The Ferrari 212 Inter was produced from 1951 through 1953. About 80 cars were built during this time period. Typical of early cars, the factory designed and built a chassis with full engine and running gears and the buyer was able to commission a different company to build the body. This is why many early Ferrari cars carry the same model number but do not look alike.
Typical for Ferrari the 212 designated the cubic centimeters of one cylinder of the engine. So the V12 engine for this vehicle was 212cc x 12 or around 2,544 cc. The actual value was 2,562 cc as values for model numbers were rounded up or down at the factory's discretion.
The basic engine was the same design as the earlier 166 Inter, however it had been bored out to increase the horsepower to 150 with two carburetors. Cars towards the end of the series received three carburetors and were rated at about 170bph. As in earlier cars the Inter models were not designed for racing, but raced they were. If you wanted one specific for racing you chose the 212 Export model.
These cars were bodied in coupe, cabriolet and spider designs by some of the leading companies such as Vignale, Ghia and Pinin Farina (who changed their name to Pininfarina years later). The chassis was tubular steel, a practice that you could see on cars produced through the 1980's. The transmission was a five speed manual, again a design that lasted until 1994 when a six speed manual was introduced.
Are these models very valuable? Well at a December 2008 auction a Ferrari 212 Export (remember the model designed for racing) was bid up to $ 1,946,000 and not sold as the reserve had not been met.