It’s not often that Jay Leno gets surprised by a car but when this extremely-rare and expensive 1951 Ferrari 212 Inter by Ghia turns out to be a five-speed instead of a four-one, it delights this gearhead. Leno feels this is the ultimate in automotive royalty, given it’s a great classic car with a great story. Especially since it has the distinction of being the longest-owned Ferrari by a gentleman, a man named Rodolfo Junco de la Vega. Like its older sibling, the Ferrari 195 Inter, the 212 Inter was one of the most expensive cars in the ’50s.

This Ferrari owner passed away last October, aged 98, and his son, Foster is there with Leno to talk about both the car and the man who loved it with a passion. So much so that he even learned how to fix any issues with the Ferrari by visiting the factory and the mechanics.

YouTube channel Jay Leno’s Garage talks about this amazing car with a sentimental story behind its long-term ownership, given de la Vega bought it in the ‘50s and kept it ever since. This isn’t just a man and his car; this is an automotive marriage…

This Classic Ferrari Remained With Its Owner Till His Passing

Leno welcomes in Rodolfo’s son, Thaddeus Foster, someone who has known this car since a child, and he said that for the longest time, it was just his father’s car, an old Ferrari. At the time, it didn’t seem like anything special and Leno agreed – sometimes you meet someone who has had a car for the longest time, maybe a Porsche Boxster. It’s nice but doesn’t translate to something big. To have a rare, unique, and expensive car, owned by the same person for all the years is a different story altogether.

What’s also special about this car is that the gentleman owner, Rodolfo, visited the Ferrari factory and learned how to take care of his beloved ride from the mechanics who built the car in Maranello. He also met Enzo Ferrari around the mid-to-late ‘50s when he bought the car. He worked on and maintained this stunning classic, and such was the good care he took that no one needed to open it. Everything but the paint and the carpet is original, and even these refurbishments happened in the early ‘70s.

The Ferrari 212 Inter By Ghia Is A Thing Of Maintained Beauty

This car was also used by Ferrari as a show car in 1951-52 at the Turin Motor Show, as an advertisement for the 212s, and this was the only Ghia body car featured back then. At the time, Ferrari was still a young company. Founded in 1939, Ferrari adopted its name in 1945, and in the ‘50s, it was still trying to make a name for itself as an automaker.

Junco de la Vega was right in the middle of it all, getting a Ferrari for himself at the time people were slowly recognizing the same. At the heart of the Ferrari 212 Inter is a Colombo V12 engine, and as they pop the hood, Leno gets blown away by how “new” the engine looks, even after 72 years of use.

He also notices that the compartment chassis is blue because that’s how it was right out of the factory. After only minor mechanical work, this classic is almost as new as it was back when it rolled off the factory.

Leno finds it funny that when he was a kid, he used to find V12 incredibly big assuming they were 400-500 cubic inch engines – the reality was much smaller, about 2.6 liters, or 156 cubic inches, with tiny pistons. Jay Leno doesn’t own a single Ferrari, but he admires the beauty of this classic Ferrari engine with its twin distributors as Foster describes working on the car being his dad’s therapy. He recalls how his father would come home after a long day of work, put on his coveralls, and tinker around till his wife, Foster’s mom would call him in for dinner.

Jay Leno Gets Talking About The Man Behind The Car, Enzo Ferrari

Leno then recalls how Enzo Ferrari got inspired when he saw the game-changing Packard V12 engine as a kid, and at the time Packard called it a twin six or a two-six. Ferrari was so amazed at how powerful and smooth the engine was, that he built one of his later, with plenty of American influence in his otherwise Italian brand of cars.

By the time Ferrari launched the 212 Inter, a sports car for the road that could also win races, they hadn’t made too many cars. Foster says his father described Enzo Ferrari as an amazing guy, a mechanic genius, and a visionary. That said, he wasn’t easy to get along with, being rather curt and brief. Leno jokes here, mimicking Ferrari and recalling how Lamborghini and more companies came into being because Ferrari yelled at them for complaining about his cars.

What’s truly amazing about the car is how the original De La Vega kept it, down to the original radiator and old-style battery. At the time, this car made 220 horsepower, which in hindsight, given the Chrysler HEMI made 160 hp, is truly an achievement. Leno points to a 1952 Talbot Lago GSL model standing in his garage, which also made 220 horsepower, but from a 4.5-liter six-cylinder engine.

Leno says Ferrari was also a pretty traditional carmaker in that it kept to safe suspension and transmission choices – just good reliable cars that went fast and looked good doing so.

This 1951 Ferrari 212 Inter By Ghia Is A Stunning Time Capsule

The interior of the car, well-appointed as it may have been in the ‘50s shows its age. Still wearing its original leather seats with those pop-up door handles, this looks like a car that came well-loved and well-used.

The dash looks exotic with its dials and knobs with a big steering wheel, on the right because this was a car made in Italy for perhaps sale in Europe. In fact, the original owner bought it in Italy only. The dials are all in metric system with the top speed being 240 km h, or 150 mph which Foster claims his father did reach a few times. He also recalls a time when the President of Mexico flew the car down to Mexico City and shut down the highway to celebrate some races with other Ferrari enthusiasts.

Surprisingly, it’s a 2+2 seating because Ferrari built road cars, after first making a racing version of them. Leno moves on the trunk, and the lever to open it is inside the car, just behind the rear seat. The trunk has a huge gas filler which looks more like a sewer pipe head than something to put gasoline in, just one of the many quirks of this stunning classic.

Watch the video to know more about this car, valued at $950,000, and see Leno drive it – something Foster claims his dad would truly love.