|
RM Auctions will
this evening in London offer for sale the last ever ATS 2500
GT to be built, one of only five remaining today and one of
two fitted with a 3.0 litre engine; it has an amazing history and
this will be the first time an ATS has ever gone under the
hammer. Lot 226 should be the highlight of the evening.
ATS, or
Automobili Turismo e Sport SpA, was an Italian carmaker and
racing team that operated all too briefly between February
1962 and 1965. The nucleus of the new company was comprised
of Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini, who were both
prominently involved in the development of the Ferrari GTO
and, as refugees from the infamous Ferrari “Palace Revolt”
of 1961, intended to mount a direct challenge to their
former employer. Development of the basic concept of the car
that eventually became the ATS GT actually began while Chiti
was still at Ferrari, with the project aimed at producing
the first mid-engine Ferrari. However, after the departure
of Chiti and Bizzarrini, the concept was carried on under
the auspices of the new ATS organisation. At Ferrari, the
mid-engine 250LM developed concurrently, with V12 power
rather than a V8, on the direction of Enzo Ferrari.
With the sponsorship of a trio of wealthy industrialists
including Count Giovanni Volpi, who founded the well-known
Scuderia Serenissima, ATS developed both a road going sports
car and a Grand Prix racing car. Personalities involved with
ATS included 1962 World Driving Champion Phil Hill driving
for the racing team, while a number of other famous drivers
were engaged in the development of the road car. Sefarino
Allemano, the famed Turin-based coachbuilder, constructed
the road car, with its sleek bodywork designed by former
Bertone stylist Franco Scaglione.
The resulting ATS 2500 GT Coupé was initially powered by a
mid-mounted 2.5-litre V8 engine designed by Chiti, with a
light-alloy block and cylinder heads, a single overhead
camshaft per cylinder bank, as well as a quartet of Weber
twin-choke carburettors, producing 220 to 250 brake
horsepower. Based on a competition-specification braced
chrome-molybdenum tubular chassis with a fully independent
suspension and four-wheel disc brakes, the resulting car was
essentially a thinly veiled racing car, capable of exceeding
160 mph.
The car made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in 1963,
where it created a sensation with its advanced mid-engine
layout, bold, shark-like body design and race-inspired
technical specifications. Ultimately, only 12 chassis were
built, including just eight complete cars, with the company
constantly struggling with inadequate working capital. Volpi
is reported to have left the organisation with the car
offered here, numbered chassis 2004, along with the four
remaining incomplete chassis, which he intended to develop
into his own version dubbed the Serenissima using the Chiti-designed
power plant, enlarged to 3.0-litres. Chassis 2004, which
already had a 3.0-litre engine, also displayed the
Serenissima badge on its nose, which was possibly added by
Volpi later.
Volpi in fact never actually used chassis 2004 and ended up
giving it to Alf Francis in payment for services rendered
during his time with the ATS concern. Francis, who was
formerly the mechanic to Stirling Moss and later a racing
team owner with significant connections in Modena, then
tuned up the ATS and drove it around a bit, but reputedly,
he never registered the car for the road. Francis then sold
2004 to Bruce McIntosh, along with a spare 2.5-litre engine
around 1966, who became its first registered owner. McIntosh
unfortunately damaged the car in an accident, which showed
fewer than 3,000 kilometres at the time, requiring the
replacement of the damaged nose with a factory-built
component. This work was performed in England at a company
called Grand Prix Metalworks, which was owned by Carl Rosner
in Holloway, North London and later relocated to Wembley,
also in North London.
It seems that the reassembly of the car was taking longer
than anticipated, with McIntosh losing interest in the car
and selling it to Rosner, who never really completed the car
until the time he decided to sell it, which was some time in
1971. It is believed that the car was then briefly sold to
an unknown enthusiast before being passed to Norbert
McNamara of California, a noted racer and collector, who
already owned ATS chassis 2001, the Geneva show car, which
had been converted to Chevrolet power. As McNamara was in
search of an original ATS engine, he purchased 2004 because
it was available with a spare engine that originally powered
his own car. Eventually, McNamara showed his first ATS,
chassis 2001, at the 1990 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
The current owner of chassis 2004, the car offered here, and
his wife first met McNamara in 1987, when they travelled to
Northern California with the intention of purchasing a
DeTomaso Vallelunga from him. McNamara toured the couple
through his horse stables housing a group of very
interesting and significant Italian sports cars, with two of
them being the ATS 2001 and 2004. While the visitors begged
McNamara to sell one of the ATS cars to them, he refused.
They persisted for three more years, but the answer remained
the same. Then, the smitten potential purchasers and their
family moved to Costa Rica, and the dream was lost – or so
it seemed at the time.
Even after McNamara sold most of his prized automobile
collection, including chassis 2001, he retained 2004. By
chance, however, in 2005, nearly 20 years after first seeing
ATS 2004, the current owner learned of its existence in a
Northern California barn. Soon thereafter, a deal was
successfully negotiated for the purchase of the car with the
legal representatives of the McNamara estate.
The car was then shipped to the new owner’s restoration shop
in Costa Rica where it underwent a two-year mechanical
restoration effort, which was completed in time for the
car’s participation in the 2008 "Modena Cento ore Classic"
rally in Italy. The car was driven for approximately 3,000
total kilometres through Switzerland, Italy and France, with
about 1,600 of those kilometres covered on the rally, which
included racing it on different racing circuits on each day
of the rally tour. In fact, the ATS received a trophy for
its performance on one of these special rally stages.
Notably, since the car had only travelled some 3,000
kilometres from new prior to the event, most all of its
mechanical components remained in good working order,
including the bearings, bushings, shock absorbers, brakes,
brake pads and clutch.
Following the event, the car returned to Costa Rica and was
completely dismantled, with every nut, bolt and washer
inspected for wear. The engine and transmission were both
found to remain perfect, with the engine requiring only some
valve clearance adjustments and at this time, everything was
rebuilt as new. Of special note, the body and chassis
remained completely rust-free, by virtue of the fact that
Mr. McNamara had kept the car garaged and covered for more
than 35 years in the dry Northern California desert, near
Modesto and the Nevada border, until the current owner
purchased it.
The shock absorbers were sent to Koni for rebuilding, and a
new clutch disc was located, as were the bushings and
bearings. Some bushings had to be custom-made, but this
challenge did not pose a problem. New custom gaskets and
rebuild kits for the rare dual-throat 38 IDM Weber
carburettors were supplied by Pierce Manifold, who claimed
that in 40 years, this was the first request they had
received for parts to rebuild these special Weber
carburettors. The car is currently equipped with the
original Abarth custom exhaust system with muffler, while
the original racing-type exhaust system is also included
with the sale of the car, to be shipped to the buyer from
Costa Rica. A custom-made, tar-top Magneti Marelli battery,
Road Master horns, power windows and a Nardi wooden steering
wheel are also part of the car’s original options. Borrani
even built a custom space-saver spare wheel for this car.
Two original brake boosters, with one for the ventilated
front discs and one for the large inboard-mounted rear disc
brakes, supply braking, similar in layout to that of the
Ferrari 250 LM. A set of special transmission gears were
fabricated by the same company, located in Costa Mesa
California, which had produced the gears for the McLaren F1
supercar of the 1990s. As is common knowledge to ATS
enthusiasts, the internal gears of the racing-specification
five-speed Colotti gearbox were the Achilles heel of the
car, so this much-needed upgrade was certainly a welcome
change. In addition, while the original transmission gearing
seemed perfect, the car was geared too high, and while the
car did have a potential top speed of 180 mph, it was
impossible to climb steep hills from a standing start. Now,
the car is much more drivable and probably has a top speed
of 160 mph, while the engine can climb to 9,000 rpm.
The car’s total restoration was completed in July 2009, in
time for its display at the prestigious and world-famous
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. At the event, the ATS did
very well and just missed winning the third-place ribbon in
the Post War Sports Car category, a very competitive class
indeed. It also participated in the Pebble Beach Rally Tour
the Thursday before the Concours, where it performed
perfectly. The ATS has already been invited to attend next
year’s Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este at Lake Como, Italy.
The interior is trimmed in its original black Connolly
leather upholstery and Wilton wool carpeting, and the car
comes complete with the original jack, tool roll and two
original sales brochures, but an owner’s manual is not
available, since one was never produced for this model
during its brief development and production cycle. An
original, vintage Heuer Speed Pilot and rally chronometer
also comes with the car, and rally-style lap belts are
included while four-point shoulder harness mounts are
already in place. The original transmission gears also come
with the car, in addition to copies of the blueprints for
both the 2.5-litre and 3.0-litre V8 ATS engines. Today, the
chassis now has less than 7,000 original kilometres, with
only approximately 3,000 kilometres on the engine.
Chassis 2004 is also accompanied by complete photographic
documentation of the restoration in a leather-bound album,
along with extensive ownership documentation in a separate
album, which also includes rare original magazines such as
Road & Track, Automobile Quarterly and their articles about
ATS. In addition, the car is offered with a document showing
the car had entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans, along with
other famous races including the storied Targa Florio,
although no additional information is currently available to
support this.
This ATS, chassis 2004, is a very important automobile. It
is the last example built, one of only two examples with the
300-horsepower ATS 3.0-liter V8 engine, and it is one of
only five cars to exist out of the eight complete cars
originally built. This is the first time that an ATS has
ever been publicly offered for sale at auction, and it
undoubtedly represents a truly rare opportunity. Estimate
price: £600,000-£1,000,000.
Text courtesy of RM Auctions. RM Auctions would like to
thank Winston Goodfellow for his assistance with the
historical research.
|
