The 1960 24 Heures du Mans stands as one of the cleaner statements of Ferrari dominance in that era: three cars entered, three cars on the podium. The 1:18 scale model from Tecnomodel captures the actual winner — chassis 0774 TR, race number 11, driven by Olivier Gendebien and Paul Frère — in the unadorned rosso corsa that works Ferrari entries wore before commercial sponsorship arrived.
A 3.0-Litre V12 in a Scaglietti Spider Shell
The Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa — the name referring to the red-painted cam covers on its Colombo-derived V12 — evolved through successive TR58, TR59 and TR60 specifications over three seasons. The 1960 car ran in TR59/60 configuration: a 2,953 cc V12 fed by multiple Weber carburettors producing around 300 bhp in a bodyshell styled by Scaglietti. That distinctive pontoon-fender spider design, with its low-cut doors and extended bonnet, is immediately identifiable and accounts for much of the car's enduring visual appeal among collectors.
26–27 June 1960: Gendebien, Frère and Ferrari 1-2-3
On 26–27 June 1960 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, the #11 Ferrari 250 TR completed 315 laps — 2,537.215 km — to take overall victory. The win was Gendebien's second consecutive Le Mans triumph and would be followed by two more in 1961 and 1962, giving him four in total. His co-driver Paul Frère, a Belgian racing driver and automotive journalist, recorded this as the high point of his competition career. Behind them, the #14 and #15 Ferraris completed the podium, rounding out a Ferrari clean sweep that remains one of the most emphatic results in the race's history.
Tecnomodel and the Case for Resin at 1:18
Tecnomodel is an Italian specialist in hand-built resin model cars across 1:18 and 1:43 scales, with a catalogue weighted towards historically significant racing machinery. Resin construction allows the manufacturer to reproduce fine mechanical and surface detail — cam covers, carburettor stacks, wire wheels — that pressings in diecast zinc alloy cannot achieve at this scale. This specific release reproduces the #11 car in its race-correct rosso corsa livery with white race numbers, matching the car as it ran at Le Mans in 1960.
Placing It in the Collection
The #11 Ferrari 250 TR pairs naturally with the #14 and #15 cars from the same race to recreate the full 1960 Le Mans podium — one of the more coherent three-piece sets available in 1:18. Collectors building a Gendebien narrative can extend the group to the 1958 Le Mans winner (chassis 0728, co-driven with Phil Hill) and the Ferrari 330 TRI/LM that gave him his fourth victory in 1962. For those focused on the 250 family, this model sits alongside the Ferrari 250 GTO as a landmark in the bloodline.
