Michele Conti
The 1963 Ferrari 250 P
In 1963 Ferrari released a prototype which was essentially a 250 minus the roof. It therefore shared the model’s mid-mounted V12 engine and tubular space frame but had a slightly more advanced body shape.
The 250 P didn’t take long to establish its name on the track. Ferrari debuted the model at the 1963 12 Hours of Sebring and took an overall victory with chassis 0810 driven by John Surtees and Lodovico Scarfiotti. The other 250 P of Willy Mairesse, Nino Vacarella and Lorenzo Bandini wasn’t far behind and placed second. Along with the 330 TRI LM and the 250 GTO Ferrari swept the results list, taking the first six places overall.
Afterward the cars were used in Europe at many rounds of the World Sportscar Championship. Only one 250 P was used at the Targa Florio in May and failed to finish. Later that month, another new car, chassis 0814, was brought to the Nürburgring 1000km, but the older 0812 won in the hands of John Surtees and Willy Mairesse. This was followed up by a victory at Le Mans by Ludovico Scarfiotti and Lorenzo Bandini in 0814.
On May 18, 2003 , Michele Conti’s achievements were formally recognized at the 2003 Reading Ferrari Concours d’ Elegance. His son Maurizio Conti, also a model builder under the Conti banner; was in attendance to accept for his late father the “Enzo Ferrari Hall Of Fame Award”; For his dedication to the Ferrari Automobile. This ultimate accolade summed up 40 years of the supremacy of Michele and his son Maurizio in the very specialist field of fine scratch built model making; works of art owned by only a very few but munificent in its appreciation by the very many.
So close to the real thing; a Conti model combines the perfection in the art of steel, aluminium and brass panel beating and welding in miniature, with the detailing in fine leather, wood, rubber and chrome work …..and so much harder than working on the real thing.
Michele Conti in his rise to fame, courted and was courted by many famous personalities, to include film and Television stars, business leaders, racing car drivers, team owners, royalty and politicians. Many asked for specific models to be built, reflecting either their actual car or a car they could never hope to acquire.
His models appeared in the New York Museum of Modern Art, at the Ferrari headquarters and at General Motors, as well as featuring in Museum and show displays, cars showrooms. Enzo Ferrari, a hard man to please, even ordered a model and was so amazed at its perfection, that he wrote personally to Conti to lavish praise. Maurizio Conti followed in his father’s footsteps and was also a dedicated builder of the Conti family brand of fine models, ensuring that the family model building reputation was preserved and developed.
Michele and Maurizio Conti’s models cross the divide between models and sculpture, breathtakingly offering the client both at the same time and as a consequence raising the Conti model to the level of a work of art of fine museum quality and this is reflected in the value even the most basic Conti’s achieve at auction or private sale.
