While gathering for our family Thanksgiving this year, I showed a photo of an average American muscle car to my older daughter. “That’s nice Dad, but what is THAT?” she proclaimed pointing to the headlight and front fender of a Ferrari 275 GTB/4 peeking out in the distance. “That’s a Ferrari 275 GTB” She smiled, nodded, and offered “That’s the most beautiful car I’ve ever seen”. And while her proclamation might have been dismissed by a lack of familiarity with vintage cars, she’s been to enough concours events to have seen a significant number of important cars. “It’s perfect. It’s not trying hard to be seen. It’s elegantly satisfied and perfectly balanced – like those movie starsfilmed in black and white.” I had to agree.
Ferrari collectors and sports car enthusiasts alike would find little argument with the statement that the 275 GTB/4 remains today one of the best looking sportscars ever produced.
Originally launched as the 275 GTB and heralded for decades as one of the most beautifully sculpted cars, Ferrari would unleash their most powerful and refined version of this already capable car with the updated quad-cam engine, resulting in the GTB/4.
Unveiled at the Paris Auto Salon in October 1966, the 275 GTB/4 was a monumental Ferrari. The very first Ferrari four-cam road car, the GTB/4 owed a great deal to sports racing prototypes of the era, unleashing the future of Ferrari performance engines, while standing firmly against competitors with this spectacularly conceived front engine V12 supercar.
Although the body design is credited to Pininfarina, the construction of the initial275 GTB was crafted by the capable coachbuilders of Scaglietti. These two giants of Ferrari excellence sculpted a competition inspired beauty capable of exceptional performance. The 275 GTB could be outfitted for touring or racing, with either three or six Weber carburetors.
The body could be steel and aluminum or all-aluminum, again to save weight for competition purposes. Campagnolo alloy wheels were standard, but Borrani wire wheels were also a highly desirable option. Changes were made throughout the production run, with the most notable being the extension of the nose of the car, coupled with a smaller grille opening, resulting in both short and long nose variants.
Building from the perfectly proportioned long-nose two-cam 275 GTB, the GTB/4 was updated with a central bulge to the bonnet, suggesting new power beneath the elongated hood. Although the initial 275 was a powerful and well-balanced car, the GTB/4 featured twin double-overhead-cam heads, dry sump lubrication, 9.5:1 compression, an impressive lineup of six Weber 40DCN carburetors, and a 5-speed transaxle.
The free-revving quad-cam engine developed 300 bhp with monstrous low-end torque and dramatically improved overall usability. Beyond its exquisite quad-cam engine, the 275 GTB/4 benefited from other impressive refinements, including a torque-tube driveshaft, fully independent suspension, and more modern interior appointments. Beautiful, civilized, and devastatingly fast, Ferrari’ built just 300 examples in part because of the daunting costs to select clientele.
Any doubt about the import of these cars is easily satisfied by the list of legendary figures who owned these cars including Steve McQueen.Still cited by automotive historians and collectors in the top ten of most highly prized sports cars, the 275 GTB/4 offers incomparable motoring and unparalleled ownership satisfaction among performance-minded enthusiasts.
With its prominentfront mounted V12 engine, the Ferrari 275 GTB/4 is the pinnacle of front engine/rear fastback design. From the cowl forward, the GTB exhibits impressive frontal presence, leaping out in front of itself, the front fenders accelerate quickly away from the center of the car. The visual mass of the forward portion of the car is larger than the center and rear portions.
Aft of the door, the GTB appears shorter than you might expect, made even more deceptive by the single sweep roof line that forms the trunk and Kamm tail of the short rear deck. Stunning from the outside, from the inside, the undulating front fenders and curvaceous hood pour onto the road like superheated fluid melting over the tarmac as it consumes mile after glorious mile.
As dynamic as the front of the car is with delicate chrome corner bumpers, enclosed headlights, and diagonally leaning side vents, the rear of the car is just as cleverly packaged and detailed. The sculptural unity of these two very different proportional themes is brilliantly resolved. The front of the car has significant surface area to manage the elegant lines, dramatically curved windscreen, and low roof line, but the rear of the car must “shut down” the body lines in a shorter space. This is very hard to do without making the design appear pin-headed or awkwardly tall, especially with smaller diameter wheels and old-style tires.
Yet the roof pulls back perfectly from the windshield header in a gracefully flattened curve that slowly draws down over the rear glass and short trunk lid. Remarkably, the upper portion of the side panels have opposite diagonal venting which somehow manage to unify the intersection of the front and rear of the car. An integrated rear lip and Kamm tail close the surfaces out withtraditional Ferrari round taillights offering understated simplicity.
Though most of my design evaluations don’t reference the driving experience, having enjoyed brief but memorable ownership of a 275 GTB 6C it’s worth noting that the visual drama is equally impressive from behind the wheel. Driving a Ferrari 275 GTB is confirmation of what iconic sports car motoring has always been about – power, performance, and presence. But piloting a quad-cam 275 GTB/4 takes performance driving to another level.
There is nothing to compare with the sound of the V-12 engine as the starter lights off, the cams come on, and the sonorous exhaust erupts. There is much to do once underway. Front engine cars tend to pull you into corners and the 275 is no exception – plowing hard on full throttle into a sweeper, fists whitening, drifting into the apex, exiting on song.
Like the prancing horse that decorates the Ferrari shield, the majesty of these beautifully formed thoroughbreds is just as elegant in a motionless stance as it is at full gait.
With its gorgeous Scaglietti coachwork, Pininfarina design, and sonorous quad-cam engine, the twelve-cylinder 275 GTB/4 masterpiece of power and elegance remains an enduring example of the very best in sports car design – one that successive generations will continue to appreciate for decades to come.
