Those lines! That grill! The gills, profile, dashboard!
The design by Pininfarina is perhaps the most beautiful Ferrari ever made. If I were a man of unlimited means, I would fill my garage with every variation of the 250 Enzo ever produced (See this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this).
2, 3, 4, 12: 2 valves per cylinder, 3 Weber carburetors, mated to a 4-speed manual transmission, a V-12 engine. Sure, 240HP pales compared to what you can buy today, but it is in a 2,646 pound spyder.
Sotheby’s described the 250GT in 2016:
“If there are two words in the Ferrari vocabulary that get the blood flowing in any tifosi, surely they are “California Spider.” Considered by many to be the most beautiful car to come out of Maranello, the California Spider had the performance credentials to back up its stunning presence. To the individual that was looking for a car that could be driven leisurely with the top down on Saturday, taken to the track and raced hard on Sunday, and with the requisite Italian style and flair only a Ferrari could deliver, there was simply no other option.”
Only 50 Spyders were made on a long wheel-base (LWB), and are exceedingly valuable. A 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider aluminum body that finished 5th place at the 1959 Le Mans — the race that was won by Carroll Shelby in a Ford GT — was sold at a 2021 Sotheby’s auction in New York for $18 million.
The little runabout below is expected to fetch $9-11 million at RM Sotheby’s upcoming Amelia Island sale on March 4th.
Source: Classic Driver
