1953 Ferrari 212 Inter Coupe

Enzo Ferrari’s focus was on racing, not road cars, but he needed money to finance his racing addiction, so he sold road cars to feed the habit. In November 1948, the first show cars ever exhibited by Ferrari were on a stand at the Turin show—a 166MM racer and a 166 Inter road car.

Between 1948 and 1951, Enzo sold 46 166MMs and 38 Inters, which were skinned by various coachbuilders. The road cars kept the racing department humming and workers paid.

The 212 Inter made its first appearance at the 1951 Paris Motor Show. Between 1951 and 1953, production of the 212 was somewhere between 78 and 84. The Inter was the most successful of the early production cars. Body styles came in everything from berlinettas and cabriolets to coupes. All the top design houses, such as Ghia, Ghia Aigle, Stabilimenti Farina, Touring and Vignale had their versions, while 14 examples were bodied by Pinin Farina. The 212’s claim to fame came with a first and second place at the 1951 Carrera Panamericana with Taruffi/Chinetti at the wheel of one of the Vignale 212 coupes and Ascari/Villoresi in the other.

This 212’s first caretaker was Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, husband to Queen Juliana. It was known that the Prince had a great love of Ferraris and went on to own many examples of the marque, he also became close friends with Enzo and garnered special treatment from the factory and was among first rarefied few who Ferrari would take special orders from. In fact, Enzo even helped the Prince by using the chassis number from his first Ferrari on his new car to save on import tax! Ferrari delivered the Prince’s brand new 212 Inter coupe to Belgium, by way of Compagnie Automobiles Richard, SA, in Brussels. The Prince hopped into his shiny new purchase and drove on home to the Netherlands.

Look up the word “patina” in the dictionary and you just might see a picture of his car. This Ferrari defines the word with a dowager princess style. The 212 Inter shows every bit of its 67 years with an unapologetic, unrestored elegance. The dull and flaking paint somehow doesn’t take away from the Ferrari’s presence. Even though the spokes and grill have rust on them and the door handles chrome has been rubbed away, this little car draws you in. As no two of these cars are ever quite the same this Inter stands out as having very delicate two piece bumpers, front and back, not the larger, single piece versions on other 212s.

It has the look of being driven hard and left to fend for itself. There is crazing and missing paint on the body and under the hood. A little forlorn, but still capable. However, the interior has held up the best, providing a rare look back to the Ferrari’s glory days.

But exterior looks can be deceiving. The 212 may look forgotten, but turn the key and press the starter and slowly, but surely, the Colombo V12 comes to life. The large wooden steering wheel doesn’t have the normal Italian rake to it and you have to hang on to it during spirited driving,  as the big comfy seats don’t do much to hold you in place. Now and then you have to remove one hand to operate the long throw gear shifter. Two large multi-purpose Jaeger gauges give you all the intel necessary. It gets down the road nicely and takes turns in a manner of any older car, same with the braking, but this is what you expect of a machine of this vintage, but all can be forgiven on a nice drive in the countryside.

It’s not sleek, it’s not shiny, it’s not hugely fast, and you do smell gas and oil. “What do you want it’s an old Italian car?” But that old Italian car is a Ferrari and somehow that makes up for a world of shortcomings.

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