Mathieu Heurtault, copyright and courtesy of Gooding & Company
Chassis Number: GT001

In addition to competing with cars built by other manufacturers, Count Giovanni Volpi sought to make his own automobiles, and the result was a small number of racing and road cars bearing the Serenissima name. This machine, the Serenissima GT, was the last of these and created in concert with Count Volpi’s friend Alejandro DeTomaso, whose experience and ownership of Ghia provided the tools and contacts to engineer and build it.

Under the skin, the Serenissima GT was extremely contemporary, with a backbone chassis that had independent suspension and disc brakes at all four corners. The powertrain was equally sophisticated, with an engine designed in-house by Alberto Massimino. It was a mid-mounted 3.5-liter DOHC V8 derived from Serenissima’s Formula 1 engine and connected to a proprietary 5-speed transaxle with a limited-slip differential.

Count Volpi never put the GT into production, but he did retain this example, the single prototype, for over 50 years, finally selling it to its current owner in 2019. At that time, it had not run for many years but has since been recommissioned to driving condition. Today, the consignor reports that it still wears the same orange paint with which it was displayed in Geneva and New York in 1969.

This remarkable, unrestored automobile comes with a pair of spare engine blocks. It is a fascinating piece of automotive history — the brainchild of one of the most colorful characters of 1960s motor racing.

(Introductory description courtesy of Gooding & Company.)

SCM Analysis

Detailing

Vehicle:1968 Serenissima GT
Years Produced:1968
Number Produced:1
Chassis Number Location:Tag on right rear crossmember upright
Engine Number Location:Stamped on block
Club Info:Automotoclub Storico Itaiano (ASI)
Website:http://www.asifed.it
Alternatives:1967–71 DeTomaso Mangusta 1966–73 Lamborghini Miura 1964–68 Bizzarrini 5300 Strada

This car, Lot 73, sold for $580,000, including buyer’s premium, at Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach, CA, auction, on August 16, 2024.

Scuderia Serenissima was founded in the early 1960s by Count Giovanni Volpi. The name Serenissima translates to “most serene,” which is often associated with the city of Venice, from which the Volpi family originated. The Scuderia’s logo is that of the winged lion, which stands atop a column in Saint Mark’s Square and is the recognizable symbol of Venice. It would seem like a contradiction that a racing team would adopt a symbol for a city that does not allow cars.

Count Volpi was rather wealthy, and his team purchased special-bodied cars from Ferrari and other manufacturers. One of the most famous of these to race under the Scuderia Serenissima banner was the 250 GT SWB bodied by Drogo, known as the “Breadvan.” Like Scuderia Ferrari, which started as a racing team for other manufacturers before becoming an automobile builder itself, Count Volpi had the ambition of creating his own racing cars — and eventually a road car.

Serene, but bittersweet

The late 1960s was a devastating time for many Italian scuderias and coachbuilders, with many going out of business or being absorbed by large corporations. Most of us know that Ferrari was close to being taken over by either Fiat or Ford, and Maserati has been on the ropes too many times to count. Serenissima was facing similar financial problems, and a last-ditch effort was put in place to create a high-performance road car, to the level of the newly released Lamborghini Miura.

Count Volpi teamed up with his friend Alejandro DeTomaso to create such a car. DeTomaso had just purchased Ghia after failing to purchase Maserati and was determined to produce sports cars. The design of Volpi’s new car was left to American-born Tom Tjaarda, who had just joined Ghia as its chief designer. The design has elements from the DeTomaso Mangusta, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro just prior to departing Ghia, with its low stance and aggressively wide rear tires. Likewise, you can see style elements previewing the DeTomaso Pantera, which Tjaarda would soon design.

The interior of the Serenissima GT was similar in concept to the Mangusta — plain but functional — with a “guess what it does” row of unmarked toggle switches. All in all, an aggressive design meant to declare, “I can go very fast!” Fitted with an Alberto Massimo-designed double-overhead-cam 3.5-liter V8 fed by four downdraft Webers, the engine was said to produce 320 horsepower at 6,500 rpm. Notably, the engine in the car now is not the original, but another three-valve-per-cylinder 3.5-liter Serenissima V8 designed by Alf Francis.

The Serenessima GT prototype was completed, painted green and initially shown at Ghia’s 1968 Turin Motor Show booth. For the 1969 Geneva Motor Show and later, the New York International Motor Show, the car was shown in its current orange color. Repainting a car and making minor modifications between shows was a common practice for low-volume automakers of the day, as it gave the automotive press the illusion that more than one car had been built.

Unfortunately, Serenessima’s financial difficulties were severe enough that the GT never went into production, leaving our subject car as the only example. Count Volpi liked his creation so much that he kept it in his possession for 50 years.

Pricing a dream

This car was sold at Artcurial’s 2019 Rétromobile auction for $513,928 (SCM# 6891341), alongside another stillborn Serenissima project, the “Agena.” This recent sale of $580,000 indicates a modest increase in value, but not enough to account for inflation. This car has an interesting history and appears to have been fairly well preserved with its paint-color scheme from 1969 and original leather. As a preservation-class car with long-term ownership by the company’s founder, not to mention its motor-show appearances, it will be welcomed at most concours d’elegance.

The auction house supplied an ominous warning that the car has never been registered, does not come with a title and is a prototype for a car that was never produced. In other words, getting it registered for road use may be a challenge depending on the buyer’s local regulations. The fact that the previous owner who bought the car from Count Volpi did not get it titled makes me believe that obtaining a title might also be a big challenge. The auction house included a second warning in that the car has been recommissioned to running and driving order but nonetheless may not be suitable for road use. I take it to mean that the car will start, and you can drive it from the trailer to the show field, but don’t expect to drive it to Starbucks for your morning coffee.

Is this car worth over half a million dollars? Based on the results here and its prior auction, I would say yes, making it a fair deal for both parties. Unfortunately, it will likely end up in a museum or private collection, maybe occasionally trailered to concours events. This car was designed to be free to frolic among Maseratis, Lamborghinis and Ferraris, not to be stagnant in someone’s collection. My hope is that one day I will see this car with a (Montana?) license plate and Copperstate 1000 stickers on its doors doing what it was designed to do: drive. ♦

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