70 Years of Ferrari 195

Enzo Ferrari managed to achieve world fame because of the sports car brand he founded. He still is looked at in awe long after his death. The foundations of his reputation were laid before World War 2 when he was head of the motorsport department at Alfa Romeo. But it was his own products, marketed under his surname, that caused the final furore. In 1950, the fourth new model of the Ferrari brand, which was founded in 1938 and in 1947 introduced their first independently developed car, appeared on the market. The 195 inherited the 166 and continued a tradition that had long been typical for the Italian brand. Enzo loved motorsport and saw the road-legal sports cars produced parallel to his racing cars rather as decorative accessories that were only necessary to fund the motorsport operations. Therefore, the road-legal cars were always given the odd chassis numbers, while racing cars showed even numbers.

As a street version the 195 had the additional designation ‘Inter’, which was already present on the predecessor model. Until autumn 1951, when the successor 212 made its debut at the Paris Motor Show, Ferrari produced 28 chassis. These were given the wheelbase extended to 2.5 meters, which was already shown with the final 166s. At that time, the sports car brand didn’t yet have its own body department, which is why the bodies were built at Carrozzeria Vignale according to designs by Giovanni Michelotti (13 units), Carrozzeria Ghia under their then chief designer Felice Mario Boano (10 units), Carrozzeria Touring (3 units) as well as one-offs from Carrozzeria Motto and the Swiss coachbuilder Ghia-Aigle. With the racing versions it behaved somewhat differently. Four private drivers had their 166 MM upgraded at the factory with the larger engine and further modifications to the new version. In addition, probably only three completely new 195 Sport versions were built.

The Ferrari 195 is powered by a further developed version of the famous Colombo V12 engine with now 2,341 ccm displacement. This gives a rounded-up 195 cubic centimeters per cylinder and thus the model designation. In the road version, this engine produces 99 kW/135 hp at 7,000 rpm. For competition use, the Ferrari technicians increased this values to 125 kW/170 hp by, among other things, raising the redline to 7,200 rpm and using triple carburettors. These were remarkable dates for the early 1950s and were enough to win the Mille Miglia, the Coppa della Toscana, a 3-hour sports car race in Rome called ‘Notturne delle Caracalla’ and the Giro della Calabria in 1950. At the Targa Florio and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, however, all the Ferrari 195s entered failed to finish.

Depending upon the individual car history and coachbuilder the few copies of the Ferrari 195 today achieve different prices. For example, the renowned auction house RM Sotheby’s auctioned a Ghia Coupé for 590,000 € in 2018, but achieved 900,000 € for a Touring Coupé in 2017. In contrast, a 195 Inter with a two-tone Ghia body used in the 1957 rally Liege-Rome-Liege wasn’t sold at an auction at Villa Erba in Italy in 2015. The rare racing versions called 195 Sport (or 195 S in some sources) now fetch seven-figure sums, when they come onto the market.

Images: Ferrari