RETURNED TO SENDER

Starting life as a coupé, this unique Ferrari went back to meet its makers for a factory-sanctioned roof chop and a hot new V12

- MARTIN BUCKLE

The date is May 2023, the scene a big boy's toy box of vintage and post-war motoring exotica, much of it of the seven-figure persuasion, strewn about like discarded playthings on the ex-RAF Tarmac. The occasion? It is best described as a sort of works outing for Kensington-based dealer Gregor Fisken, who, handily for us, has rented Wroughton Airfield for the day as a means of exercising some of his most rarefied stock.

It's hard to know where to look, with Ford GT40, Jaguar C-type, Alfa 8C and Grand Prix Talbot-Lago to name-drop just the highlights. The company I'm keeping today is so exalted I've almost forgotten why I'm here. As the desirability levels ramp up, the car in question hoves into view: a small, dark-blue open two-seater Ferrari by Vignale. The imposing eggcrate grille of chassis 0051S leaves you in no doubt as to the make, while 'V' badges on the front wings identify this curvaceous but not entirely harmonious drop-top as a Vignale creation courtesy of Giovanni Michelotti, that winning combination of Turin coachbuilder and prolific stylist which did most to give Ferrari's earliest road cars a distinctive visual identity before Maranello's official hook-up with Pinin Farina from the mid-1950s.

Bereft of bumpers, it is a compact spider - or more properly a cabriolet - with an air of purpose about it, even if the chunky, tobacco coloured seats and gleaming espresso-machine dashboard tell you it was not designed with Mille Miglia victories in mind. Struggling, in profile, to hide its low-slung exhaust, this 2.3-litre Ferrari rides on a short wheelbase shorter even than that of a T-type MG, at 7ft 4½in and the inevitable tall Borrani wire wheels hiding big drum brakes.