1967 Ferrari 412P

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023

This car is proof that, if you watch long enough, just about everything will come up for sale. Ferrari‘s “P”-line of sports prototype race cars are among the most valuable and sought after vehicles in the world. Only four 412Ps were built, and two of those were actually converted from P3s.

This car, chassis number 0854, is one of two factory-built 412Ps. But not much left on it is from the factory. The car was purchased by David Piper in 1968, and the original aluminum body had seen a few years of hard racing duty at that point. And instead of repair it, he replaced the body with a fiberglass one. Which was then destroyed in a fire in 1969. It was then rebuilt again, and this time as a spyder, before it was actually restored to how it looked when new. This was done by the current owner, famed Ferrari guy Jim Glickenhaus.

With these old racing cars, it’s sort of like the “idea” of them. Eventually every part will be replaced, but as long as you can link the chain back to when it was new, then you’ve got the real deal.

The engine is a 4.0-liter V12 that makes somewhere around 420 horsepower. The period racing history for this chassis includes:

• 1967 1000km Spa – 3rd (with Richard Attwood and Lucien Bianchi)
• 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans – 23rd (with Attwood and Piers Courage)

All of this is good and well, but there is still one more important detail (it’s not the price, which most cannot afford anyway and will be well into the eight figures). It’s this: this car has license plates. The late 1960s is when the end came for sports prototypes to also be made street legal. By the 1970s, the cars were too extreme. This is pretty extreme, but you can still take it to the grocery store. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $30,255,000.