The hips don’t lie. Those round, voluptuous curves aft the cockpit are where your eyes are first drawn when presented with the arresting Ferrari 375 MM Spider, bodied by Pinin Farina in Turin. It was the historic coachbuilder’s first interpretation of an open competition Ferrari. And, heavens above, didn’t it do a great job?

Introduced in 1953 as a means of keeping the mighty Mercedes-Benz 300 SLRs at bay, the 375 MM built on the success of the Mille Miglia-winning 340 models, Ferrari’s first production car to be powered by Aurelio Lampredi’s powerful long-block V12. The engine was enlarged to 4.5 litres in the 375 MM, raising power to a heady 340bhp. These ‘big-banger’ Lampredi-powered Ferraris really were the fastest cars on the road at the time, spearheading Ferrari’s assaults on all the greatest endurance races. And coupled with the efforts of Luigi Chinetti, who’d begun selling Ferraris across North America for the first time, the Prancing Horse was fast establishing itself as a purveyor of the world’s most exquisite motor cars.

A mere 26 Ferrari 375 MMs were built, clothed in a number of striking different bodies, predominantly by Pinin Farina, though also by Vignale, Scaglietti and Ghia.

As early Christmas presents go, we’re sure you’ll agree that a 1950s ‘big-banger’ 12-cylinder Ferrari would take some beating. The Italian mineral-water magnate, keen amateur racing driver and loyal Ferrari pilgrim Piero Scotti treated himself to such a gift in December of 1953.

Among Il Commendatore’s most significant early customers, he acquired this Rosso Corsa Ferrari 375 MM Pinin Farina Spider, the very first built – chassis number 0360 AM, directly from the factory. But rather than parking it beside the tree and waiting patiently for Christmas day, he decided to ship the car directly to Morocco, North Africa, and enter the 12 Hours of Casablanca.

An outright win in the 12 Hours of Casablanca was an exceptional debut for chassis number 0360 AM, which was racing under the Works banner 

Entered under the Scuderia Ferrari banner and run with considerable support from the factory, chassis number 0360 AM was assigned the race number two. Given the factory’s involvement, Scotti was partnered with successful Works driver Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina, who’d famously won the inaugural Formula 1 World Championship for Drivers in 1950, racing for Alfa Romeo.

Beneath the fierce Moroccan sun and against strong opposition from Jaguar, Aston Martin and Talbot, the Scotti/Farina 4.5-litre Ferrari quickly emerged as the class of the field. “Nothing could stop Farina and Scotti in the Ferrari, which went round and round with relentless speed and efficiency,” was how Autosport reported on chassis number 0360 AM’s performance. Sure enough, as the sun set and the chequered flag dropped, Scotti and Farina led the second-place Ferrari of Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari home by some 40 kilometres. A memorable Christmas for Piero Scotti indeed.

Piero Scotti was running second overall in the 1954 Mille Miglia before he retired agonisingly close to the finish 

The 340 MM remained in Africa into 1954, Scotti entering the Agadir Grand Prix in February and the Senegal Grand Prix in March, the latter of which he dominated to win. Upon returning the car to Europe in the spring, Scotti notched up another win on chassis 0360 AM’s record: this time the Coppa della Toscana. And he continued to compete for the remainder of the year, with a handful of further domestic victories. The strong performance of this 375 MM was clearly recognised in Maranello, for Scotti and the car featured in the 1954 Ferrari Yearbook.

In a bid to better his incredible second-place finish in the 1951 Mille Miglia, Scotti contested both the 1954 and 1955 editions of the world-famous Italian road race with chassis 0360 AM. The mid-1950s was truly the heyday for the Mille Miglia, which snaked its way from Brescia down to Rome and back and attracted the world’s biggest manufacturers and their squadrons of star drivers.

The motorsport world mourned Tazio Nuvolari in 1953, which prompted the Mille Miglia organisers to tweak the race route in order to encompass the Italian great’s hometown of Mantua. Incidentally, this notched the overall mileage to exactly 1,000 miles, as per the race’s name. There was also a significant change to the rules allowing a single driver to contest the entire race, rather than the traditional team of two.

Chassis no. 0360 AM also contested the 1955 Mille Miglia with Piero Scotti at the wheel 

Context is useful at this point. Upwards of 11 hours solo driving, day and night, flat-out across an entire country, solely on public roads lined with hundreds of thousands of unobstructed spectators. Ludicrous.

With crucial experience in the race and his new 4.5-litre Ferrari in rude health, Scotti must have fancied his chances for the 1954 Mille Miglia. Part of the Works Ferrari assault, Scotti opted to capitalise on the rule change and ‘go it alone’. And, by all accounts, he made a searing start. In a field of 475 starters, Scotti had fought his way inside the top 10 by quarter-distance at Ravenna. And he continued to climb.

Rome marked the halfway point, some 540 miles into the race, and Scotti was sandwiched between two Works Maseratis in eighth position. As Marzotto’s Ferrari retired with gearbox trouble, Scotti was able to edge the number 546 375 MM up to third position by Florence. Alas, no sooner than a podium finish had been thrust into the realms of possibility, than it was cruelly snatched away. Scotti retired in the Apennines before Bologna – agonisingly close to the finish. What could have been…

The Mille Miglia in 1955, of course, witnessed the momentous record-breaking victory of Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson in the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. It was to be Piero Scotti’s final attempt at finally winning the ‘world’s most beautiful motor race’, once again with his trusty 375 MM. With the staggering rate of technological development in the mid-1950s, chassis 0360 AM simply no longer remained competitive. The Mille Miglia would evade Scotti for the rest of his days.

As this Ferrari was honourably retired after its remarkably successful competition career, so the car found its way across the Atlantic, passing through the hands of a small number of American owners until 1981, when it was acquired by the Pennsylvania trucking tycoon Len Rusiewicz. Painstakingly, over the course of the next 15 years and with the wholehearted support of his family, Rusiewicz returned what was a tired and forgotten but remarkably original Ferrari racer to its former glory.

The long and exhaustive project complete, Rusiewicz did exactly what we would have done and showed it proudly to the world. Between 1996 and 2004, 0360 AM starred at a plethora of prestigious North American concours, including the 12th Annual Reading Concours d’Elegance, where it was awarded ‘Best of Show’, and the Ferrari Club of America National Concours, where it was the recipient of the ‘Forza Ferrari’ award. This 375 MM was also profiled in an in-depth feature in a 1997 issue of Cavallino, a copy of which accompanies the car.

After almost 25 years, Rusiewicz reluctantly parted with chassis 0360 AM in December of 2004. The car was bought by the Brescia-based Ferrari collector Emilio ‘Chico’ Gnutti, who promptly commissioned a comprehensive restoration. Ferrari Classiche’s preferred coachbuilder, Carrozzeria Quality Cars near Padua, was chosen to restore the stunning Pinin Farina bodywork, chassis and interior, while the mechanical components were entrusted to Brescia Autoracing, which is now known as Brixia Motor Classic.

From the outset, the onus was on originality and authenticity. The body, for example, is now indistinguishable from that in the photos of the car contesting the 1954 Mille Miglia with Piero Scotti – a tribute to the artisanal craftsmanship of Quality Cars’ ingegneri. Gnutti enjoyed almost a decade with chassis number 0360 AM, exhibiting the car in the ultra-prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este and, satisfyingly, contesting the Mille Miglia Storico – over 60 years after it took to the starting ramp of the original version of the legendary Italian road race. 

This 375 MM’s final – and current – owner, a prominent American Ferrari collector with a world-class stable of road and competition Prancing Horses, assumed custody in 2013. It has not been seen in public since.  

These commandingly powerful ‘big-banger’ 1950s Ferraris are, understandably, extremely desirable today. And it’s frankly easy to appreciate why, given their heady combination of rarity, desperate beauty, dizzying performance and immense period competition success, earned in the hands of the era’s greatest pilots.

This 375 MM Spider Pinin Farina, the very first of a mere 15 built, exemplifies this appeal to a tee. Firstly there’s chassis number 0360 AM’s successful period competition history while in Piero Scotti’s ownership, crowned by two Mille Miglia entries and that stunning victory in the 12 Hours of Casablanca – earned with the help of the factory and, of course, the former Formula 1 World Champion ‘Nino’ Farina.

Then there’s its entirely clear and comprehensive history, as verified by the leading Ferrari historian Marcel Massini in his accompanying report. Three owners in the last 43 years should prove music to many collectors’ ears. Crucially, this history supports the remarkable originality of this 375 MM.

For us here at Girardo & Co., these attributes pale in comparison to the sheer grace and presence of this stunning Spider. The Pinin Farina-bodied 375 MM Spider is one of those cars that arrests your attention and holds it ransom from reality. It treads a fine line between masculine and feminine, with those not-so-subtle hints of its enormous power melded with those sultry and traditional Pinin Farina design cues. Chassis 0360 AM is nothing short of a masterpiece, worthy of a prime spot in Paris’s Louvre, Los Angeles’ Getty or New York’s Metropolitan.

Price Upon Application