With a cavalcade of cars arriving at the Fiorano track from all over the world, the start of the 275 Tour was Ferrari’s first ever classic car meeting dedicated to a single model.

With over 50 cars entered, it was the biggest ever meeting of a model that saw Ferrari become a true industrial reality. The 275 – in its two-cam GTB and GTS and 4-cam GTB guises - was, over 4 years, the first Ferrari model to break the 1,000 unit production mark. Introduced in 1964 at the Paris Show, the 275 GTB remained in production until 1968, while the spider version was eventually superseded in 1966 after reaching 200 owners.

The cars gathered at the track for day one of the 6-day Tour included 23 GTBs, 5 GTSs, no fewer than four of the original 12 official Competizione versions and 20 GTB4s.

Highlight of the day was the chance for all the entrants to lap the Fiorano track, with the 1965 Le Mans car [the yellow car seen below] - that came 3rd overall and first in class at that year’s race – setting a fearsome pace for all the rest.

The next day, the cars returned to the track for a timed special stage before leaving for the first leg of their journey through Tuscany, to reach Florence via the classic Vergato-Cereglio hillclimb.

The owners of the 275 GTB, GTB4, GTS and GTB Competizione models taking part hailed from 17 different countries and spent the second morning at the Fiorano Circuit, competing in the first of the five scheduled regularity trials. The historic cars were to cover a total of 1,680 km on the Tour, mostly through Tuscany, before returning to Maranello on Sunday June 20th.

The guest of honour from the third evening was none other than John Surtees, the legendary ‘bike and motor racing champion who took the F1 World title in the Ferrari 158 F1 in 1964. This time, however, the British driver was behind the wheel of a 275 GTB4 which once belonged to his former team-mate Lorenzo Bandini, and is now part of the Galleria Ferrari collection at Maranello.

"Taking the wheel of this car again for the first time after so many years," commented John Surtees, "was quite a moving moment. Like a fine wine, it even seems to have improved with age! Similarly, having spent these few days together with a bunch of such enthusiastic owners took me back to those marvellous times when I raced for Ferrari. I will never forget this Tour!"

Several characters whose names have been linked with that of the Prancing Horse for decades, joined the Owners at Fiorano during the Tour. These included Engineer Mauro Forghieri and coachbuilder Sergio Scaglietti (seen left), as well as a large group of mechanics from the early 1960s.

On the final day the Ferrari 275 Tour wound its way back to the Fiorano track after a six-day adventure that took 53 cars, over 1,680 km of some of Italy’s finest driving roads between Emilia Romagna and Tuscany.

Photos/Text; Ferrari Media