1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Spider Heading for Pebble Beach Auction

Classic cars usually bring top-dollar, but to really get the attention of millionaires and start a bidding, a few extra conditions must be meat. The car must be a limited production model of which few survive, it must have had a famous or excentric previous owner and it must have participated in a lot of races.

RM Auctions seems to think this 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Spider chassis #0492M is all of the above and much, much more.

One of only 35 built, Ferrari displayed this Spider at the 1955 Brussels Motor Show, after which it was brought to America by famed importer Luigi Chinetti who sold it to his rival Porsche importer John von Neumann in Los Angeles. The car was also driven by future Formula One World Champion Phil Hill, and Harrison Evans.

The Ferrari next turned up in the February 1957 issue of Road & Track, where it was advertised for $7,000, described as red with a gray interior. It was eventually leased or perhaps even bought by Stanley Kramer Productions in Hollywood, on its way into movie history.

Subsequently, the Monza was driven by Fred Astair in a fictionalized post-apocalyptic grand prix in the movie On The Beach.

The Ferrari 750 Monza Spider has been part of several prestigious collections since then, but after a comprehensive two-year restoration is now heading to Pebble Beach, where RM Auctions will be putting it up for auction, with prices reportedly expected to top $3 million.

Under that sculpted bonnet lies a 260 horsepower 2,998 cc DOHC four-cylinder engine with two Weber 58 mm DCOA/3 carburetors, dry sump lubrication, five-speed manual transmission. The car has independent front suspension with unequal-length A-arms and coil springs, de Dion rear axle with transverse leaf springs and trailing arms and four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes.