Now also the Ferrari 250 GT SWB
09/04/2020
So now the Ferrari 250 GT SWB is also being rebuilt, or at least almost. If you have the necessary small change (£ 850,000) and a sixties Ferrari front-engine chassis (which may also be a total loss), you can order a practically new Ferrari 250 GT SWB from GTO Engineering, as it was built by Ferrari and Scaglietti between 1959 and 1962. Depending on the flexibility of the licensing authority, the car will then have the year of manufacture of the donor chassis and be a genuine classic car.
After all, the (original) Ferrari 250 GT SWB is one of the five best Ferraris of all time and has sometimes fetched almost ten million euros at auctions, for example in 2015. An original SWB is hard to come by for less than five million. The average selling price is around seven million.
One of the reasons for this is that of the 176 once built (the figures vary slightly depending on the source), there are probably over 250 (still) in existence today. This has to do with the fact that other people before GTO Engineering came up with the idea of building an SWB on the chassis of a 250 GT or GTE.
The guys at GTO Engineering can be credited with the fact that they probably have a lot of know-how, know modern production/engineering methods inside out and also have access to an extensive parts warehouse. What Ferrari in Maranello thinks about these newcomers is still unclear, however, but perhaps this pitfall could also be avoided?
Would I like to drive such a new Ferrari 250 GT SWB? Absolutely! Would I specify a USB port or air conditioning as an option? Probably not. And would I feel sorry for the donated chassis, even if it was in very poor condition? Probably yes, nothing can replace originality.
Whether and how such a "revival" SWB retains its value would be another question. In any case, the last clone was traded for less than a million euros, which should give you something to think about ...
