This is the front bodywork from a Ferrari 212 Inter. It’s said to have been removed during a restoration/refurbishment in Italy and then mounted to a steel frame and wired up so the headlights can be turned on, so it can be used as a display piece.
The Ferrari 212 Inter was a critically important early model for the lauded Italian automaker, it was produced in 1951 and 1952 with just 82 examples made in total. The 166 Inter was somewhat based on the earlier Ferrari 166, with a chassis sourced from the Ferrari 125.
This Ferrari 212 Inter front end has a steel frame inside allowing it to be put up on display, as well as an electrical system that allows the headlights to be turned on when desired.
One key aspect of the 212’s historic significance is that it was the first Ferrari to carry a Pinin Farina body (Pinin Farina would become the one-word Pininfarina in 1961), it was the first of many Ferraris to carry bodies from the influential Italian carrozzeria.
Other coachbuilders that would create bodies for the Ferrari 212 Inter included Carrozzeria Touring, Ghia, Ghia-Aigle, Vignale, and Stabilimenti Farina. In 1951, the year of the model’s introduction, it would achieve headlines around the world thanks to a dominant 1-2 finish in the 1951 Carrera Panamericana in Mexico driven by Taruffi/Chinetti and Ascari/Villoresi respectively.
The 212 Inter was powered by the 2.6 liter version of Ferrari’s Colombo V12 engine, still a relatively new engine at the time having only debuted a few years earlier in 1947. Incredibly, the Colombo V12 would remain in production (in various modified forms) until 1988.
The front end you see here comes from a Ferrari 212 Inter Coupe Vignale, as the name suggests it was a hardtop coupe designed and made by Carrozzeria Vignale. The body was hand-formed from aluminum alloy by the company’s seasoned craftsmen.
Above Video: This is footage of an original Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Coupe being driven around the streets of Italy – it’s native habitat.
This front end is now being offered for sale on Bring a Trailer out of Napa, California. It still carries its original Ferrari badge in pride of place, as well as plenty of patina with the workman’s notes on the bodywork, and bare aluminum alloy on the inside.
A box-section steel frame was fabricated for the bodywork to allow it to be wall mounted if the new owner should wish, and it’s equipped with a 120 volt electrical system that allows the headlights to be turned on.
If you’d like to read more about it or place a bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
