An administration of… 30 million dollars!

The world is full of private car collections. Many of its owners have paraded their jewels in competitions or exhibitions of classics around the world like diamonds on wheels. It’s not just about speed and beauty, it’s also about the adrenaline rush of rushing around with real museum pieces. This is the case of millionaire Austrian investor Martin Halusa, who shares this hobby with his children.

“We are not only collectors, but we also want to compete with our cars”, the prestigious businessman once said. There is danger in that.

Imagine taking a painting out of your typical museum ‘bubble’. It can be stained or damaged. ‘How irresponsible’, some will think. ‘What a great responsibility’, others would think. One of Martin’s sons, Lukas Halusa, who at 31 years old already has experience in more than 60 events, knows what it feels like when things don’t end well. However, from this month of July, a stain will accompany him on his resume at the tracks that he cannot erase with his tickets: what happened in the Le Mans Classic race held at the legendary Circuit de La Sarthe.

Before an audience dedicated to the greatest celebration of the classics, held every two years (due to the pandemic it has not been held since 2018), Lukas had an accident with the car he was driving against one of the walls of the iconic. Gallic circuit. No other vehicles are included. He lost control of his car and crashed into a wall, sustaining damage to the rear, right side and front.

It can happen. After all, it is a competition and there is a risk of accidents. Lukas gets out of the crash unharmed, but things are still very serious. The vehicle is no less than the Ferrari 250 GT SWB ‘Breadvan’, the only unit produced of this car, considered a prototype and created to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1962. As fate would have it, the famous car that it finished against the obstacles of that same track six decades later.

The total cost of ‘Breadvan’ is 30 million dollars. But money is not everything. Here what counts is the historical importance of this racing car, which makes it a unique work. It is unique in the world. There is nothing else like it and that makes it even more special. And the history it preserves in its unique features is pure gold.

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His incredible story: A Ferrari to beat Ferrari

Anyone who sees the Ferrari 250 GT SWB ‘Breadvan’ for the first time will be struck by its striking shape, a car with a racing front end, but with a raised rear end finished with a blunt vertical cutaway reminiscent of a van. That’s why he got the nickname ‘Breadvan’ (bread truck in English). All this is the result of modifying a Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta SWB to compete at Le Mans.

It all started with anger. On the track, Ferrari won the Drivers’ World Championship with Phil Hill and the Constructors’ Championship in 1961. But some of the team’s engineers and drivers started an internal confrontation against Enzo Ferrari’s wife, Laura, a thing that ended in some dismissals. Among them, two engineers packed their bags, Giotto Bizzarrini and Carlo Chiti, who also worked on the Ferrari 250 GTO (Gran Turismo Omologata) in which the Italians will compete at Le Mans and is now one of the world’s most desirable (and beautiful) car.

With the knowledge they had and the experience they developed within the famous Maranello factory walls, they both set up their own racing company, called ATS (Automobili Turismo Sport) with the financial support of Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata . The wealthy Venetian was ambitious about the competitive future of this company and asked Ferrari for two units of the 250 GTO (only 36 were built from 1962 to 1964). But Enzo Ferrari, always wise, understood what the cars were for and did not agree to their sale.

Finally, ATS acquired a unit of that 250 GTO to compete at Le Mans as a privateer team. Looking for a second, but to no avail, the two engineers decided to use their knowledge of that car’s development to ‘tune’ a 250 GT Berlinetta SWB to super-fast GTO specs. The result, that car in the back of a van with a V12 engine, was placed at the back and as low as possible with respect to the front axle, aerodynamics inspired by the F1 cars of the time and lower weight than the car they want to emulate. : 935 kilos, less than the 250 GTO’s tonnage.

The ATS arrived in time to compete with this unique car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1962, with Carlos María Abate and Colin Davies at the wheel, without displaying the Ferrari logo. However, fate was not fair to that car, as two hours into the race the dream ended due to the failure of one of the transmission shafts in 7th.

The Agnelli family bought it and painted it as a joke

The adventure of this vehicle continued in other appointments, where it demonstrated its speed in achieving victories. But in 1963 the team disappeared. Over the years, the Agnelli family owned the car and playfully painted it black by Gianni Agnelli, as if it were a corpse. And it is that somehow that car represents something negative for the Italian house: the copy of some people who left behind the door of Maranello and wanted to beat Ferrari (and they succeeded in some races ).

A major restoration

The car went through many owners. One of them appeared with him at the official meeting of the 25th anniversary of the Ferrari 250 GTO, something that is not seen properly. And later, the German Klaus Werner bought it to restore it and restore it to its original appearance from 1962. After the accident, they will have to restore it again