ASA 1000GT and 1100GT

Car fans will know that the sports car maker Ferrari exists for 71 years now as an independent brand. Initially, the team around company founder Enzo Ferrari only built race cars of which some were roadworthy and all had one thing in common: a V12 engine under the hood. From the end of the 1950s some technicians of Ferrari worked on a much smaller sports car in order to be able to serve this market, which, for example, Porsche with the 356 successfully tilled. Originally there should even have been plans to offer this vehicle in the official Ferrari program.

For the first prototype used the purchased chassis of a Fiat 1200 with a unique Pininfarina body in which the first stage of construction of the new four-cylinder engine was built at that time with 850 cubic centimeters displacement. This originated in its technical features of the three-liter Colombo-V12 from the Ferrari 250 and fittingly got the internal name ‘854’ for its exact displacement, which corresponds to exactly one-third of the twelve-cylinder engine. Until the start of production, the engine was increased to one liter of displacement. As the completely unmarked prototype was spotted often with Enzo Ferrari behind the wheel, it quickly got the nickname ‘Ferrarina’. At the end of the year’s press conference in 1959, the company boss publicly presented a prototype of the four-cylinder engine for the first time. In the background further developments took place, including a custom-made tubular chassis, made by Giotto Bizzarrini with double wishbones at front and a live rear axle with traling arms as well as bespoke Dunlop disc brakes all around and a sleek Bertone body. By the way, this was drawn by the young Giorgetto Giugiaro, who was working for Bertone in Turin. There, on the Bertone booth of the Motor Show in Turin, also the world premiere of the vehicle took place in 1961. As no decision had yet been made at that time whether the car would be called Ferrari or not, a yellow rectangle with the blue inscription ‘1000’ was shown on the bonnet.

Ultimately, Enzo Ferrari decided against this vehicle for his own model range, but offered to sell it through the Ferrari dealer network. He also had already explored various ways to give the license for the construction of this car to another company during development and contacted even armaments companies. Finally, a cooperation with the De Nora family from Milan came about, who together with some racing drivers founded the ‘Autocostruzione Società per Azioni’, in short: ASA. In 1962 an evolved pre-series car was ready, but the production of the Coupé under the name 1000GT and with the 98-hp four-cylinder under the hood started only in 1964. It was later followed by a Spider version and the possibility to order a 1.1-liter engine with about 110 hp, which was originally developed for a racing version of the ASA.

Hyman Ltd currently offers a beautiful, red-painted ASA 1000GT Coupé, which was originally delivered on 16 March 1967 by Luigi Chinetti Motors to first-owner Ms Ruth Lesson from Duanesburg/New York. She kept the sports car until 1986 and then sold it to Ferrari collector William G. Inglis from California, with the ASA sitting in a garage since the 1970s with unknown engine failures. In the 1990s, Mister Inglis commissioned the renowned expert Mike Regalia with a comprehensive restoration, including repainting and new seat covers in the original material. After completing the vehicle changed into the car collection of Ed Brown in Albuquerque/New Mexico. Several years later, the car entered another car collection and now is ready to find a new home via Hyman Ltd. Due to the complex and high-quality manufacturing process, the ASA 1000GT and 1100GT were significantly more expensive than all competitors, whether they were from Alfa Romeo, Abarth, Porsche or Lancia. Therefore until 1969 only 52 Coupés emerged from the factory of which 32 came to the US market. Accordingly such a vehicle is rarely available on the market. Hyman asks for 149,500 US$ for this one.

Even less common than the Coupé is the Spider variant. It was only made in 1965 and 1966. Exact numbers do not exist, but brand experts suspect a total of between 12 and 17 copies. Only two of them received the larger engine with more power as mentioned above. One of these two was temporarily for sale earlier this year at the US dealer Symbolic International, but has found a new home in the meantime. Compared to the Coupé, the more pronounced notchback catches the eye. Otherwise the elegance of the Bertone design was skilfully reused.

Which brings us to the subject of reuse. After the actual production of the ASA 1000GT and 1100GT ended, another 20 cars were created, all wearing the Coupé bodywork and the name ASA Berlinetta 411. Four of them were competition versions for use in sports car racing. Today, sports cars of the ASA brand are a rare sight. Best chances are at big international classic car shows like Techno Classica or Retromobile. But once you have the chance to see such a vehicle up close, take some time to appreciate the unique details. After all, this little sports car could well have been called ‘Ferrari’.

Images: Hyman Ltd (Coupé), Symbolic International (Spider)