Ferrari's open top 250 GT
This stunning 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series I is the 25th example built overall and was delivered to the Pinin Farina (the Pininfarina name changed in 1961) workshop in Turin, late March 1958. Clothed in attractive covered-headlamp coachwork with highly desirable vertical front bumperettes, horizontal rear bumpers, and horizontal teardrop tail lamps, the 250 GT was finished in Grigio Metallizatto (metallic grey) paint and trimmed with an interior of Nero Vaumol leather, completing assembly in late May of that year. It wasn’t until the 1980s, and several owners later that the car was repainted in the traditional Rosso that you’d probably have expected it to have originally left the factory wearing.
The 250 GT was initially produced exclusively as a coupe bodied sportscar by Ferrari. It wasn’t until March 1956, that the coachbuilder Boano introduced a new open top Ferrari built on the 250 GT platform, a curious-looking cabriolet with tail fins. A year later Pinin Farina unveiled a more refined version with rounded fenders, covered headlamps, and a notched driver’s-side door. After experimenting with an altered café racer version, Pinin Farina used its initial design as the basis for a more formal series of luxurious cabriolets that featured Borrani wire wheels. The coachwork remained essentially unchanged through the production of 37 examples, though the last few were built with uncovered headlamps.
Comprising a total of 40 examples (including three prototypes), the first-series 250 GT cabriolet was one of the last models constructed in Pinin Farina’s boutique workshop prior to the coachbuilder relocating to a larger factory in Grugliasco. While the bodies were consistent from car to car, the interior details and trim were customised to order, and it is believed that no two were ever produced exactly alike.
Mechanically, these cabriolets shared many elements of the concurrent 250 GT Berlinetta ‘Tour de France’. Exquisite in build quality and indubitably rare, the first-series Pinin Farina cabriolets were built through 1959, beautifully resuscitating the luxurious open touring Ferrari. These cars are now highly collectable and generally found as the centrepieces of Maranello-focused collections, only rarely becoming available for sale.
RM Sotheby's will be offering this beautiful 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series I at their upcoming Arizona auction held between the 16-17th January. For more information on this and other vehicles at the sale, click on the link below. Photos: Robin Adams © Courtesy of RM Sotheby's.