FERRARI 212 Inter Cabriolet 1951-1953 Photos, engines & full specs

After Enzo Ferrari left Alfa Romeo due to a disagreement with the Spanish head-engineer and started its own company, he knew he will have to build vehicles for the market. But he didn't build just ordinary cars. He built exquisite cars and one of the first was the 1951 Ferrari 212.

He started with an older concept: the Ferrari did the base platform and built the bodywork with different contractors: Vignale, Carozzeria Touring, Ghia, Ghia-Aigle and, most important, with Pininfarina. The 212 represents the beginning o a beautiful friendship between the two companies, which lasts even today.

Ferrari built only 82 of the 212 and some of them were special. One was given as a present to Henry Ford II and it was really special. It has a longer wheelbase, a 2.7-liter racing engine instead of the regular 2.6-liter unit, and the bodywork was a barchetta. It was open-top, no roof-top and no door handles. This one-off 212 was styled by Carozzeria Touring as a light version, named “Superleggera”.

The convertible versions were built by Pininfarina and the other coupe versions were built by Vignale and Ghia. It was available as a two-door coupe or a two-door fastback and with left or right-hand drive, depending on the country where it was ordered. To ease up the process, the dashboard was a flat metal sheet with two big holes in the middle where the speedometer and the rev-counter were installed.