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Among the Ferrari 250 series, the light-bodied 250 GT SWB is legendary and was specifically developed to excel on the racetrack.

What is the most sought-after Ferrari in the world today? It would make an impressive list, but any Ferrari enthusiast worth their salt will quickly tell you that perched at the top of that list is the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, the one known as the Holy Grail of Ferraris. Collectors salivate over any Ferrari 250 GTO at all, no matter the year, due to their historic mixture of rarity, power, beauty, and racetrack exploits.

A silver-blue 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO became the most expensive vehicle ever sold as of 2018 when it changed hands for $70.2 million that year. Meanwhile, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO fetched $48.4 million that year, despite not being in as great condition as the 1963 model. In the years they got produced, the Enzo Ferrari himself, had to personally sign off on whether the prospective customer was worthy of one of the 36 units of the 250 GTOs built.

But why are we talking about the GTO here? It’s to better appreciate the revered 250 GTO’s predecessor, the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Competizione, a thoroughbred Prancing Horse that embodied Pininfarina-engineered beauty, euphoric power, rhapsodic sound, and a poise best described by the Berlinetta in its name. Thus, the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Competizione is right up there, not just among the most sought-after cars but also the most valuable objects on the planet.

Related: Here's What The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO Costs Today

First came the 1956-1959 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta LWB (long wheelbase), nicknamed the Tour de France as a salute to the car’s dominance of the French rally for multiple years, earning a seat at the table of historic race cars. Ferrari built seventy-two of the LWB Tour de France, some of which got sold solely for GT races. Then came the 1959 Paris Salon, when Ferrari introduced a competition version of the 250 GT Berlinetta, aptly named the Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione.

Unlike its LWB predecessor, the Competizione was a SWB (short wheelbase) model, sacrificing stability and handling to gain a lower moment of inertia and increase speed. Yes, speed. That and maneuvering, since a shorter wheelbase makes it easier to maneuver in tight spaces and requires a shorter turning radius if you miss your stop. Sergio Pininfarina described the SWB chassis, featuring the least broken lines, as “the first of our three quantum leaps in design with Ferrari.”

The famous Italian automotive engineer Giotto Bizzarrini developed the SWB from the interim LWB Tour de France. The car on display at the 1959 Paris Salon, the 1539GT, lacked fender vents, fender blinkers, front cooling ducts, and a recessed license plate holder on the trunk. Thus, people saw the 1539GT as a prototype, with all the aforementioned features appearing on later models.

Although Ferrari introduced the SWB Competizione as a made-for-racing Berlinetta, it introduced a touring model of the SWB called the Lusso which was larger, had a full interior, and a body made of steel. Whereas, the original SWB featured an all-aluminum body.

The SWB got power from an upgraded engine designated Tipo 168B. The engine comprised an “outside plug” cylinder head with 12 intake ports. It also had regular coil springs on the valves, creating space for more cylinder-head studs to properly seal the copper gasket. The engine produced 237 to 276 horsepower, depending on the state of tune.

Four prototype SWB Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione cars made their racing debut at the 1960 12 Hours of Sebring, where they finished 4th, 6th, and 7th overall behind the winning 1.6-liter Porsche 718 RS60 Spyder. The model eventually got the FIA-homologation just in time to race the 1960 Le Mans. Barely a production car, the Competizione didn’t get six Weber 38 DCN carburetors until the test weekend at Le Mans.

With the Weber 38 DCN specification, the cars finished 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th at the Le Mans and 1st in the GT 3.0 class. The SWB Competizione’s next stop was the infamously narrow Targa Florio 44.7-mile course that same year, where all four SWBs got a friendly shaming by the Ferrari Dino 246 S much more suitable for the tight course. The Competiziones were just as ill-suited for the 1000 km Nurburgring, where they finished behind the works Ferraris, the factory Porsches, and the winning Camoradi Maserati Tipo 61.

Notably, the SWB won its first major overall win at the 1960 Tourist Trophy, driven by Sir Stirling Moss, who later went on to win the Redex Trophy at Brands Hatch a week later, driving the same car. Moss would drive the SWB to victory again at the Nassau Tourist Trophy at the Bahamas Speed Week. But the 3,200-mile Tour de France is where the 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione SWB came into its own, with all seven entrants sweeping the podium.

It also won the 1960 Paris 1000 km at Montlhery, driven by Olivier Gendebien and Lucien Bianchi. Notably, Ferrari developed an ultimate version of the SWB, sometimes called the SEFAC Hot Rod, for the 1961 Le Mans. The car differed from the regular SWB Competizione models in many ways, including its Testa Rossa-derived engine and a stripped interior with Plexiglas windows in a lighter body.

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What are the two surest ways to drive up the value of your Ferrari? Ensure the car is rare and in good condition, or win a couple of Tour de France races in it. Well, the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Competizione has been there and done that. But that’s just scratching the surface of the Competizione’s collectible value.

The model comes from one of Ferrari’s most successful model lines – the 250 Series that eventually gave birth to what was the world’s most expensive car before the $143 million Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe took the crown this year – the Ferrari 250 GTO. Among the Ferrari 250 series, the 250 GT SWB is legendary, specifically developed to provide respite to a prancing horse struggling to win big races. The Competizione showed Enzo understood the importance of winning on Sunday to sell on Monday.

Notably, the lighter aluminum-bodied original SWB Competizione is rarer than the second steel-bodied variant and is thus one of the most sought-after Ferraris by collectors. This is despite the second variant, also known as the Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Passo Corto. The Passo Corto featured a luxurious interior and was almost as powerful as the race-bred Competizione.

Philip Uwaoma, this bearded black male from Nigeria, is fast approaching two million words in articles published on various websites, including toylist.com, rehabaid.com, and autoquarterly.com. After not getting credit for his work on Auto Quarterly, Philip is now convinced that ghostwriting sucks. He has no dog, no wife- yet- and he loves Rolls Royce a little too much.