If Art Were Made Metal…

Then this unique Ferrari 330GT Nembo Spyder would epitomise it. So says Malcolm Thorne after sampling a car due to be auctioned to raise money for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Beauty is a particularly subjective matter, and yet you could argue that there are certain givens out there that can be universally acknowledged for the magnificence of their aesthetic. Would anyone really argue that Michel angelo’s masterful depiction of David is anything other than awe-inspiringly beautiful? Or that the cathedral in Florence is anything but spectacular? Or that a misty sunrise over the hills of Tuscany is anything but sublime? If we are in agreement that such things – however finite in number – can be universally exalted, that nobody could ever turn a creased brow and mutter words to the effect of “well, it’s nothing special”, then I would add another candidate to the list: the Ferrari 330 Nembo Spyder.

Before reading any further, just pause a moment, look at the pictures and drink it in. Was there ever a more convincing amalgam of hunched-up muscles and gracefully flowing curves? The basic profile is absolutely spot on, with not a wrong angle anywhere to be seen; it is those rolling Tuscan hills transformed into hand-beaten aluminium. But what is the vista of that landscape without the mist or extraordinary light of early morning, the subtleties that elevate the merely pretty to the truly divine? For the Ferrari to make it onto our list of Unequivocal Beauty requires more than just a well-considered profile, but the Nembo pulls it off. Gloriously.