Ferrari 250 GT Lusso - Spotted
Discussion
Rattling out of Hungerford this morning in the van I was caught rather briskly by a pale gold Ferrari.
As soon as we got to a straight I pulled in to let him by and with a cheery wave he passed and then gave it bally hoo up to the M4 and off round the roundabout in style. Amazing spine tingling exhaust note and great to see it being driven well.
Like this one but obviously different colour!
Piccies here
A few facts:
"The full title of the 250 GT Lusso is 250 GT Pininfarina Berlinetta, but the name 'Lusso,' which means 'luxury' stuck. Only 350 of these luxurious automobiles were built.
A Lusso was ordered new in 1963 by movie actor Steve McQueen. He ordered it in rare maroon (Chestnut Brown) metallic paint with light beige interior.
Intended as a road car, the Lusso came with a Colombo V12 engine that was officially rated at 250 hp but realistically produced 225-240 hp. it was built on a shorter wheelbase than its predecessors, and was given a steel body, with aluminum hood, doors, and trunk lid. The unique instrument panel had the speedometer and tachometer placed directly in the center of the panel flanked by the smaller gauges in the front of the driver."
As soon as we got to a straight I pulled in to let him by and with a cheery wave he passed and then gave it bally hoo up to the M4 and off round the roundabout in style. Amazing spine tingling exhaust note and great to see it being driven well.
Like this one but obviously different colour!
Piccies here
A few facts:
"The full title of the 250 GT Lusso is 250 GT Pininfarina Berlinetta, but the name 'Lusso,' which means 'luxury' stuck. Only 350 of these luxurious automobiles were built.
A Lusso was ordered new in 1963 by movie actor Steve McQueen. He ordered it in rare maroon (Chestnut Brown) metallic paint with light beige interior.
Intended as a road car, the Lusso came with a Colombo V12 engine that was officially rated at 250 hp but realistically produced 225-240 hp. it was built on a shorter wheelbase than its predecessors, and was given a steel body, with aluminum hood, doors, and trunk lid. The unique instrument panel had the speedometer and tachometer placed directly in the center of the panel flanked by the smaller gauges in the front of the driver."
Edited by Six Fiend on Friday 4th June 21:48
)
It's an interesting car to drive, bit of a handful at times and the brakes are less than efficient when being given the hoon (as is to be expected from a 46 year old car).
The steering is heavy but precise and it's quite happy being man handled around tight alpine routes without much protest. The driving positon is a bit odd with the pedals slightly offset to the wheel but that's not really an issue once you get used to it. The only drawback for general use is the 4 speed gearbox, as things get a bit noisey when cruising at speed on the motorway/toll routes, it was fitted with an experimental 5 speed developed by GTO Engineering recently but it has since been removed as it was only in Dad's car as a test mule for another customer.
I can forgive all it's little problems and niggles (Italian electrics, say no more) when driving as that engine just sounds amazing when at full bore, can't beat a Ferrari V12 howl.
The steering is heavy but precise and it's quite happy being man handled around tight alpine routes without much protest. The driving positon is a bit odd with the pedals slightly offset to the wheel but that's not really an issue once you get used to it. The only drawback for general use is the 4 speed gearbox, as things get a bit noisey when cruising at speed on the motorway/toll routes, it was fitted with an experimental 5 speed developed by GTO Engineering recently but it has since been removed as it was only in Dad's car as a test mule for another customer.
I can forgive all it's little problems and niggles (Italian electrics, say no more) when driving as that engine just sounds amazing when at full bore, can't beat a Ferrari V12 howl.
Six Fiend said:
A Lusso was ordered new in 1963 by movie actor Steve McQueen. He ordered it in rare maroon (Chestnut Brown) metallic paint with light beige interior.
This one 
Sold a few years back for $2.3m......
I can still vividly remember, as a small child 40 odd years ago, staring wide eyed through the window of HR Owen showroom in West London at a silver Lusso on display inside.
jenvey_gti said:
The only drawback for general use is the 4 speed gearbox, as things get a bit noisey when cruising at speed on the motorway/toll routes, it was fitted with an experimental 5 speed developed by GTO Engineering recently but it has since been removed as it was only in Dad's car as a test mule for another customer..
He may want to look into having a GTE style overdrive setup installed, I know of at least a dozen cars with this done and it makes a very nice difference if your doing long trips in the carGassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff