Hammond's Ferrari 550 Up for Grabs

It's been a while since we've had a “Top Gear” related article, so today we thought we'd hit you with a little piece of news that might interest some of you car collector's out there. It's a known fact that having a celebrity's name linked to a car significantly increases its second hand value.

Well then car collectors, get ready to make a new investment. One of the hosts of the world's most famous auto-related TV show, Richard Hammond is selling one of his cars, namely a Ferrari 550 Maranelo.

The car was produced in 1997 and it has been under the safe-keeping of Hammond's garage up to now, but prior to that it belonged to EVO car magazine. So it's a double whammy for this one, folks, nothing but celebrities on this one, though we're not sure that EVO magazine qualifies as a bona fide celebrity.

The ones making the sale are UK site Motorbase and their ad is kept to a strict minimum: “1997 Ferrari 550. Red with black leather interior. Manual gearbox, RHD, 49,000 miles and in superb order. Currently owned by Richard Hammond and previously by EVO magazine this car has had every care possible by Maranello to keep it pristine”.

Simple, yet to the point as sometimes short adds have more impact and attract more attention than a long and elaborate text that tends to embellish the car's features. Interestingly, the car's pristine form seems to be paramount and the announcement stressed the fact that none of the owners tampered with it. The Ferrari red, the black leather interior and the manual gearbox are about as stock as they come.

The only bad thing, if that can be considered bad, is the fact that the car is right-hand drive, so unless you're from Britain, you'd better teach your mom to drive. And it's a crying shame too, cuz Hammond only wants $66,200 for it.