Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta SWB (1960)

First presented to the public at the 1959 Paris Auto Salon, the Pininfarina designed 250 GT Berlinetta Passo Corto (SWB) would prove to be a faster, lighter and even more competitive successor to the highly revered 250 Tour De France. Built at the Scaglietti works in Modena, it would go on to be one of the best known and most competitive road going Ferraris.

The 250 SWB was the first production road car to be fitted with disc brakes as standard equipment. Unlike the preceding LWB series, the new car was offered in both left and right hand drive configurations. Available too in two basic specifications, the aluminium-bodied competition cars left the factory with lightened trim, reduced sound deadening and the revised Colombo V12 with a higher power output, the later ‘Lusso’ (Luxury) cars were given a steel body by default. As with all Ferrari’s of this time period, there are some examples of Lusso cars with aluminium bodies and vice versa.

The designations "passo lungo" or "LWB" for the long wheelbase 2600mm chassis, and "passo corto" or "SWB" for the short wheelbase 2400mm chassis, are subsequently adopted terminology to distinguish between the two series of cars. The overall design changed very little during the three year production run from 1960 to 1962. However, there are a number of detail differences that identify the period of production of a specific car. Visually they related to things like the addition of front and rear wing vents, the shape of the door window glass, the location of the fuel filler, size and shape of the radiator grille and myriad smaller details, further separating these from the earlier ‘interim’ 250 GT Berlinettas with the 3/4 window.

Designed with motorsport in mind, the 250 GT "SWB" Berlinetta continued on the successes of the preceding "LWB" models, dominating the 1960 and 1961 seasons with consecutive wins in the Tour de France Auto, Goodwood Tourist Trophy, the GT category at Le Mans and the Nurburgring 1000km. These were just a few of the numerous class and overall wins achieved during its reign as the queen of the GT category.