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Ferrari Monza is one of a series of cars built by
Ferrari. In the early 1950s,
Ferrari shifted from using the compact
Gioacchino Colombo-designed
V12 engine in its smallest class of sports racers to a line of
four cylinder engines designed by
Aurelio Lampredi. Inspired by the success of the light and reliable 2.5 L
553 F1 car, the four cylinder sports racers competed successfully through the late 1950s, culminating with the famed 500 Mondial and 750 Monza.
One important stylistic difference between most four-cylinder Ferraris is that they lacked the hood scoops common on V12 models. The V12 cars used
downdraft carburettors located centrally in the "valley" of the engine, while the inline-engined fours used side-draft units and thus did not need the hood scoops.
1953
1953 was a breakout year for Ferrari, beginning with the new
World Sportscar Championship series. The company augmented their traditional V12-powered
250 MM with the new
340 MM and
375 MM and introduced the new four-cylinder 625 TF and 735 S models. With this profusion of cars, Ferrari was able to sweep the first running of the sportscar championship.===625 TF===<!-- This section is linked from
Ferrari -->The first four-cylinder closed-wheel sports racer from Ferrari was the
625 TF of 1953. Resembling the Vignale-designed
250 MM barchetta in most respects, the 625 TF used a 2.5 L (2498 cc/152 in³) straight-4 lifted from the
625 F1 car instead of the 250's 3.0 L V12. It was a small car,...
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