Pinin Farina’s design is brought out beautifully here, in a multi-media masterpiece that
boasts 1,634 individual pieces. Go ahead.. count ‘em.
To those, we’d add an afternoon
spent motoring in a Ferrari 250
GT SWB Spyder “California.”
;e joint brainchild of Ferrari’s
U. S. distributor and a southern
California Ferrari dealer, the
Spyder had the raw power of
the 250 GT race car, a decidedly
American name, and a body that
caused ladies to swoon, boys
to dream, and men to consider
leaving years of marital bliss
behind for just one ride.
Such is the e;ect of beauty—
and when it comes to trance-level pulchritude, few machines
can match the California. Built
between 1958 and 1963, penned
by Pinin Farina, and hand-shaped and bolted together at
the Scaglietti works, each car
was made to the customer’s
individual specs, with engines
at various levels of tune. And
although each two-seater was
unmistakably a California, each
of the only 105 made varied
somewhat in its details. One
thing for sure: if you’re in the
market for one, bring along a
semi trailer full of cash.
DREAM STATE
Getting a high-end replica of the
car just got easy (if not cheap),
thanks to CMC, whose excellent
1: 18 250 GT SWB (short wheel
base) Berlinetta provided the
bones and much of the meat for
this release. With that in mind,
we were fairly certain that the
“Cal Spyder,” once it arrived,
would carry the beauty of the
real car, have the same technical
prowess and parts count as that
prior model—and maybe even
deliver a surprise or two.
Well, it does, it does; and it
has. ;e first part is evident on
sight; painted in red with a tan,
fine-grain leather interior, the
car is proportioned beautifully
and perched at a perfect height
on hand-laced steel spoke
wheels. Here’s a kick: the tires
are modern Michelins, right
down to the “Radial X,” “Made in
France,” and “Tubeless” cast into
their sidewalls. OEM-correct?
Nope. But it makes a heck of a
lot of sense for a modern driver.
And it shows that CMC tooled
this replica of a 1961-vintage
