It was March 1960 when Ferrari presented this very car, a 250 GT SWB California Spider, at the Geneva Motor Show, leaving the crowd speechless. Now, the car has been sold for an impressive $17 million in Monterey, California.
There were times when you couldn't see cars online like you can today. There was no World Wide Web back then. All the car companies would show off their newest cars at auto shows or special events where people would come and see them with their own eyes before they ended up on the cover of car magazines.
This Scaglietti Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider was the first of its kind and is part of a series of 56 examples never built. A convertible that could be used for racing on Sunday and as a daily driver from Monday to Friday was the idea of Californian importer John von Neumann, a significant figure for Ferrari on the West Coast of the United States. He read between the lines, he knew what the Americans wanted.
Official Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti approved the idea. And so the 250 GT LWB California Spider was born, with an open body designed and built by the legendary Sergio Scaglietti on the chassis of the Tour de France Berlinetta.
Ferrari only built 50 of them.
Photo: RM Sotheby's
Once entered into GT racing, the Ferrari 250 GT California began to collect great results: it took the class victory at Sebring in 1959 and finished fifth overall at Le Mans in the same year.
Ferrari has designed a car with a shorter wheelbase
The Maranello brand appreciated the success of the model and decided to launch a second California Spider, featuring a shorter wheelbase of 94.4 inches (2,400 millimetres) instead of the 102.3 inches (2,600 millimetres) of the 250 GT LWB California Spider.
It also received a wider track, adjustable Koni telescopic shock absorbers, and four-wheel disc brakes. This Ferrari is also one of only three that received a competition version of the Tipo 168 V12 engine, specifically designated as Motore Competizione on the FoglioAssemblea Motore page of the factory build sheets.
Photo: RM Sotheby's
Additionally, the dashboard layout of this Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider is believed to be unique, as specified by the original owner.
A Ferrari for the stars
The Ferrari 250 GT California Spider attracted celebrities like a magnet: actors Alain Delon and Brigitte Bardot, James Coburn and Peter Helm, and singers like Johnny Hallyday owned one. It was one of the best performing cars of its time. This was what caught the eye, along with the elegant silhouette and the exclusivity of the convertible. This would be a series of just 50 examples. This unit, chassis number #1795 GT, was the first to see the light of day.
After being displayed at the Geneva Motor Show in 1960, the car, painted in Grigio, was sent back to the factory in Maranello, Italy, to be fitted with a black leather interior. It was then delivered to its owner, John Gordon Bennet, a racing driver of British origin, who at the time resided in Geneva, Switzerland.
He had driven the car in SCCA competition and had taken Cunningham's C4-R to LeMans in 1954 and his own Maserati 300 S and Jaguar D-Type to many events in America. It looked as if the Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider had ended up in the right hands.
Photo: RM Sotheby's
Ferrari historian Marcel Massini confirms that chassis 1795 GT was used in racing. But “not out of anger.” It reached the Nurburgring as part of the Scuderia Hanseat International Sports Car Driving School in late September 1960.
Ferrari driver and dealer Bob Grossman purchased the car in 1963, bringing it to New York. He sold it to Chandler Kibbee, a senior executive at Philip Morris, who stored it on his property in Sheridan, Wyoming. He kept it until 1978, when he sold it to Micahel Alessandro of Pasadena. He was the one who gave the car its special license plate that read “1ST SWB.”
It was 2008 when it was sold to the man who had sold it in Monterey, California, for $17 million, as expected. The young private collector did it justice. He raced it on weekends and brought it home.
The car has been on several famous circuits around the world, including the infamous Green Hell of the Nurburgring, before setting its wheels on US soil. It ended up in the exclusive garage of its seller in 2008, before being auctioned off in Monterey earlier this week. This was the first time the model has been offered for sale to the public.
Born with racing DNA, it also features rare covered headlights and a removable factory hardtop. Whoever paid $17 million for it also received a Ferrari Classiche Red Book, verifying that it has a fully numbers-matching engine, transmission, rear axle, and body.