1-in-50 Ferrari Special Vehicles 70s Off-Roader Hides a Dirty Name Secret in Plain Sight

Back when it hit the road in 1966, the Ferves car shamelessly made the best of its name alikeness to the piston god carmaker. And there was nothing anyone could do about it since no scam, mischief, or foul play was involved.

The builder’s name was also Ferrari. He had nothing to do with the sports car brand losing the Le Mans wars against Ford. However, the nameplate (marketed in its non-abbreviated form) attracted the attention of gearheads – and who would blame them?

Indeed, the Prancing Horse and the Ferves did have something in common, and it's related to the drivetrain department. Before you start fantasizing about horsepower and abominable speeds, stop and snap back to reality. Both the Italian Legend and Ferves had non-related mechanical ties with FIAT. The latter borrowed some parts from the 500 and 600 models and used those to put together this bathtub on wheels.

Namely, the 499 CCs air-cooled two-cylinder engine was repurposed from a FIAT 500. As a result, the power of this all-terrain convertible from Turin reaches a breathtaking, laugh-bursting 18 hp (18 PS) and a monstrous 22 lb-ft of torque (that’s a whole 30 Nm). Put a four-speed manual gearbox on it (courtesy of a FIAT 600), and the recipe gets the touch of genius.

Naturally, all that mechanical “strategic triad” is completed by an all-wheel-drive system – with low range and other spoils found on the more famous rugged four-wheelers from the same age. This molehill conqueror could reach speeds of 45 mph (72 kph) on paper, but it’s hard to imagine anybody had the nerves to put this to the test.

The body features suicide doors – frankly, the whole car seems like a physical harm menace – and the windshield drops flat on the car’s front. The engine is in the back, so the Ferves Ranger is one classy off-roader. The all-on-the-rear solution wasn’t the popular choice of carmakers back in the day, especially for uneven and unfriendly driving surfaces.

One look at the unlikely David in our story will reveal a crucial flaw that its Goliaths of the time didn’t possess: one driving belt is directly exposed to everything on the road – rock, mud, branches, ditches. You name it; it can quickly get stuck in that essential transmission assembly, as you can see in the photo gallery

Of course, this little bugger is not built to slay Defenders and Jeeps and Land Cruisers in the Dakar Rally – or any rally, or better yet, in any way, shape, or form. Its tiny wheels can turn driving over a cigarette butt into an adventure of epic proportions.

Not to mention the apparent positive camber on the rear wheels. I imagine it’s there for when the car is loaded at its four occupants’ capacity, and the car thus sits neatly on its rear axle. That’s right; four adults can fit in the front and back seats of this automotive work of wonder.

And, if the weight limit is breached, the windshield and doors can be easily removed. If you look at the door hinges, you’ll notice a strong resemblance with those commonly found on old kitchen cabinets or chicken coops.

So, it’s almost unbelievable that 600 of these automobile insults made it off the production line between 1966 and 1971. It’s downright miraculous that they’re still around – albeit a fraction of the production run survived to this day.

One of those rare profanities even snagged almost $200K at an auction in 2019. That’s Ferrari money – I mean, correct Ferrari, the kind with two doors and more horsepower than the Ferves has bodyweight kilograms.

530 kg is the mass of the Ferves Ranger – or 1,168 lbs. To keep the weight down – and the center of mass closer to the ground – the engineers made it a convertible, with a sheet of canvas spreading over removable arches. Also, drum brakes and independent suspensions were added for pure off-road thrills.

Speaking of independent features: the rear wheels featured individual hand brakes, operated separately – for some reason, one lever wasn’t deemed safe enough. Even more amusing is that this vehicle had two drivetrain options – RWD and 4x4.

While the concept of “small off-road with a big attitude” could eventually make some sense, the two-wheel-drive variant seems to contrast logic perfectly. Nonetheless, the AWD was a massive nine inches longer than the base model: the wheelbase spanned 4.4 feet (1.33 meters) on the 2x4 Ferves and 5.1 (1.55 meters) on the more capable version.

So, if the idea of pebble-climbing adrenaline is haunting anyone, one extra rare Ferves Ranger is for sale. With around 50 examples suspected of still being in driving condition, the car is rare – no argument on this trait – and the “No Reserve” option for the auction could raise some eyebrows.

The auction house estimates a selling price in the range of $43K to $65K for this particular unit – one of the earliest built – the 18th to have been assembled, according to the tag (see it in the photos). The sale takes place in Paris (the capital of France, the European country) on February 1, 2023.