Buy A Piece Of The Real Tour De France’s History

You know of the Tour de France. No, not the bike race that proves whose doctors are the best at hiding banned substances. We're talking about the original Tour de France, one that began in 1899 (that's four years before that other tour, if you're keeping score). It took a few years off mid-century (a few World Wars got in the way), and returned as essentially a Franco-centric lap of western Europe, wherein drivers took their race cars, drove them from track to track, and saw who had the best overall time across some of the most notable courses in the world.

The car you're looking at is a 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione, built specifically to be a road car you can race. It's got a three-liter V12 that screams to 7,000 rpm, and an advanced (by 1950s standards) suspension designed to tackle Europe's finest twisty bits. It actually finished fifth in the Tour in '57, slotting in immediately behind Stirling Moss and his legendary Mercedes 300SL.

Evolutions of this car went on to be some of Ferrari's most famous racing cars of all time, but this one did it first, showing the world that you could go fast, and still have luggage in the trunk.

Check out these gorgeous photos of the car and don't miss the video at the bottom to see it in action.

click to play video

Aaron Miller is the Rides editor for Supercompressor. He would've absolutely loved to compete in the Tour de France. Follow him to Europe on Twitter.