F40, a Maserati Birdcage and, tucked away in the corner of the lock-up, an original, narrow-bodied 289 AC Cobra are but a few of the other rare exotics parked up like a fleet compound, inches separating one million pound irreplaceable classic from another.
The best thing? All race, do race and will race in the future. Credit where credit's due.
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For me this is THE car - my utter and total idea of the greatest car in the world. Irrational I know but when I read that article and looked at the pictures as an early teen it was all over for me. Thank goodness I've had the chance to see it race a few times - happy days and a big thank you to Nick Mason for making it still roll round a track not sit in a museum.
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