Ferrari 250 GT Coupé

Ferrari 250 GT Coupé at a glance

The 250 GT Coupé is the road-going base of the famous 250 GT family, which also includes the Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France competition berlinetta. All models are listed in the Ferrari catalogue.

The versions

250 Europa GT (1954–1955). The first car of the line was presented at the Paris Motor Show in October 1954. It was the first Ferrari with "GT" in its chassis number instead of "EU", and it is regarded as a road version of the 250 MM racing car. Pinin Farina designed the body, and 35 were built.

250 GT Coupé Boano (about 1955–1957). While Pinin Farina was planning its new plant, the bodies were built by Carrozzeria Boano in Grugliasco as a subcontractor. Felice Mario Boano had founded the company in 1954 after leaving Ghia. The Boano cars have a low roofline without a kick-up behind the doors and are mechanically close to the Europa GT.

250 GT Coupé Ellena (1957–about 1958). When Mario Boano moved to Fiat's styling centre in 1957, his son-in-law Ezio Ellena and partner Luciano Pollo took over the business. The Ellena cars have a higher roofline, no quarter-lights (except eight early low-roof cars), the spare wheel under the boot floor, bigger brakes and a heater as standard. Ellena built 50 cars.

250 GT Coupé Pinin Farina (1958–1960). Presented at the Paris Motor Show in October 1958, this version had a completely new notch-back body with a conventional rear window. It was built at Pinin Farina's new factory in Grugliasco, and with 353 cars it was the first Ferrari made in a semi-series.

A handful of special cars complete the story: four Coupé Speciale cars styled like the 410 Superamerica, competition berlinettas with alloy bodies, and a prototype for the later 250 GTO built by Giotto Bizzarrini on an old Boano company car.

Engine and chassis

The engine is Gioacchino Colombo's 60° V12 with a displacement of 2,953 cc (bore 73 mm, stroke 58.8 mm) — about 246 cc per cylinder, which gives the "250" name. It has one overhead camshaft per bank, two valves per cylinder, a compression ratio of 8.5:1 and three Weber carburettors.

The four-speed synchromesh gearbox came from the 250 MM and drove a live rear axle. Late Pinin Farina coupés had a Laycock de Normanville overdrive and a central gear lever. The tubular steel chassis (type 508) had a wheelbase 200 mm shorter than the 250 Europa, at 2,600 mm. Front suspension used double wishbones, at first with a transverse leaf spring and later with coil springs; the rear used semi-elliptic leaf springs. The car started with drum brakes all round; from late 1959 the Pinin Farina Coupé received Dunlop disc brakes with servo assistance.

Coachbuilders and special cars

The story of the 250 GT Coupé is also the story of the Turin coachbuilding industry of the 1950s. Pinin Farina's new plant in Grugliasco, whose site was chosen by Battista Farina's son Sergio and technical director Renzo Carli, made the larger production run of the Pinin Farina Coupé possible. Boano worked as a subcontractor and did not even put its own badge on the cars. Ellena, which took over Boano's business in 1957, closed in 1966.

Several individual cars have their own history. Scaglietti is named as a possible builder of the competition car 0425GT, and in 1959 it converted chassis 0627GT into a long-wheelbase California Spyder. The 250 GTO prototype 0523GT, built by Giotto Bizzarrini with a wheelbase shortened to 2,400 mm, triple portholes and unpainted aluminium bodywork, was tested by Willy Mairesse and Stirling Moss before Enzo Ferrari ordered it to be destroyed at the end of 1961.

Legacy

The 250 GT Coupé turned Ferrari from a maker of individual coachbuilt cars into a producer of a real road-car series. It was followed by the four-seat 250 GT 2+2, built in greater numbers, and later by the 330 GTC. The story of the company is told in our history of Ferrari.

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