In the early 1950s Enzo Ferrari started to understand the importance of expanding the company’s road car offerings in order to keep funding their racing programme. 1953 marked the advent of a new era for Ferrari with the introduction of the 250 model line that would produce some of the finest cars ever made.

By 1955 Ferrari were determined to put a ‘Gran Turismo’ road car into production and at the 1956 Geneva Motor Show a 250 GT prototype was shown. The prototype cars were both designed and built by Pinin Farina at their Corso Trapani works in Turin but they soon found that they were running out of space and were operating in cramped and overcrowded conditions. As a result, the final version was given to Carrozzeria Boano, also of Turin, to put it into series production.

Around 80 examples were produced by Boano, however, by mid-1957 the head of Carrozzeria Boano had been offered a position at FIAT as head of a new central styling department. Production was left in the capable hands of his two partners, Luciano Pollo and Ezio Ellena.

The two men changed the business name to Carrozzeria Ellena and continued with production of the 250 GT. After the first few Ellena GTs were built, they introduced some improvements to the design and styling such as raising the roof line by two inches to improve passenger comfort and removing the front quarter lights to give the car a sleeker look. In total, only 50 Ellena 250 GT Coupes were built.

Chassis 0871 GT was the 45th of the 50 examples produced and it was completed on the 8th May 1958. It was exported to America and sold through Luigi Chinetti Motors in Greenwich. Remarkably, the original Certificate of Origin signed by Enzo Ferrari himself still accompanies the car today.

It is a full matching numbers example including its chassis, body, engine and gearbox and it is offered direct from one of the world's most prominent collectors with whom it has resided for over 25 years. This 250 GT Ellena benefits from an incredibly well-documented history file and presents very well throughout. It is the perfect car with which to enjoy the collector car world.