Ferrari’s four-cylinder sports racing cars of the mid-1950s were a direct and deliberate extension of the company’s contemporary Grand Prix program, representing a parallel path of technical development that proved highly successful in international sports car competition.

In 1954, Ferrari introduced its first four-cylinder production sports racing model, the 500 Mondial, named to honor Alberto Ascari’s consecutive Formula One World Championships.

Power was supplied by the two-liter tipo 110 engine, a close descendant of the unit that propelled Ferrari’s championship-winning 500 F2 Grand Prix cars.

Designed by Aurelio Lampredi, this advanced four-cylinder featured twin overhead camshafts, hemispherical combustion chambers, gear-driven cams, dry sump lubrication, and screw-in cylinder liners.


The 500 Mondial proved immediately competitive, and Ferrari refined the concept for 1955 with the introduction of the Series II Mondial.

This updated variant employed the more robust Tipo 510...