Chassis Number: 2235 GT

By the early '60s, Scaglietti was at capacity building street cars for Ferrari, and so Fantuzzi, a Modena-based coachbuilder, built most of the bodies for Ferrari's formula and sports/racing cars.
One of the exceptions was a car built to a special order





By the early '60s, Scaglietti was at capacity building street cars for Ferrari, and so Fantuzzi, a Modena-based coachbuilder, built most of the bodies for Ferrari's formula and sports/racing cars.
One of the exceptions was a car built to a special order from Luigi Chinetti, Ferrari's American importer and owner of the legendary North American Racing Team (NART). Sold new as a 250 GTE in 1961, the car was repurchased by Chinetti in 1964 and sent to Fantuzzi to have a special NART spyder body installed. Shown for the first time at the San Francisco Sports Car Show in 1965, the car created a sensation. Later, the car was shown at the New York and Miami auto shows as well.

Later, in 1967-68, the engine was rebuilt to Testa Rossa specifications, a five-speed transmission was installed, and a new intake manifold with six twin-choke Weber carburetors was fitted. In addi­tion, competition belts and a roll bar were installed.

In the late '60s, Chinetti sold the car to New Yorker Michael Stone. The next owner, in 1971, was Ohio resident Ed Osborne, who sold the car shortly afterward to its current owners, a four-way partnership. Since then, the car has raced at Lime Rock, Freeport, Sebring, Moroso, and Summit Point. Finally, the car, which retains its original undamaged coachwork, was restored to its current condition in 1992.

SCM Analysis

Detailing

Vehicle:1961 Ferrari 250 GT Fantuzzi NART

The car pictured was a “no sale” at RM Classic’s Sports Car auction at Monterey on August 15, with a reported high bid of $205,000, a whopping offer for the 250 GTE under the Fantuzzi skin. Without racing history, its elongated profile, boy-racer bodywork and breathed on two-cam engine doesn’t lift the value of this car into the realm of 275 GTB/4 and 365 GTS Ferraris.
By 1961, Luigi Chinetti had built a very successful and profitable business importing Ferraris to the U.S., along the way keeping Ferrari in business, and he could afford to indulge his son Luigi Jr.’s styling whims, of which this car is an example. Many of us in the early ’60s doodled Ferrari shapes in the margins of our school notebooks. The difference for Luigi, Jr. was that his sketches could be executed in Italian aluminum on 12-cylinder Ferrari chassis.
However, it’s unfortunate that the budget for Jr.’s Fantuzzi fantasy didn’t include shortening the frame. Wrapping a 250P-style body (2400-mm wheelbase) with pointed nose and basket-handle Targa bar around a 250 GTE’s 2600-mm wheelbase leaves a long distance from the back of the door to the rear wheel arch. There’s a stretch-limo look to it, only slightly compensated by the deep (front-to-back) Targa bar.
The car offered here is a true speedster. There are no side windows, or even curtains, amenities which would be rendered redundant by the fact there’s no roof, either. The owner’s driveability comments at Monterey indicate that the ’67-’68 Testa Rossa engine upgrade included TR cams. Without them, the six Webers would seriously over-carburate the GTE valve timing and give the atrocious midrange performance characteristics of a 427 Cobra or Corvette equipped with a 750-cfm Holley.
While this car’s body is unique, it is a copycat of contemporary Ferrari racing shapes, without forecasting future styling direction. It means, in the history of Ferrari, exactly nothing, a boy-racer sidebar of no importance except as an indicator of Luigi’s indulgence for his son. The next time someone raises his paddle at anything close to $205,000, the owners would be wise to accept the offer quickly.
Photo and data courtesy of the auction company. Market opinions in italics by Rick Carey. 

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