$47 million dollars. This is where the hammer dropped during the latest RM Sotheby’s event, in which the unique Ferrari 330 LM/250 GTO by Scaglietti was auctioned off in a stand-alone sale in New York.
This 1962 racing car is considered the Holy Grail of Ferraris. The model had last changed hands back in 1985, also with RM Sotheby’s, but for a fraction of the price: $500,000, the equivalent of $1.4 million today, according to Good Duff, Rm Sotheby’s global head of auctions, an Ohio-based collector.
With fees included, the price now goes all the way to $51.7 million. It thus, becomes the world’s most expensive classic car sold publicly sold this year. At number 2 comes the 1967 Ferrari 412 Berlinetta that sold for $30.2 million on August 17.
It is also the most expensive Ferrari ever sold at an auction. A Ferrari 250 GTO was reportedly sold privately for more than $70 million in 2016.
But the sum falls short of the auction house’s expectations, as the 1962 Ferrari 330 LM/250 GTO had an unpublished estimate of $60 million.
Two bidders battled for the racing car all the way to $47 million in an event presided by Oliver Barker, who is also the chairman of the European division of the auction house. The car was parked in front of a painting by the contemporary art star Jonas Wood.
Photo: RM Sotheby's
RM Sotheby’s declined to give any information about the one who will take the car home. They, thus, become one of the only 36 Ferrari 250 GTO owners that rolled off the production line between 1962 and 1964. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren and the drummer of Pink Floyd, Nick Mason, are two of the members of the exclusive owners’ club.
The model, chassis number 3765, was originally a 330 LM, a race car with a slightly larger engine, then converted into a 250 GTO in 1962, the only one ever raced by Scuderia Ferrari. In 1964, Ferrari sold it to a Sicilian surgeon for $6,000.
The Ferrari comes with quite an impressive background. Painted in red and wearing the Number 7 racing every, it stands as the only Ferrari 250 GTO powered by a 4.0-liter V12 engine and the only factory GTO Tipo t have been raced by the racing division of Ferrari.
In 1962, it finished first in its class and second in the overall ranking at the Nurburgring 1,000-Kilometer race. It also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year, driven by Mike Parkes and Lorenzo Bandini for Scuderia Ferrari. They crashed the car on lap 56 and were forced to retire.
The model also won the Best in Show award at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in Florida in 2012.
At $47 million, it is still far from the most expensive classic car ever sold at an auction remains the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe, purchased for $135 million.
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