Ferrari 212

1951 Ferrari 212 Export Barchetta - FISKENS

The Ferrari 212 Inter was first presented to the public at the 1951 Brussels Auto Show. This model has replaced the successful Ferrari 166 and 195 Inter GT. Model 212 has become the evolution of the Ferrari 166 - a car designed for ordinary highways, but with the potential of a racing supercar.

The car was built on the Ferrari 125 chassis, and the famous ateliers of Carrozzeria Touring, Ghia, Vignale, and Pinin Farina worked on the body and interior. The wheelbase of the car - 2250 mm. The car was equipped with a 2.6-liter V12 Colombo gasoline engine and 160 hp. at 7200 rpm A five-speed manual gearbox and drum brakes were placed on the car.

In April 1952, the Ferrari 212 Inter cabriolet was presented at the Turin Motor Show, and in the autumn of the same year at the Paris Motor Show - a coupe. The aluminum bodies for these cars were developed by Ghia. Especially original was the coupe design: the upper half of the body is painted yellow-brown, the lower half is black. The line dividing the two colors rises sharply in the tail section, passing horizontally through the trunk.

The owner of the first copy of the Ferrari 212 Inter with a coupe became President of Argentina Juan Domingo Peron.

In general, on the basis of this car a variety of magnificent custom bodies were built by various body factories.

Spyder bodies were made in Milan in the studio of Carrozzeria Touring. It consisted of aluminum panels mounted on a frame of steel tubes: this design is called Superleggera ("super lightweight").

A large number of open bodies such as Barchetta for Ferrari 212 built this Milanese atelier. One of the most interesting is Ferrari Touring Barchetta. The machine was intended for delivery to America, and therefore has a number of features that distinguish it from its European counterparts. The car is equipped with a 2.7-liter engine with a power of 212 horsepower, and in the exterior, “Americanism” is clearly visible in the form of tires with white sidewalls, chrome-plated rims of rear lights and exhaust pipes emerging from the rear wings.

The first owner of this car was Henry Ford, bowing before the Ferrari brand. There is a version that the car presented to the master in a certain sense served as a source of inspiration for creating the famous 1955 Ford Thunderbird, whose exhaust pipes also pierce the elements of the rear bumper. In deference to Henry Ford, the gift was painted not in the traditional red, but in the black “Ford” color.