John Surtees’ Ferrari 330GT: toeing the company line

By Simon Hucknall

| 8 Apr 2025

Classic & Sports Car – John Surtees’ Ferrari 330GT: toeing the company line

There was nothing wrong with John Surtees’ BMW 507.

It was, in his opinion, the best car he had owned – which was saying something, having run the likes of an Aston Martin DB2/4, Porsche 356 and Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing as he criss-crossed Europe during his world championship-winning motorcycle racing career.

But after transitioning to four wheels in 1960, Surtees’ road car would become far more emblematic, especially when working for a manufacturer.

And Enzo Ferrari, perhaps understandably, wasn’t a fan.

This Ferrari 330GT’s remarkable patina has been retained as much by luck as deliberate intention

“You can’t have a German car. You’ve got to have a Ferrari,” Surtees was told when he drove the BMW 507 to Maranello to discuss his contract for 1964.

The Ferrari 330GT 2+2 you see here is what resulted from that pre-season meeting – or, at least, the second such car delivered to John Surtees as Scuderia Ferrari’s lead driver.

It was also the very car that played a pivotal role in the driver’s dramatic exit from the team in 1966.

That it remains so remarkably original and unrestored has perhaps been due to a degree of ignorance in the past about its history.

‘Today, 6981GT – now wearing a period-correct UK registration number – is an impressively authentic time capsule’

Fortunately, having obtained Ferrari Classiche confirmation of this 330’s provenance, its current keeper has been at pains to retain the car’s wonderful patina and, over the past 10 years, has only done what was necessary to make it a joy to drive again.

Which is why the Amaranto paintwork – faded and cracked from 60 years of use – is unchanged from when Il Figlio del Vento (‘Son of the Wind’, as Surtees was known at his former MV Agusta team) took delivery in the spring of 1965.

Surtees’ first Ferrari 330GT had arrived with him soon after the car’s launch at the Brussels Salon in January 1964.

The quality of the Ferrari 330GT’s switchgear stands out

Initially he was reluctant to swap from his beloved BMW, which had been gradually modified to his own requirements (including all-round Dunlop disc brakes and a power hike to 170bhp).

‘The Commendatore made disparaging remarks about German cars and said I should have a Ferrari,’ wrote Surtees in a story for Classic & Sports Car in August 1996, ‘but at the same time never reacted to my hints that he should lend me one.’

Not wanting to fall out with his new employer, he eventually accepted a car from Ferrari’s range.

‘This was certainly not a “company car”,’ wrote Surtees, ‘I had to pay trade price for it.’

The Ferrari 330GT’s flexible yet big-chested V12 engine gives the car a long-legged feel

His first choice had been a Ferrari 250GT Lusso, but newly wed and in need of practicality, he plumped for the more generous 330GT 2+2.

Designed by Tom Tjaarda at Pininfarina, this car had replaced the 250GTE and similarly bodied 330 America, bringing a sleeker, wider and longer body, increased capacity (versus the 250GTE) from 3 to 4 litres and a commensurate lift in power to 300bhp from its single-cam-per-bank Colombo V12.

The first-series car Surtees received came as standard with quad headlights, a four-speed gearbox, overdrive and Borrani wire wheels, but, as he admitted in a 1988 interview with Supercar Classics: ‘By this time I had got much more involved with cars and started tinkering with them.’

‘The Ferrari 330GT replaced the 250GTE, bringing with it a sleeker body, increased engine capacity and a lift in power to 300bhp’

As a consequence, the Koni damper and anti-roll-bar settings were revised to stiffen the suspension, and he may have changed the ‘wide and flat’ Pirelli Cinturato rubber, too (although there is no record of this).

In the meantime, the driver’s second season at Ferrari was going great guns.

With victories at the Nürburgring and Monza, along with podium finishes at the Dutch, British, US and Mexican Grands Prix, Surtees pipped Graham Hill to the World Championship by a solitary point, securing his place in motorsport history as the first (and so far only) person to take world titles on both two wheels and four.

The Ferrari 330GT fulfils its role as an indulgent and swift continent-crosser

It also galvanised Ferrari’s Formula One dominance, clinching victory from BRM and Lotus-Climax in the manufacturers’ standings.

It’s fair to say that, back in Maranello, ‘The Old Man’ would have been as pleased as punch with his protégé.

Pleased enough to gift him a new Ferrari just for winning the championship? Well, that’s certainly how the story has been perpetuated via various media over the years.

However, while there is no doubting that ‘our’ car was Surtees’ second Ferrari, it’s just as likely that it was merely a replacement for the first car.

This one-of-125 Ferrari 330GT was an interim model that got the Series II’s five-speed gearbox

Being an interim model, of which only 125 were built, it benefited from the upcoming Series II version’s five-speed transmission and suspended – rather than floor-mounted – pedals, while retaining the earlier car’s quad headlights (later replaced with twin lamps): in other words, a logical upgrade for a discerning team driver.

Surtees also remarked that he used the first Ferrari 330GT ‘for about a year and a half’ before he received his new car, suggesting that chassis 6981GT would not have been in his possession until a good six months after the ’64 season finished. So, hardly a timely gift…

Either way, Surtees felt that his new 330GT 2+2 was never quite as good as the first, complaining that ‘it wasn’t as quick and didn’t handle so well, no matter how much you checked the settings’.

The Ferrari 330GT Series I’s quad headlights were later replaced by dual lamps

He told Enzo as much, saying that he was still tempted by the Lusso, despite its compromised packaging.

But the idea was batted away because the model was soon to be dropped.

Instead, Enzo suggested that Surtees try the Ferrari 275GTB, but it was swiftly rejected. ‘It was the biggest heap I had ever driven… a dreadful motor car,’ came the feedback.

Sticking with his new 330, registered 02284 EE on Italian plates, Surtees continued to use the car to attend races throughout Europe, revelling in the sound and performance of the Ferrari’s V12 engine, which he loved.

This Ferrari 330GT, chassis 6981GT, found its way back to Europe after several decades in the USA

With race commitments in Canada between the Monaco and Belgian Grands Prix, he asked CAR magazine’s Henry Manney if he would collect the Ferrari from the principality and deliver it to Spa in exchange for a feature in the magazine.

Duly obliging (Ferrari press cars were rare to non-existent at the time), Manney set forth, under strict instructions not to let his co-driver exceed 5500rpm, the 330GT only having accrued 4000km thus far.

Unsurprisingly, as a motoring scribe, Manney was still keen to record some performance figures, achieving 0-60mph in 10.1 secs and 0-100mph in 27 secs while adhering to Surtees’ strict rev limit, against the factory’s claim of 7.5 secs for the former, using 6400rpm in each gear.

The ex-Surtees Ferrari 330GT 2+2 is an unlikely concours d’élégance star

Maximum speed in top, at 5000rpm, was logged at 114mph – a comfortable cruising speed by all accounts – versus the 152mph Ferrari claimed using full revs.

‘What the handbook doesn’t give us,’ reported Manney, ‘is the feeling of driving a bloody great electric locomotive which presses forward in a glass-like manner.’

He was critical of the Ferrari 330’s ride quality, though, and Surtees concurred, believing it could be improved by swapping the ‘hard-ish’ Koni shock absorbers for adjustable Armstrongs and swapping the Pirellis for German Dunlop SPs (British Dunlops being too flexible for a heavy car, apparently).

The Ferrari 330GT was designed by Tom Tjaarda at Pininfarina

By the following year, he had clearly made some effort to improve the car’s chassis dynamics: when 6981GT appeared in the Australian Sports Car World, its Borranis had been replaced by a one-off set of spoked alloys shod with Dunlop R6 ‘green spot’ tyres.

Alas, the 1965 season was to end in grief for Surtees, after a year in which Jim Clark had already dominated the F1 pack in his Lotus-Climax.

While practicing in a Lola T70, with Enzo’s approval, at Mosport Park in Canada on 25 September, one of the car’s front uprights broke, with the ensuing crash inflicting him with severe spinal injuries, a split pelvis and bleeding from ruptured kidneys.

The Ferrari 330GT’s V12 exhaust note falls short of earlier models’ epic cacophonies, but the soundtrack was enough for Surtees

The accident also meant Surtees missed the final F1 races at Watkins Glen and Mexico, leaving him fifth in the drivers’ rankings and Ferrari fourth in the manufacturers’ standings.

His recovery from these horrific injuries did not prevent him from starting the 1966 season in fighting form, though.

With the introduction of larger, 3-litre engines to Formula One, Surtees made his debut in Ferrari’s latest 312 at the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, finishing a close second, just behind Jack Brabham.

A retirement in Monaco a few weeks later was followed by a win at Spa – before the mother of all dramas unfolded at Le Mans.

The plan is to keep this patinated Ferrari 330GT as it is

Ferrari’s contract required that Surtees take part in sports-car races for the marque, as well as F1, and he dutifully appeared at La Sarthe for that year’s 24-hour race.

His relationship with team manager Eugenio Dragoni had always been somewhat fraught, with Dragoni – who had close links with Fiat’s Agnelli family – perhaps envious of the close bond that Surtees enjoyed with Enzo.

In a 2015 interview with Simon Taylor for Motor Sport, Surtees explained the friction between the two men ahead of the race: “I said to Dragoni, ‘The Fords are being driven by real racers… and the only way we’ll beat them is if I go flat-out from the fall of the flag and try to break them.’”

The Ferrari 330GT’s spacious rear quarters

“But when Dragoni heard that Gianni Agnelli would be watching the race, he decided my co-driver Scarfiotti [who was related to Agnelli] would drive from the start,” he said.

“I reminded him that I was faster, but Dragoni was immovable. I jumped into my 330 and drove flat-out, there and then, to Maranello, and went in to see The Old Man.

“I told him I’d joined Ferrari to win races, not get involved in politics. That was our divorce.”

While Surtees returned to England, Fords finished 1-2-3-4 at Le Mans, leaving the Italians in their wake.

‘Who knows, maybe this Ferrari 330GT was even signed off by The Old Man himself, before his star driver received the keys’

Precisely when Surtees sold the car is not known, but it was soon after he returned home, possibly in 1967.

It was bought by someone based in Switzerland and then involved in a road accident, with repairs made soon afterwards.

Chassis 6981GT then spent the next 45 years in the USA, first received by Ferrari’s East Coast importer, Luigi Chinetti Motors, in around 1970.

After being purchased by William A Chisholm, it went to California, and at some point it was registered 093 AGT.

The Ferrari 330GT’s steering provides generous feedback at speed

There is no record of when or why, but by the time it reached its second Californian owner, Garry Roberts of Costa Mesa, in June 2000, only the engine block remained of its drivetrain, and the car was presented as a project.

Around a year later, 6981GT changed hands once more, with Richard McClure its new keeper.

Roberts had retained the block, and from then until current custodian Alan Catterall found the car in Bethany, Missouri, after it had passed through three more US keepers, the whole drivetrain was absent.

After bringing 6981GT back to the UK, Alan sourced a correct Tipo 209 engine and later, single-mount gearbox, which was fitted by Bill Goodall at Newland Motors in 2017.

The Ferrari 330GT’s aftermarket air-con uses vents under the rear ’screen

After some teething problems, cured at SMG Engineering by replacing the gearbox with an age-appropriate two-mount unit and rebuilding the engine’s top end, the Ferrari 330GT was at last representative of how it would have been during Surtees’ ownership.

Today, 6981GT – wearing the period-correct UK registration HVK 506C – is a joyously battle-scarred and impressively authentic time capsule.

That its original paint, coachwork and most of its interior are unmolested and have been left to age gracefully means that each owner’s indelible marks – including those of John Surtees – are literally and metaphorically etched into the car’s fabric.

The Ferrari 330GT’s original Amaranto paintwork remains

Who knows, maybe this car was even signed off by The Old Man himself, before his star driver received the keys.

For me, the 330GT 2+2 remains one of the most handsome Ferraris of the 1960s.

Less blocky than the 250GTE it succeeded and far sleeker in profile than the technically more sophisticated 275GTB, even this interim model’s quad-headlight arrangement – a sop to North American tastes – lends it an imposing quality somehow lost with the later, twin-light model.

Alan’s efforts to preserve the Ferrari’s patina, including coating the body with a thin layer of Waxoyl, are laudable.

Period-correct Borranis replace the Ferrari 330GT’s one-off alloy wheels fitted by Surtees

It’s a shame that Surtees’ special alloy wheels have been lost in the mists of time, but at least the Borrani wires, correctly shod with 205-section, 15in Pirelli Cinturato rubber, are what it would have worn when it rolled out of the factory.

What stands out with this car, however, is the overall build quality, which presumably is unchanged from new.

Believe the hype and you would otherwise perceive Ferraris from this era to be thrown together around a magnificent engine.

However, everything about this car – panel gaps, the way in which doors open and close, the quality of the switchgear – suggests over-engineering rather than corner-cutting; it’s perhaps not up to Mercedes-Benz standards, but in its ballpark.

‘The bank of Veglia clocks before you is the very view Surtees would have observed during his feverish drive from Le Mans to give Enzo a piece of his mind’

Alas, the car’s Nardi steering wheel must have been replaced at some point, because the original had cut-outs in each of its aluminium spokes; Alan has also fitted 250GTE front seats while the 330’s are being retrimmed.

But the bank of Veglia clocks before you, including a 300kph speedo and tacho redlined at 6600rpm, is the very view Surtees would have observed during his feverish drive from Le Mans to give Enzo a piece of his mind.

We’re certainly not bending the needles on either of those dials today, but nevertheless 6981GT is in fine mechanical fettle and, as a whole, it feels in rude health.

The V12 is untemperamental and starts quickly on the key, after which you savour the subtle warble of the triple Weber 40 DCZ/6s as you pull away.

The Ferrari 330GT’s Colombo-designed V12 with triple Weber carburettors

No exposed gate for the five-speed shift, which is currently in need of a retrimmed gaiter.

A positive action is required to select each gear, but the clutch only takes medium effort, and heel-and-toe changes are easy with the nicely positioned pedals.

The steering is heavy – very heavy – at low speeds, but it truly comes alive as speeds increase, with generous feedback and relatively high gearing that are a boon along our twisty Sussex test route.

In general, the Ferrari 330GT 2+2 has a relaxed gait as it goes about its business, true to its grande routière brief.

The current owner has worked hard to preserve the ex-John Surtees Ferrari 330GT’s originality

Gioacchino Colombo’s 4-litre V12 is the perfect partner, here being tractable in its lower reaches yet Herculean as you journey towards the redline, all accompanied by a slightly muted – although nonetheless glorious – soundtrack.

It perhaps doesn’t leave your neck hairs prickling like a Ferrari 275GTB’s does, but the distinctive timbre would still keep you engaged on an epic schlep across Continental Europe.

As it clearly did with Surtees. “I have fond memories of the 330GTs, because I love 12-cylinder engines,” he remarked.

And I’m sure there was more than a pang of regret when he parted with 6981GT after quitting Ferrari.

That said, the spectre of the ’66 Le Mans debacle would have weighed heavier in his mind – enough to banish any thoughts of keeping the car for any longer than he had to.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Mark Pollard at the Ferrari Owners’ Club of Great Britain; Falconhurst Farm Shop

Factfile

Ferrari 330GT

Sold/number built 1964-’67/1075
Construction tubular steel chassis, steel body
Engine all-alloy, sohc-per-bank 3967cc 60° V12, three twin-choke Weber 40DCZ/6 carburettors
Max power 300bhp @ 6600rpm
Max torque 288lb ft @ 5000rpm
Transmission four-speed manual with overdrive (five-speed from 1965), RWD
Suspension: front independent, by double wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar rear live axle, radius rods, semi-elliptic leaf springs, auxiliary coil springs; telescopic dampers f/r
Steering ZF worm and roller (optional power assistance on later cars)
Brakes Dunlop discs, with twin servos
Length 15ft 9½in (4840mm)
Width 5ft 7½in (1715mm)
Height 4ft 5½in (1365mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 8¼in (2650mm)
Weight 3040lb (1380kg)
Mpg 15
0-60mph 7.4 secs
Top speed 152mph
Price new £6217 (1964)
Price now £170-280,000*