Ferrari 250 GT Ellena

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Ferrari 250 GT Ellena

United KingdomLocation: United Kingdom
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Coachwork: Carrozzeria Ellena Specifications: 240bhp 2,953cc aluminium block and head, single overhead camshaft V-12 engine with three Weber 36DCF carburettors, four-speed gearbox, independent front suspension with A-arms, coil springs and Houdaille shocks, live axle, semi-elliptical springs and Houdaille shocks rear suspension, four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes. Wheelbase: 2,600mm. (102.4 in.)Chassis 0817GT EC taxes paid and originates from the UK; UK road registered. Initially, Ferrari constructed only racing cars, but by 1950 they began to produce exclusive road-going coupés and convertibles, in part to fund the racing effort. The cars were mostly bodied by Vignale, Ghia of Turin and Touring of Milan. Ferrari believed that the success of the Scuderia on the race circuits of the world would attract a client base for luxury, high-performance cars. The early Ferrari road cars were produced in very small numbers, but by 1955 a publicity brochure described a new model as "the first series-produced vehicle benefiting from the experiences of the race track". The new model that this brochure described was the second series of Ferrari 250 GTs, which became known as the 250 GT Boano Coupé and 250 GT Ellena Coupé. The first series was the Ferrari 250 Europa GT and was significant in that for the first time Carrozzeria Pinin Farina was Ferrari's preferred coachbuilder, producing 48 of the 53 250 Europa GTs built. Unveiled at the 1956 Geneva Salon, the new model, designed again by Pinin Farina, had more graceful proportions, with a slimmer front grille and clean, straight lines stretching the length of the car from the wings to the upright tail lights. Pinin Farina only produced the first few cars; at this time they didn't have the capacity to put this car into production. Instead, manufacture of the car was given to a new company owned by former Stabilimenti Farina and Ghia employee Mario Felice Boano and his partner Luciano Pollo. The Pinin Farina design was nearly unchanged but it would be the Boano name that would become synonymous with this car. Boano built 66 of the Pinin Farina-designed coupés, which was considered a large number in Ferrari's early days. When Mario Felice Boano was asked to head the design department of FIAT, the Ferrari production was handed over to his son-in-law Ezio Ellena and the company became Carrozzeria Ellena, the third to produce the same design. Although the design was the same, all three coachbuilders had subtle differences. The five Pinin Farina-built cars had a slightly higher wing line. The Boanos had a lower roofline, which prompted the commonly used terms "high roof" for the Ellenas and "low roof" for the Boano-built cars. The Pinin Farina and Boano cars had quarter-lights in the side windows while the Ellenas did not. (The first few cars built by Ellena were identical in appearance to the "low-roof" Boanos, but these differences are evident on the remaining cars.) Ellena had produced 50 cars when Ferrari ended the production run. A new 250 GT model had been designed by Pinin Farina and they would produce it themselves; the names of Boano and Ellena would fade into Ferrari history. This Ferrari 250 GT Ellena Coupé presented here is the 25th of just 50 Ellenas built. It was sold new in May 1958 to Soc. S.I.C.E.A. in Rome and was later exported from Italy to the US. In 1974 Chinetti Motors installed 250 GT Series 1 Cabriolet engine no. 0801 GT; the whereabouts of the original engine is not known. In 1984 the car was owned by David Tunick of New York. The car was subsequently fitted with a factory replacement block delivered by the Ferrari Classic Department, which was then fully assembled by DK Engineering. This car has had a full body-off restoration by DK Engineering and is presented in concourse condition, including the afore-mention fresh engine. In January 1958, Sports Cars Illustrated performed a detailed test of one of these cars. They wrote, "The 250 GT, though, is no race car with touring coachwork. It is a designed-from-scratch high performance tourer that combines Ferrari's best competition chassis features with innumerable refinements that successfully tame the basic inner beast. It's a car that very feminine females have no difficulty handling. At the same time its recent victorious performances at Nürburgring and in the Tour de France suggest that it is today's fastest and most race-worthy production contender. On top of this, the new Ferrari is a luxury automobile in the grand manner. The design, detailing and execution of every part of its chassis and body reflect the builder's determination to put together a perfect machine." Mike Hawthorn, Formula 1 World Champion for Ferrari in 1958, chose a 250 GT Coupé Ellena as his personal automobile. This car represents a very rare opportunity to own an exquisitely restored example of one of these beautifully proportioned "perfect machines".

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  • Ferrari 250 GT Ellena
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  • DK Database ID: #61

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