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.

One of the most important cars in Ferrari’s illustrious history, the Ferrari 375 Plus was built to extend the success of the 375 MM that powered Ferrari to success in the inaugural FIA World Sportscar Championship in 1953. Facing the threat of being unable to match the sophisticated new 8-cylinder Formula 1 designs from Mercedes-Benz and Lancia, nor even the 6-cylinder 250Fs from Maserati, Enzo Ferrari instead focused his attention upon perfecting a line of large capacity sportscars. The result would become known by the French racing community as 'Le Monstre' and by the British as 'The Fearsome Four-Nine'. The 375 Plus competed and was victorious at the most prestigious international races, earning Ferrari its first works victory at Le Mans and cementing itself into sportscar legend in the process.

Using the 375 MM as a starting point, and the 375 Formula 1 car as inspiration, Aurelio Lampredi developed a truly powerful 4.9 litre V12 engine, rated at nearly 350 horsepower. The engine came with a single spark plug per cylinder configuration with twin magnets and was fed by three Weber-46 DCF/3 carburettors. As a result, the 375 Plus was able to fire up to speeds of around 174mph (280km/h), an incredible feat for a car produced in the 1950s.

Pinin Farina and Carrozzeria Vignale fashioned the aluminium body, which featured flush fenders and a pronounced trunk bulge to accommodate the car’s spare tire and long-distance 190 litre (47.6 gallon) fuel tank. The 375 Plus’s new, strengthened chassis was made from steel tubes and, though it retained the same front suspension as its predecessors, the rear suspension came with a new de Dion axle, twin radius arms with transverse leaf springs and Houdaille shock absorbers. The 375 Plus’s new setup offered improved stability, balance and road handling at higher speeds.

The Ferrari 375 Plus took a stunning win in its debut race at Agadir, Morocco, in the hands of Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina in February 1954. Though the same driver and car would retire from the following week’s Dakar GP, they set a record fastest lap before doing so. In April, Umberto Maglioli and Nino Cassani ran a single 375 Plus in the Giro di Sicilia and, after just four hours of racing, held a three-and-a-half-minute lead, before the usually reliable Maglioli overturned the car, ending any hopes of victory. Ferrari entered four cars into the Mille Miglia in May, though sadly no car reached the chequered flag. Maglioli came the closest to victory as he chased down the leading Lancia of Alberto Ascari, before a single split pin fell out, causing the gearbox to stop functioning. This disappointment would only fuel Ferrari as, two weeks later, José Froilán González earned a dominant triumph in the Formula 1-supporting sports car race at Silverstone, leading virtually from start to finish and sensationally lapping the last-placed of the 27 starters three times. The 1954 Le Mans 24-Hour race followed. González, now partnered with Maurice Trintignant, emerged victorious in a heavily weather-affected race. It was a thriller duel with the Jaguar D-Type of Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt right to the end, producing the closest finish at Circuit de la Sarthe since 1933: less than 5km (just half a lap). Ultimately, it was Ferrari who would win sports car racing’s most prestigious prize for the second time. The fearsome 'Four-Nines' would not be run again by the Ferrari factory, but a series of entries came from Mexico and the United States for the five-day Carrera Panamericana in Mexico. Maglioli took a dominating victory, 25 minutes ahead of a 375 MM and nearly two hours ahead of a Porsche in third position, ensuring maximum points in the World Sportscar Championship for the Italian marque.