Professional racing drivers get to pilot some of the
fastest, most technologically advanced cars ever made. So we’re always
fascinated to find out what they drive when they’re not at work. And in the
case of the legendary John Surtees, this was it.
Surtees, for those unfamiliar, was a racer in a
class all his own. He won the motorcycle world championship with MV Agusta four
times. He then switched from two wheels to four, winning the F1 championship
with Ferrari in 1964.
It’d be like if Valentino Rossi switched to F1 and
won the championship. Rossi’s toyed with that kind of switch (with Ferrari no
less), but Surtees remains the only man to win the top titles on both two
wheels and four.
In 1957, he had just won his first 500cc motorcycle
championship when he saw BMW’s chief engineer Alexander von Falkenhausen
driving a 507 at Hockenheim. Surtees was duly impressed, so when his employer
Count Domenico Agusta asked him what he wanted as a prize, he immediately
requested one of the Bavarian roadsters.
Agusta and Surtees ended up splitting the bill that
topped £ 3,000. (That’d be nearly £ 69,000 in today’s money, or nearly US$ 100,000
in equivalent US dollars.) Perhaps typical of a professional racing driver (or
rider), he was somewhat underwhelmed by its performance as he drove it through
the Alps, so he had BMW tune the engine for more power and torque, and had
Dunlop fit new four-wheel disc brakes.
After signing with Ferrari, old man Enzo insisted
Surtees drive one of his road cars instead – and deducted the cost from the
driver’s paycheck. Surtees kept the Bimmer anyway – his entire life, in fact,
until his passing barely more than a year ago. Now his estate is putting it up
for auction. Bonhams will sell it off at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this
coming July, resplendent in blueish silver over red and with unsurpassed
provenance.
