Dino sore

Sir,

Surely one of the excellent Jesse Alexander photographs in your May issue carries an incorrect caption. The annual press visit to Maranello must be at the end of the 1958 season or at the beginning of ’59, not one year earlier.

Though the car on the left of the picture is a 1958 Dino 246 Formula One or Two car (why it sports the early Perspex air-scoop is a mystery), the car on the right appears to be a ’59 car. The Fantuzzi body and coil springs at the rear for the de Dion suspension would seem to confirm this.

What a shame the 1958 cars were broken up and dismantled, some to reappear as drasticallymodified chassis for the 1959 season. I recall reading a present-day interview with the Ferrari team manager of the time in which he referred to a request by Mike Hawthorn to buy his title-winning car. Following his decision to resign it is not surprising that his request fell on deaf ears.

I also remember reading that Dan Gurney drove the Hawthorn car with distinctive four-spoke steering wheel during the close season of 1958/59 prior to its demise. What a tragic waste of cars.

I AM, YOURS ETC,

David Mory’s, Pershore, Worcs