Carrozzeria Ellena

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The Carrozzeria Ellena was an Italian body manufacturer based in Turin and primarily produced bodies for Fiat models between 1957 and 1966 . The company became known beyond the country's borders, however, primarily through the production of some special bodies for Ferrari , which are now considered classics in demand.

Company history

First vehicle from Carrozzeria Ellena: The Ferrari 250 GT with Pininfarina body

The Carrozzeria Ellena was closely associated with the Turin-based coachbuilder Carrozzeria Boano . Its founder Mario Felice Boano had received the order in 1954 to manufacture the coupé bodies designed by Pininfarina for the Ferrari 250 GT . The reason for the outsourcing of body production was the fact that Pininfarina did not have enough of its own capacity.

Boano produced around 70 - according to other sources: 80 - bodies for the Ferrari 250 GT by 1957. In 1957, Mario Felice Boano moved to Fiat's Centro Stile . Since Pininfarina still did not have a sufficiently large plant of its own at that time and Boano could no longer manage his body shop in addition to his work for Fiat, he transferred the production order for the Ferrari bodies to his son-in-law Ezio Ellena, who together with Boano's employee Luciano Pollo founded his own body shop under the name Carrozzeria Ellena. Ellena initially continued the production of the 250 GT bodies. The company later turned to the manufacture of cheaper special bodies on Fiat chassis, but was unable to achieve lasting success in this segment. In 1966 Ellena ceased operations.

The Ferrari 250 GT Ellena

Compared to the Boano version with a slightly raised roof: Ellena's Ferrari 250 GT

Ellena started production of the 250 GT bodies in the summer of 1957. By the summer of the following year, Ellena had produced 49 vehicles of this type with chassis numbers from 0679GT to 0887GT. Like Boano before, Ellena largely followed Pininfarina's guidelines. The first eight Ellena bodies were completely identical to the Boano predecessors, so in particular had the very low coupé roof. With the ninth vehicle produced by Ellena, the roof line was raised by about five cm. This change was carried out by all other Ellena bodies.

1958 Ellena stopped the body production for the 250 GT. In the summer of this year, Pininfarina's plant in Grugliasco was completed. Shortly afterwards, Pininfarina took over the production of the 250 GT itself.

The Ferrari Coupés, known as the “250 GT Ellena”, are now particularly popular classics for which very high prices are paid. In 2007, a 250 GT Ellena sold in the US for $ 449,000.

More vehicles

After production of the 250 GT at Ellena ended, the company primarily manufactured special bodies for Fiat and Lancia types. This initially included a small delivery van based on the Fiat 600 Multipla , which is occasionally referred to as Ellena's greatest commercial success, but also a luxurious coupé with the mechanics of the Fiat 1500 . In the 1960s, a few Spyders based on the Fiat 850 and Abarth 1000 were finally built .

The name Ellena has been used since 1996 for the newly founded company Ellena Autotrasformazioni, which manufactures individually designed hearses. There is no connection to the former Carrozzeria Ellena.

literature

  • Georg Amtmann and Halwart Schrader: Italian sports cars . Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-01988-4 .
  • Frank Oleski, Hartmut Lehbrink: Series sports cars . Cologne (Könemann) 1993. ISBN 3-89508-000-4 .

Web links

Commons : Ferrari 250  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For Fiat, Boano designed, among other things, the body of the Fiat 130 sedan .
  2. ↑ Company history and images of several 250 GT Ellena on the website www.coachbuild.com , accessed on August 20, 2011.
  3. ↑ Description of the vehicle on the website www.ferraris-online.com .
  4. ^ History of Carrozzeria Ellena on the website, accessed on August 20, 2011.
  5. ↑ Internet presence of Ellena srl (accessed on January 6, 2017).