Enzo’s 1961 Ferrari 400 Superamerica

Superlotto

Imagine buying a Ferrari sight unseen, flying to Virginia and driving it home to California all the way across the US, only to find out later that the beautiful car that you now own was the last personal vehicle of Enzo Ferrari. You might as well have hit the lottery.

Text: ©Isaac Hernández
Photos: ©I.H./Mercury Press International

Jim Truitt bought a police radar detector for the cross country trip, which he and a friend made in only four days. He got just one speeding ticket. But the exponential increase in value of his car from the time he bought it to the time he finally could prove that his car had been Enzo’s pretty much covered the fine.

At first glance, it seems like the Ferrari factory made large efforts to erase all trace of ownership by “il Commendattore”. The original chassis serial number (3097SA) was filed down, painted over and restamped with a new number (4031SA). Likewise, the number plate had been substituted with a new one.

It took the mind of French Ferrari connoisseur Antoine Prunet to trigger a careful and puzzling investigation. Prunet pointed out to Truitt that his coupe aerodinamico could be the long lost Superamerica that Enzo once drove around Maranello, for about 12 months, starting in December of 1961. That suspicion was enough for Jim, together with his friends Allen Bishop and Antoine, to spend the next year researching files in the US and Italy. It wasn’t an easy task as Ferrari, at the time, didn’t keep careful records of their cars.

To make things more complicated, the engine’s serial number (s/n 1287SA) didn’t match with that of the chassis. The V-12 had been installed first in Enzo’s 250 GTE 2+2 (s/n 1287), a prototype vehicle that had a 3-liter engine at first, but was eventually equipped with engine 1287SA (numero interno 8SA), probably as a test bed for the new four-liter engine. According to the assembly sheets, the s/n 1287 GT/SA was renumbered to s/n 2257SA 2+2. Eventually the engine was moved to Enzo’s 400 SA s/n 3097. “The engine retains the number 1287SA to this day,” explains Jim. “This would seem to indicate that s/n 1287 GT and s/n 2257 SA 2+2 were, in all probability, one and the same car. The whereabouts of this car today is unknown.”

When Enzo stopped driving this 400 SA, before it was to be sold, the chassis number adjacent to the steering was filed down and restamped with new chassis s/n 4031 SA, and a new number plate was attached to the fender well. The original stamping was still just visible after removing several coats of paint that hid the change.

It sounds complicated now, but imagine what it was like to solve this riddle without knowing the answer in advance...

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