Beschreibung:

In the early 1950s Ferrari was far more concerned with the manufacture of competition cars for itself and selected customers than with building road cars, but nevertheless took the first steps towards series, if limited, production with the 250 Europa. Introduced alongside the larger-engined 375GT America at the Paris Salon in October 1953, the Europa shared the America’s long-wheelbase (280cm) chassis and Aurelio Lampredi-designed, 60-degree V12 engine. In ‘250’ form, the Lampredi unit featured ‘square’ bore/ stroke dimensions of 68x68mm and produced around 220bhp. Lampredi’s race-proven ‘long block’ V12 endowed the Europa with phenomenal performance among contemporary GT cars - the speedometer reads to 300km/h (186mph) - and was the chosen engine for Ferrari’s early sports-racing cars. It was a 250 Sport that Bracco drove to his famous victory in the 1952 Mille Miglia that demonstrated the engine’s capability and prompted its selection by Ferrari for use in their first production luxury sports car - the Europa. Chassis and suspension followed established Ferrari practice, the former being a tubular steel framework with oval main tubes; the latter independent at the front by means of ‘A’ arms and transverse leaf spring, and by a live axle at the rear. Along with its generous wheelbase, the Europa’s four-speed all-synchromesh gearbox indicated that this Ferrari, rather than being a mildly civilised race car, was indeed intended for the road, not the track. There was no ‘standard’ bodywork as such, as every Europa was a bespoke creation to individual customer order. Production, however, was destined to be short-lived, ending late in 1954 after just 18 cars had been produced. Pinin Farina was responsible for bodying the majority of Europas, completing 15 as coupés and one as a cabriolet, while Vignale was responsible for the other two, both of which were coupés. Pinin Farina’s influential, high waisted, shallow-windowed coupé body that featured on the Europa is widely regarded as one of the famed carrozzeria’s most successful designs. Built in November 1953, chassis number ‘0325EU’ is bodied in highly unusual and distinctive five-window configuration; only two or three Europas were produced in this particular style, and this car is totally unique in so far as it is believed to be the only one built with aluminium coachwork. Aluminium was used for almost every body component, including the inner door panels, dashboard, window winding mechanisms, window frames and floor. In addition this car incorporates many special features, such as a sophisticated time of trip/ average speed indicator gauge, dual wiper motors and special bonnet release handles. Ferrari’s archives record the coachwork colour as ‘Grigio Conchiglia Betulla’ (shell grey) with blue leather trim. Sold new in the USA and for many years lost from sight, ‘0325EU’ re-emerged around ten years ago after Symbolic Motors placed a ‘Ferrari wanted’ advertisement in the Los Angeles Times. A Mr Sternes replied, saying that he had an old Ferrari at his home in Santa Monica. Symbolic were amazed to discover this car in his garage, exactly as it had been laid up twenty years previously. The car was complete, unmolested, with all its detail features intact, and in sound condition after relatively little use. At that time it had one of three ‘Mexico’ works engines installed, and this unit was later removed and reunited with its original chassis in Japan. After extraction from Mr Sternes property the car passed to Pat Smeikel, who then embarked on a money-no-object, ground up restoration - undertaken between 1996 and 2001 by noted Californian Ferrari restorer Rod Drew, of FAI - of what appeared to be a low mileage car (indeed, the odometer reading of circa 56,000 kilometres may well be correct judging from the condition of key components at the time of discovery). A correct Lampredi-type V12 from Europa ‘0313’ was purchased from Giovanni Ladi and totally rebuilt with new rods and pist