This one-off Ferrari divides opinion like no other

Zagato-bodied 330GTC heads to auction

As ’60s sports cars go, the Ferrari 330GTC is a certified stunner. Just 600 were built and each was a picture of touring elegance. Well, except this one.

That’s because chassis 10659 cuts a rather different picture to the ‘standard’ GTC: wrapped in bespoke coachwork from famed Italian coachbuilder and design house Zagato, its angular shell is hugely divisive.

With this one-of-a-kind Prancing Horse due to go under the hammer at the RM Sotheby’s sale at Villa Erba on Saturday, we take a look back at its arresting story.

Child of the ’60s

Rewind to 1966: Ferrari launched the 330GTC at the Geneva Motor Show, slipping the V12-powered machine neatly into its range between the powerful 275GTB with which it shared a chassis and the elongated 330GT 2+2.

Designed by Pininfarina, the GTC was a lesson in stylish understatement, with its sweet face and slender nose drawing back through firmer edges to a rear end with strong shoulders.

To Kennedy, via Chinetti

A year after that unveiling, chassis 10659 – the GTC up for auction with RM Sotheby’s – left the factory wrapped in a Pininfarina shell and destined for the USA.

Initially purchased by Luigi Chinetti, that famed importer of all things fast, it was promptly sold on to one Robert Kennedy of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Minor accident, major consequence

So far, so ordinary – or, at least, as ordinary as things can be when you’re dealing with a gorgeous Ferrari. 

But five years later, in 1972, things took a fateful turn when Mr Kennedy had a minor crash that left the front of that delightful shell looking less than pristine.

Creative commissioning, part II

Buff it out and get it back on the road, right? Not quite: Kennedy returned the GTC to Chinetti who, in turn, had it shipped over to Italian coachbuilder Zagato.

Now, Chinetti had form when it came to creating wacky Ferraris with Zagato, having commissioned the firm to create the sharp-edged 250GT ‘3Z’ a few years previously. 

And, unsurprisingly, he wasn’t looking for a standard rebodying job this time round either.

Now for something completely different

Instead, he tasked Zagato with creating something truly unique for the damaged Ferrari.

And, boy, did Zagato deliver: a little bit Daytona at the nose, a little bit Porsche 914 in the middle and something else entirely at the back.

It was, depending on your viewpoint, either a masterpiece of avant-garde styling, or Frankenstein’s motoring monster.

Machine of many angles

Finished, according to RM Sotheby’s, with the assistance of Carrozzeria Carlo Marazzi and M. Gastone Crepaldi, the revamped shell is unlikely to be described as cohesive.

At best, it’s a bold effort to marry several design languages in a single, striking shell. At worst? It’s an awkward, ungainly oddity, with mis-matched angles all over the place.

Weird, wacky and one-of-a-kind

And that’s pretty much the story for the whole exterior: there’s no grille, the line along the side cuts unevenly through the front wheels and the Targa-style canopy slumps into the aft third of the side profile. 

It was, as our own Martin Buckley put it in 2009, “a weird collection of angles, curves and overhangs.”

Proud parents

Whatever the haters might say, though, Zagato was clearly a fan of its own work, opting to display the newly re-shelled machine on its stand at the Geneva International Motor Show in 1974.

Duly exhibited, the GTC was returned to Chinetti and then on to Kennedy who was so pleased with his distinctive Italian stallion that he kept hold of it until the ’90s.

Buckley behind the wheel

After Kennedy parted ways with his singular machine, it went on to appear at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 1996, before entering the renowned collection of Edgar Schermerhorn.

And it was Mr Schermerhorn who was kind enough to let the aforementioned Buckley have a drive on our behalf back in August 2009. Let’s just say, Buckley wasn’t a fan of the design…

A great car to drive…

Wrestling with the question of whether chassis 10659 was “the ugliest Ferrari ever”, Buckley – pictured above in this very car – determined that “ugly does not quite cover it”, before concluding that “one of the best things about being in it is that you don’t have to look at it.”

He did concede that it was “a great car to drive” – but then that wasn’t really down to Zagato.

Conversation starter

So it was divisive. But it was also, like so many of Zagato’s designs, something of a seminal machine – a boundary-pushing exercise in abstract automotive creativity and one that can still stimulate vibrant debate today.

Which, in the year that the Italian coachbuilder turns 100, is fitting indeed.

Attention-grabber up for grabs

What now for the standalone stallion? Well, it’s yours if you’ve got the want and the means: the current owner – a German collector who purchased it in 2009 – has listed it for sale with RM Sotheby’s.

Fresh from a service by German firm Modena Motorsport, chassis 10659 is set to go under the hammer on Saturday (25 May) at the auction house’s Villa Erba sale, on the shores of Lake Como – and you can bet it’ll attract plenty of attention.

Special car, special price

The price? RM Sotheby’s reckons it’ll fetch between €425k and €475k – or £363-405k.

Given its provenance, and the fact that an ‘ordinary’ 330GTC in good condition can set you back half-a-million, that’s arguably a bargain – especially when you consider that it’s one of just a handful of Ferraris ever bodied by Zagato.

And, whatever you pay, you’re unlikely to lose it in a crowd: it’ll be at the centre.