The Beautiful 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO (#4219GT)
Here’s a little information about the beautiful 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO which was on display at the 2022 Concours of Elegance. One of our favourite cars of all time. You can see more Concours of Elegance news, reviews, videos and galleries here.
Of all the many legendary Ferraris, without question the most iconic is the 250 GTO. Designed to take the fight to the AC Cobra, Jaguar E-type and Aston Martin DP214 in Group 3 GT racing, the car harnessed the talents of golden era Ferrari engineers such as Giotto Bizzarrini and Mauro Forghieri.
Though the car largely used tried and tested mechanicals, Bizzarrini employed the latest research from wind tunnel testing at Pisa University to craft a shape to beat the world’s best. Rendered in aluminium by Scaglietti, the 250 GTO weighs between 880kg and 950kg, and is powered by a mighty 3.0-litre Colombo V12 producing 296bhp, sourced from the 250 Testa Rossa Le Mans victor.
This particular car is chassis 4219GT, which was originally sold to Mamie Spears Reynolds, the daughter of former USA senator Robert Reynolds and Evalyn McLean Roberts of the McLean mining company, which once owned the Hope Diamond. Luigi Chinetti not only sold the car, but gained a daughter-in-law- his son, Luigi ‘Coco’ Chinetti Jr, married Mamie in July 1963. The car duly won that year’s Daytona 3-hour Continental with Pedro Rodríguez behind the wheel, and finished fourth in class and 13th overall at the ’63 Sebring 12 Hours with Joakim Bonnier and John Cannon driving.
Mamie’s ownership didn’t last long (neither did the marriage to Coco, which was over by 1965), with Buick and Ferrari dealer, Beverly Spencer, purchasing it in May 1963. He changed the original Rosso Cima paintwork to white with blue centre stripes, as he campaigned the 250 GTO as part of the North American Racing Team (NART). The car was driven by Frank Crane at Laguna Seca, Pacific Raceway and Candlestick Park Raceway, notching up a podium and a class victory along the way.
By the end of 1963 Bev Spencer put the car up for sale again, advertising it for $14,000. George C Dyer Snr of Hillsborough, California, bought the Ferrari early the following year and hung on to it until January 1993, when the current owner, a Mr Brandon Wang took stewardship. Since then it’s been a regular at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Tour de France Auto and Pebble Beach Concours.
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4 comments on "The Beautiful 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO (#4219GT)"
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I attended the 1963 Daytona Continental) on my 13th birthday. Pedro Rodriguez took first pace in this car S/N #4219. I lived near Daytona at the time & my older brother took me to see the sports cars race for my birthday.
His wife was from Asheville, NC & was friends with Mamie Reynolds. Mamie was the heiress to the Hope Diamond at the time. She married Coco Chinetti, Luigi’s son, & that’s the Ferrari connection. My brother’s wife told my recently that we had lunch with her before the race. I don’t recall that too much but I remember Auggie Pabst in his XKE lifting the front wheel off the ground every time he came out of the hairpin. We were sitting in the infield near that turn. I recall Pedro’s red Ferrari & how cool it sounded…unlike any of the Nascar stuff I had heard run before. I stumbled across the February 1963 Road & Track that had the article about the race. The picture of Auggie’s XKE Jogged my memory & I immediately called my brother to ask him what he recalled about the race. His wife (now ex-) told me more about it & how she and Mamie had been friends as young girls in Asheville. She told me how they had once tied the Hope diamond around Mamie’s Great Dane’s neck & it ran around the yard like that. I was pretty skeptical about that, but then I read some stories on-line about how Mamie had played with it in her sand box. It didn’t sound so impossible after that.
Wow. Thanks for your insight David. Must have been cool seeing this car giving it some on a drag strip.
I saw this GTO drag race at Half Moon Bay Drag Strip in Aug.63. It was painted white with blue racing stripes. The event was printed up in a car mag. I also saw this GTO race at Candlestick Park. While working for PGE downtown, I went to Spencer Buick during lunch hour and watched this GTO having crash damage repaired. I was surprised how much Bondo was on it.
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