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One-of-a-kind 1952 Lazzarino Sports Prototipo heads to auction

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1952 Lazzarino

1952 Lazzarino Sports Prototipo. Photos by David Newhardt, courtesy Mecum Auctions.

At first glance, particularly painted in a shade of red very similar to rosso corsa, the sleek sports prototype racer with the faux wire wheels looks very much like a Ferrari. Its construction, however, took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, half a world away from Maranello, and beneath its hand-sculpted hood beats a flathead Ford V-8, not a Ferrari V-12. Once featured in the pages of Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car, the 1952 Lazzarino Sports Prototipo heads to auction next month at Mecum’s Monterey, California, sale.

1952 Lazzarino

The story of Carrocería Lazzarino begins in Buenos Aires in 1927, when Juan Lazzarino emigrated from Turin, Italy, with his sons Bautista and Miguel. There, the family set up a metal fabrication shop in the city’s La Paternal district, and word of the shop’s proficiency in sculpting metal soon spread. By the mid-1930s, the Lazzarinos had received some recognition as coachbuilders, but fame and fortune continued to elude them.

1952 Lazzarino

Success came in 1934, when a Packard rebodied by Bautista Lazzarino was used by Cardinal Pacelli (who would later become Pope Pius XII) during the 1934 Eucharistic Congress. The exposure the car (and hence, the shop) received brought in new clients from across Argentina, and Bautista’s business prospered throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s. In the postwar years, a renewed focus on racing saw a shift in Bautista’s business; the majority of work requested by clients involved the retrofitting of aerodynamic body panels on (primarily prewar) Fords, Chevrolets, Plymouths and Dodges.

1952 Lazzarino

Bautista Lazzarino had become the Argentinean coachbuilder of choice for those interested in speed and performance, and in 1952, the chairman of Ford Argentina contracted with Lazzarino to build a sports racer equipped with a flathead Ford V-8 engine. The resulting car featured a hand-welded tubular steel frame wrapped in hand-beaten steel bodywork, with hand-formed aluminum panels used for the floor, transmission tunnel and dash. As a concession toward weight savings, the trunk lid was formed from aluminum, and the backing plates of the drum brakes were painstakingly drilled by hand. Craftsmanship was evident throughout, from the hand-built pedal assemblies (also drilled for lightness) to the custom-built independent A-arm front suspension.

1952 Lazzarino

From its early days, the Lazzarino Sports Prototipo led something of a hard life. First and foremost, it was a race car, campaigned by a string of owners throughout Argentina (and, presumably, South America). In the 1970s, the car was advertised for sale as a Ferrari, but those inspecting the then-derelict racer quickly realized the car had no such pedigree. It finally found a home with Jorge Penedo, who discovered that its flathead Ford V-8 was frozen with rust; to return the car to the road, he used what was at hand, bolting in the slant six and four-speed manual transmission from an Argentinean Chrysler Valiant.

1952 Lazzarino

The car found its way to Belgium before being acquired by New York stockbroker Jonathan Auerbach, who told Mark McCourt in the April 2007 issue of Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car that the Lazzarino reminded him of the Ferrari 212 Spyder Vignale he’d once owned (and could no longer afford). As part of the purchase agreement, Auerbach requested FIA licensing paperwork on the car, making it eligible for historic races such as the revived Mille Miglia.

1952 Lazzarino

When the car arrived on U.S. soil, Auerbach made the decision to run it in a 4,200 mile Pan-American rally, so restoration was entrusted to Jim Shelly’s Georgica Services, Ltd. in East Hampton, New York. To keep things simple, Auerbach retained the slant-six drivetrain instead of attempting to rebuild the original (seized) flathead V-8, included with the purchase of the car. The stockbroker enjoyed the unique race car at events like the Mount Washington Hillclimb, the Bridgehampton Road Rally and the Philadelphia to San Francisco Great Race, but sold the Lazzarino to Craig Brody at auction in 2011 for $130,200.

1952 Lazzarino

Brody’s first task was returning the car to flathead Ford V-8 power. An attempt was made to restore the car’s original V-8, but the engine proved to be too far gone to save, and a period-correct 1951 239-cu.in. Ford V-8 was sourced instead. Finding and rebuilding the engine was the easy part; undoing the modifications made to allow fitment of the Chrysler slant-six, on the other hand, proved to be more difficult than anyone had imagined. The end result, however, was a car as faithful to the original as possible, and as close to “day one” condition as Brody could make it.

1952 Lazzarino

Described by Mecum as a “highly usable road car,” the Lazzarino seems well-suited for vintage rally events, particularly for the buyer who wants a truly unique vintage racer. It may not be a Ferrari, but as its previous owners will surely tell you, the Lazzarino Sports Prototipo is no less charismatic, and Mecum predicts a selling price between $225,000 and $275,000.

For additional information on Mecum’s 2014 Monterey sale, visit Mecum.com.

UPDATE (20.August): The Lazzarino sold for $135,000.


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