1956 Ferrari Tipo 500

Driven by Italian ace Alberto Ascari, the Tipo 500 Chassis No 5 won the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix and went on to win a further five of the seven races counting towards the 1952 World Championship.

The only race that Ascari and Chassis No 5 failed to win that year was while he was absent in the Indianapolis 500 driving the 4.5-litre Ferrari.

Ascari won nine straight races in Tipo 500 No 5, a world championship record for an individual Formula 1 chassis that still stands today.

Australia’s first Formula 1 driver, ex-WWII Spitfire Squadron leader Tony Gaze, purchased the Ferrari following the 1953 season and replaced its original 2.0-litre in-line four cylinder twin cam engine with a later 3.0-litre engine.

He campaigned the car extensively in South Africa and New Zealand, scoring a number of victories and podium places before selling it to Australia’s Lex Davison in 1956.

Davison went on to write the Ferrari into some of the most glorious chapters of Australian motorsport, winning six major races from 1956-1958 including back to back Australian Grands Prix in 1957.

In 1959 Lex Davison brought the car tto the Geelong sprints and set a time of 14.950 over the standing quarter mile and winning his class and 2nd outright behind the Cooper Irving of J. W Marsden with a 13.970