1962 Ferrari 250 GTE/250 GT SWB Berlinetta

Introduced in 1960, the short-wheelbase was available in street or competition spec, with alloy bodywork on the lighter competition cars. All SWBs were more than capable as road cars,All SWBs were more than capable as road cars, with a level of trim and sound and weather proofing that seemed luxurious for their day.

Much of the development work carried out on the Ferrari GT cars filtered down into some of Ferrari's non-competition-oriented cars, such as the 250 GTE. Lessons learned in making the V12 engines competitive in endurance races helped factory engineers develop the more pedestrian road-going engines' reliability, while lessons learned on chassis improvements required on such testing events as the Carrera Pan Americana were fed into all the products of the Maranello firm.

As a result, it is relatively simple, on paper, to convert a car like a GTE to the specifications and style of the legendary SWB. As is often the case, "on paper" is...