One of the most significant aspects of early Ferrari production was the factory’s chassis-numbering convention – odd serial numbers for road cars and even numbers for competition machines. While Enzo Ferrari never formally codified this practice, its roots can be traced to the marque’s earliest days, when the distinction between racing car and road car was both philosophical and material.

This precedent was established with Ferrari’s first production model, the Tipo 166. Beginning in late 1947, Ferrari produced the road-going 166 Inter and, for competition, the 166 Spider Corsa. These cycle-fendered racing machines, powered by Gioacchino Colombo’s two-liter V-12, began with chassis numbers 002C and 004C and continued in even-numbered sequence as production expanded to include the now iconic 166 Mille Miglia model.

As Ferrari’s original sports car grew in displacement and ambition, the lineage progressed from the 166 to the 195 and ultimately to the 212 series. With the 212, Ferrari formally adopted the Export designation for its competitionoriented sports cars, signaling the company’s increasing focus on overseas markets, particularly the US. The Inter name, by contrast, remained reserved for road-oriented models.

Introduced early in 1951, the 212 Export represented the ultimate evolution of Ferrari’s early Colombo V-12 sports cars. Equipped with three Weber carburetors, its 2.6-liter engine produced approximately 150 hp at 6,500 rpm. Fewer than 30 examples of the 212 Export were built, all clothed by leading Italian coachbuilders including Touring and Vignale, in both open and closed forms.

The car presented here, chassis 0076E, is among the most significant of these rare, foundational machines. Completed by Ferrari in January 1951, it is an exceptionally early, even-numbered 212 Export chassis, entrusted new to Carrozzeria Vignale for bespoke coachwork.

That Carrozzeria Vignale succeeded in producing cars equally celebrated on the racetrack and at Europe’s most prestigious concours events is a testament to the singular partnership between company founder Alfredo Vignale and designer Giovanni Michelotti.

Vignale famously likened himself to an artist working in metal. In an era dependent upon wooden bucks, hand-formed aluminum panels, and the intuition of master craftsmen, he approached each commission as a sculptural exercise, responding to Michelotti’s designs with remarkable fidelity and sensitivity. Once Michelotti arrived with a rendering, Vignale’s artisans translated line and proportion into metal, resulting in some of the most memorable Ferraris of the early 1950s.

The coachwork fashioned for 0076E was the first of two closely related spiders based on a Michelotti design that he referred to as a “Spyder Super Sport.” The result is an exceptionally compact, beautifully balanced form, remarkable for its restraint. Exterior ornamentation is limited to a large, convex, eggcrate grille, chrome trim surrounding the cockpit and rear deck, a prominent Italian “I” on the boot lid, and “DeLuxe T51 Vignale” script.

The defining feature of the design was its extraordinarily low windscreen – so abbreviated that the folding soft top required a small window panel above the screen to maintain forward visibility when raised. The cockpit is equally purposeful, featuring deeply bolstered bucket seats, a simple dashboard with two jewel-like primary instruments, and a passenger grab handle. Although no period color photographs survive, the Spider appears to have been finished in a subtle, dark, two-tone livery, complemented by lighter upholstery.

Ferrari issued the Certificate of Origin for 0076E on February 12, 1951. The completed Vignale Spider made its public debut shortly thereafter at the Geneva Motor Show, held at the Plainpalais from March 8 to 18. After Geneva, the car returned to Italy to be prepared for exhibition at the nation’s most important automotive showcase – and Vignale’s home stage – the Torino Motor Show, held at Parco del Valentino from April 4 to 15, 1951.

It was there, amid Italy’s most advanced expressions of postwar automotive design, that 0076E caught the attention of its first owner: one of the towering cultural figures of the twentieth century.

By the early 1950s, Roberto Rossellini stood among the most influential filmmakers in the world. Born in Rome in 1906 and raised literally within the cinema business – his father had built Rome’s first permanent movie theater – Rossellini possessed an instinctive understanding of modern visual storytelling. In the years following WWII, he reshaped international cinema with Roma città aperta (1945), Paisà (1946), and Germania anno zero (1948), foundational works of Italian Neorealism that established Rossellini as its leading auteur.

It was during this period of artistic ascendancy, and amid intense public scrutiny surrounding his collaboration and relationship with actor Ingrid Bergman, that Rossellini first encountered Ferrari. In April 1951, Rossellini and Bergman attended the Torino Motor Show, where Ferrari’s new 212 models were on display. Among them was this striking Vignale Spider, chassis 0076E.

Captivated by its purposeful elegance, Rossellini purchased the Spider new through Roman agent Ponti & Mambretti, marking his first Ferrari acquisition. On April 17, 1951, 0076E was test driven by factory engineer D’Angelo and registered that same day in Rossellini’s name in Rome, bearing license plates “Roma 147114.”

At the time, Rossellini was entering a new creative phase. His collaboration with Bergman had begun with Stromboli (1950) and would continue with Europa ’51 (1952), culminating in Viaggio in Italia (1954), films characterized by a more introspective, modern language. The Ferrari 212 Export Spider accompanied Rossellini through this period, serving as both transportation and symbol of a cosmopolitan life lived between Rome, film sets, and the European Riviera.

On June 1, 1951, Rossellini transferred ownership of 0076E to his production company, Aniesse Film S.r.l., headquartered on Via Lazzaro Spallanzani. In 1952, Rossellini famously drove the Spider – by then fitted with a taller, more practical windscreen – to Monaco, where it was captured by celebrated photographer Edward Quinn, firmly situating the Ferrari Spider within the era’s emerging jet-set society.

Most significantly, 0076E proved to be the catalyst for everything that followed: Rossellini’s enthusiasm led directly to the purchase of a Ferrari 212 Inter Coupe for Ingrid Bergman, inspired his own participation in the 1000 Miglia, and culminated in his acquisition of the legendary one-off 375 MM Pinin Farina Coupe, among the most celebrated Ferraris ever built.

As his first Ferrari, however, 0076E occupies a uniquely important status: the origin of one of Ferrari history’s most romantic, culturally significant, and well-documented associations – where Italian cinema, international celebrity, and the Prancing Horse first converged.

The Ferrari remained with Rossellini until July 1953, when it was sold by Aniesse Film administrator Alberto Sacconti to Francesco Marsili Feliciangeli. The Spider remained in Rome through the mid-1950s, and in September 1954 was acquired by Trasporti Aerei Mediterranei S.p.A., an airline company based on Via Vittorio Veneto.

In the early 1960s, chassis 0076E was purchased by Luigi Chinetti Motors of New York and exported to the US. By 1965, it had been sold to E.P. “Tex” Downs of Salt Point, New York, who advertised the car for sale in Road & Track and The New York Times for $4,500.

Ownership subsequently passed to Mike Blue, then to Webster B. Todd of Princeton, New Jersey, who drove the car in a Ferrari demonstration held at Bridgehampton Raceway in September 1966. The following year, the Ferrari was sold back to Chinetti Motors and then acquired by pioneering collector Norman H. Silver of High Point, North Carolina, whose collection included many of the most important coachbuilt Ferraris of the 1950s and 1960s.

After Silver, the car passed through a small number of East Coast custodians before being acquired in the 1980s by the current owner, one of the world’s most respected Ferrari collectors. It has remained in his care for more than four decades and has rarely, if ever, been publicly exhibited.

As presented today, chassis 0076E remains in remarkably honest, largely unrestored condition, wearing older red paint and what may well be its original upholstery and painted dashboard. The car appears substantially as it did in the 1960s, even retaining traces of a 1966 New York registration sticker on the windscreen.

Importantly, the Ferrari retains engine no. 0076E, complete with proper Weber 36 DCF carburetors, Magneti Marelli ignition components, and a correct FIM radiator. The chassis frame bears proper factory stampings, and the bonnet hinge is stamped with the Vignale body number – 15.

An important even-numbered Ferrari – among the first 100 cars built in Maranello – this is a full competition-specification Export chassis clothed in exquisite Michelotti-designed Vignale Spider coachwork. Following its debut at the Geneva and Torino Motor Shows, it was sold new to Roberto Rossellini, marking his introduction to Ferrari and the origin of one of the marque’s most celebrated associations.

Although hidden from public view for decades, this important Ferrari has been documented in several authoritative books, including Ferrari by Vignale, Making a Difference, and Ferrari Tipo 166 by noted historians Marcel Massini and Angelo Tito Anselmi. Its history is further supported by a detailed report from Mr. Massini, which includes copies of the factory build sheets, Automobile Club d’Italia registration records, and period photographs.

Presented today in unrestored condition, chassis 0076E represents an exceptional opportunity: a glamorous, historically important Ferrari of extraordinary provenance, offering the potential – once sympathetically restored – to compete for top prizes at the highest levels of the concours circuit, including Pebble Beach and Villa d’Este. For the discerning connoisseur, it is a singular chance to acquire one of the most fascinating and culturally significant Ferraris in existence.