Insiders guide to Revival's Feast of Ferraris

Featured marque at Revival this year? The red cars! There will be a veritable feast of Ferraris awaiting visitors to Revival, both out on the track racing and in a special display inside Goodwood’s homage to the Earls Court Motor Show.

Twenty-three cars spanning seven decades will be there for our delectation. We thought that ahead of the weekend it might be fun, and certainly instructive, to get a ‘Man Who Knows’ to give us an insider’s view on a few of them. Enter Bonhams’ Ferrari specialist, Jakob Greisen.

We tracked Jakob down to Bonhams’ San Francisco office and asked him to pick his favourites from the earlier cars on show and share some personal thoughts about them.

Saddle up then for a quick canter around Revival’s (prancing) horse of the year show…

1950 166MM BARCHETTA/1951 212 BARCHETTA

We started close to where Ferrari road cars started with the oldest car in the Earls Court display, the 166 MM Barchetta. ‘It’s one of the Ferraris that put Ferrari on the map and would have to be included in any ultimate Ferrari collection,’ says Jakob. ‘The car has incredibly well executed styling by Touring. It’s the first enclosed-body Ferrari; such a delicate, gorgeous, fine little car – a sports car pinnacle for the time. With 160hp from its 2-litre V12 it’s not that powerful though, and the later 195s and 212s, which shared bodywork, had more power.’

1960 250 GT SWB

‘It’s the Ferrari below the GTO,’ says Jakob. It’s not as expensive as a GTO – maybe US$15-20m for a SWB competition car, a third the price of an equal 250 GTO. With its shortened chassis it was a competition car for the road, at a time in the early 1960s when Ferrari was very dominant in racing. What makes it special to me is its beautiful bodywork – Pininfarina designed, built by Scaglietti. Aesthetically it’s just phenomenal. It didn’t have the six-carb V12 of the GTO but the SWB could be tuned to be faster than a GTO.’

1962 250 GTO

‘The GTO has become the pinnacle but it’s hard to pin down why it has become so significant over so many other great Ferraris. Ferrari made a lot of them compared to something like the Bugatti Atlantique. There’s a lot of romance about the GTO… it’s like the Mona Lisa. Personally I think the 250 SWB is better looking but there’s something about the GTO: the nostrils, the Kamm tail, the six-carb engine. You could have bought one for $15-20m a few years ago; we sold the last one for $38m. The price is more about the car… the right one will command a big price in any market.’

1964 250 LM

‘This is such a cool, cool thing and my personal favourite. It’s kinda like a go-kart with the GTO engine in the middle of the chassis – the first mid-engined Ferrari. It looks great and is an iconic car. I’d love to own one.’

And what of other Ferraris of the 1950s and early ‘60s? ‘The great cars will appreciate rapidly and always be very valuable,’ Jakob says. ‘But in general right now ‘50s and ‘60s Ferraris have gone a bit sideways I would say, and I don’t see them charging ahead like they have in the past few years. A sound investment but I don’t see them rallying like they have.’

1965 275 GTB

‘It looks a bit like the GTO in a way with its Kamm tail and long sleek bonnet – it’s a beautiful Pininfarina design. The 275 was much more developed than the 250, with a transaxle for better weight distribution. The first cars had a propshaft, which could cause a resonance at 80-100mph, so Ferrari came up with a torque tube that solved that. It’s a great car to drive: 150mph in the mid 1960s was phenomenal. The GTB/4 (four camshaft) from 1967 was the final evolution and they have tripled in price in the last four years. There’s a big spread on price because some cars are not as significant as others. A 275 short nose single cam is about $2.5m but they go up to about $4m for a great four cam.’

1970 365 GTB/4 DAYTONA COUPE

‘It’s Ferrari’s muscle car. The Daytona is quite heavy with a big 4.4-litre V12. It’s not nearly as nimble and sporting as the 275 GTB or even a 308, but it is a real GT, one that you drive as fast as you can across a continent. I like the styling but prefer the 275 GTB. It is still an iconic Ferrari.’ And values? ‘Up to $900,000 for a coupe, a million US for an early Plexiglass nose car.’

1971 246 GT DINO

‘What makes a car valuable is the aesthetics, the engineering and the history, after that it’s down to romance. The Dino certainly has the aesthetics. It is an iconic Ferrari that looks like nothing else on the road. And the engineering? Maybe not so much, but it’s still well-balanced and fun to drive. Along with the Daytona it will always be one of the great Ferraris, but at a different price point to some of the others.’

1976 308 GTB VETRORESINA

‘This is a fibreglass car and that’s definitely the one to have. The 308 was the base model Ferrari at that time but it’s a real Ferrari, the essence of a sporting car you could drive on road or track and in the tradition of the 166 MM. I like the styling and with its dry sump, carburetted V8 it’s more pure than some Ferraris of the 1980s, which were heavier and had more emissions controls. 308s have tripled in price in the last two years and you can probably get a good 308 for £50,000. You should only buy a good one.’

1977 512 BERLINETTA BOXER

‘Very sought after now and prices have rallied quite a bit. The build quality in the ‘70s and ‘80s was not like the 1960s when everything was hand built, but the Boxer was the top of the range, the best Ferrari you could buy at that time. A guy who likes the Lusso or the 275 probably won’t buy a Boxer but people in their mid-40s remember these cars and think they are cool. It is a full-on Ferrari. You could put more miles on a Porsche 930 but it would not have the same flair as the Boxer.’

1985 288 GTO

‘This is so cool. For its era it’s probably a more sophisticated car and more special than an F40. It is very high tech for its time, and with its turbocharged engine extremely fast. The F40 is a bit more radical but the design and idea of the 288 GTO are more sophisticated.’

Decided which Ferrari is for you? The only thing to do is head over to the Bonhams Auction at Revival – you can read more about that here.

This is just a small selection of the cars on show inside the Earls Court building at Revival this year. Others include: 250 GT Lusso Fantuzzi, 250 GT Tour de France, 250 PF Coupe, 355 Berlinetta, 488 GTB, 550 Maranello, 599 GTO, Enzo, F40, F50, LaFerrari and Testarossa.

Photography by Tom Shaxson and Pete Summers