North American Racing Team
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The North American Racing Team (also known as NART) was created by Luigi Chinetti to promote the Ferrari marque in America through success in Gran Turismo (endurance) motorsport.
It was created in 1958 when Chinetti received backing from wealthy racers George Arents and Jan de Vroom. Ferrari already had a close relationship with Chinetti due to his success in selling the maker's road cars in the important American markets, and thus NART received a continuous line of excellent Ferrari racers.
[edit] NART in racing
NART raced at only the world's premiere races, such as the 24 Hours of Daytona in Florida and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in Le Mans, France. Their first race was the 12 Hours of Sebring in March of 1958, with a 250 GT.
Curiously, a Ferrari officially entered by NART sealed the win of the 1964 F1 World championship with John Surtees, as the factory team competed the last two races in cars painted white and blue. This was done as a protest concerning arguments between Ferrari and the Italian Racing Authorities regarding the homologation of a new mid-engined Ferrari race car.
The peak of NART's own racing success came in 1965, when a NART-sponsored 250 LM became the last Ferrari to win Le Mans outright with Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory.
Other known NART results include a 3rd place in the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona, backing up two works 330P4 in Ferrari's famous triple success, which was commemorated by the naming of the 365 GTB4 "Daytona". With this model, NART scored 2nd in the 1973 Daytona 24h, behind a Porsche 911.
NART raced Ferraris until 1982, at which point it had participated in more than 200 races with over 100 different drivers. In the US, perhaps the most famous of these drivers are Mario Andretti and Phil Hill.
[edit] NART road cars
NART also had a Ferrari model with its name attached to it - the 1967 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder was a convertible version of the 275 GTB/4 requested especially by Luigi Chinetti. The original order of 25 cars was never fulfilled, as only 10 were delivered from the Maranello factory. Because of the popularity of the drop-top NART Spyder design, many 275 GTB/4 were converted to drop-top models to imitate the NART Spyder's beauty.
