Ferrari’s celestial family of 250-designated models is hardly devoid of beauty. But in our humble opinion, the mid-engined 250 LM might just nab the crown for being the most aesthetically arresting. In adding a sleek and aerodynamically efficient roof to the comparatively swollen 250 P prototype, Pininfarina may well have created one of the most proportionally perfect automotive designs of the 20th century.

As the famous story goes, the notoriously stubborn Enzo Ferrari believed that a closed version of his Le Mans-winning 250 P prototype could be homologated for the Grand Touring category for production-based cars. Perhaps inevitably, the FIA did not agree. They vetoed his request and the LM was thus classed as a prototype. In retaliation (and probably fearing defeat), a livid Ferrari refused to campaign the car, which left privateers such as Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team (N.A.R.T.) and Colonel Ronnie Hoare’s Maranello Concessionaires to pick up the mantle and put the LM on the map.

Put the LM on the map they most certainly did. In what was the model’s crowning moment, a N.A.R.T.-entered 250 LM driven by Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s greatest endurance motor race. This competition provenance coupled with the LM’s rarity and sheer beauty inevitably mean that many collectors today consider it to be the Holy Grail of the Ferrari world.

The Ferrari 250 LM we’re honoured to have recently rehomed is chassis number 5909. Originally finished in Rosso Cina over a traditional blue fabric interior, the car was delivered new in May of 1964 to Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team (N.A.R.T.) in New York. Among the greatest privateer racing teams, N.A.R.T. was a staple of motorsport – both in Europe and America. For over three decades, Chinetti took on the factory might at high-profile races across the world.

Highlights were plentiful, but undoubtedly the greatest achievement was the brilliant albeit unexpected outright victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1965. Suffice to say, it was a mutually beneficial relationship between Chinetti and Enzo Ferrari – N.A.R.T. was supplied with a steady stream of competitive ex-Works racing cars, which enticed famous drivers and indulgent amateurs alike, while the exposure and success on the track was effective advertising for Ferrari, especially in North America. It was a win-win scenario.

The 1964 ADAC Nürburgring 1,000KMs marked the competitive debut of this Ferrari 250 LM

Chassis number 5909 made its competitive debut in the 1964 ADAC Nürburgring 1,000KMs in May – a dress rehearsal for the forthcoming 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans. One of three cars fielded by N.A.R.T. at Le Mans, this 250 LM was earmarked for the British former Formula 1 driver David Piper and Jochen Rindt, the bullish young Austrian who’d tragically become the world’s first posthumous Formula 1 World Champion in 1970.

At just 22 years old, Rindt was among the youngest drivers in the entire 55-strong field. And his deft no-holds-barred driving style quickly paid dividends in qualifying. Having never driven on the Circuit de la Sarthe before, Rindt turned a lap of 3min53.9sec – by far the quickest of the 250 LMs entered and good for eighth on the grid behind only the Works Ferrari and Ford teams. Alas, a trivial oil-filter failure put paid to chassis 5909’s Le Mans mere minutes into the race. Rindt would return to Le Mans in 1965, once again with the N.A.R.T. outfit and once again in a Ferrari 250 LM. That time, together with Masten Gregory, he would stand atop the podium.

The most important event on chassis 5909’s résumé was the 24 Hours of Le Mans , at which the car was raced by Jochen Rindt and David Piper

Next up for this Ferrari was the International 12 Hours of Reims in France, round 10 of the FIA World Sportscar Championship. This time around, chassis number 5909 was piloted by Lorenzo Bandini, who’d famously won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Ferrari the previous year, and John Surtees, who was midway through his legendary championship-winning Formula 1 campaign with Ferrari.

The race began at midnight beneath the cover of darkness. And it quickly became clear that the 250 LMs of N.A.R.T. and Maranello Concessionaires were locked in the battle for the lead. Surtees and Bandini battled Graham Hill and Jo Bonnier in the Maranello car ferociously through the night. Motor Sport magazine described the spectacle beautifully. “These two passed and re-passed, ran in line-ahead, ran abreast, passed other cars on either side and sometimes on both sides and slip-streamed each other, all in the dark and at an average speed of approximately 126mph.” Epic.

Lorenzo Bandini and John Surtees took chassis 5909 to second overall in the 12 Hours of Reims in 1964

Ultimately, chassis 5909 was forced to settle for second overall when the chequered flag fell – an unforced pit stop put Surtees out of contention right at the death. Hill crossed the finish line first, marking the first ever race victory for the 250 LM. It was nonetheless a wonderful achievement for Chinetti and indeed this 250 LM on the global endurance-racing stage.

When the (local) champagne had dried and chassis 5909 had returned to N.A.R.T. in New York, Chinetti sold the car to the American cartoonist and longstanding sports-racing driver Bob Grossman. Grossman repainted the 250 LM in silver – finished with a blue, white and red stripe – and entered it in a raft of events on the other side of the Atlantic under the Scuderia Bear banner. These included the Bridgehampton Double 500KM races, which formed part of the 1964 FIA World Sportscar Championship, and the 1964 Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. Third overall in the former was a stellar result for an American privateer, while the two class victories in the fiercely competitive Caribbean races were nothing short of remarkable.

The American cartoonist and longstanding sports-racing driver Bob Grossman competed with chassis 5909 across the Atlantic later in 1964 and 1965

Nineteen sixty-five followed largely the same American trajectory for chassis number 5909, though it was primarily raced by Richard Holquist. The Ferrari once again contested the Bridgehampton Double 500KM races and the Bahamas Speed Week – the latter garnering one further class victory (the Governor’s Trophy) for its period competition record.

Grossman sold this 250 LM in 1965 to one William M. Scheafer. And over the course of the next decades, it passed through the hands of a number of further stateside owners including Bob Cooper of the San Francisco-based Cooper Lumber Company, Sonny Bono of the world-famous pop duo Sonny & Cher and the revered Ferrari collector and author Edwin K. Niles.

Steve Griswold of Berkeley, California, oversaw a comprehensive restoration of this Ferrari in 1974, assisted by Ivan Zaremba, Don Nichols, Phil Reilly and David McCarthy. And the project was clearly a worthwhile endeavour for it won the Ferrari Competition class in the 1975 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Chassis number 5909 remained in the United States until 1978, when it was acquired by the Swiss industrialist and serial Ferrari collector Albert Obrist – a man who Ferrari itself describes as a ‘walking talking pillar’ of its fabled history.

In addition to racing the 250 LM on a handful of occasions at the Nürburgring, Obrist entrusted Carrozzeria Fantuzzi in Modena with restoring chassis 5909 from the ground up once again. When it was completed, the car – resplendent once again in bright red – won the Trophée du Concours d’Etat for the most beautiful Ferrari at the Ferrari Club of France’s annual meeting at the Mas du Clos racetrack in 1981. What’s more, chassis 5909 was featured on the cover of the leading marque expert Marcel Massini’s definitive book Ferrari 250 LM.

The Japanese architect and collector of ultra-rare Italian concept and sports cars Shiroh Kosaka became the next owner of this Ferrari in the 1980s. The Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti in Italy and the inaugural Annual Vintage Ferrari Meeting in Japan were two events at which Kosaka exhibited the car.

Chassis number 5909 joined the collection of its current American owner in 2004, sharing a garage with such historically significant competition Ferraris as a 312 PB, 512 S, F333 SP and an ex-Barrichello F1-2000 Formula 1 car. In the two decades since, said owner has exhibited the car at a number of prestigious events around the world including multiple editions of the Le Mans Classic, the Tour Auto and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance twice.

This Ferrari was also the subject of an exhaustive four-year restoration, carried out by the same Ivan Zaremba, who’d worked on the car under Steve Griswold’s direction 34 years prior. With the assistance of Marcel Massini, Jim Stokes in the United Kingdom, Brian Hoyt of Perfect Reflections and even Luigi ‘Coco’ Chinetti Junior, chassis 5909 was painstakingly restored to its former glory. Once again, the effort and expense invested into this Prancing Horse proved to be worth it – at the Cavallino Classic in 2013, this 250 LM was awarded both a Platinum award and the Competition Cup for the finest racing Ferrari. A fine racing Ferrari indeed.

Having found a new home in the summer of 2023, chassis 5909 was exhibited at the Concours of Elegance and Goodwood Revival in September – an unforgettable month

Twenty twenty-three was a momentous year for chassis 5909, not least because we had the privilege of finding the car a truly wonderful new home on the other side of the world. Prior to jetting off to said new home, this 250 LM played starring roles at the United Kingdom’s two most prestigious historic motoring events: the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace and the Goodwood Revival. At the former, the Ferrari was exhibited as part of the ‘Le Mans – 1960s and 1970s’ class – a class it duly won. Of even greater importance was its role as a course car for the Ferrari-only Lavant Cup at the Goodwood Revival. Forming a flying-V formation with Ferrari 250 GTOs of the 1962 and 1964 varieties, chassis 5909 led away the jaw-dropping selection of Ferraris for the race’s parade lap. It was one of the spectacles of the weekend.

Upon returning the LM to Belchers Farm after its two weekends in the spotlight, we took the opportunity to reunite chassis 5909 with the 275 P that won the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time since the two cars shared the asphalt of the Circuit de la Sarthe. Famously, the 275 P (chassis 0816) had also triumphed at Le Mans the previous year, making it the only single Ferrari chassis to have won the world’s greatest endurance race twice. Chassis 5909 might not have made it to the finish line at Le Mans in 1964, but that did not make the spectacle of seeing these two ultra-special mid-engined Prancing Horses in the metal together any less impressive. It’s fair to say that productivity plummeted in the Girardo & Co. office on the morning of this particular photo call.

Presented in the North American Racing Team livery in which it finished second at Reims in 1964, chassis 5909 is a magnificent example of the model which truly heralded a new era for Ferrari – a faster, more ferocious and even rarer thoroughbred than the hallowed GTO which preceded it. With its N.A.R.T. history, the short but wonderfully sweet list of racing legends who raced it and its World Sportscar Championship podium finish, this Ferrari would be welcomed with open arms to the most prestigious historic motoring events around the world.

SOLD