By Peter Darnall
From the Archives, February 2021

Déjà vu: a feeling that one has seen or heard something before . . .

I came across an old friend at Thunderhill recently. I had not seen her in more than fifty years—and she had not changed a bit. She was drawing quite a bit of attention in the paddock, which was just the way I remembered our last meeting in the Del Monte Forest in the spring of 1956.

Story by Peter Darnall

The first five Mondials built were set aside by the factory to compete as “works” entries in the 1954 Mille Miglia. The third of these First Series Mondials to be built was Chassis Number 0408 MD. Owner Jeff Abramson treated me to several laps at speed around the Sonoma Raceway in this car and that run was my introduction to these extraordinary machines.

By Peter Darnall

The Italian word “mondiale” translates as “world” in the English language but in the Ferrari factory at Maranello, the name has special significance. Mondial (without the final “e”) is a Maranello trademark name which commemorates factory Grand Prix cars which won two successive World Championships in 1952 and 1953. The original Mondials were a group of 2 liter Ferrari 4-cylinder sports racing machines which challenged the motor racing world in the mid-1950s. They were known as “500 Mondials” (the cubic centimeter displacement of a single cylinder) to differentiate them from larger displacement versions of same engine which would follow.