The day the $16 million Ferrari got a Ford V-8 - is this the Pebble Beach Goodings Auction car ???

This photo of a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa with its original yet broken 12-cylinder engine replaced with a Ford V-8 has resulted in a maelstrom of speculation and recollections that the car is the same Testa Rossa that recently sold for more than $16 million in Monterey. By all accounts, the Ferrari saw plenty of time on the road and race track through not just a few engines, but also a few sets of body panels.

The story and photo spring from Doug Stokes and Scot Sanders, whose late father, Bob Sanders, is sitting behind the wheel of the Testa Rossa on Christmas day in 1964. The car was driven up from Manhattan Beach to Covina, California, after Scot was hired by its latest owner to relieve the race-worn Ferrari V-12 and swap in a fresh Ford V-8. Scot drove it up on Christmas to show his Dad and sister Sharlene. An engine swap like this was a relatively inexpensive way to go road racing.

Rob Carveth in Santa Barbara, California, with the original V-12.

Before calls of blasphemy and Enzo himself rolling in his grave commence, bear in mind that however beautiful the car was and is, at the time it was considered old and uncompetitive. Add the rarity and expense of parts to repair the V-12, and the Testa Rossa was worth less than it would have cost to repair the broken engine – around $3,500 by Stokes’s own estimate. And that was if you could even find Ferrari parts.

These two photos sent via an e-mail on a Sunday, nonetheless triggered stories of squandered Tandy computer fortunes and twice chassis rebodying, along with recounts by those who drove the car around Willow Springs with its 12-cylinder singing through quadraphonic megaphone exhaust, and rumbled back into the pits of desert gravel sprayed with oil.

The consensus among those who drove and raced the Testa Rossa with its original and replacement engines is that this car is indeed chassis number 0666 – the same car that recently sold for an astronomical amount of money, and a car that not so long ago was driven around on public roads with a Ford V-8 under the long hood. The same Ferrari that once called a garage in Manhattan Beach its home, and the race track its vacation land, has now moved into a different competition.

A special thanks to Doug Stokes for the photos and everything else.