Stop Expecting It To Be A GTO Or SWB And All Is Right With The World

Ferrari’s 250GT Lusso has for far too long been underappreciated by people who unfairly fault it only for not being what it was never intended to be. So says James Page after driving a beauty.

- James Page

One of the great mysteries of the classic car world is how the Ferrari Lusso for so long retained such a relatively low profile, especially in relation to its 250GT brethren. After all, it used many of the best bits from a sensational line of road and racing cars, and clothed them in an astonishingly beautiful shape that hinted at great things to come from Maranello. It had two seats and shared the Tipo 158 engine with the Short Wheelbase and GTO, all of which put it a cut above the 2+2 GT/E. And yet it was a spacious, luxuriously trimmed road car. Obviously it lacked the focus and prestige of its competition-bred siblings, but the Lusso was the last in a dynasty that established Ferrari as a manufacturer, rather than a race-car constructor that allowed the occasional run of road cars to trickle out of the gates. It was warmly received in period, so perhaps later in life it simply confounded people who were seeking to pigeon-hole it, but didn’t know quite what to make of it.

Strictly speaking, the 250 story begins with the 1953 Europa and Export, but they shared the Lampredi V12 engine and Tipo 104 chassis with the 375 America, production of which came to an end when the Europa GT was introduced the following year. This is where the 250 line of road cars really originates, with the Colombo ‘short block’ V12 becoming a permanent fixture and enabling Ferrari to use a shorter 2600mm wheelbase. Even so, until 1957 each variant was still being built in dozens rather than hundreds – and sometimes not even that. It took until that year’s launch of Pininfarina’s understated GT coupé for Maranello to commit to anything approaching series production, with more than 300 being constructed up to 1960.