Ferrari 275 GTB

The Story

The 275 GTB, unveiled at the October 1964 Paris show, is the car where Ferrari’s road division finally caught up with its racing department. It was the FIRST Ferrari road car to combine fully independent rear suspension with a rear-mounted transaxle — a layout proven on competition cars like the 250 Testa Rossa and 250 LM, developed for the road in large part by Mike Parkes. The result was a near-50/50 weight balance and a chassis sophistication no live-axle Ferrari before it could touch. Beneath the long bonnet sat Colombo’s 3.3L (3,286cc) SOHC V12 (tipo 213) — three Webers as standard, with a factory six-carb option Ferrari rated at 320 hp. The body, designed at Pininfarina and built by Scaglietti, is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful shapes of the 1960s.

The car evolved fast. The original ‘short-nose’ Series I generated unwanted front-end lift at speed, so for 1966 Ferrari introduced the ‘long-nose’ Series II: the nose lengthened and lowered, the front intake reduced, improving high-speed stability. The Series II also adopted a torque tube enclosing the driveshaft, taming the driveline flex that troubled early cars. Roughly 440 two-cam GTBs were built — ~236 short-nose and ~206 long-nose — with at least 72 carrying lightweight all-aluminium bodywork as a costly factory option.

In 1966, Ferrari raised the bar again with the 275 GTB/4. Its revised Colombo (tipo 226) gained four overhead camshafts and six Weber 40 DCN carburetors as standard, a claimed 300 hp and ~165–167 mph. Just 330 GTB/4s were built before production ended in 1968. As RM Sotheby’s puts it, the GTB/4 ‘would forever be remembered as the last of the classic V-12 front-engine models’ of the vintage era — making the 275 family both a technical turning point and an aesthetic high-water mark.