1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione For Sale - One Of The Most Underrated Ferrari Competition Cars
LMC is very proud to offer for sale this 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione The Ferrari 275 GTB/C is the direct evolution of the famous Ferrari 250 GTO and one of the most important competition sports cars to come out of Maranello. In July 1964, the FIA denied homologation recognition to Ferrari’s rear-engine 250 LM race car claiming that the model bore so little relation to a production car that it had no place competing against standard GT cars. Despite its road-going intent, Ferrari was forced to reconsider the 275 for competition use and began fitting the chassis with competition engines and lightweight aluminum bodies for their race clientele. This birthed the 275 GTB Competizione Speciale of which 3 examples were produced utilizing a special lightweight aluminum body with major modifications compared to the road going 275 GTB. With the FIA still incensed from Ferrari’s attempts to incorrectly homologate the 250 LM, the 275 GTB/C Speciales were not initially granted homologation, as the car submitted was considerably under the dry weight stated for the road-going 275 GTB. Determined to see the car compete, Ferrari offered to accept homologation at the weight stated for the road-going 275 GTB, but the FIA refused. Eventually, both sides would reach a compromise by June of 1965, but only chassis 06885 would see competitive action during that season. 06885 quickly proved the potency of the platform, finishing an incredible first in class and third overall at the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans and a record that has stood ever since, as the best finish by a front-engine car. For the 1966 season, the factory built a series of 12 two-cam cars with long-nose bodywork, officially recognizing the model as the 275 GTB/C. The body was lightened and mechanically revised wherever possible by Mauro Forghieri, under whose guidance Ferrari won the driver’s F1 World Championship title four times. Utilizing ultra-thin-gauge aluminum coachwork with bulging posterior haunches to accommodate wider rear wheels, the latest GTB/C was also equipped with an aluminum floorpan and twin fiberglass fuel tanks capable of holding 36 gallons. The dry-sump type 213 competition engine from the 250 LM was structurally reinforced with a ribbed case and equipped with a special high-lift camshaft, forged pistons, and specialized valves and crankshaft. The casings for the sump plate, clutch bell housing, and timing chain were all cast from Elektron, a lightweight magnesium alloy. While outwardly similar to the road-going example, the Competizione was still far different, more of a wolf in a sheeps clothing meant to appease the officials at the FIA. This 275 GTB/C offered here for sale benefits from minimal competition use in period and a recent exacting three-year comprehensive restoration, resulting in one of the most authentic and well-presented examples of the 275-based racing variant. According to marque expert Marcel Massini, this chassis number is the ninth of the 12 third-series cars and was dispatched to Scaglietti for coachwork in May 1966, finished in Rosso Chiaro paint and trimmed with a Nero interior featuring special grey cloth seat inserts. After a certificate of origin was issued in August 1966, the Ferrari was sold new to the Milan-based company Editoriale Il Borgo di Luciano Conti. Signor Conti was an amateur racing driver-turned-publisher who founded an motorsports weekly called Autosprint which received significant support from Enzo Ferrari (who was disenchanted with the Italian motoring press, and occasionally even penned an article for the publication). The car was purchased for the use of an aspiring young racing driver named Arturo Merzario, who would famously go on to become a factory grand prix driver, and a central component of Ferrari’s legendary 1973 sports-prototype championship winning team—one of the most successful teams in the Scuderia’s storied history. In March 1967 Conti sold the 275 GTB/C to Enrico Tronconi, and a year later the car was acquired from him by Vito Figlioni. The Ferrari was fitted with a chromed grille guard and campaigned at two racing events during 1969, the Castell’ Aquarto-Vernasca Hillclimb and the Colle San Eusebio Hillclimb, both of which resulted in 1st-place finishes by driver Cesare Marchesi. In February 1973, Marchesi arranged a sale from Figlioli to Emilio Gritti Morlacchi, who was a member of the Etneo Veteran Car Club, a significant motoring organization that was Sicily’s first ASI-recognized club. In 1973 the Ferrari was purchased by Amsterdam resident Dr. Paul Schouwenburg, commencing 22 years of ownership based in The Netherlands. A year later the 275 was sold to Cees Fokke Bosch, who retained possession for ten years before selling the car to Nico Koel in 1985. Mr. Koel presented the berlinetta at several events over the following five years and raced the car at the AvD-Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in August 1988. In March 1995 Koel sold the Ferrari to a Hong Kong collector, and the car was domiciled in England. Over his 19-year ownership, the collector would drive the 275 in a host of European vintage touring events, including four appearances at the Tour de France Automobile and five appearances at the Tour Auto. The berlinetta was presented at the 1996 Ferrari 275 Reunion in Oxford and the 1998 Coys International Historic Race Festival; it was later driven on the 40th Anniversary of the Ferrari 250 GTO Tour in France in September 2002, and the Ferrari Factory 275 Anniversary Tour through Tuscany in June 2004. In May 2014 the 275 was purchased by a respected collector based in North Carolina, and he immediately commissioned Mark Allin’s Rare Drive of East Kingston, New Hampshire, to begin a restoration with the goal of bringing it back to concours standards. All mechanical systems were rebuilt, while the exterior and cockpit were refinished in the proper factory livery. The technicians were delighted to discover matching body number markings (B-11) on a majority of the panels and interior components, and they additionally found the original seat insert material under a subsequent recovering: a square-woven grey fabric that they duly replicated for upholstery. After completing the painstaking refurbishment in August 2017, the beautiful Ferrari was then presented at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance as part of Ferrari’s 70th Anniversary celebration, and at the 2018 Cavallino Classic, where it won an FCA Platinum Award. Awards continued at various local concours d’elegance through the remainder of the year, including the Sponsors Choice award at Boca Raton, the Palmetto Award at Hilton Head Island, and exhibition at the Trump Charlotte Concours d’Elegance. The car was also presented in consecutive appearances at the 2021 and 2022 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, the latter of which celebrated “75 Years of Rosso.” Included in the sale is a complete set of tools, the Ferrari Classiche Red Book, factory build sheets, history report by Marcel Massini, ACI estratto cronologico, period racing photos, FIA Historic Technical Passport, former registrations, MOT certificates, bills of sale and numerous restoration invoices. As many of the 275 GTB/C examples were aggressively campaigned in period, the model’s extremely thin
