One to Buy: ex-New York Motor Show 1953 Ferrari 250 Europa Vignale Coupe
To streamline production, in late 1951 Enzo Ferrari signed a contract that saw Pinin Farina become his car company’s official coachbuilder. Customers could still order a car with bodywork by another carrozzeria, but from this point a Pinin Farina designed and built design automatically came fitted as standard.
Among the earliest models produced under the new Ferrari-Pinin Farina axis were the 250 Europa and 375 America, both of which were unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in October 1953.
With the exception of their engines, the two cars were identical; the 250 Europa used a 3-litre version of Aurelio Lampredi’s big block V12. This was then enlarged to 4.5-litres for the 375 America.
The rest of the specification included a traditional tubular steel chassis with independent transverse leaf-sprung double wishbone suspension up front and a live axle with semi-elliptic springs at the back. Houdaillle hydraulic shocks and drum brakes were fitted all round.
At the time, these were the only road cars officially available from Ferrari. However, a small number of VIP customers did commission bespoke road-going 375 Mille Miglias from Ferrari.at considerable expense.
Also extremely expensive was any 250 Europa or 375 America commissioned without the standard Pinin Farina body. As a consequence, very few were built.
One was chassis 0313EU which is currently available as part of ISSIMI’s North American listings.
Only four 250 Europas were bodied by Vignale (three Coupes and a Convertible) all of which were quite distinct from one another. The three Coupes came with Vignale’s trademark inboard headlights plus stylised vents, grilles and scoops.
Completed in late 1953, this car was painted two-tone Tabacco with a Bruno Siena roof and beige leather interior. It was reputedly the first car sent to Ferrari’s new US distributor, Luigi Chinetti in Manhattan, who then displayed it at the New York Motor show a few weeks later.
Chinetti subsequently repainted the car red with a black roof before selling it to its first owner, Mike Garber of Framingham, Massachusetts. Garber retained it until April of 1958.
Today, chassis 0313EU is offered in concours condition and looks fantastic in its original 1953 colour scheme.
Reprinted below is ISSIMI’s description for this unique 1950s Ferrari Gran Turismo:
Vignale-bodied Ferraris were incredibly decadent and bespoke: truly coachbuilt in a way that differs starkly from the standardized Pinin Farina designs of just a few years later. From 1950 to 1954, Vignale bodied more than 150 Ferraris and hundreds of non-Ferrari cars, but despite their prolific output, the cars were effectively one-offs. No Vignale body design fitted to a Ferrari was built in more than about a dozen copies, with many designs being used far fewer times.
This particular car, 250 Europa serial number 0313EU, is representative of this. There is only one other car wearing this body in existence, although it is fitted to a different model of Ferrari, a 375 America, which shares its wheelbase and chassis design with this car. A second 375 America had a very similar body, effectively the same design but with different headlight and front fender treatment.
A total of 22 250 Europas were built, of which 18 were bodied by Pinin Farina and three received closed Vignale bodywork. This car is the second of those three, with the first one wearing a different body design and the third one wearing an unknown Vignale coupe design because it was destroyed in a fatal accident in the Northeastern United States in the late 1950s.
The 250 Europa model is significant for a number of reasons. It was the first of the enduring and iconic 250 line and with so many of them bodied by Pinin Farina, it represented a critical shift toward standardization of design that was required for Ferrari to grow into a volume manufacturer. This also laid the groundwork for a partnership that would see Pininfarina design every standard Ferrari production car for for nearly 60 years (308 GT4 notwithstanding), a collaboration that finally ended with the 2012 Ferrari F12, after which design work was brought in house to Centro Stile Ferrari.
Confusingly, although the 250 Europa has a 3.0 liter V12 like every other 250, it is actually a different engine, being the long block Lampredi design used in the 340, 375, and 410, and not the Colombo 250 engine, which displaces 10cc less (2953cc against 2963cc) and has a shorter stroke of 58.8mm instead of 68mm. The Lampredi engine is physically larger and employs screw-in cylinder liners which allow the cylinder bore and thus displacement to be adjusted with relative ease.
The result of this is that the 250 Europa feels more similar to the very early Ferraris than it does to the other variants of the 250, especially because of the Europa’s chassis and suspension design. On this car, that impression is heightened by the stunning Vignale body, which is intricately detailed and fabulously coachbuilt in feel, both inside and out.
As befits such an extraordinary car, this example, 0313EU, has a fascinating story. It was completed in late 1953 and dispatched to Luigi Chinetti, then based in Manhattan. This car was the first Ferrari to be sent to the United States by the factory and thus it started a legendary decades-long commercial relationship between Chinetti and Ferrari. This relationship was doubtless spurred by the fact that Chinetti was responsible Ferrari’s first ever 24 Hours of Le Mans victory in 1949, personally driving the winning 166MM for all but 90 minutes of the race.
Once 0313EU arrived in New York, it was displayed by Chinetti at the New York Motor Show during the last week of January of 1954, finished in the colors it wears today: Tabacco with Bruno Siena roof and beige leather interior. Chinetti repainted the car red with black roof before selling it to its first owner, Mike Garber of Framingham, Massachusetts. In April of 1958, the car’s second owner, George Parker, of Rome, New York, bought it for $4,900 plus a traded in Aston Martin. He used the car as his primary transport, and after getting married and taking a new job in San Diego, California in March of 1959, he drove 0313EU across the United States, a trip it made largely uneventfully aside from a leaking oil hose causing a delay twice.
Parker’s growing family forced the sale of 0313EU in about 1960 and it was subsequently painted purple, fitted with nerf bars in lieu of the bumpers, and the original engine removed and replaced with a supercharged Corvette engine. By 1968, the car was red once more (this time without the black roof or hood spine), and still in Southern California, where it remained until a Northern California owner purchased it in 1976. It eventually fell into disuse and remained in dry storage in a garage in Palo Alto until being purchased by Tom Shaughnessy in 2003. He showed the car, then in need of restoration, at the Quail in 2004, and eventually sold the car on to Heinrich Kämpfer, a Swiss collector and Vignale specialist in 2009.
At this time, 0313EU was very much unrestored, being finished in old red paint and missing its bumpers. Kämpfer set about performing a painstaking restoration with an exceptional eye toward authenticity. This included locating correct type nitrocellulose paint and mixing it to match 0313EU’s original color scheme. The leather was supplied by the same company, Arbo, which was originally used to trim the car in 1953. The missing bumpers were carefully recreated and plated together with the remaining brightwork. Every aspect of the car was carefully restored, both cosmetic and mechanical. Wherever possible, the original unrestored components were used as patterns, ranging from the netting for the headliner-mounted map pockets to the construction of the backing panels and insulation on door panels. A correct type 3 liter Lampredi engine, number 331, was located, rebuilt, dyno tested (at 5 hp more than the factory rating) and installed as well. All in, the restoration totaled nearly 5,000 man hours over the course of a remarkably short two years, in time for the car to publicly debut at Villa d’Este in May of 2012. At this event, the car won the Trofeo Foglizzo Award for best interior design.
In early 2013, the car completed its Classiche certification, and was subsequently sold to an American collector via Bonhams. In 2015, the car was shown at Cavallino, where it achieved Platinum, in addition to winning the Classiche Cup. The car was featured on the cover of Cavallino magazine, and was also featured in Automobile Magazine in 2014. Since the restoration, the car has passed through the hands of a few American collectors and remains in superb condition, with light mellowing to the restoration but still presents stunningly.
The car runs and drives extremely well. The engine is well-tuned and produces the magnificent, bassy, aggressive exhaust note unique to the Lampredi engine. Despite a displacement of 3 liters, it commands attention like no Colombo engine does, even the 5 liter ones. The engine carburetes well, has excellent throttle response, and pulls cleanly and evenly through the rev range. The synchromesh is effective and the gearchange robust and substantial in feel. The brakes are confidence-inspiring and symmetrical in their operation, while the steering is direct and free of excessive play. The chassis and suspension function as designed, offering a glimpse into the heroic character of the drivers who drove these early Ferraris in anger.
s/n 0313EU represents an extraordinary opportunity to acquire a highly significant and unique early Ferrari, one which is presented with superlative attention to detail and incredible fidelity to its original configuration. Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of 0313EU is the extent to which it represents such a particular moment in Ferrari’s history. Among the last Ferraris bodied by Vignale, it comes from the end of the formative coachbuilt era of Ferrari’s history. At the same time, it is one of the first 250s built and accordingly, it forms an important part of Ferrari’s transition to being an established manufacturer. Additionally, 0313EU is intimately tied to Luigi Chinetti and is therefore highly significant to Ferrari’s entrée into the American market, which rapidly became Ferrari’s largest market, something which would persist for nearly 70 years. 0313EU’s appeal is further enhanced by the fact that it one of a small number of Ferraris powered by the Lampredi engine, whose unique character is incredibly singular, even compared to the iconic Colombo engine.
Included with the car is the Classiche red book, two binders of documentation and photographs substantiating the car’s history and its restoration, Massini report, and Vignale-branded luggage.
Price: $4.8m
