Ferrari 250 Europa and 250 Europa GT Coupé PF Official Picture Thread

Lawrence J. Garden, not Lorne, owned 0351 EU from January 1958 until 6 July 1961, when 3rd owner Stan Baker got the plates ASU 097.

Marcel Massini

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Alright, next one, please. Not my photo.
And the Bologna plate is not from a Ferrari and dates from December 1950. That I have already checked.

Marcel Massini

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Plate dates to mid-1955. It is a temporary "white plate", which did not require a registered owner and an address in Italy.

 

No.

Marcel Massini

 

Heh, Okay!

 

Here's 0351EU around 2003 in Southern CA. Tom Shaughnessy owned it at that time and I believe he sent me this photo... and hopefully he doesn't mind me sharing it... and one of the most beautiful Ferraris ever to come out Maranello, IMO. I do not feel this way about the truncated GT version, BTW.

john



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Didn't I already say that the temporary "white plates" were issued in 1955?

Photo was taken outside Autoval premises in Paris late in 1955. If you look carefully, you can see sign starting with "Au..." in the photo. Serial number is ether 0399GT or 0405GT - how can one really tell?

 

Just to clarify: EE 12636 isn't an Italian export plate. EE means escursionisti esteri, something like foreign travelers. A foreign customer could buy a car in Italy and registered here if he/she needed a car to travel in the country for a short or a long period, but less than a year. The consecutive number was, for obvious reasons, national and not provincial and it was assigned by a local homologation office. Because the customer hadn't a permanent residence in Italy, he/she had to take one, temporary, at a local Automobil club office (ACI). This address was registered on the libretto di circolazione (registration document). After a year, the customer could export the car without the EE plate. The EE registration database doesn't exist anymore since Italy adopted the EU plates format in 1998.

 

Samples for EE license plates, here from 1967 on two 275 GTB/4's.

Marcel Massini

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Can you tell more about the transfer plates? They were often used for export, and the format seems to have been revized in 1959, to avoid confusion, I would think.

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Hi Kare,
very good eye for the Autoval sign..If so, this could be the car displayed at the Auto Salon Paris 1955
(photo from the book Ferrari au Salon de Paris, Dominique Pascal), with S/N 0405 GT given..

best wishes,
Björn
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0139E at Grand Touring MD
https://www.grandtouring.com/projects/1955-ferrari-250-europa-gt
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0387 GT renumbered 0139 E. Regarding the description in the grandtouring.com link which I've copied and pasted below, there were in fact 27 Pinin Farina Coupes and 5 Pinin Farina Berlinettas from this group of 250 Europa GTs. 8 of the total 35 cars built, which were in addition to the 27 Pinin Farina Coupes, were either some kind of Speciale, Prototype or Competition car built on the 250 Europa GT tipo 508 (chassis) tipo 112 (engine) platform.

1955 Ferrari 250 Europa GT
Delivered new to Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Europa GT 0139E has since found its way to Grand Touring for a mechnical reconditioning.

Setting the stage for the iconic Ferrari GT lineage, the 250 Europa GT established a foundation for the 250 GT series which followed. While the Europa GT closely resembled its Europa predecessor, internally it was a different animal altogether. Under the hood was a de-tuned short block Colombo V12 from the 250 MM. It produced 220 HP thanks to a set of Weber 36 DCZs and a 9.0 compression. Pinin Farina bodied most Europa GTs, as they had with the Europa, with around 30 produced in total. Of those 30, four were constructed of aluminum for racing use. These aluminum-bodied Europa GTs essentially served as a prototype for the 250 TdF.

This Europa GT was delivered new to devote Ferrari enthusiast Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. It has since spent time in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Holland before finding itself here at Grand Touring to undergo a mechanical reconditioning.

 

I was out taking 0387GT/0139E for it's first test drive since installing the motor that Patrick Ottis rebuilt a few years ago. Still doing a little tuning and adjusting. It was running a little lean due to the cold weather that we have been having (30-40 degrees F) and the fact that the hood still needs to be installed, but overall it was very nice to drive.
It is one of my favorite early Ferraris, as the newer front suspension design (independent coil springs, instead of transverse leaf spring as used on the regular Europa) transforms the handling from truck-like to sports car.
Once we finish up sorting out the final little things, and reinstall the hood this will be a really fine driving car.

Brian Brown
Grand Touring Enterprises

 

0387GT/0139E is not a standard 250 Europa GT. It is one of 2 cars including 0389 GT to have a tipo 513/508 chassis with competition features, so won't drive like a standard car. It's said to be the first 250 Europa GT to have front coil springs. Not sure if the later 250 Europa GTs apart from 0389 GT (or earlier) have the front coil springs rather than the leaf springs. It also has an alloy body which will affect the way it drives. The wheelbase at 2600 mm is also 200 mm shorter on the Colombo engined 250 Europa GT than the earlier 250 Lampredi engined Europa.

 

The provisional plates were necessary to let circulate a car before the homologation. They also allowed to move a car in another country, for a motor show for example, only by the producer or the coachbuilder. Those plates were released by the regional motorisation office only: Turin for the Piedmont , Bologna for the Emilia-Romagna, Florence for the Tuscany etc. etc. The plate was supported by a paper documentation which stated the un-homologation of the car, the temporary ownership, the serial number, etc. This documentation was necessary to sale the car in a foreign country without an italian homologation, at a motor show for example. The new owner would homologate the car in his State after the sale contract. The format had been revised in 1959 because in 1959 were introduced the new Traffic law which modified these documents, changed the color of the turn signals from red to orange, introduced the side turn signals, etc. etc. In 1962, following the common traffic laws voted by the CEE partecipating countries, a modification of the traffic law introduced the side-view mirror on the left (but the manufacturers agreed in 1970 only), the new registration document (libretto di circolazione) connected with the plate number (this was still important because the new owner resident in another Italian region should change the plate even if the car was second-hand) and changed the material of the plate from iron to plastic.

 

There’s a guy in Switzerland.

 

That photo should be labeled NSFW

 

Not a regional office because this kind of plates don't exist anymore. Today has been replaced by the EU provisional plate.
The coachbuilder archives didn't have such ledgers. In any case the provisional plate wasn't connected with the chassis number and it could be use repeatedly on different cars. The serial numbers were written on the attached documentation only. So basically a number plate is useless.

 

are dynos usually done using open exhaust and open carbs?
i had an engine dynoed with mufflers
attached, open carbs on an american v8