Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta 'Tour de France' (1957)

The Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta ‘Tour de France’ is a historically significant and successful model which consists of only 77 units across its four iterations. The convention is to categorise the variants by the number of louvres that are present on the C-pillar of each example, but within each of these series there are further differentiating features, such as the Series 3 (three-louvre) cars being available with both covered and uncovered headlights.

From 1956 to 1959, the 250 GT ‘TdF’ hails from the golden age of Ferrari – when the Berlinettas were styled with passion rather than aerodynamics and were usable and luxurious enough to be driven to and from the track, yet performant enough to race extremely competitively in the premier classes at the time.

These characteristics meant the 250 GT ‘LWB’ was perfectly suited to the infamous Tour de France Automobile, an immensely enduring, almost 6,000-kilometre, event that eponymously toured around the entire country, including timed events held on circuits as well as the open road. The event was dominated by Ferrari in the late 1950s, being won by the GT Berlinetta in 1956, 1957 and 1958, which is why the model is retrospectively adorned with the Tour de France moniker.