1957 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta Tour de France – RM Amelia 2016 Preview



Leading a massive haul of Amelia Island stunners for RM Sotheby’s?

This magnificent specimen!  An estimate so high that it is available only on request?

That smacks of $30-million plus to us.

The vehicle certainly seems like a contender for the most-beautiful Ferrari of all time.

 

 

 1957 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta Tour de France

RM Amelia Island 2016

Lot 174

1957 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta ‘Tour de France’

To be auctioned on Saturday, March 12, 2016

 

Photo Credit: Darin Schnabel ©2015 Courtesy of RM Sothebys

260 bhp, 2,953 SOHC V-12 engine with three Weber 36 DCL3 carburetors, four-speed manual transmission, independent front suspension with unequal-length A-arms and coil springs, live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, parallel trailing arms, and Houdaille hydraulic shock absorbers, and four-wheel drum brakes. Wheelbase: 102.4 in.

  • Impressive competition history, including TdF, Spa, Reims, Monza, and Montlhéry
  • Offered by its enthusiast owner for the last 41 years
  • Complete multi-year restoration, followed by a decade of FCA Nationals, Tours, and Concours
  • Original matching-numbers engine
  • Eligible for major vintage events worldwide

FERRARI’S “TOUR DE FRANCE”

The 250 GT LWB Berlinetta is one of the most significant competition automobiles of Ferrari’s illustrious history, as it established the marque’s GT-class racing dominance in the late 1950s. After Alfonso de Portago won the Tour de France in 1956, Oliver Gendebien triumphed outright for the next three years—1957, 1958, 1959—in turn earning the “Tour de France” moniker.

With the 3.0-liter Colombo V-12 engine fitted to Ferrari’s 2,600-millimeter-wheelbase steel tubular chassis, numerous highly desirable models that succeeded it can directly trace their origins to the TdF, including the SWB Berlinetta and the 250 GTO. Today, it is rightly recognized as Ferrari’s most successful 250 GT, having garnered more outright victories than the 250 GT SWB Berlinetta, second only to the revered GTO.