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Is Bob Grossman’s Ferrari 250 GT California Spider the Most Desirable of Them All?
It’s hard to say there are any undesirable Ferraris. Perhaps it’s more correct to say that some are just less desirable than others. Few would rank the Mondial Quattrovalvole of the 1980s above the 500 Mondial of the 1950s, for instance. And while there are certainly no undesirable 250 GT California Spiders, they do exist on a spectrum, highly subjective as it may be, and some are simply more desirable than others.
Among the run of 106 produced, 50 were long-wheelbase (102.4-inch) models built from 1958 to 1960, and 56 were short-wheelbase (94.5-inch) models built 1960 to ’62. From there, you’ve got open-headlight examples and closed-headlight examples from each series. Cars with outside fuel fillers and those without. Cars with drum brakes and those with discs. Cars with Tipo 128D engines (inside plugs) and those with Tipo 128F engines (outside plugs). Steel cars and alloy cars.
Ferrari aficionados have debated the desirability of these and other running changes to Cal Spider production for decades, but there has never been any debate over the greatest of all attributes, regardless of configuration: competition history.
Many Ferraris, of course, are oozing with rich racing pasts, and who drove them to what results will always impact not only desirability but the prices they command. For s/n 1451GT, the 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider Competizione headed to Broad Arrow’s Amelia Auction next week, there are few arguments as to where it falls on the food chain.
In the late 1950s, Ferrari’s U.S. distributors, John von Neumann and Luigi Chinetti, certainly knew their market, and their desire for a Ferrari for socialites to see and be seen in provided enough impetus for Enzo Ferrari to produce an open-top version of his potent, proven 250 GT Berlinetta, known as the “Tour de France” for its four straight victories in the 3600-mile race. Ferrari already built a V-12–powered open car, the 250 GT Pininfarina Cabriolet, based on the PF Coupe, so the body work for the new California Spider was handed over to Scaglietti. The result was a cruiser and a bruiser, an elegant convertible that could be unleashed on a racetrack with incredible competence in the right hands.
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Of the LWB Cal Spiders produced, just ten were built to “Competizione” specs, and eight of those received alloy rather than steel bodies; 1451GT is the second of those alloy cars, constructed in the spring of 1959. It was equipped with the first Tipo 128F engine incorporating outside plugs, triple Weber 40 DCL6 carburetors, a 9.6:1 compression ratio, and high-lift camshafts—good for more than 260 horsepower at 7300 rpm. Also included was an external oil cooler, an upgraded suspension, and a 35-gallon racing fuel tank with a filler cap centrally located through the trunk lid.
The car was finished (a loose term, given the rush to get it done) June 15—five days before its debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans as Chinetti’s N.A.R.T. entry in the hands of its first owner, the New York car dealer and sometimes-SCCA racer Bob Grossman and his co-driver, Fernand Tavano.
This was the Le Mans race that made Carroll Shelby famous, with his outright victory in an Aston Martin. But it cemented the legacy of 1451GT, too, because Grossman, who had never raced at the French circuit, brought the Cal Spider home in fifth place overall and third in the GT class, covering 2463 miles at an average speed of nearly 103 mph.
Grossman sent the car back to factory to have it buttoned up and repainted in a proper coat of silver, then raced it with more success throughout the rest of 1959 in SCCA events and at the Nassau Speed Weeks in the Bahamas that December. He then picked up where he left off in the spring of 1960, with more SCCA success during the summer. Sometime that autumn, Grossman sold the car to fund the purchase of a 250 GT SWB.
After bouncing around among Ferrari collectors for the next two decades, 1451GT was comprehensively restored in 1981 by its newest owner, Jon Masterson, with the color changed to Rosso Corsa and a tan leather interior fitted. Masterson debuted the car at the 1983 Pebble Beach Concours, where it took best in class, and it continued to win awards at shows around the country over the next the decade. In the 1990s, he toured with it and competed with it several times at the Monterey Historics.
In 2007, Masterson consigned the Ferrari to RM’s Sports & Classic Car Auction in Monterey, where it sold for $4.95 million. A year later, the car received Ferrari Classiche certification, which confirmed the originality of its major components as delivered in June 1959. That owner continued to display it at major shows and also tour with it on events such as the Copperstate 1000. In 2010, he commissioned a second restoration, this one designed to bring it back to its Le Mans configuration, including the large white roundels bearing Grossman’s number 16. In 2017, the car changed hands again, this time for $17,990,000.
It is largely unchanged from that sale eight years ago, but now has another trip to Pebble Beach under its belt, last year at Pebble Beach’s Casa Ferrari. As one of the marque’s preeminent models, with one of the most successful racing records of all California Spiders, along with a long string of show and event successes, it’s hard to argue the desirability of 1451GT. When it hits the auction block next week, with a presale estimate of $10M–$14M, we’ll see how the market views it.
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If you take a Corvette to a judged show that has had a color change, you basically get put in time out, dunce cap and all for your trouble. But as I read the text, it’s ok to do that to 7-8 figure cars? In most cases if the color is incorrect for the car ,(the color that it was born with), that kills 40-60% of its value. Did I miss something? I have a Vega that was white, now red, that I was afraid of losing money on.
There are prettier 250’s out there to me. It’s definitely a desirable car but on the Ferrari 250 beauty scale it’s not the top one for me. But it’s not like I matter, I couldn’t afford this in my lifetime.