The stepdaughter

It is well known that Enzo Ferrari, ‘il Commendatore’, was not always an amiable contemporary. He liked to change his mind – and he begrudged other manufacturers their success. When Abarth won pretty much everything there was to win in the under-1000cc classes in the 1950s, Ferrari instructed its designers to develop a small four-cylinder engine. The result was a four-cylinder engine with a displacement of 850 cc, based on the well-known Colombo V12, which had started its career with a displacement of 1.5 litres but was already twice as large by the end of the 1950s. The engine, which was installed in a Fiat 1200 Coupé for test drives, is said to have produced almost 100 hp.

But the project didn’t really get off the ground. It was only when Carlo Chiti took on the little car, Giotto Bizzarrini developed a lightweight chassis and Giorgetto Giugiaro at Bertone then fitted the vehicle with an attractive body that things started to move forward again. The ‘Ferrarina’ was first shown in 1961 at the Turin Motor Show, but not at the Ferrari stand, rather at Bertone’s. The engine had been further developed in the meantime, had a displacement of 1032 cm3 and produced 91 hp at 6800 rpm.

But Enzo Ferrari did not want his little daughter. He sold the entire design to the Milanese industrialist family de Nora. There, a company with the imaginative name Autoconstruzioni SA, or ASA for short, was founded in 1962 and began production in 1964. However, the ‘Ferrarina’ failed to achieve great sales success, even though it weighed less than 1000 kg and had a top speed of 190 km/h. But ASA was simply not as sexy as Ferrari, and by 1967, after probably around 90 coupés and a maximum of 20 Spiders, it was all over.

We still have a few examples, because these cars are fantastic.

VIN: 01050 (1964, first series)

Auction: Broad Arrow, Global Icons Online 2026, sold for 79’750 Euro.

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VIN: 01302 (1965, second seriess)

Auction: Broad Arrow, Global Icons Online 2026, sold for 79’750 Euro, with these informations: «One of the very last of the estimated 52 examples ASA 1000 GT coupes produced – Believed to be largely complete, and suitable for a straightforward restoration – Matching-numbers example»

There are more “real” Ferraris in our archive.