Ferrari 250 GT Coupé Speciale

The 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Coupé Speciale, chassis 0853GT, was commissioned for Prince Bertil of Sweden and clothed in distinctive five-window coachwork by Pinin Farina. Finished in Italver blue with leather upholstery specified as trim 3100, this left-hand-drive V12 grand tourer was built as an individual commission rather than as one of the standard Pinin Farina Coupés.

The Ferrari was delivered for the prince’s use at Villa Mirage, his residence in Saint-Maxime on the French Riviera. When Bertil returned to Sweden, the car remained in France in the care of Ferrari distributor Charles Pozzi. During the 1960s, Amadori disc brakes replaced its original drum brakes, changing the mechanical specification in which the Speciale had originally been delivered.

Another 250 GT Coupé, chassis 1301GT, was stored at Pozzi’s facilities alongside 0853GT. While the two Ferraris were in France, their engines were exchanged, leaving the prince’s Speciale with the power unit originally belonging to 1301GT. The precise date of the exchange is unknown. In 1966, 0853GT entered long-term storage at Pozzi’s Paris dealership, where it remained for decades.

The Speciale resurfaced in the 1990s and passed to Philippe Lancksweert in Belgium. Swedish collector Jonas Liden acquired it in 2001 and entrusted its restoration to Carrozzeria Auto-Sport in Bastiglia, near Modena. By the middle of the following decade, 0853GT had joined the collection of American Ferrari enthusiast Lee Herrington. In 2007, Herrington owned both 0853GT and 1301GT and was able to return their original engines to the correct chassis.

Under Herrington’s care, the Ferrari appeared at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Class M1. At the 2011 Cavallino Classic in Palm Beach, it received a Platinum award in the Speciale/Superamerica class. The event’s award list also names it as recipient of the Gran Turismo Ferrari Cup for Best of Show GT. It was displayed again at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 2012.

Lee and Joan Herrington brought chassis 0853GT back to Pebble Beach in 2025. Competing in Class M-2, Ferrari Grand Touring, the Pinin Farina Speciale finished third in its class, a new concours result for the same car that had appeared there fifteen years earlier.