WORLD RECORD FOR FERRARI @ BONHAMS QUAIL LODGE SALE

Ferrari 250 GTO Takes Title of World’s Most Expensive Car at Auction, Selling for $38.115 Million

 

It has been decades since a Ferrari 250 GTO even came up for sale at a public auction, and while rarer and faster cars have come and gone since, toppling record prices paid, none were as hotly anticipated as the 250 GTO that sold Thursday night for $38.115 million, setting a new world record for a car sold at public auction.
Chassis 3851 GT, the 19th of 39 GTOs built, took second place in its first outing, at the 1962 Tour de France Automobile with its first owner, French racer Jo Schlesser, behind the wheel. At its second outing, however, Parisian Henri Oreiller, who co-drove with Schlesser in the Tour de France, died at the wheel of the GTO in a crash that severely damaged the car. Schleser sent the GTO back to Maranello to have it rebuilt and it reappeared in 1963 with a new owner, Paolo Colombo, who continued to race it in hillclimbs and track events – as did its next owner, Ernesto Prinoth.
Fabrizio Violati then bought 3851 GT in 1965 and used it primarily as a road car, reportedly hiding it from his family by only taking it out at night. Eventually, he built up a collection of rare Italian sports cars – the Maranello Rosso collection – but held on to the GTO until his death in 2010.

While most of the Maranello Rosso collection has reportedly been sold to the Louwman Museum in Holland, 10 cars from the collection – including 3851 GT – crossed the block Thursday evening at the Bonhams Quail Lodge auction with no reserve. While Bonhams
did not publicly offer a pre-auction estimate for the GTO, officials said they expected the car to sell for $30 million to $40 million, speculation on the car’s value ranged wildly, from the $52 million reportedly spent in a private sale for 5111 GT last October up to $75 million.
Pretty much all pre-auction speculation agreed that 3851 GT would eclipse the world record for a Ferrari sold at public auction (previously the 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spider that sold for $27.5 million at RM’s Monterey auction in 2013) as well as the record for any car sold at public auction (previously the Fangio-raced 1954 Mercedes W196 that sold for $29.65 million at the Bonhams Goodwood auction in July 2013).
Bidding started at $10 million, quickly rose to $20 million and $30 million, then scaled its way up to the hammer price of $34.65 million – $38.115 million including premiums. All 10 cars from the Maranello Rosso collection at Bonhams sold, for a combined $65.945 million.
The Bonhams Quail Lodge auction will conclude Friday, August 15. For more information, visit Bonhams.com.

Source: Hemmings News 15th August 2014
 Daniel Strohl at 8:44 pm