MOTORSPORT TRIVIA - Q30 & 31

[Graham]

Q30. What company built the first Ferrari cars?

Q31. Why was Tony Vandervell's first F1 Ferrari called "The Thinwall Special"?

[Gerard]

Q30. Alfa Romeo

Q31. An American company developed bearings under the trade name Thinwall.
In 1932 Tony Vandervell (of Dutch origin - Van der Wal ) formed a company called Vandervell Products and started manufacturing
these bearings under license.
In 1949 he bought a Ferrari that used Thinwall bearings and called it The Thinwall Special.

[Graham]

Thinwall bit seems right - he used the name to promote his bearings company.

First one, not so sure. Ferrari worked for Alfa, didn't he? Alfa is not the answer I have unless it has another (older) name that's very 'Italian'. If time, shall look into it.

[Gerard]

Graham, I looked into the Ferrari question again, and found something that says the first Ferrari chassis was made by a company called Touring.

[Graham]

Bit of a cop-out, but I'll give another two questions at 6pm (GMT) tomorrow. Seems to be a bit of a question over this Ferrari thing :

"Auto Avio Construzione"

is the answer I have.

[Gerard]

Searched a bit further and you're right, Graham.
Enzo Ferrari associated with Auto Avio Construzione, a small company that also worked with National Aviation Board of Rome, Piaggio and RIV.
In 1944 the factory was bombed.

[Graham]

I'll stick to my guns in future, then!