1958 FERRARI 250 GT SERIES 1 CABRIOLET

1958 FERRARI 250 GT SERIES 1 CABRIOLET
The 1957 Turin Show, Ex-Carlos Kauffman
Coachwork by Carrozzeria Pinin Farina
Chassis no. 0759 GT
Engine no. 0759 GT
Sold for US$ 6,820,000 Including Premium
Bonhams Auction, Monterey, CA. 2014
*1957 Turin Salone dell'Automobile show car
* Open early Ferrari Pinin Farina Cabriolet - with detachable hardtop
* Early central-American history in Venezuelan ownerships
* Fresh from 23 years in the Collezione Maranello Rosso Museum
It is to the emergent, dynamic and at the time only two-year-old Italian coachbuilding company, Carrozzeria Boano, that credit should go for reviving 1950s interest in Cabriolet convertible coachwork upon Ferrari chassis. The very first 250 GT Cabriolet was built by Boano in time for the 1956 Geneva Salon de l'Automobile exhibition. Its unveiling there coincided with that of the first Ferrari to launch genuine series production – a Pinin Farina Coupe built in a small production series by the same Boano company.
Boano's Cabriolet was subsequently displayed by Luigi Chinetti – Ferrari's legendary American East Coast importer – at the New York Show. The car found a ready buyer, and meantime Pinin Farina had taken notice of interest in these convertible cars, producing its own Cabriolet that was launched to the public at the following year's Geneva Salon, in March 1957. This very functional and rather sporty-looking styling exercise featured a functional notch in the crest of the left-side door, to give space for the driver's elbow while the waistline thereafter kicked-up into the rear fender peak. While that dream car was finished in Italian red for its debut, it was quickly resprayed green and became Ferrari's British works driver Peter Collins's personal car. It was subsequently fitted by Dunlop with British-made disc brakes – and they in turn would be adapted one day to enhance a works-team Testa Rossa sports-racing machine.
Pinin Farina continued to develop the notion of a 3-litre V12-engined Ferrari Cabriolet, first with a rather exotic and even more sporty-looking Spyder, followed by a more sober prototype street version. The group of four Speciale 250 GT Cabriolet prototypes finally culminated in a green-finished example, sold to Prince Saddrudin Aga Khan in May 1957.
The first 'true production' 250 GT Cabriolet Pinin Farina was then delivered in mid-summer 1957 to American, Mr Oscar 'Ozzie' Olson, later sponsor of the Indy-racing Olsonite Eagles. His Cabriolet's flanks were devoid of the air vents that had adorned the preceding prototypes, and this more discreet style was adopted for the vast majority of the 20-plus examples which quickly followed
The basis of these early Cabriolets was the same chassis frame/engine aggregate which had under-pinned the 1956-58 Coupe cars. During the summer of 1958 a new, more sporting convertible was introduced as the 250 GT California, but the Series 1 Cabriolet, such as the simply outstanding example offered here, remained the open street Ferrari of choice for the truly discriminating, and perhaps temperamentally less extrovert, less flamboyant, more discreet of Ferrari's contemporary, up-market, clientele...
Here was a Cabriolet for a customer of real taste.
THE MOTORCAR OFFERED
This particularly magnificent Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet S1 Pinin Farina is chassis serial '0759 GT'. It is a very early example, being only the eighth of some 40 units built overall. Its chassis frame was delivered to the Pinin Farina plant on September 9, 1957, and upon its completion with this strikingly handsome body it was promptly (and so justifiably) exhibited at the 39th Salone dell'Automobile in Turin's Valentino Park exhibition hall, from October 30-November 10 that year
In January, 1958, this Cabriolet was then shipped to the Venezuelan Ferrari importer, Carlo Kauffman, in the central-American state's capital city of Caracas. It was registered there on Venezuelan plates 'NC 6159'. The car was pictured in the factory's official 1959 Ferrari Yearbook, whose compilers every year made much of the burgeoning marque's global appeal. Study the car's gorgeously preserved tan leather and honeyed carpeting today and one can imagine just how cool and stylish it must have seemed to Carlos Kauffman and his eager clienti as they sampled '0759 GT' here on the broad sun-soaked boulevards of Venezuela's then booming, already oil-rich, capital city...
Caracas itself had grown in economic importance during Venezuela's oil boom of the early 20th Century. By the 1950s, the sprawling city had blossomed through an intensive modernization programme that continued throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s.
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Robert Myrick Photography