MARANELLO BUILDS A LEGEND

Ferrari achieved incredible heights during the 1950s and 1960s with its 250 GT platform, finding remarkable success in sports car competition with models such as the Tour de France, Testarossa, and GTO. Alongside these wondrous racing machines, Maranello built a magnificent line of roadgoing 250 GT models that came to define the peak of engineering and style.

In 1957, however, one man dared to push the boundaries even further. John von Neumann was a California-based importer and co-founder of the local sports car club who had become a distributor for Ferrari sales on the West Coast. He proposed the idea of a dual-use open Ferrari that could be driven to the track and raced before being gently driven home, in the tradition of Maranello’s great berlinettas. Official Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti recognized the potential of von Neumann’s idea and before long a new 250 GT appeared: the California Spider.

Sportier than the concurrent 250 GT Cabriolet, the California Spider shared the Tour de France berlinetta’s chassis and coachwork builder, the legendary carrozzeria, Scaglietti. Most examples featured steel bodies with aluminum hoods and decklids, and they could be ordered with covered headlamps and competition-tuned engines. Scaglietti’s coachwork was a revelation of the potential proportions of the 250 GT, with beautifully sculpted, sensuous fenders complemented by jewel-like louvered vents just aft of the front wheels. This was a Ferrari built for every sense to enjoy: wondrous to hear, viscerally thrilling in performance, and beautiful to admire.

Initially built upon Ferrari’s 2,600-millimeter wheelbase chassis, which was retroactively referred to as the Long Wheelbase, the early California Spiders made a splash in GT competition—taking a class win at Sebring in 1959 and finishing 5th overall at Le Mans a few months later. As the model was named for the California market that had inspired it, many examples were exported to the US, and these cars duly made their mark at SCCA events.

Fifty examples of the California Spider were built on the long-wheelbase chassis before Ferrari introduced its short-wheelbase platform, to which the California Spider was adapted. While the later cars undoubtedly have a following of their own, it is interesting to note how the design was more elegant and harmonious in the original 2,600-millimeter guise. Smoother-driving and more luxurious, the long-wheelbase examples handle with superior ride quality and are arguably more stylish.

In short, the original LWB California Spider was the super-luxury choice of the day’s distinguished gentleman, sophisticated, powerful, and uniquely attractive. In many respects this was a car less suited for barreling down the Mulsanne Straight than it was for touring the winding roads above the Côte d’Azur: an elegant, romantic, picture-perfect machine that was the very embodiment of chic sophistication.

CHASSIS NUMBER 1431 GT

Boasting desirable factory specifications and a documented ownership chain featuring some of the nation’s best-known Ferrari collectors, this splendid California Spider is an intoxicating example. Chassis number 1431 GT is one of 30 steel-bodied examples, and the 28th of 50 total long-wheelbase cars. Although factory documents did not record the car’s original color combination, it is clear that the spider was configured with a steel body featuring the desirable covered headlamps and equipped with Lucas fuel injection and drum brakes. This 250 GT is notable for being the last California Spider equipped with an inside-plug V-12, in this case the type 128 D engine.

According to the research of marque expert Marcel Massini, 1431 GT’s chassis was completed in August 1959, and following final assembly the car was exported to the US via Luigi Chinetti Motors. While the original buyer of the car is currently unknown, by the early 1970s the car was owned by Avi Brand in Woodbury, New York, passing in 1974 to Carl Schulze in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Subsequently acquired by Robert Bodin of Minnesota, a dentist in the Twin Cities who was the caretaker of several important Ferraris (including two Tour de Frances, a 250 SWB California Spider, and a 250 GTO, among others), the spider next passed to Alan Woodall of Georgia (owner of a 212 Vignale Cabriolet and a 250 GTO) in part exchange for a 250 Testa Rossa before being sold to Frank Gallogly of Englewood, New Jersey (owner of a Ferrari 250 GTO). The car was subsequently sold to Dave Frankel of Coral Gables, Florida, and he conducted a restoration that included a cosmetic refinish in rosso paint over a tan interior.

By early 1994 the California Spider was owned by the famed Illinois-based collector William Jacobs, and he presented the fabulous car at the 1994 Cavallino Classic before selling it to Don Williams’ Blackhawk Collection in Danville, California. Next acquired by David Smith of Bellevue, Washington, the 250 GT was again restored, now being finished in the current elegant livery of nero paint over a nero leather interior.

Mr. Smith then presented the exquisite Spider at a handful of national-level events, starting with the FCA’s National Meeting Concours at Columbus, Ohio, in May 1995. In June of 1998 the car won a Platinum award, as well as the Luigi Chinetti Memorial award, at the Ferrari Club of America Annual Meet in Toronto. In August 1998, it was exhibited at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, winning 2nd in class. Two years later it returned to Monterey Car Week for an appearance at the Vintage Ferrari Concours at Concorso Italiano, where it earned a Platinum Award and the Stan Nowak Memorial Award for the best GT Ferrari.

In 2005 Mr. Smith sold the Ferrari to the respected collector John Mozart of San Francisco, and he kept the car for two years before selling it in August 2007 to the consignor, a three-time Pebble Beach Best of Show winner whose collection is generally regarded as one of the finest in the world. The consignor then presented the beautiful 250 GT at the 2008 Cavallino Classic, where it collected a Platinum Award. Seven months later 1431 GT was exhibited at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in a display-only class celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the California Spider. Despite being a non-judged entry, the irresistible spider was chosen for one of the concours’ prestigious special elegance awards, the Strother MacMinn Most Elegant Sports Car Trophy.

Now offered from 19 years of fastidious care within one of the world’s most respected collections, this breathtaking California Spider remains ideal for presentation at world-class concours and marque events. It is worth noting that mechanical stampings corresponding to factory data demonstrate the car is equipped with its matching-numbers engine, and coachwork, greatly enhancing the Ferrari’s authenticity.

This breathtaking LWB California Spider is a peerless example of what is perhaps the sexiest and most elegant design ever hammered within Sergio Scaglietti’s legendary carrozzeria. Further boasting the highly desirable covered headlamps, 1431 GT represents the metaphorical Holy Grail of sports car collecting, eligible for most any event worldwide, and sure to command the admiration of enthusiasts everywhere.

As the recipient of such prestigious awards, this glowing Ferrari would make an unparalleled acquisition for any serious marque collector. It offers further opportunities for concours presentation or touring enjoyment for sophisticated sensibilities—whether one happens to be cruising the vistas above Monaco or the twisting grades and coastal highways of California, for which the celebrated model was so legendarily named.