Tag Archives: ferrari

Ferrari 512 M

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1970 Ferrari 512 M

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 2025

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Ferrari didn’t compete in the 1968 sports car season because of a rule change that outlawed any engine over three liters. Porsche developed the 917 for 1969, taking advantage of a loophole in the rules. Enzo had just sold half of Ferrari to Fiat and now had the money to take the fight to Porsche for the 1970 season.

So for 1970, Ferrari debuted the 512 S, of which 25 were produced. Seventeen of these 25 cars competed in the 1970 endurance racing season, with this car being the only example delivered new in Giallo. It went to Ecurie Francorchamps in Belgium, delivered new as a 512 S. Under that guise, it competed in:

  • 1970 1000km Spa – 8th (with Derek Bell and Hughes de Fierlant)
  • 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans – 5th (with de Fierlant and Alistair Walker)
  • 1971 24 Hours of Daytona – 38th, DNF (with de Fierlant and Gustave Gosselin)

During 1970, it was used during the filming of Le Mans. After the ’71 Daytona race, the car went back to Europe to become one of 15 examples that were upgraded to 512 M specification. The 5.0-liter V12 was lightened and now made 610 horsepower. Aerodynamics were improved with lower bodywork. The car was completed in time for:

  • 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans – 18th, DNF (with de Fierlant and Alain de Cadenet)

The car ran a few other races, including a Can-Am race at Watkins Glen. It’s been in various collections, including the current one since 2018. The estimate is $9,500,000-$12,500,000. More info can be found here.

Le Mans-Winning Ferrari

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1964 Ferrari 250 LM

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 2025

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

We have featured a 250 LM in the past, but any car that has an estimate of “over $26,500,000” typically is something worth peeking at. This car was, until recently, on display in the basement of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum right next to the W196R streamliner. Quite a pairing.

Ferrari only built 32 of these. All but one had power from a 3.3-liter V12 that was rated at 320 horsepower. This car was the 6th example produced and was sold new by Luigi Chinetti. The car was soon after traded back in and thereafter put into the N.A.R.T. stable. It’s subsequent racing history includes:

  • 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans – 1st (with Masten Gregory, Jochen Rindt, and Ed Hugus)
  • 1966 24 Hours of Daytona – 9th (with Rindt and Bob Bondurant)
  • 1968 24 Hours of Daytona – 48th, DNF (with Gregory and David Piper)
  • 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans – 24th, DNF (with Gregory and Charlie Kolb)
  • 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans – 8th (with Sam Posey and Teodoro Zeccoli)
  • 1970 24 Hours of Daytona – 7th (with Luigi Chinetti Jr. and Gregg Young)

It’s pretty amazing that it could place in the top 10 in a 24-hour race five years after it was built. And that it only competed in 24-hour events. Later in 1970, the car was purchased by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Until 2023, it was the last Ferrari to win outright at Le Mans. You can read more about it here.

250 GT Boano

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1957 Ferrari 250 GT Coupe Boano

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monterey, California | August 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Ferrari’s 250 GT coupe was the first real GT car Ferrari offered and the first real production car of any quantity that the company manufactured… even it was over a range of various 250 GT models. Between 1955 and 1960, the company sold the first “250 GT Coupe,” which were bodied by either Boano or Ellena.

Cars built between 1955 and part of 1957 were Boano coupes, with the design having been styled by Pinin Farina (but not built by them due to issues with their production capacity). Instead, construction fell to Felice Boano’s Carrozzeria. Just 88 were built, including 68 “low-roof” coupes like this one.

Midway through 1957, Boano went to work with Fiat. His son-in-law, Ezio Ellena took over his coachbuilding firm, renaming it Carrozzeria Ellena. Just 50 Ellena coupes were built through 1958. By that time Pinin Farina was able to take back over.

This coupe is powered by a 3.0-liter Colombo V12. And it has a pre-sale estimate of $875,000-$1,000,000. More info can be found here.

Drogo-Bodied 250 GT Coupe

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1960 Ferrari 250 GT Coupe by Carrozzeria Sports Cars

Offered by Bonhams | Monaco | May 2024

Photo – Bonhams

If you’re thinking that this car looks vaguely 250 GTO-ish (or vaguely like an Iso Grifo from the cowl back), well, you aren’t crazy. What we have here is a Ferrari 250 GT that was sold new as a Pinin Farina-bodied coupe.

That coupe, powered by a 3.0-liter Colombo V12, was crashed in Switzerland in 1965. It was sent back to Modena, where the chassis was shortened and the car was subsequently rebodied by Piero Drogo’s Carrozzeria Sports Cars. In the 1970s it was crashed again, this time in France, with repairs carried out by Sbarro.

There are definite GTO influences, but the design is a one-off. More modern re-bodied 250 GTs tend to barely break into the seven figures, depending on what they’ve been re-bodied as. Yet this one, because of its period rebody, has an estimate of $2,700,000-$3,200,000. More info can be found here.

Update: Not sold.

Touring Aero 3

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2015 Touring Aero 3 Coupe

Offered by Bonhams | Monaco | May 2024

Photo – Bonhams

Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera has been around since the 1920s and became quite famous in the 1930s and ’40s with their coachbuilt bodies. Touring would later body some of the most famous Ferraris, Aston Martins, Maseratis, and Lamborghinis of the 1950s and 1960s. They closed up shop in 1966.

In 2006, the company was resurrected under new ownership and started producing limited-run vehicles based on existing cars. One such vehicle is this, the Aero 3. It’s based on the Ferrari F12berlinetta. It shares the F12’s 730-horsepower, 6.3-liter V12. This particular car utilized a 2015 F12 as a starting point and was converted by Touring to Aero 3 spec in 2020.

These are limited-run cars. A maximum of 15 Aero 3s will be built, but it’s unclear how many have been completed thus far (or if they will ever even get to 15). It has an estimate of $640,000-$960,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

Ferrari 312 T4

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1979 Ferrari 312 T4

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monaco | May 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Ferrari’s 312T line of cars participated in Formula 1 from 1975 through 1980. Variations won 27 races and three driver’s championships, including in 1979 when the Scuderia entered this car, the 312 T4. It is the car that Jody Scheckter used to win his only F1 championship.

It is powered by a 3.0-liter flat-12 that made somewhere around 500 horsepower. This chassis, 040, has the following competition history:

  • 1979 Belgian Grand Prix – 1st (with Jody Scheckter)
  • 1979 Monaco Grand Prix – 1st (with Scheckter)
  • 1979 French Grand Prix – 7th (with Scheckter)
  • 1979 German Grand Prix – 4th (with Scheckter)
  • 1979 Austrian Grand Prix – 4th (with Scheckter)
  • 1979 Dutch Grand Prix – 2nd (with Scheckter)
  • 1979 Italian Grand Prix – 1st (with Scheckter)
  • 1979 Canadian Grand Prix – 4th (with Scheckter)
  • 1979 United States Grand Prix – 10th, DNF (with Scheckter)

Another Monaco Grand Prix-winning chassis. Scheckter was the only person to have raced this chassis and is the only person to have driven it since the season ended. It’s a big deal, and it has an estimate of $5,600,000-$7,000,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold ~$8,038,515.

Ferrari 365 California

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1967 Ferrari 365 California

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | March 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Here’s one of very few classic Ferraris we haven’t been able to feature in the last… 13 years! And there’s a good reason for that: there aren’t many of them. The 365 line of cars replaced the 330 line as well as the 500 Superfast. The 365 California was the first in the line, and it was the direct replacement for the Superfast. The later 365 GT 2+2 would replace the 330 GT 2+2 and be much more common.

The California rode on the 500 Superfast chassis and wore bodywork by Pininfarina. Power was from an enlarged version of the 330 GT’s V12 that now displaced 4.4 liters and made 320 horsepower. Just 14 were produced.

This one was sold new in California and has been with its current owner since 2006. They do not change hands often, and when they do they command a premium. The estimate here is $4,000,000-$4,500,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

250 Testa Rossa

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1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Detroit, Michigan | February 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

At the end of the 1957 World Sportscar Championship season, Ferrari debuted the 250 Testa Rossa aimed a the 3.0-liter class. Ferrari built about 33 examples by 1962, including 19 customer cars. There were 19, unclear if the same 19, that were bodied by Scaglietti, including this one. But this car does not have its original Scaglietti body anymore.

The auction catalog is not complete yet, however, what is there does not mention at all that the car carries a replica body. It just brags of the original engine and gearbox. The engine is a 3.0-liter V12 that made 300 horsepower. The TR was a beast, winning Le Mans three times, Sebring three times, the Targa Florio, and three WSC manufacturer titles. This car was sold new to a Brazilian privateer and was raced at Interlagos in period before having its pontoon fenders removed between the ’59 and ’60 seasons.

It was re-bodied in the style of a 250 GT Berlinetta in the early ’60s and made its way out of South America and to the U.K. in 1985. In 1989 it was fitted with a replica pontoon-fender body (the one you see here) during a restoration. Under British ownership beginning in 1996, the car was used at quite a few historic events, which is great, including the Le Mans Classic, among many others.

It failed to sell at an RM auction in 2010 with a $10.7 million bid and then was purchased by its current owner, Les Wexner, the guy who founded Bath & Body Works and made Victoria’s Secret into what it is today. Fun fact that Wikipedia points out very early: he was also a long-time buddy-buddy of Jeffrey Epstein.

Forbes points out that this re-bodied Testa Rossa could fetch $38 million, which may seem steep for what is essentially a re-creation of what it originally once was. But, these things are rare and you’re paying for that serial number and the history associated with it. You may be able to read more about it here.

Update: Not sold, I guess?

430 Scuderia

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2008 Ferrari 430 Scuderia

Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | Online | December 2024

Photo – Bring a Trailer

Ferrari’s F430 was the follow up to the 360 Modena. The Modena had a limited-edition track-focused variant called the Challenge Stradale, and for the F430 generation, that track-focused car was called the 430 Scuderia. That’s right, they dropped the “F” for some reason.

In Scuderia trim, the 4.3-liter V8 makes 503 horsepower, which is 20 more than the standard F430. It was offered for 2008 and 2009 only and even spawned a convertible variant, the even-more-expensive Scuderia Spider 16M.

This car has 26,000 miles and a paddle-shifted gearbox. It is finished in Bianco Avus with black stripes and gold wheels. This bidding on the car is already up to $200,000 at the time of this writing, and there are still a few days to go. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $222,226.

F40 GT

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1990 Ferrari F40 GT

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Las Vegas, Nevada | November 17, 2023

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Ferrari’s sensational F40 went on sale in 1987 and actually hung around until the early 1990s, which is quite a while in the world of limited-run Ferrari supercars. Three of four examples were prepped by Michelotto to “LM” specification, which increased interest in customer F40 racing cars.

So to that end, nine examples of the “GT” ended up being produced. It retains a twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V8 that was eventually rated for up to 550 horsepower in race spec. This particular chassis was purchased new by the designer of the Mugello race track and campaigned in the Italian GT Championship.

It competed in seven rounds in 1992 and eight the following year. The car was later taken back to its 1992 look, and it is one of 21 F40s to race in a major sanctioned series. The car now has an estimate of $3,250,000-$4,000,000. More info can be found here.

Update: Not sold.