Photo Forensics, It’s all in the details

     Once again, we are going to delve down the rabbit hole and see what it takes to identify Ferrari automobiles.

     In amongst the overflowing file cabinets filled with file folders containing scraps of paper invoices and notes.

     Letters from a time before email filled any inbox and photographs taken on film to be developed later also are filed away. 

     There are shelves filled with books by famous and some not-so-famous authors. Some subjects are broadly about Ferrari, or Carrozzeria, others delve into very specific Ferrari models or races.

     Then there are the magazines. Remember those? Weekly, monthly and quarterly magazines were the only way to get information from the far reaches of the world. Car magazines were coveted. Road & Track, Sports Car Illustrated and MotorSport could be purchased at most corner drugstores.

     If your allowance or job allows you to have extra money available, you could purchase a subscription! The magazine could arrive in your mailbox! Racing reports and new car reviews could be found inside the covers. 

     Articles were read and reread until the words were practically ingrained into memory. There was always much to discuss and debate with friends. What car was the best? Which one would you purchase, if you could afford one?

     And then there were photographs. Film was purchased and whether it was a Kodak Brownie or an Olympus, each photo was carefully taken. 

     It was unknown at the time of the snap as to whether the photo would be clear, shaky or out of focus.

     The discovery of how good a photograph was occurred after the photos were developed. Whether you did it yourself in a homemade darkroom or sent them off to the local developer.

     It was always an interesting discovery. Were they good? What was I thinking? Why did I take that photo? Whose finger is that in front of the lens?

     The event was placed into your memory file and the photo was placed into a box to be enjoyed again and again.  

     Over the years the photo box gets filled and as long as they are your photos, they can bring back those memories of long-ago events. There is nothing like a picture to jog brain cells into “I was there”.

     The digital age has its advantages. Instant knowledge of picture content and quality. No limitations on the number of photos taken and the meta data at least records the time and date.

     These are all clues when you need to go back in time to recall what and where the photo was taken. It’s not so easy when you open that box of loose photographs and begin to sift through someone else’s experiences.

     It becomes a whole different challenge when photographs have been sent from around the world and are totally unidentified as to when, where, and what is pictured.

     That is where I come in. In addition to the files, books and magazines that fill the Ferrari Market Letter offices, there are boxes of photographs. 

     Generally, the ones that could be easily identified were filed away into the file cabinet folders under the serial number of the Ferrari pictured.

     But, what of the others? Are they not able to be identified? Are there any clues missed previously?

     With a better system, or database, could previously unidentifiable photographs now be able to be placed into the proper folder?

     Let’s look at a couple cases and see.

     First up is this photo of several interesting cars in a field. A Lotus and Bentley are next to a 250 GT LWB Berlinetta. The TdF has a number on the side, 160. The background shows trees and a hill. 

 

          0901 1983 10-00 pg 2 John Geils - FML Archives

 

     Clearly it is early fall as the leaves have turned but are not completely gone. The trees are deciduous (fancy word for leaves, basically, not pine). 

     The background looks like New England or possibly upper mid-west.

     Since there are only eighty-four 250 GT TdF made, the chance we can find this one is pretty good.

     From the photo we can determine this in not an early body style nor a fourteen-louver car. It is not one of the Zagato cars, nor one of the interims at the end of the series.

     This narrows the search down to single louver or three louver cars. Close inspection of the photo in the louver area reveals the appearance of a single louver. That narrows the search down to thirty-six cars.

     Time to hit the photo files. The photo files on the computer are where images have been scanned. Each model has a folder and within that folder is a folder by chassis number. 

     All the information found about a particular chassis number is placed in that file. Each entry is labeled with date and where the photo was taken.

     The label puts the photos into a chronological order  allowing the flip through each picture a capture in time as the car passes through the years.

     Some folders have only a couple of scans and others may have lots and lots of information.

     The very first single louver car was S/N 0897 GT, so I start there. Open each file and flip through each scan to see if there are any similar features with that car and our target.

     Two cars later I reach into S/N 0901 GT and find early photos of a car at the Tour de France in 1958 wearing race number 160. Coincidence? Possibly. 

 

          0901 1958 09-14 pg 3 #160 Tour de France - 250 GT Competition Cars - Pourret

 

     I keep traveling through time to find a photo previously uploaded showing the rear of a TdF wearing a KTR license plate from Massachusetts. John Geils! 

 

          0901 1983 10-00 pg 1 Gerald Roush Collection

 

     The car is parked behind a pickup truck against late fall trees. There is a hill. Comparing the two photos it is clear this is the same car taken at the same point in time. In addition, in the unknown photo, knowing it is John Geils car, I can now see Geils in the background. 

     Two photos taken at the same time and submitted to the Ferrari Market Letter. Probably from Geils himself. Gerald Roush would have known the car but for whatever reason these never made it into the file. Never identified on the back, time, place or serial number.

     Ultimately dropped into a box with many others to be lost. Clearly when the first photo was found in the box, the car was easily identified, because of the license plate. If I had found the second photo first it could still be unknown.

     Mystery solved! Well not quite. When was this photo taken? Time to dig into the database. 

     The database is where all the notes and comments are placed. Think of it as a large Excel spreadsheet with comments.

     This is where all the important information is recorded. Engine numbers, gearbox numbers, date of production, etc., are all placed into their respective boxes. 

     The comments show John Geils owned S/N 0901 GT from 1980 through 1985. So, this photo must be from that time frame. 

     With no other way to pin the date down I have labeled these photos as October 1983. Am I correct? I don’t know. 

     With history unknown, I place my best guess until further information comes to light. If that happens then I will re-code the photo identifier.

     The next photograph required a whole different approach to identify.

     It is black and white. All it shows is the nose of a racing car. 

     The back of this photo identifies the photographer as Geoffrey Goddard from Ascot, Berks, which I identify as England. 

     It may have come from a batch of photographs Roush purchased or it may have been sent along with a letter to Roush.
Either way, it has ended up in ‘the box’ with many others, unloved and unidentified.

     So, what can we see? The car is a Formula One Ferrari. The nose badge is clearly right there prominently displayed for all to see who made this racing car.

     The body shows the shark nose as used in the 1960s Formula cars. That makes this a 156 F1.

     There is a number painted on the front cowling, number 9. In addition, there is a funny decal below the nose emblem (not funny ha-ha, but unusual).

 

 

     I delve into the Chronology database. This database is where we record every race and result. Date, venue, Ferrari type, serial number, and result.

     The first entry is Ferrari’s first race on May 11th, 1947 and continues through the Formula One and IMSA races today. Just keeping up with that information is an incredible job.

     I sort the list by car type. All the 156 F1 cars are in a column. I can see there are 135 entries for the 156 F1 between the years 1959 and 1965. But there are only three times a 156 F1 used the number 9.

     In 1962 Innes Ireland drove a shark nose at Silverstone. Phil Hill drove a shark nose at Spa also in 1962 and John Surtees drove a 156 F1 at Spa in 1963.

     Surtees’ car is quickly eliminated as by 1963 Ferrari had changed its nose to a slimmer oval opening. That leaves the Hill and Ireland as possibilities. 

     Since the photo has a British photographer mark on the back I start there. 

     From the Chronology database I can see the serial number is 0001. 

     I go back to the photo files to look up pictures we may have for this chassis.

     Ginther drove this car at Monaco in 1961. There are lots of photos of it at that race. It was used throughout the 1961 racing season. 
Then it was sent to England for the Silverstone race in May 1962.

     It was here that Ferrari loaned the car to the British Racing Partnership renamed UDT Racing. The team color was light pale green. The same green color is seen on 250 GTO S/N 3505.

     In addition to the photo files with individual cars there is an events file folder. It is here race reports or photos of individual cars are placed. Also recorded are concours and annual meets.

     I go to the Silverstone folder and scroll down to 1962. 

     It is there I find a scan from Prancing Horse #106 from October 1993. The article is called Ireland and the Ferrari 156 Grand Prix Car by Nathan Beehl.

     The photo that accompanies the article shows a blurry picture of Innes at speed sliding around a corner. 

 

          0001 156 F1 1962 05-12 pg 1 #9 Silverstone - Ireland and the Ferrari 156 - Prancing Horse 106 

 

     The article describes the pale green stripe used on the car at this race. The nose shows some kind of rectangular decal affixed at the nose.

     The position of the number 9 and the location of the decal match exactly the black and white photograph. 

     Through some attention to detail and the massive number of pictures and information available I can positively identify the previously unknown photo as S/N 0001 taken at Silverstone on May 12th, 1962.

     Those are the victories when a picture can be identified.

     Then there are the truly unknowns. The last photo has no identifying marks on the back. Unknown year, unknown place. 

     It shows a 328 GTS so it must be after 1985.

 

 

     It is hard to say where in the country it is, but I would guess southern California. It could be at Mike Sheehan’s European Auto Restoration, but I don’t recognize it for sure. 

     The poor 328 has clearly hit something hard. The front has been shortened by a lot. 

     Where is this car today? Was it repaired? If it is alive today does the owner know how bad it was? Or was this chassis written off?

     Some mysteries remain. Who knows, one day I may be scrolling through car files and find another view of this car. Or I’ll find a note in the database describing the crash.

     This picture will return to the bottom of the box because there are many more that need to be identified.

     Isn’t forensics fun?