Ferrari built just 10 examples of the NART Spider, 25 had initially been ordered but sales were slow due to the eye-watering price tag – even through the car had been featured in The Thomas Crown Affair as Faye Dunaway’s daily driver. After its appearance in the film, Steve McQueen went right out and bought one for himself – further adding to the model’s appeal.
Initially, Enzo Ferrari was against the idea of making a convertible version of the 275 GTB/4, but the USA Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti had convinced coachbuilder Scaglietti of the plan – and together they brought Enzo around.
As it turns out, Enzo had actually been right. The market couldn’t bear the cost of the exceedingly rare hand-built car – just ten were shipped over the production run and the model you see here is undoubtably one of the most interesting of the original ten.
It was bought new by a Spanish Colonel of the Foreign Legion in February of 1968 – and rather mysteriously it was originally fitted with Spanish Sahara license plates, although there is no record of the car being shipped to or from North Africa.
Over the course of the next few decades the rare Ferrari 275 GTS/4 NART Spider was owned by a number of notable collectors, with a full history including a significant amount of documented care being paid to the car over the years including full resprays, retrims, and an utterly vital Ferrari Classiche certification in October of 2007.
Each of the Ferrari 275 GTS/4 NART Spiders was powered by a 300bhp, 3286cc, DOHC Colombo V12 with 6 Weber carburettors. Power is sent to the rear wheels via a 5-speed manual transmission – and it all rides on independent double wishbone coil-spring suspension front and rear, and four-wheel disc brakes.
Due to the rarity of this model they seldom come up for auction, and when they do they’ve sold for as much as $27.5 million USD. This car’s history and the fact that it’s the final example of the model built, as well as the only one that was sold new in Europe means it could sell for more when it’s auctioned by RM Sotheby’s on the 14th of May. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid, you can click here to visit the listing.
Photo Credits: Tom Gidden ©2016 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
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.
