From an independent manufacturing company in Italy, Pininfarina delivered the foresight of the 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta. The Pininfarina company had long been appreciated for its designer touch on auto breeds such as Ferrari, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Bentley, BMW, and Maserati. At the head of this company was Battista Pininfarina. Pininfarina’s company was formed in 1930 called Carozzeria Pininfarina meaning ‘bodywork’ in Italian, which specialized in auto body design and detailing of exclusive, pricey and limited production run cars. With clients extending from celebrities to Royalty, he began his professional relationship with Ferrari in 1952 and he was celebrated for this particular body of work.
The 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta, built in Modena at the Scaglietti workshop, was first showcased to the public at the 1959 Paris Auto Show.
Similarly to the body type of the Berlinetta model produced in 1959, the models had the abbreviated terminology adopted to each model in order to recognize the differing chassis; ‘SBW’ – short wheelbase (2400mm chassis 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta), or ‘LWB’ – long wheelbase 2600mm (in the case of the 1959 250 GT Berlinetta).
The continued work of Pininfarina with Ferrari saw his implementation of one major design introduction to the series produced between 1959 to 1963; a cabriolet with a removable hard top. Outside of this, many features remained unchanged outside the tweak of a straight top edge door window, the fuel cap moving from either left or right wing, re-profiled rear wings and a larger radiator grill among a few.
Pushing a 3.0-litre V12 engine, with an option of left or right hand driving, it came with disc brakes as a standard feature in addition to being produced with racing specs of an aluminium body, lightweight interior trim, and a highly tuned engine. With Jaguar launching as a competitor with its E Type model, Ferrari’s competition cars, soon saw an even lighter chassis frame and thinner aluminium body with even higher-tuned engines as a means to stay ahead of the racing game. With the continuing success and consecutive wins on the race track including the Tour de France in 1960, 1961 and 1962, Goodwood ‘s Tourist Trophy in 1960 and 1961, Le Mans in 1960 and 1961 GT category and in the Nurburgring 1000km in 1961 and 1962, it’s not hard to see why this brilliantly crafted machine claims its place in auto history.
Moving forward decades to 2013 and the 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta is still breaking records and making history, but this time not for its speed but for its price tag. This is one of my favourite parts when researching the history on these cherished automobiles; sourcing the value of such prized machines. In 2013, RM Auctions put the hammer in hand for an alloy-bodied 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta ‘Competizione’, chassis 1905 GT at a whopping $8,140,000. Yep, still making waves some 56 years on from its beginnings.
Stay dapper.
Robbie – Dapper Lounge
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