This is a glass-topped desk made from the trunk lid of a Ferrari 250 GTE, one of Ferrari’s most important (and popular) models from the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The 250 GTE was never the fastest, most expensive, or the most successful Ferrari on the race track, but its was the best-seller. It brought much needed money into the company coffers and established the marque as a manufacturer of high-end grand tourers with 2+2 seating and ample trunk space.
This is a picture of one of the Ferrari 250 GTE prototypes that had been built in 1959 being used as the course car at the 1960 Le Mans. It was this model’s first public outing. Image courtesy of Ferrari.
As the story goes, the Ferrari 250 GTE was built specifically to fulfill a request by Enzo Ferrari for a car that could carry himself, his driver, his wife, and their beloved pet dog. Ferrari had built limited numbers of four seaters in the past, but this new 250 GTE model would become the first that was mass produced.
The Ferrari 250 series of models would include many of the company’s most famous cars, vehicles like the 250 Testa Rossa, 250 LM, 250 GTO, 250 GT Lusso, and 250 GT SWB. Interestingly, it would be a series of clutch problems with his own Ferrari 250 that would see Tractor manufacturer Ferruccio Lamborghini have an argument with Enzo Ferrari about it, then start his own car company as an act of revenge.
The 250 GTE, sometimes written 250 GT/E or 250 GT 2+2, made its public debut at the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans in front of an audience of tens of thousands. It was used as the course car for the event, and the publicity it received did absolutely nothing to harm its sales figures.
Over the course of its 1960 to 1963 production there were 954 examples made, not including the handful of prototypes from 1959, making it by far the best-selling car in the entire 250 GT family.
The 250 GTE was slightly longer than the other cars in the 250 GT family, this was to make room for two additional rear seats, making it a four-seater – and far more practical for family use. Image courtesy of Ferrari.
The table you see in this post has been built using a Ferrari 250 GTE trunk lid, it’s now fitted with chromed tubular steel legs and four chromed steel mounts for the glass tabletop itself. It has a license plate fitted that reads “250 GTE” as well as the Ferrari script, a flag decal, and the original trunk opening handle.
It’s now due to roll across the auction block with RM Sotheby’s as part of their Dare to Dream Collection in late May, early June with a price guide of $3,000 – $5,000 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of
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.
