Ferrari 250GT Lusso: keeping it in the family

By James Page

| 24 Oct 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Ferrari 250GT Lusso: keeping it in the family

Few cars can match the clean, understated elegance of the Ferrari 250GT Lusso.

Others may be more muscular, more aggressive, but this Pininfarina-designed and Scaglietti-built beauty has a rare purity in its lines.

It was produced in much smaller numbers than rivals such as Aston Martin’s DB4 and DB5 – only 351 left the Maranello factory – and offers a seductive blend of exclusivity and style.

It’s little wonder that film icon Steve McQueen cherished the Lusso bought for him by his first wife, Neile.

The Ferrari 250GT Lusso’s eggcrate front grille was a Prancing Horse signature

Suzie Pilkington has a deep appreciation for this graceful model’s many qualities, and she now looks after the Lusso that was bought in 2007 by her father, serial Ferrari owner and marque aficionado Stephen Pilkington.

The family has a long history with cars: Suzie’s great-grandfather, Richard, founded a garage business in Bolton that became a Morris agent during the ’20s.

After the war, Richard’s son, Vernon, took over the thriving concern – the sales ledgers for which survive intact, covering the years from 1924 to 1973 – and regularly entered trials, rallies, races and sprints in a variety of cars.

Suzie Pilkington in this Ferrari 250GT Lusso today

Then came Stephen, who is now retired but became a well-known name in the Ferrari world – and he has owned a mouth-watering selection of them over the years.

“He was an electronics engineer,” explains Suzie, “but he loved cars so he’d buy and sell the odd one.

“Then, just before my brother was born, he decided that working for other people was not for him and that he was going to sell cars.

“My mum wasn’t exactly over the moon – she was expecting a child, and her husband, who had a job and a career… Anyway, that was in 1971. He’s been buying and selling cars ever since.”

Starting young. The Pilkington family has a long history with classic cars

Although Stephen sold a lot of Bentleys and Rolls-Royces to the USA, he had a particular soft spot for Ferrari, says Suzie: “He liked the way they were engineered. He liked the shape of them, the sound of them.

“He didn’t do it for the money. Yes, things could be bought and sold, but he wasn’t very good at selling. He was really good at buying cars.”

Spending part of the COVID-19 lockdown going through all of the old ledgers, receipts, invoices, documents and photographs, Suzie worked out that her father has owned more than 100 Ferraris.

Some were for his own use, others were to sell on, and he acquired the first of them in 1970.

Much of this Ferrari 250GT Lusso’s interior was replaced when it came to the UK

“It was a blue, right-hand-drive 250GTE,” says Suzie. “The floor was so rusty you couldn’t put your feet down in the back.”

He nonetheless became a firm fan of the underrated 2+2, and there has been a number of them among almost 50 250GTs.

After the birth of Suzie’s older brother, Richard, a Short Wheelbase that had been acquired for £1100 – chassis number 1995GT, later owned for many years by Richard Colton – was pressed into service as a family car; the carrycot apparently fitted perfectly in the area behind the front seats.

Stephen also loves the 275 and still owns an aluminium-bodied four-cam, but he is less keen on the Daytona, which he felt was too heavy.

Camping with a Ferrari 330GT in 1977

There have been more than 20 Dinos, “numerous” 330s, a single F40, and two 250 California Spiders – including one he kept for 20 years and from which Suzie once helped to strip the paint as a way of earning some pocket money before she went off to university.

Then there was one of the crown jewels of the Ferrari world: a 250GTO.

For a little more than two decades, Stephen owned chassis number 3527GT, the car in which Lucien Bianchi and Claude Dubois had come within an ace of winning the 1962 Tour de France.

The late Dubois fondly remembered being reunited with his old Ferrari during Stephen’s time with it, while fellow owner Brandon Wang once saw a pair of legs sticking out from beneath a 250GTO during an event and said: “I know that’s you, Stephen, because no one else would be lying under a car.”

Suzie earns her keep helping to strip the paint from a Ferrari 250 California

All of which brings us back to this 250GT.

Launched in late 1962, the Lusso marked the latest development in a famous line of 250 models that were all based around the 2953cc variant of Ferrari’s Gioachino Colombo-designed V12 engine.

The marque had been expanding its international sales network through the late 1950s and early ’60s, and it was starting to build cars in much greater numbers – as demonstrated by the success of the GTE, of which almost 1000 would be sold.

The Lusso used the Tipo 539U chassis, which shared elements with the 250GTE’s frame, such as the engine being mounted further forward in order to increase interior space.

Stephen Pilkington’s Ferrari 250GTO, 3527GT, was in the family for two decades

It also benefited from the GTE’s ‘long’ rear springs for better ride comfort, but whereas that car had a wheelbase of 2600mm, the Lusso chassis was shortened to 2400mm – the same as that of the Short Wheelbase and GTO.

Beneath the bonnet was the Tipo 168 engine, running on triple Weber carburettors and producing a quoted 250bhp.

It drove through a four-speed, all-synchromesh gearbox, Dunlop disc brakes were fitted all round and the rigid rear axle gained a 250GTO-style Watt linkage.

In its marketing material, Ferrari claimed the Lusso represented ‘the highest standard of Grand Touring coupé, capable of very high maximum and cruising speeds in supreme comfort and safety’; in comparison with the competition-focused Berlinettas, the Lusso offered ‘a more spacious interior and even higher standards of comfort, finish and elegance’.

This Ferrari 250GT Lusso is once again eating up the miles on the open road, just as it should

The days of the dual-purpose road-racing car – so perfectly embodied by the Short Wheelbase – may have been drawing to a close, but the marque’s competition DNA was never far from the surface, and throughout 1962 Ferrari had been the dominant force in all forms of sports-car racing.

The Lusso’s chassis, for example, was said to ‘incorporate all the technical lessons learned on almost every international-class racing circuit and through the toughest of international rallies’.

Stephen Pilkington acquired this particular Ferrari 250GT Lusso, chassis number 4053GT, from the USA in desperate need of restoration, in a deal that was done via David Castelhano.

This classic Ferrari’s modified front end has been corrected

“It belonged to a guy who bought it and was going to do it up, but then didn’t,” explains Suzie.

“Castelhano told him, ‘I know a man in the UK who buys stuff like that. He’ll save it, he’ll get it back on the road – he likes projects’. And it really was a project: it had led a tough life.”

A tough but fascinating life. Chassis number 4053GT was one of two Lusso prototypes.

Not only was it the car Ferrari used for the model’s launch at the 1962 Paris motor show, but it also featured in contemporary promotional material.

Significant parts of the Ferrari 250GT Lusso’s engine were missing when it was acquired, including the cylinder heads and triple Weber carburettors

Stephen was aware of this when he bought it, but over the years there has been a degree of confusion about the identity of the car that appeared in Paris.

Some sources have stated that it was the other Lusso prototype – chassis number 3849GT – and that 4053GT was actually the yellow car that was displayed at the Turin motor show a few weeks later.

Suzie, who is a tenacious and determined researcher, started to gather evidence to set the record straight.

Ferrari production documents showed that 4053GT was built in September 1962 and finished in Grigio with a Pelle Nera leather interior.

The Ferrari 250GT Lusso’s flowing, elegant, Pininfarina-styled lines convey a sense of movement, even at rest

It also featured – and has always retained – distinctive twin tail-lights that set it apart from the production cars, which have single units.

These details alone would appear to confirm that it was indeed the Paris Salon car, with the twin tail-lights being visible in photographs from the show, which ran from 4-14 October.

Its build date means that this car would have been ready in time, whereas 3849GT wasn’t completed until the middle of that month – despite its earlier chassis number.

Records also show that 3849GT was finished in Giallo Solare, which matches the colour of the Lusso that appeared later in Turin.

The Ferrari’s speedo and rev counter are centrally mounted on the dashboard

The Italian show opened on 31 October that year, so the timing fits, and even though it’s been suggested that 3849GT could also have had twin tail-lights at some point in its life, the cars’ respective build dates and colours point towards the inevitable conclusion that 4053GT appeared at Paris and 3849GT was displayed in Turin.

Two leading French Ferrari historians – Antoine Prunet and Jess Pourret – certainly believed that the Parisian show car was 4053GT.

It appears likely that part of the confusion stemmed from conflicting factory records, with one ‘summary sheet’ stating that 3849GT had appeared in Paris.

The Ferrari 250GT Lusso’s Grigio finish was revived after this classic car spent some time painted pink

Perhaps Ferrari’s original intention was to present that car at the prestigious event, but only when other researchers delved further into the paperwork was it confirmed that 4053GT was used instead.

Pourret was particularly well placed to comment, because he used to be the sales manager of Franco-Britannic Autos, the French distributor to which the Lusso was supplied in December 1962.

In a letter written decades later to Stephen Pilkington, Pourret explained that the car served briefly as a demonstrator before being sold on to Guy Domet – a farmer from an area east of Paris.

The Ferrari 250GT Lusso’s gracefully imposing front end

It then had several other owners before being bought in 1969 by M de Manca d’Oliena, who lived in Bellerive-sur-Allier, near Vichy.

He kept the Lusso until May 1973, modifying its front end along the way, then – for some unfathomable reason – painting it pink.

His final act was to set fire to it in an unsuccessful attempt to claim the insurance money.

The car then passed to Patrice Chesnel, who dismantled it with the intention of restoring it, but instead sold it to an American owner who Pourret named as Mark Wallm – although it’s possible that he misspelt the surname.

‘Not only was it the car used for the model’s launch at the Paris Salon, but it also featured in the promotional material’

He remembered Wallm desperately wanting to believe that the bodywork modifications that had been done by a local specialist during M de Manca d’Oliena’s ownership were actually the work of Italian coachbuilder Scaglietti.

After being stored for many years in The Netherlands, 4053GT was sold during the 1990s to a California-based enthusiast before being acquired by Stephen Pilkington.

As Castelhano had predicted, he set about returning this historic Lusso to the road – a job that would not be the work of a moment.

This Ferrari 250GT Lusso has twin tail-lights

The original engine block – stamped with numero interno 492/62 – was still with the car, but much else was missing, including the rear axle, carburettors, cylinder heads, interior trim and wheels.

There was at least a 250 Lusso gearbox included, even if it wasn’t original to the car.

Undeterred, Stephen pressed on and the Ferrari was returned to its former glory over the course of the following few years.

One detail about which Pourret was mistaken was the dashboard: he stated that 4053GT had a Short Wheelbase-style dash, with the rev counter and speedometer positioned in front of the driver, but photographs from the model’s 1962 Paris launch clearly show that it had the production-style Lusso layout, with those key dials offset towards the centre of the car.

Stephen Pilkington sits on a Dino 246GT, one of more than 100 Ferraris he has owned, in 1973, with son Richard on his lap

The front bodywork was restored to its correct shape, the engine was built up by Roelofs Engineering in The Netherlands and the rear axle from a 250GTE was fitted.

Stephen sourced parts from around the world and his own extensive collection, and the whole process took until 2016 – by which time his health was sadly starting to deteriorate.

Suzie therefore took up the baton in terms of establishing 4053GT’s rightful place in Ferrari history once and for all, and her efforts culminated in the Lusso being displayed on Tim Dutton’s Rétromobile stand in early 2024.

This Ferrari 250GT Lusso, displayed at the Paris Salon, has now been returned to its former glory

Fittingly, the European season-opener was held at the same venue as the 1962 motor show, which had that year moved to Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from its traditional home at the Grand Palais.

On that occasion, nearly 900,000 visitors would have passed through its halls and seen this stylish new Ferrari.

There was no shortage of interest more than 60 years later, with Suzie – every inch her father’s daughter – spending most of her time deep in discussion with marque cognoscenti.

The story of this very special Ferrari 250GT Lusso had finally come full circle.

Images: Max Edleston

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