RHAPSODY IN BLUE

One of the rarest and most beautiful Ferraris, this Zagato-bodied 250GT garners awards wherever it is shown. But its owner is not afraid to use it, as Mark Dixon finds out

- Mark Dixon

IT'S AS CLOSE TO ARTWORK AS YOU CAN IMAGINE - IT'S A CONNOISSEUR'S CAR'

That's the claim made by owner David Sydorick, and it's a bold one. But who would dispute it? This Zagato-bodied Ferrari is one of the most gorgeous coupés to emerge from the 1950s, a fact that's borne out by the steady string of concours awards it's accumulated over the last 30 years.

Fortunately, that doesn't mean it never gets driven. On the contrary, Sydorick reckons that regular use has allowed him to evolve and improve the car to the point that it's literally in as-new condition.

"The guy who services it for me says that, of all the cars that come into his workshop, it's the only one that doesn't drip oil or water!' he laughs. 'I've driven it on the Mille Miglia, the Colorado Grande, the Copperstate, Brandon Wang's 250 Tour - where we started from Le Mans and then drove through heavy rain for days and days to Maranello - plus many, many more. We even put it on a barge on the Grand Canal in Venice, to the distress of the gondoliers!'

But this 250 has always led a pretty eventful life. Sold new in early 1956 to an Italian gentleman racer, Vladimiro Galluzzi, who was president of the Milan-based Scuderia Sant'Ambroeus racing team and a good client of Ferrari, it was campaigned by him and a couple of subseqent Italian owners throughout the latter half of the 1950s until it was exported to the USA in the 1960s. Then, as Sydorick succinctly describes, 'it was passed around various collectors in California for many years' until he acquired it in the late 1990s. He's owned it ever since.