Ferrari Corsa Indianapolis Single-Seater Restored

Ferrari’s Classiche division recently completed full restoration of the Corsa Indianapolis single-seater (chassis 0388), a one-off built in 1953. The restoration couldn’t have been made possible without a proper historical research conducted by the Ferrari Classiche department’s technicians and thanks to documents from the Ferrari archives.

The documents confirmed that the Monoposto Corsa Indianapolis (the original name in the original Certificate) was developed as a prototype at the 1953 500 Miles of Indianapolis, but in the end didn’t participate in this race. The car, however, was used in several other competitions in the 1950s.

The historic research started with the identification of the assembly sheet 250/I (Indianapolis). However, the Tipo "250 I" engine was in the end replaced with a 375 engine, fitted when the car was delivered to Luigi Chinetti, then Ferrari importer for North America, on 21 January 1954.

The restoration involved stripping down the running gear that was verified in correspondence to the original design and state of deterioration, to determine whether the parts could be re-used. The car’s correspondence to the original design and eventual modifications made by the factory over time were verified through the analysis of the assembly sheet and of the list of components.

This was followed by a verification of the components’ treatments (engine, gearbox, differential, suspension, brakes, transmission assembly, timing gear, ignition, lubrication, cooling system and exhaust system) to ensure that the same were rendered compliant with the initial specifications.