Mark A Cella On The 1959-60 Ferrari 250 SWB Berlinetta

Mark A Cella and the Ferrari 250 Grand Touring Sport Coupe

The precursor to the Berlinetta, which means “Sport Coupe,” was the Ferrari 250 GTO. Indeed the GTO was built on the strength of Ferrari’s record producing V12 GT racers. GTO equates to “Gran Turismo Omologato,” Italian for “Grand Touring Homologated,” while homologated means “Official Agreement”. The 250 is the cubic centimeter displacement of each cylinder in the engine.

Mark A Cella Officially Agrees This Car is all About Racing

The SWB was built from 1953 to 1964 and really put Ferrari in the limelight. It became Ferrari’s most successful car line of that time. It was their first all wheel disc brake vehicle. One model was their first four seater. Its V12 engine weighed about half as much as the competition’s. The higher tuned ones hammered up to 280bhp at 7,000 rpm. They had a four speed manual tranny, all of which exploded the car to more victories then I can list, here’s just a few:

In the 1960 season it took 1st-4th place in the Le Mans 24 hour race, leaving it’s nearest rivals to eat dust. It took 1st-3rd in its third consecutive victory of the 5500 km Tour de France. Later that season for a second consecutive win at Goodwood, driver Sterling Moss took a victory by lapping the entire field. Then it won all over the rest of the season.

The car weighs only 2,314 pounds which equates to a very high power to weight ratio. Its top speed reached 152 and it hit 60 from a dead stop in 6.2 seconds. All of these figures were superb in 1960.

Mark A Cella Agrees it’s One of the Greatest Ferraris Ever Built

It is said that owners of this car had the luxury and thrill of being able to drive it to the race track, unload their luggage and be ready to race with minimal or no modifications. Just place their numbers on the sides and race. Although the competition models did have an extra 30-40 horsepower and other modifications like shorter wheel base, and aluminum vs. steal, not much could help most other manufacturers.

Sports Car Intl placed it as their 7th Top Sports Car of the 60′s. Motor Trend voted it 5th on their top ten Greatest Ferraris of all time and Mark A Cella rated it first place on his list of top Muscle Cars of the 60′s. It leads over his 67 Corvette Sting Ray and 3rd place 68 Chevrolet Camaro.

Learn more about Mark A Cella Ferraris, and read more about Mark Cella‘s work.

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