Ghia’s 375 MM had a distinctly American style, finished in a two-tone color scheme of Salmon Pink and Anthracite Grey.
Ferrari’s 375 MM and the later 375 Plus were highly successful in competition, winning numerous major endurance races. While their rivals at Mercedes and Jaguar used inline-sixes, Ferrari used the 4.5-liter “big-banger” Lampredi V12. Driven by greats like Froilan Gonzales, Alberto Ascari, and Giuseppe Farina, it was a beast of a car. And, if a customer decided that they wanted to drive a 180-mph 375 MM on the road, Ferrari would sell them one. And a few of Ferrari’s most important customers wanted something even more special, so some of Italy’s finest coachbuilders transformed them into luxurious road cars that were faster than anything else on the road at the time. The Supercar Nostalgia blog was invaluable for learning about these Ferraris, and I recommend reading more there if you want to learn more about these cars and many others.
1954 375 MM Pininfarina Aerodynamico Speciale
This car is probably the most famous of the 375 MM road cars, due to its ownership by the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini. Pininfarina bodied 21 of the 22 375 MMs, and eight of them were Berlinettas. Of those Berlinettas, six were road cars. While four of them were basically identical, two were much more bespoke, and one of them was this car, chassis 0456 AM. The Aerodynamico Speciale was a bold design, with some of the earliest examples of pop-up headlights and flying buttresses. Pininfarina’s records suggest that this car was a styling study for the future 275 GTB, even though the 275 came out a decade later. The Aerodynamico Speciale debuted at the 1954 Paris Motor Show, finished in bluish-silver over a brown interior. Roberto Rossellini purchased it for $6000 and gave it to his wife, the actress Ingrid Bergman, as a gift. Some sources claim that Rossellini commissioned the car, while others say he purchased it after the Motor Show. Rossellini requested that the 375 MM be repainted in a gold shade later known as Grigio Ingrid, which Ferrari now offers as an official color. Bergman famously disapproved of her husband’s racing, and she was not interested in the car.
The Aerodynamico Speciale on the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance.
So Rossellini kept it for himself and owned it until 1957, when he sold it to John Treadwell in Rome. It was sold to the US two months later and has stayed there ever since. It is now owned by Jon Shirley, who previously owned the 375 MM Scaglietti Berlinetta.
1955 Ghia 375 MM
Robert Wilke was the owner of the Leader Card company, and he had the passion and means to commission several one-off Ferraris. He commissioned three Vignale creations, followed by two more from Ghia. They were all unusual designs for a Ferrari, especially the Ghia cars. The first Ghia car was this 375 MM, chassis 0476 AM. It is radically different from the other 21 cars, with a distinctly American style. Ghia had designed far more cars for the American market than the other coachbuilders, and that is reflected in this car. It was finished in two-tone Salmon Pink (although it appears much more orange in person) with Anthracite Grey, over an interior of the same colors, a shocking color scheme for a Ferrari. Many people would probably not even guess that this car is a Ferrari. The other Ghia car was a radical 410 Superamerica with huge tailfins that looked different from every other Ferrari before or since. Robert Wilke owned the 375 MM for the rest of his life, putting about 12,000 km on the clock. His son sold it to Robert Stiner of New York in 1974, who kept it for another 10 years.
The Wilkes clean their Ghia 375 MM. A 300 SL and the Vignale 375 America sit outside, while the wild Ghia Ferrari 410 Superamerica hides in the garage.
Stiner later sold it to the Vintage Car Store in New York, which sold it to the Blackhawk Collection in California. It then went to Erich Traber of Switzerland in 1986, who kept it for twenty years. Traber sold it back to the Blackhawk Collection in 2002, before it was acquired by its current owner in California. The Ghia 375 MM still has less than 13,000 km today, and it is in very original condition. It rarely appears at car shows, last appearing at the 2024 Pebble Beach Concours.
1955 375 MM Scagletti Coupe
This car is one of my all-time favorites. Few cars have this level of style or history. It is the only postwar car to have won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours since 1968. Rossellini raced his 375 MM Spider, chassis 0402 AM, in only two races before Ingrid Bergman convinced him to quit racing. He crashed the 375 MM into a tree soon after, and instead of sending it back to Pininfarina, he decided to send it to Scagletti for new coachwork. Scaglietti converted it into a Berlinetta and created one of the best designs ever seen on a Ferrari, reminiscent of the Mercedes 300 SLR “Ulenhaut Coupe”. The history of this car is every bit as amazing as its design, but I couldn’t have told it better than this short documentary from Kidston Productions.
1954 “410 Superamerica”
Strangely, this 375 MM was referred to as a “410 Superamerica” in a Ferrari brochure, despite only sharing the engine with the later production Superamerica. This car is actually a 375 MM that was converted for road use, but it has a fascinating story. Willametta Keck was the daughter of William Keck, who controlled half of America’s largest oil company, Superior Oil. In 1954, Willametta visited the Ferrari dealership on Sunset Boulevard and ordered a 375 MM Spider – probably the fastest road car that you could buy at that time. This car, chassis 0460 AM, was one of three 375 MM Spiders ordered for road use – the others went to Rossellini and the Emperor of Vietnam. She ordered it in red, with a tan interior. When Enzo found out that she only intended to drive it on the road, he decided it would be yellow with a green interior – no one was allowed to argue with the Commendatore, not even the paying customers. When it arrived, Willametta told the dealer to send it back to Maranello due to the color. He told her to take it home for the weekend and think about it. She eventually chose to keep it, driving it frequently on the streets of Monterey. The Keck family still owns the car to this day, making it the longest-held Ferrari ownership.
1954 375 MM Spider
This car, chassis 0450 AM, was built for Bao Dai, the last Emperor of Vietnam. Bao Dai spent much of his time in Monaco to escape from Vietnam, and he was eventually exiled from Vietnam in 1955, so he moved to Monaco and bought two Ferraris: a 410 Superamerica and this 375 MM Spider, both in blue with his royal emblem above the Prancing Horse on the hood. This car’s engine broke later, and it was replaced with the 410 Superamerica’s engine. In 1960, the original body was replaced with a 250 GT Berlinetta, transforming this car into an interesting hybrid. Bao Dai sold it to Hans and Fritz Schlumpf, and it has stayed in their collection since.
