A Ferrari 212 Export Goes Hollywood: The "Burano"
It stared in the film “The Racers” with Kirk Douglas as a “Burano” but underneath it was pure Ferrari. The producers of the film had a jazzed-up body placed on the chassis and it stayed this way for many years, but the current owner found the original body and had it reunited to the chassis during a beautiful restoration by Ferrari Classiche. (We even have a picture of Piero Ferrari sitting in the completed car.) The results are spectacular and this issue has glamorous salon images by professional Gene Brown, plus historical images, and detailed text by expert historian Alan Boe.
From author Boe: “Why ‘Burano’? When Director Henry Hathaway approached Ferrari seeking a trio of cars to be used in the film, The Racers, Enzo turned him down cold. Hathaway was not amused nor was he used to this - all he had to do was call Ford or GM and the cars he needed for other films would magically appear at the studio gates a few days later. Thanks to Enzo Ferrari’s snub, Hathaway decided his Italian sports cars would not look like Ferraris (or even Maseratis), and they would not be called Ferraris, becoming the imaginative Buranos instead.
“In 2015, chassis 0102 E found Tom Peck in California, its present owner, via Gregor Fisken in London and Tom Shaughnessy in California. At the time of sale, Peck traveled to Italy and managed to get Auto Sport to relinquish the original Ferrari/Touring/Burano coachwork to him. After considerable deliberation and computer analysis, and using full sized drawings and period pictures, it was decided to convert the original Touring body back to its 1951 barchetta beginnings, ditching its Burano modifications, a much longer and more delicate and expensive process than restoring and retaining the newer Burano body by Auto Sport.”
Confused? You won’t be after reading the article. After the restoration was completed by Ferrari Classiche, it went to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance to be part of the big Ferrari celebration for the 70th Anniversary.
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