Track tests don’t get any better: the same Ferrari 250 GT SWB driven by Stirling Moss to TT victory in 1961 on an empty Goodwood circuit. Andrew Frankel can’t believe his luck

PHOTOGRAPHY: JAYSON FONG

There are trickier corners than Madgwick at Goodwood, but not many. The approach is curved and unless you’re in something with elephantine amounts of downforce, some degree of braking will be required. But it is still quick. Really quick. And it’s crucial too, because your exit speed determines your pace down to Fordwater and, if you clench hard enough and manage to do that flat, all the way to the entry point to St Mary’s too.

There are two apexes but popular thinking says you can and probably should miss the first so long as you absolutely nail the second. But between them is less of a bump, more of a hump in the road, which you’d be forgiven for thinking had been put there for the express purpose of destabilising whatever you happen to be in, which in this case is the most valuable Ferrari 250 GT SWB in the world. Bearing in mind the least valuable SWB is a car worth many millions, it does focus the mind somewhat.

But of course you don’t have to go fast. Just soak up the sight, the sound and the intoxicating fuel and oil smell of driving this car around that corner. Except, today, I can’t. There’s a picture my editor has briefed ace automotive photographer Jayson Fong to capture. It is a very particular image, requiring him to stand right on the edge of the circuit like they did when this car was new, which is why today we have the entire Goodwood circuit to ourselves. The picture we want to recreate is of this very car, at this very spot, but in late 1961, not early 2023 and with one Stirling Craufurd Moss at its wheel.

Why is this the most valuable Short Wheelbase of them all? Because it’s not just Stirling’s car, but the car in which he took his seventh and final TT victory in 1961, the very last time he raced at Goodwood before that accident. It is also, even by SWB standards, in ultimate specification. For this is not only an alloy-bodied Competizione model, but the ultimate ‘Comp/61’ model, probably better known as a ‘SEFAC Hot Rod’ and the only one built with right-hand drive. It was also made by a Ferrari keen as mustard to secure the services of Moss as a factory driver, which is why, while most racing SWBs had around 275bhp from their single cam, 3-litre Colombo V12 motors, the period dyno sheet for this one recorded 299bhp at 7700rpm, as much power on three carburettors as a decent GTO would manage the following season on six.