When you think of Ferrari, the first thing that comes to mind about the cars is that they are an undeniable blend of beauty with brawn. A Ferrari is still one of the ultimate status symbols and a car that does as well on a track as it does on the road.
When it comes to new Ferraris, of course, they are expensive. But nothing beats the price of a revered classic. For instance, take the Ferrari 250 GTO of the ‘60s. Two models of the Ferrari 250 GTO were sold at astronomical prices, one for $52 million in 2013 and another for $70.2 million in 2018! We doubt the owners would have realized the kind of ROI they would get when they bought the GTO in the ‘60s.
So here, we talk about the equally revered and much-vaunted Ferrari 275 GTB of the sixties again, although, rest easy, the price of these hasn’t gone into double-digit millions. Yet.
So here’s what all we know about the beautiful Ferrari 275 GTB, and the kind of monies it can be sold or bought for in today’s times.
1964 Brought Forth The Ferrari 275
Introduced in 1964, the Ferrari 275 replaced the 250 and came to the fore with many different models to suit every kind of buyer need. It was first shown at the Paris Salon in 1964. What lay under the hood was both similar and different from the Ferraris of the past, the difference mostly in the layout.
The Ferrari 275 coupe and Spyder came designed by Pininfarina, although when it came to the 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder, the design came from Scaglietti. What set the 265 apart from the Ferraris of before was that this was the first time a Ferrari boasted a transaxle as well as an independent rear suspension, an addition made by British race car driver, Mike Parkes.
Understandably, the Ferrari 275 began to make top-ten lists of the best and most awesome cars with alacrity and an expected regularity with great performance and those stunning looks.
The Ferrari 275 GTB Avatars
The Ferrari 275 GTB came as a coupe as well as a convertible, the latter called the 275 GTS and wearing a different body from the coupe. The engines were the Ferrari Colombo 3.3-liter V-12s that made 280 horsepower for the GTB, and 260 for the convertible. You could also tune either of the cars with six-carb, making the same engine jet 300 horses. Some 454 GTBs were built in total and another 199 GTS.
For 1966, the car came mildly revised with a longer nose and a different grille. Then, after gaining two more cams, the 275 GTB was renamed the 275 GTB/4, and the car continued till 1968 in the same format, with 350 being built and sold. There were two special versions of the car as well, in case the 275 GTB wasn’t special enough for some of the folks out there.
There was the 275 GTB/C and only 11 of them were made with a beefier chassis more tuning and aluminum bodies. Power for this went to about 350 horses because this was a variant built for the track, and was a true amalgamation of the 250 GTO and the 276 GTB. That said; it did not qualify for many races because it was judged to be too light.
The second were the 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder and only 10 of these were made. To us, all the cars look gorgeous and while some of them do demand a premium price, even the rest don’t fall in the affordable category.
The Price Of A Ferrari 275 GTB Today
What kind of prices are we talking about?
Let’s try this, a 1967 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder sold for a whopping, whiplash-generating amount of $27.5 million at an auction in California, and had the legacy of being owned by a single family at the time.
Here’s another bit of news, a 1966 275 GTB long-nose sold for $3.08 million at Gooding & Company online auction in 2020 itself, making it the most expensive car to be sold online, yet.
We get it, none of the Ferrari 275 GTBs are cheap or can be had by a car fanatic who has limited pockets. According to Hagerty, the average price of a 1965 Ferrari GTB, the coupe, is $1.65 million. Concours models can climb up to $2 million with ease, though seeing the kind of money the auctions have fetched, Hagerty may be quoting prices on the safer side of things to stop scaring any potential buyers off. The cheapest of these, and we are guessing it must have been in really bad shape, sold for $250,000.
Still a pricey buy although this is one car guaranteed to make you the boss of the road, going by its looks alone. Not the kind of Ferrari a JDM could smoke, right? Plus owning a classic Ferrari puts you in the league of extraordinary mortals, the kind most of us can only be envious of with dramatic sighs...
Sources: FerrariChat, Barrons, Hagerty