Film and TV star Jackie Cooper's 1956 Pininfarina-bodied Ferrari 410 Superamerica will anchor the "Ferrari Production 1950-1964" class at the 19th annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance this weekend.
The year 1956 was a good one for Ferrari, on and off the track. The Modenese firm won both the Formula 1 and the World Sportscar Championships in 1956. As a bonus, the marque won Enzo Ferrari's favorite race, the open road Mille Miglia, a brutal 1,000-mile high-speed lap of the Italian peninsula. The 410 Superamerica was a significant design departure for Ferrari that year. It featured a unique cantilevered roof design and was one of the earliest two-tone Ferraris; it also had small, 1950s-fashionable tailfins and a new longer chassis.
From its introduction at the 1956 Paris Auto Show, the 410 Superamerica became the star of Ferrari's glamorous portfolio. The big twin-ignition 4,963 cc V-12 engine gave the 410SA 340 horsepower, enough to propel the Pininfarina-bodied coupe to 170 mph.
In 1958 Jackie Cooper bought the 410 SA from its original American owner, William Doheny of Los Angeles, stepfather of professional racing driver Chris Cord. A participant in the infamous Tourismo Vistadores high-speed dashes across the Nevada desert's "reasonable and proper" highways, Cooper's Superamerica is now, appropriately, part of the Nevada-based Robert M. Lee Trust collection.
"The Superamerica was the first Ferrari that looked to America for styling elements," said Bill Warner, founder and Chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. "From our perspective in the 21st Century, the 410 SA seems to mark that moment when Enzo Ferrari realized that there was more to the automobile business than building racing cars."
The 19th annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is on this weekend. For more information, please visit https://www.ameliaconcours.org/
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