Ferrari 625 New Zealand Tasman

Completely against his usual practice, Ferrari built a special racer in 1957 at the request of New Zealand driver Pat Hoare, to compete with it in the so-called Tasman Series in Australia and New Zealand.

This allowed the Ferrari marque to be represented in that championship. The car consisted of a dated Tipo 500 chassis, a Le Mans engine enlarged from 2.5 to 2.8 litres, and the transmission of a Tipo 555 ‘Super Squalo’ Grand Prix racer. The rear fuel tank came from a Lancia D50, Ferrari having taken over Lancia’s Grand Prix project. Hoare entered many races in New Zealand with this car but the upgraded four-cylinder often caused problems. He went looking for a V12 but could not find one, so he then contacted the factory which offered him a completely new car. The original 625 New Zealand was sold by Hoare and later became part of the Louwman Museum collection.