Ferrari Sets Auction Record with $38 Million Sale

Ferrari sets auction record.  I was speaking with someone the other day about the value of cars and I couldn’t believe my ears.  Ferrari’s were selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars and even millions!  He said the price for Ferrari’s keep going up and he was right.  Yesterday the most expensive Ferrari ever sold for $38 million.  It was a 1962 250 GTO and only 39 were reportedly made.  The total sale price was $38,115,000 including the 10% commission.  The next most expensive car ever sold auction was $30 million and it was a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R F1 single-seat racer sold laster year in England.

But the craziest part about this sale was it missed expectations!  A lot of people in the know expected the car to be the most expensive car sold – period.  However, that title still belongs to a Ferrari GTO sibling that sold last year in a private sale for $52 million.  Whoever bought the car got a great deal said the Hagerty spokesman.  The car is rare and expensive because it was made as a street car that could also be raced.  A lot people thought there could be bids as high as $70 million for the car!

The $38 million GTO was the third car to be auctioned off.  The first two were also Ferrari’s that sold for less than $1 million a piece.  When the bidding started for the GTO the price quickly climbed to $25 million where the bids increased in $1 million increments.  Then at $34 million it started to slow down and finally settle on $38,115,000.  The Auctioneer tried to get buyers to bid it even higher but there were no customers and the car was sold.

Bonhams says the car was developed to race in the 1962 3-liter class FIA GT World Championship series. But it was involved in a crash early in its life that killed the driver, and was subsequently repaired. Experts say a crash involving a Ferrari of its type doesn’t decrease the value. In fact, it appeared only to add to the mystique.

“Over the long decades since then, the Ferrari 250 GTO has commanded ever-increasing interest from the car connoisseur and art investor alike. Valuable levels have been achieved by the relatively few examples that have come to market over the past 20 years,” Bonhams writes.