Ferrari 166 Mille Miglia/53 1953 - Mille Miglia
David
nous raconte l'histoire de la légendaire Ferrari 166MM de 1953
Many of the cars that were built in the Ferrari 166 MM series
were similar to one another. The 166 MM/53 represented a
refinement an enhancement of the technology that went into those
earlier cars. With the same 2 litre engine, greater
performance and handling was available.
In the early 1950s, Ferrari was building a strong reputation for
developing racing-cars, and one of the important steps in their
evolution was the creation of the Ferrari 166 MM-series. The
MM stands for Mille Miglia, a one thousand mile race that was run
from 1927 to-1957 and continued in present days in Italy.
By mentioning the race when naming their car, it was very clear
that Ferrari was-designing it to perform well there and it
did. The 166 MM/53 had a 2 litre engine that was-built with a
V12 configuration. It was made of aluminum alloy, and was fed
by three Weber-carburetors. This delivered 154 horsepower
which got this small car running in a-hurry.
There was a five speed manual transmission that delivered power to
the rear wheels-as was the case with all of the small Ferrari race
cars of the day. All four wheels had-aluminum drum brakes
that offered respectable stopping power and helped to reduce the
weight. -The chassis of the car was very similar to that of its
predecessor, the 166 MM. It was a steel tube-design, and it had an
aluminum body over top.
The suspension of this car was excellent, much like the rest of
the 166-series. There was an uneven double wishbone set up in
the front that also had an anti-roll bar. In the back there
was a live axle and semi-elliptic leaf springs with twin radius
arms.
One of the most important things a manufacturer must consider when
building a race-car is the weight because it affects the
acceleration, handling and breaking characteristics. -That is one
thing that this automobile had going for it; in its racing form, it
was a scant 1433-pounds. Mated with the small V12 engine, this
performed admirably on the track.-
There were actually two forms of the 166 MM/53 that were
offered. It came in-a coupe and also in a racing
barchetta. One of the most famous and versions was the
Agarth-Spyder, which had a number of additional refinements that
reduced weight and further prepare the car-for racing. One of the
ingenious things about the body was that the panels were bolted
onto the-frame, which allowed them to be easily replaced when they
were damaged. This was a-particularly odd-looking version of
the car, with a single headlight in the front. This car was
successful in-winning its class at the Targa Florio, and it was the
outright champion at Messina over 10 hours of-racing.
It was very soon that Ferrari racing would start to look to cars
that had larger-displacement, but many people will always find the
smaller displacement, light weight cars to be-some of the best
examples of what the company was doing at the time.
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