The 1964-68 Ferrari 275 GTB is one of the most desirable Ferraris of all time, with zoomy styling, awesome performance and pioneering Ferrari road car features.

Ferrari's main rivals in the 1960s were Italy's new, upstart Lamborghini, older Maserati -- and England's veteran Aston Martin. Ferrari meant the 275 GTB to be the most desirable exotic sports car, especially the more powerful GTB/4 model, which had four -- instead of two -- overhead camshafts.

The GTB was the first road-going Ferrari to have four camshafts. Lamborghini, Maserati and Aston had dual-overhead-camshaft engines for road cars, and Ferrari wasn't about to be outdone by any competitor.

The GTB also was Ferrari's first road car with an independent rear suspension. It thus had a fully independent suspension system that had been proven in Ferrari sports/racing cars. It also had Ferrari's first rear-mounted transaxle -- a combination five-speed manual gearbox and differential.

The new suspension provided better ride and road-holding and the transaxle allowed nearly perfect 50/50 weight distribution for super handling.

Driving a 275 GTB/4, noted French racer Jean-Pierre Beltoise wrote in the 1967 L'Auto Journal that he covered "in complete safety and the greatest comfort and while carrying on a normal conversation with my passenger" 46 miles on a tollway in France in just under 23 minutes. He had an average speed of more than 121 mph, despite stopping for toll gates.

The 275 GTB is "the Russell Crowe of Ferraris -- rugged, powerful and as much as any other production model, it is the icon of Ferrari," says the March issue of Sports Car Market Newsletter magazine.

Ferrari, which began making cars in 1946, was still small in the 1960s but had become world-famous. Ford tried to buy Ferrari early in that decade, but company founder Enzo Ferrari lived for racing and turned down Ford when he found it wanted to control his successful racing operations.

Ferrari had become famous largely because of its racing success. It built a relatively small number of costly road cars -- many to wealthy, famous people -- mostly to finance competition efforts.

Most Ferrari road models in the 1950s and 1960s were derived from race models, which enhanced their desirability. Ferrrari actually lacked resources to build entirely different road and race cars until Italy's giant Fiat automaker bought half of Ferrrari in 1968, leaving Enzo his race operations.

The 275 GTB fastback coupe debuted with Ferrari's new 275 GTS convertible at the Paris auto show in late 1964. The two cars had a 94.5-inch wheelbase and were mechanically identical but very different in appearance and function.

The GTB looked like a road race car, reminiscent of the famous Ferrari GTO road/race model, and was partly created as a dual-purpose sports/racing car.

The GTS had an attractive but plain body and was just designed to be a fast, comfortable road car. The GTB replaced Ferrari's gorgeous Berlinetta Lusso (Luxury) road car, which Enzo Ferrari reportedly said was "too pretty" to be a Ferrari.

The GTB also had voluptuous styling, but looked aggressive, with more rounded curves than its sister GTS. It had covered headlights, a long and plunging hood, steeply raked windshield, fastback roofline, fender and roof vents and a short, truncated rear end.

The interior was posh but businesslike. The standard GTB had a steel body with aluminum doors, hood and trunk lid, but it could be ordered with a lighter all-aluminum body. The GTB body was styled by Italy's Pininfarina and built by that country's Scaglietti, both old Ferrari companions.

You could get the GTB with cast alloy or wire wheels. At the end of the first year of production, with about 250 cars built, the GTB's nose was lowered and lengthened to prevent the front end from tending to lift at high speeds.

The revised model also had a larger back window and external trunk-lid hinges for more luggage room and a smaller grille opening; Ferrari buffs divide the GTB into "short-nose'' and "long-nose'' models.

A few months after those changes, the GTB came as a "Series II" version with the front-mounted V-12 and rear transaxle rigidly united with a torque tube enclosing the driveshaft to prevent vibrations.

The two-camshaft cars have a beautiful wood dashboard, while the four-camshaft models used a black vinyl upholstered dash. Both the GTB and GTS had Ferrari's 3.3-liter V-12 engine, but the GTS generated 260 horsepower, while the GTB produced about 280 horsepower.

There were a dozen specialized lightweight competition GTB/C models introduced in the spring of 1966 with ultra-thin aluminum bodies, plastic windows, special camshafts, valves, pistons, crankshaft and carburetors, along with a special dry sump lubrication system.

One won the GT class at the famous 24-hour race at Le Mans, France, finishing eighth overall. Far more practical was the GTB/4, introduced later that year at the Paris show.

Besides extra camshafts, the GTB/4's 3.3-liter V-12 had race-car modifications and its hood had a raised center section. Its engine, drive shaft tube and and transaxle were a rigid assembly mounted to the chassis at four points.

The GTB V-12 had a standard setup of three Weber carburetors. But it could be bought with six Webers, which helped increase horsepower to 300. A 275GTB/4 V-12 engine with the six gleaming Weber carburetors is a startling sight, radiating sheer power and high performance.

The GTS never got the four-camshaft engine, being replaced in 1966 by the new 330GTC/GTS. Figures vary, but Ferrari built about 730 GTBs, with only 280 being GTB/4s. They're very collectible, with GTB/4s being the most desirable.

Production of the GTB ended after a fairly short life because it couldn't meet U.S. safety and emission regulations.

Sports Car Market says one GTB/4 sold last year for $816,759, while another went for $990,000. Yet another sold for a whopping $1,183,072 in October at RM's London collector car auction.

"As time goes by, the money [paid for GTBs] will just go up,'' Sports Car Market Newsletter says.