The First NART Boxer – 1974 Ferrari 365 GT4/BB

Ferrari SN: 18139 started life as a 365 GT4/BB. It was delivered to Chinetti’s 1970s NART shop in Connecticut – a place I would visit a lot were time travel to become practical. Back then, the energy and passion for Ferrari in the USA lived there, making many of the people who worked there legendary figures of Ferrari’s early USA history. Several people stand out – Luigi “Coco” Chinetti Jr., Bob Craige, Dick Fritz, Joseph “Randy” Randazzo and François Sicard. In the early ‘70s, these gentlemen were in their prime and loved racing. Fortunately, I had the privilege to extensively interview Dick Fritz about his historical recollections. I asked him what he thought about taking a very expensive, brand new, stock 365 GT4/BB and doing all of the work needed to turn it into a racecar. He told me, “Because Luigi Junior and I were,” he paused here for a split second, “younger and we’d try anything. A lot of his father’s mentality [was], you promote the product, you take any of the newer cars that came in, whether a Daytona, whatever it might be, and you race it.”

Of course, when Fritz and Chinetti Jr. saw the Boxer, the NART racing DNA kicked in. He said, “The Boxer, boy, that’s got a great potential.” Plus, in his role as team manager of the NART racing team, Dick Fritz knew the cars they would be racing against. “You got to look at the competition – back then, there wasn’t much. If we had gotten a powerful engine, it could have won Le Mans. With good backing, it was a great car.” Fritz emphasized, “Well, [we thought] you take whatever car there is, you modify it and you RACE it. And that’s the promotion”