Ferrari 250 GT Pinin Farina (1959)

The 250 GT Pinin Farina Coupe marks an important part of Ferrari's history as the car was Ferrari's first pure road car built with commercial goals. After 250 GT Boano/Ellena, Pininfarina’s Grugliasco plant was expanded and the production of a new coupe could be moved back. The resulting car was introduced at Milan in 1958, and 335 nearly identical examples were built by 1960. Buyers included Prince Bertil of Sweden. The GT Coupe eschewed the fender vents for simple and clean lines and a notchback look with a panoramic rear window. The oval grille was replaced by a more traditional long narrow look with protruding headlights. Telescopic shock absorbers were also fitted instead of the Houdailles found on previous 250s, and disc brakes were added in 1960.

Introduced in 1958 at the Paris Auto Salon, Ferrari introduced their latest coupe from their immensely successful 250 GT platform. Retaining the 2,600 mm wheelbase, the 250 GT Pinin Farina was to be the first pure road car built with commercial goals. The latest iteration of the Colombo short-block V-12 engine that had so far proved to be immensely desirable in competition Testa Rossa and California spider variants.

The Pinin Farina coupe offered buyers elegant but subtle coachwork, including a long bonnet and short deck is typical of the highly revered coachbuilder, who would remain by Ferrari’s side until the completion of F12 Berlinetta in 2012.

Originally supplied in Grigio Fumo over Rosso VM3171, this example was supplied to its first owner in Milan in March 1959. Orbat S.p.A were at that time, a large-scale wine and spirits distributor and the car was destined for their company director. Count Giussepe Panza had studied law but never practiced, choosing instead to grow the family business in northern Italy. Panza invested in property, but his passion was modern art; ultimately he would amass one of the world’s largest and most significant collections of post-war American art. The Panza collection is now on display in galleries around the world as well as his ancestral home, Villa Panza in Varese.

Panza would keep the car for just under three years, selling the car in March 1962 to its second owner, Gianmario Rubboli of Milan. Rubboli would pass the car on to its third keeper, Giovanni Nava of Vigano. Continuing to use and enjoy the car, it returned to the factory for a service in January 1963 with a mileage of 50,815 kms. Nava moved to Como and took the car with him, re-registering the car in the local province at the time.

Nava sold the car to its fourth Italian keeper in November that year and the car moved to its new keeper in Chignola d’Isola outside Bergamo. The car was later exported to the USA and repainted red, first appearing for sale publicly in 1980 in the Ferrari Market Letter in Greensboro. Advertised several times, throughout the 80s and 90s, the car remained in the USA until 2000, where after a repaint and restoration to bright silver, it was exported to the UK.

Offered for sale at the July 2000 Coys auction, the car left for Holland shortly after the auction but returned a couple of years later. Sold to its current keeper in 2003, this example was at the time purchased with the intention of creating a 250 TR replica, Upon closer inspection of the car with Neil Twyman, the car was deemed too good and too original to part out. Since then, the car has remained in the care of one owner.

The decision was made several years ago to carry out a meticulous and thorough bare-metal restoration. With the works carried out by Neil Twyman, this example has had countless hours and a great deal spent since, as detailed in the accompanying wealth of invoices.

Endlessly attentive, Twyman has cared for the car with no expense spared on behalf of the current owner, mechanically progressing through the car and thoroughly overhauling componentry to a total of £300,000 in the accompanying history file.

Twyman took the body back to bare metal refinishing the car the supremely elegant Grigio Argento with a subtly darker Grigio Fumo roof as it presents today. The interior remains true to its original colour specification in Rosso and it holds a superb patina and quality, most recently retrimmed in the early 1990s. As a part of the restoration works, the car was reverted to its original four-drum braking setup, having been altered to incorrect discs earlier in its life.

Today the car presents superbly and presents a fantastic opportunity to own a supremely elegant 250-series Ferrari at a fraction of the cost of the Berlinetta SWB and so on.

This 250 'PF' coupe is available to view at our showrooms outside London by appointment immediately.