Robert Phillips' 500 Mondial Series II


The attachment is a shot by Bryan of my car at Reading in the rain last year (2000).  It is a 500 Mondial Series II serial 0556(0446)MD, included in my article in Cavallino #61.  I bought it in May 1960, raced it a few times in the sixties including a first in class at the 1961 Sierra Hillclimb, and
once upon a time drove it from Oakland, California to Staten Island, New York.

In over thirty competitions it has class wins  at GP of Venezuela 1955 with Schell and Castellotti, Nassau 1955 with Rubirosa and Lunken ,and Sebring 56 with Rubirosa and Pauley.  The list of drivers include: Eugenio Castellotti, Robert Ready Davis, Charles Hassan, Jack Hergenroether, Ebby Lunken, Paul Maret, Jack (Windy) Morton, Gino Munaron, Jim Pauley, Robert Phillips,
Francoise Picard, Porfirio Rubirosa and Harry Schell.  The stories are almost endless.

Last year at Reading, Sergio Scaglietti inscribed his signature on the panel over the spare tire, so it truly is a signed original.

Ed. Note: The story I love is Mr. Phillips offered to buy this car after the current owner had a mechanical failure at a race.
"Robert Ready Davis on 9/13/59   at the  Road America 500,  Elkhart Lake, WI  suffered a transaxle seizure at about the 200 mile point of the race.  He later moved to California where I found the car stored by Davis in the back of the repair shop of a Rambler dealer and bought the car on 11 May 1960."
A figure around $2000 dollars was offered in 1960, and was accepted! In those days that was a lot of money for a broken race car, but Phillips, found the money and bought the car. Being in the Military, he found some help at work.
"I used the Auto Hobby Shop on the base to do the repairs, but I did the work and the "aircraft mechanics" did not.  I talked to them but it was truly"foreign" to them. I diagnosed the failure cause, paid a machinist in town to fabricate the solution, and did the re-assembly.  Further, I cut out the damaged bodywork, formed the aluminum replacements, learned how to gas weld and welded the pieces back in place,  learned how to spray paint and put the 7 coats of lacquer on the car.  This story is not bragging because having spent over two-thirds of a years Lieutenant salary on the purchase, I was reduced to having to do it myself, and it took over nine months of all my spare off work time to put it all together."
40 years later, Admiral Phillips still has the car, and is now worth far more than his initial investment. Great story!
 

Back to Gallery