N.A.R.T. Transporter: I am sure the North American Racing Team, or N.A.R.T. needs no introduction. The team operated from 1957 to 1983 by Luigi Chinetti and later his son Luigi Jr. raced some very memorable cars with world class drivers; and took home important victories, like Le Mans in 1965. Capitalizing on his close relationship with Ferrari, Chinetti often had factory support, utilizing some of the latest machinery from Maranello and at times, was the de facto works entry. N.A.R.T. has long been a favorite of mine and naturally, I wanted a team transporter to show case with my N.A.R.T. models. Except there wasn't one.
N.A.R.T. used commercial haulers to transport their cars from their base in New York City to the races in N. America, or to the airport or docks, to send them to Europe. On the continent, they were transported by commercial haulers and/or the Ferrari team on their transporters. The photo above shows such a car carrier used to transport the team to Sebring, but it also shows a semi-tractor and trailer. As shown in the photo below, the team did use on this (and possibly on other) occasion to haul spares, wheels, tools, etc.. There is a Ferrari sign on the trailer, but no other N.A.R.T. signage, so ownership is not clear. In his book on N.A.R.T. history, Terry O'Neill doesn't spend much time discussing team logistics, but to mention that private carriers were used. The reason stated was no room for a transporter at their NY shop and that the team was always 'low budget'.
That made my choice to make a transporter for N.A.R.T. more fantasy than reality. I had a Fiat 619 N1 tractor and a spare trailer that comes close to the vintage of the trailer in the pictures above. I made decals for the trailer which emulate the style of private transporters from the 60's and early 70's in a couple books I have on North American racing. The end result is this:
The Fiat tractor is the right vintage for N.A.R.T. racing exploits in the 70's up until it ceased racing in the early 80's. Built from 1964 to 1980, the 619 series of heavy trucks from Fiat were popular due to their robustness and reliability, with 13,000 units being built over sixteen year period. The second generation of the 619 was launched in 1970 and featured the Fiat "H" cabin which would be used until 1994. The spacious cab had room for two berths behind the driver and passenger seat and was perfect for a crew making a trans-continental haul. Powered by a big 13.8L in-line six-cylinder diesel engine, the 619 had plenty of torque. The engine produced 260 bhp and gave the truck a hauling capacity of over 24 tons at a top speed of 50 mph. Not the best rig for U.S. highways and freeways, but its what I had.
Another Ferrari transporter on the shelf, even if it is mostly blue sky.
