On a Lazy Afternoon in 1987: Inside Bob Sutherland's Garage

I received a call about a fund-raiser for a young artists' orchestra in Denver one day in 1987. The idea was that you'd make a contribution supporting a promising group of young musicians, be served a nice lunch and get a chance to look at some old cars owned by Bob Sutherland, the proprietor of a local chain of lumber yards.  This sounded like a good way to while away a lazy afternoon. The specific cars were not mentioned, but I'd heard that Mr. Sutherland liked old Miller and Bugatti single seaters, and had an interest in Indy cars as well as early Maseratis and Ferraris. The vehicle parked outside the Sutherland garage on the afternoon of the event, however, stopped me in my tracks.  I'd seen a couple of early Ferraris before, but none this early...

This is a very early Ferrari.  It's a 166 (2 liter V12) bodied by Superleggera Touring in a style echoing their competition barchettas which appeared in 1949. It appears to share the 2250mm wheelbase (about 88.6 inches) with those cars, but is outfitted with a notchback coupe body with roll-up windows and the delicate teardrop tail lights that also appeared  on a barchetta Touring buiilt for the Fiat mogul, Giovanni Agnelli.

The photo above shows off the smoothly-tapered tail, with the hand-hammered alloy curves unprotected by bumpers.  The photo below emphasizes what a narrow little car it was...

Like the Touring-bodied barchettas and fastback competition berlinettas, this 166 features  a sharp crease formed into the flanks an connecting the wheel arches.  It may have helped stiffen the body panels, but it had the added effect of visually lowering the car.  Unlike its more competition-oriented sister cars, this Ferrrari has disc wheels rather than center-lock wire wheels, and these are finished with simple (and probably irreplaceable) hubcaps with the Ferrari logo.

Inside the garage, music students milled around the cars with their parents and other car lovers. There were a lot of cars to love here.  Below is a Ferrari Type 625 Squalo (shark) Formula 1 car which first appeared for the 2.5 liter Formula 1 in 1954. The engine is Lampredi's twin-cam inline 4 with integral head and block, not unlike that in the 4 cylinder 625 Testa Rossa.  In the background is a Pinin Farina Ferrari competition berlinetta from the same period.

Below is one of a handful of 290MM spyders Ferrari built for endurance racing in 1956.  The 3.5 liter V12 differed from the production engines by having two spark plugs per cylinder; the 1957 version would feature twin cams per cylinder bank. The 290 shared the Type 520 tubular chassis, 4 speed transaxle and De Dion rear suspension with its sister car, the 3.5 liter, four-cylinder 860 Monza.  In the hands of Eugenio Castellotti, this car was the victor in the rainy, accident-plagued 1956 Mille Miglia.

Bob Sutherland scratched the paint when opening the engine lid on the red 250LM In the background of the photo below; he'd traded a 250 GTO64 for it, and I had seen that car race at Steamboat Springs*.  In the center of the picture is a Type 51 Bugatti with unique bodywork, while to the left is a Type 37A.

The Type 51 Bugatti of the early 1930s was a twin-cam development of the 2.3 liter inline 8 of the Type 35. Supercharged, it could make up to 180 horsepower.  Most T51s were outfitted with typical boat-tailed, racer bodywork with detachable (or optional) fenders, and this car had started that way...

But in the late 1930s its owner had been captivated by the riveted alloy coupé bodies of the Type 57 Atlantics*, and he commissioned Carrosserie Dubos to build a similar body to make his racer into a unique road car.  Dubos started the work in spring 1937 and finished in summer of that year.

Like the T57 Atlantic, the Dubos T51 had a central dorsal fin running between the rear windows and down the center of the gently rounded deck surface.  The wood interior trim, engine-turned dash, and scalloped, bright metal fender trim also appeared on one or more of the Atlantics.  Bob Sutherland stayed active as a vintage racer and supporter of musical education until his unexpectedly early departure from the world in November 1999 at the age of 56.  All the cars in these photos were auctioned sometime after...

*Footnote:  The first Ferrari imported into the United States, a cycle-fendered 166 Spyder Corsa sold by Luigi Chinetti to Briggs Cunningham, is on display at the Revs Institute, and pictured in our post from May 6, 2018 entitled "Lost Roadside Attraction: Luigi Chinetti Motors." Racing on the roads around Steamboat Springs, Colorado is pictured in our post for January 31, 2019 entitled "Lost Roadside Attraction: Vintage Racing in Steamboat Springs."  And for a look at the Bugatti Type 57 Atlantics, search our Archives for June 11, 2017, when we posted "Authenticity vs. Originality: A Tale of Four (or Five) Bugattis".

Photo Credit:  All photos were taken by the author.