Great news from Ferrari: A new Icona Series model, the Daytona SP3; and the last of its flagship 812 Superfast front engine V-12s, a coupe and targa-roof roadster. The bad news: Icona models are reserved for Ferrari’s top clients, and the new 812s are all spoken for.
Is it possible to choose one Ferrari that epitomized the marque in its classic era? Selecting a “top five” would be hard enough. Yet, when you consider that Ferrari road cars remained closely related to its GT racers for the first 15 years or so of the marque’s history, there is one that leaps forward: the 1959-1962 250 GT Berlinetta SWB.
Even casual Ferrari buffs know the distinguished place the 1959-1962 250 GT SWB holds in the family. Bought and raced extensively by privateers, the “Short Wheelbase Berlinetta” was a critical evolutionary link between the bigger 250 GT Competizione (a.k.a. “Tour de France” or TdF) of the late 1950s and the 250 GTO.
