1964 Ferrari 250 LM Coupe

The Ferrari 250 LM made its debut at the 1963 Paris Auto Salon and first competed the following year. Designed for the GT class at Le Mans, 100 cars were needed to obey the homologation rules, but not surprisingly only 32 cars were finished; the LM was therefore only eligible for the prototype class against more powerful cars. Despite that, the Ferrari 250 LMs performed well, including a win at the 1965 24 Hours of Lemans. The 250 LM used the 250 GTO 3-liter, V12 engine bored out to 3.3 liters and repositioned in the middle of the chassis.

Ferrari 250 LM with chassis number 5909 is a right-hand drive vehicle constructed in April 1964. It was sent to the United States to Luigi Chinetti and the N.A.R.T. team. It competed at the 1000km Nuerburgring and the 24 Hours of Lemans in 1964. In both events, it failed to finish. Its first racing accomplishment came at the 12 Hours of Reims in 1964, where John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini drove the car to a second-place finish overall and second in class.

Ownership passed to Bob Grossman of the US around September 1964. He had the car repainted in silver metallic with blue, white, and red stripes. It was campaigned throughout the rest of the 1964 season by Bob Grossman. It was entered into Bridgehampton, Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport, Tourist Trophy at Nassau, Nassau GT Race, and the Nassau Trophy. The best finish for Grossman and the car in 1964 was at Bridgehampton where the duo scored a third-place finish.

Ownership passed to William M. Sheaffer of PA in 1965. He had the car repainted in a gold-metallic color. Ownership later passed to Bob Cooper, Edwin Niles, and Sonny Bono. Bono acquired the car in 1967 and kept it for a short time before selling it to Don McLaughlin in 1968.

It passed through several more owners before becoming the possession of Frederick Knoop in 1974. It was shown at the 1975 Pebble Beach Concours where it was awarded a first place.

It was sold to Bob Epstein in 1977 who then had it entered in the Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca. The car was wearing number 220.

Albert Obrist of Gstaad became its next owner. He entered it in some historic competition; in 1980 he commissioned Carrozzeria Fantuzzi to perform a ground-up restoration.

The next owner was Shiroh Kosaka who showed the car at the Coppa d'Oro delle Dolomiti in 1987 and the 1st Annual Vintage Ferrari Meeting in Japan in 1993.

Steven Read became the next owner in 2004. He brought the car back to the Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca. Since then, the vehicle has been shown at various events and entered in historic competition. It was shown at The Quail: A Motorsport Gathering in 2006.

By Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2013