1962 Ferrari 250 GT Series II Cabriolet

By 1954, the majority of road-going Ferraris were bodied to the design of Battista Pinin Farina with Scaglietti handling most of the sports racing models. From then until 1973 when the Bertone-designed 308GT4 was announced, the design efforts of other houses were rarely used. When they were, it was normally on a one-off basis for a specific car, perhaps at the behest of a particularly valued client. In 1958, Pinin Farina became Pininfarina and introduced a new 250GT Coupe, very similar in appearance to the Series II Cabriolet that followed in 1959 which made its debut at the Paris Auto Show that October. Series II cars were much more comfortable and refined than the Cabriolet Series I cars. Both Ferrari and Pininfarina wanted to clearly differentiate it from the sportier, competition-oriented 250 Spyder California launched in 1958 which looked more like the Cabriolet Series I.

This example has just been given a ground-up restoration and has never been shown previously. Painted Grigio Silver over red hides, it is a numbers-matching example with known history from new. Power is supplied by a 2953cc SOHC V-12 producing 240 horsepower mated to a 4-speed manual transmission. Just 202 (as many as 212) were made throughout the production run, which continued through 1962.