Words: Nathan Chadwick | Photos: Gooding & Co
The 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider that stunned crowds at that year’s New York Auto Show is to be auctioned by Gooding & Co at its Amelia Island sale later this year.
Supplied by Luigi Chinetti, chassis 3099 GT was the 32nd car built out of 56 SWB models built, and is the only one finished in Azzurro Metallizzato exterior with Natural Connolly Vaumol leather upholstery. The car is also one of only 37 examples to feature covered headlights. It (rather suitably) called California home for the first decade of its life, where it was originally used as a daily driver. At some point it entered the the stewardship of Rudi Klein’s Porsche Foreign Auto Wrecking, prior to being acquired by Charles Betz and Fred Peters in 1972.
Betz and Peters had the car extensively restored in the early 2000s, and it subsequently appeared at Pebble Beach in 2006 and at several Cavallino Classic events in the ’00s, in addition to an appearance at the 60th Anniversary Ferrari Concours d’Elegance in 2007. It was later acquired by Lee Herrington, who displayed the car at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering in 2008 and at Amelia Island a couple of years later.
The car, which has Ferrari Classiche Red Book certification, is estimated to go for between $18m and $20m when it goes up for auction at Gooding & Co’s Amelia Island sale on Thursday, March 2 and Friday, March 3, 2023 at Racquet Park, Omni Amelia Island Resort. More details here.
