Double Trouble
A proper means of transport has the engine at the front – Enzo Ferrari was convinced of this throughout his long life; after all, that had always been the case with horse-drawn carriages. Even his son Dino, who – unlike his father – had a formal engineering qualification (Enzo never got beyond the third year of secondary school), was unable to convince him otherwise, though he was at least allowed to experiment a little under the wing of Aurelio Lampredi. However, as more and more young, highly qualified engineers began working at Maranello in the late 1950s – Giotto Bizzarrini, Carlo Chiti, and later Mauro Forghieri, and as racing drivers too began to take an ever-greater interest in technical matters – led by Phil Hill and John Surtees – the ‘Ingenere’ withdrew more and more into the shadier corners of the ‘Cavalino’ restaurant. It was all too much for him; the fact that the first Constructors’ Championship in Formula 1 had been won with a mid-engined car did not exactly fill him with joy.
And then the young wild ones wanted to modify his much-loved sports cars as well. But following the success of the mid-engined 156 in Formula 1, Forghieri simply had some strong arguments. Enzo sulked, but eventually gave the green light for the development of a ‘P’ (prototype), on one condition: development of the 250 GTO had to continue at the same time (this eventually resulted in the 330 LMB, which failed to make any further impact). Forghieri didn’t have to start from scratch; there had already been some interesting experience with the Dino 206 and 246, but the new sports car had to be fitted with a 3-litre V12, which was significantly heavier and larger than the delicate Dino engines. With the help of Pininfarina, however, a design and the corresponding body shape were found for the new 250 P, in which only 55 per cent of the weight rested on the rear axle. Incidentally, this was the first Ferrari to be tested in a full-scale wind tunnel – at the University of Stuttgart…
Four Ferrari 250 Ps were built for the 1963 season: #0810, #0812, #0814 and #0816. The first race for #0810 and #0812 was the 12 Hours of Sebring at the end of March 1963, Mairesse/Vacarella/Bandini finished second in #0810, whilst Surtees/Scarfiotti took the win in #0812. #0812 also won the 1,000 kilometres of the Nürburgring, this time with Surtees/Mairesse. The 24 Hours of Le Mans was then officially won by Scarfiotti/Bandini in #0814, although this wasn’t actually correct, as #0814 was still in Maranello for repairs following an accident at the Nürburgring; Ferrari therefore sent #0816 to France with the registration documents for #0814. Oh yes, in 1964, #0816 went on to win at Le Mans once again (but as a 275 P), driven by Guichet and Vaccarella, having also taken the 12 Hours of Sebring earlier that year, driven by Parkes and Magioli. The photos above and below are from 2018, when the whole story came to light: the only car to have won Le Mans twice, sold by RM Sotheby’s via Private Sales. Rumour had it the price was around 40 million dollars… Today, #0816 is said to be owned by Richard Mille.
At the very bottom, we also show #0810, the first of the Prototipo models, which didn’t actually win anything; it was sold to Chinetti in the USA in early 1964, where it also failed to win anything – and has been owned by Anthony Wang since 1988. Gooding Christie’s is auctioning the car at Pebble Beach in 2026, with an expected price of 15 to 20 million dollars.
More Ferrari: we have many, many more in our archive.