The Most Outrageous Ferrari Ever Built May Sell For $20M

Ferrari has made some cars that have pushed the boundaries of contemporary style, but probably none better than here. It's the 1966 365 P Berlinetta Speciale, more commonly known simply as "Tre Posti." In case your Italian's rusty, that means it's the "Three Seater," because, well, that's exactly what it is.

Tre Posti was a special design by Pininfarina for the 1966 auto show circuit before being imported to America for the then-ridiculous sum of $20,000. Amazingly, it was the first mid-engined, 12 cylinder Ferrari ever designed for the street. When it hits the Gooding & Company auction block at Pebble Beach in a few weeks, eight figures is a given, and it might even top $20 million.

The car's design was a pet project of Sergio Pininfarina, a man whose name is more closely associated with Italian design than probably anyone else on Earth. A year after penning the now legendary Dino, Pininfarina decided to really celebrate Ferrari's racing heritage—the flying buttresses are as classically Ferrari as you get, and the addition of the then-cutting edge bronzed glass roof gave the car more than a hint of avant-garde style.

Under that glass canopy, however, is the real reason this car was such a show-stopper 47 years ago, and why it still is today: the steering wheel is in the middle for optimum driving positioning, with a pair of passenger seats squished off to the side, just behind the driver. The running joke at the time was mostly along the lines of "you can drive with your wife on one side and your mistress on the other." The layout has been copied a handful of times in decades since, most notably on the McLaren F1.

Sergio's aim was to convince Enzo to build a 12-cylinder road car, so he simply took one of Ferrari's race car chassis and gave it a body and interior to give it a sort of Dino-on-steroids look. 

Though one additional copy was made for the President of FIAT, Enzo didn't produce the car, per Pininfarina's wishes. It's not that he didn't like it, but he claimed the concept of such a powerful car with the engine in back was too dangerous for ordinary drivers, and should be reserved for racers only.

So, will it sell for $20 million or more? Again, it's the most outrageously-designed Ferrari that also happened to be the first mid-engined V12 in the history of the company, and a car so fast that Enzo was afraid to sell it to the public. You probably know our guess.


Aaron Miller is the Rides editor for Supercompressor. He really wishes more companies would go balls out like this on design.