LA's Best 1958 Ferrari 250 California Spyder

LA's Best Due to its appearance in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', the California Spyder became one of the most popular Ferraris. During the movie, Ferris fell in love with one and America did aswell. Unfortunately, the audience was fooled, and many people discovered, especially after Ferrari sued for damages, that the production company had used a kit car based on an MG chassis. It's a shame really, since the real version has all the hallmarks of a competition car underneath its curvaceous skin.

The California Spyder was motivated by U.S. distributors Jon von Neumann and Luigi Chinetti who convinced Ferrari to create a performance convertible named after their best market. The California Spyder emerged with supercar performance and became highly desirable due to its limited availability. Each car was special too, and some examples came with competition-spec engines or the very rare factory hard top.

Sharing its drive train with the legendary 250 GT that won the Tour de France, the California Spyder was a car to get excited about. It had the same 140 mph performance and the same competition chassis as the Ferraris lapping the race tracks. Therefore, it only made sense to equip some examples with competition engines and aluminum bodywork to race at Le Mans and Sebring. These Spyder Competiziones did well in the GT class and tied all California Spyders to a sporting pedigree.

California Spyder bodies were hand crafted by Carozerria Scaglietti who built most of Ferrari's competition bodies at the time. His design was largely based of Pinin Farina's 250 GT Cabriolet Series I but used a new upright rear headlight treatment. Some cars featured more functional uncovered, rather than fared-in, headlights. The overall design, especially with covered headlights, was often described as more rakish than the much more subdued and luxurious 250 GT Cabriolet.

Inside, each Spyder car had a no-frills interior and a small heater was the only luxury. Behind the seats, a fabric top was installed which was tidy, and well proportioned when upright, but was made with no inner liner.

Distinguished by chassis length, it is important to mention that the Spyder was made in two distinct series. The first series was built on the 250 GT Tour de France frame including a wet-sump version of its V12 engine. In 1959, Ferrari debuted the shorter California Spyder on their stiffer short wheel base (SWB) chassis. These cars were superior as they had disc brakes, a more powerful engine, and a less bulk.

A total of 125 cars were competed from 1958 to 1963, and they became the most prized Ferraris on the road. The series was followed up by a very limited run of 365 Spyders made in 1967.

At their 2004 Auction in Gstaad Switzerland, Bonhams offered California Spyder #0965GT, a LWB steel-bodied car. It was the most expensive sale of the day, changing hands for 1 300 000 CHF (1 000 000 USD). #0965GT is pictured above as our red feature car.

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