Tag Archives: 2003

575 GTC

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2003 Ferrari 575 GTC

Offered by Artcurial | Paris, France | February 3, 2023

Photo – Artcurial

Sometimes it is easy to forget that Ferrari had a GT sports car presence in the early 2000s. They built two GTC examples of the 550 Maranello (after production had wrapped for the street car). Those were sort of proof-of-concepts for this, the 575 GTC, based on the 575M Maranello road car.

Just 12 of these were built by Ferrari. They featured a 6.0-liter V12 rated at 605 horsepower. It’s a tube-frame race car with a composite body, making it much lighter than the road cars. The competition history for this chassis, #2204, includes:

  • 2004 24 Hours of Spa – 22nd (with Andrea Garbagnati, Antoine Gosse, and Peter Kutemann)
  • 2005 1000km Spa – 44th, DNF (with Gosse, Kutemann, and Hans Hugenholtz)
  • 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans – 39th, DNF (with Jean-Rene de Fournoux, Stephane Daoudi, and Jim Matthews)
  • 2005 1000km Nurburgring – 40th, DNF (with Gosse, Daoudi, and Kutemann)

The V12 was overhauled in 2015, and the car now wears its 2005 Le Mans livery. This is a factory Ferrari race car with Le Mans history. It has an estimate of $3,500,000-$4,100,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

Ferrari F2003-GA

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2003 Ferrari F2003-GA

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Geneva, Switzerland | November 9, 2022

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Ferrari was on fire in this era of F1. This, the F2003-GA (the GA standing for Gianni Agnelli, the previous head of Fiat), gave Michael Schumacher his sixth and penultimate world championship. Rubens Barrichello was the team’s other driver this season, and he won two races in his F2003-GA. Schumacher won five. And they didn’t even use the car for the first four races of the season.

This particular chassis, #229, has a competition history that includes:

  • 2003 Spanish Grand Prix – 1st (with Michael Schumacher)
  • 2003 Austrian Grand Prix – 1st (with Schumacher)
  • 2003 Monaco Grand Prix – 3rd (with Schumacher)
  • 2003 Canadian Grand Prix – 1st (with Schumacher)
  • 2003 European Grand Prix – 5th (with Schumacher)
  • 2003 French Grand Prix – 3rd (with Schumacher)
  • 2003 Italian Grand Prix – 1st (with Schumacher)
  • 2003 U.S. Grand Prix – 1st (with Schumacher)
  • 2003 Japanese Grand Prix – 8th (with Schumacher)

Apparently there are only four Schumacher-era Ferrari F1 cars that won five or more races, and this is one of them. It’s powered by a 3.0-liter V10 that made 845 horsepower in race trim. It’s fully serviced and ready to go. It has an estimate of $7,500,000-$9,500,000. Click here for more info.

550 GTC

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2003 Ferrari 550 GTC

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 2, 2022

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Ferrari turning their road-going cars into competitive race cars had kind of been a rare event since… well, the 1960s. Sure, they had “Challenge” race cars where 348s and F355s would compete against each other, but it’s not like they were taking them to Le Mans.

That sort of changed with the 550 Maranello. While Ferrari themselves weren’t outright building racing versions of the 550, some privateer teams were. The cars appeared in a few different classes/forms across a variety of series worldwide. We’ve already featured an ex-Le Mans GTLM version, and this is a GTC. The GTCs were “factory-built” in that Ferrari actually partnered with N-Technology to build two cars, both of which were constructed in 2003, after 550 Maranello road car production ceased. The other example is still owned by Ferrari.

Power is provided by a 5.5-liter V12. The competition history for this chassis included:

  • 2003 24 Hours of Spa – 27th, DNF (with Philipp Peter, Fabio Babini, and Boris Derichebourgh)

The following year it won the Italian Speed Hill Climb championship in the GTM category. The engine was rebuilt in 2016, and the current owner bought it the next year. It’s been restored to its Spa livery and now carries a pre-sale estimate of $2,300,000-$2,850,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Impreza WRC

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2003 Subaru Impreza WRC2003

For Sale at Girardo & Co.

Photo – Girardo & Co.

Yes, I know. The lead photo for this should be the car flying through the air on a rally stage in the middle of the forest. Want to know why that is not the case? Because this car has been very nicely restored and is now worth a lot of money (though Girardo & Co. do have some cool period competition photos for this car on their website, link below).

Creatively-named, the WRC2003 was Subaru’s 2003 entrant in the World Rally Championship. This car was built by WRC experts Prodrive, and the “standard” WRC2003 was powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter flat-four capable of about 300 horsepower in competition form.

Subaru’s drivers in 2003 included the legendary Petter Solberg, who went on to win the drivers’ championship that year in a WRC2003. After the season, this car was sold into private hands, where it spent the next decade competing in England and Barbados, of all places.

It was restored in 2018 and wears its 2003 Monte Carlo Rally livery. It’s for sale in England now – where it is road registered! Imagine someone blasting past you in this. Wait. Imagine blasting past someone else in this. That’s better. Check out more about this car here.

Marcos TS500

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2003 Marcos TS500

Offered by Coys | Fontwell House, U.K. | July 12, 2018

Photo – Coys

Marcos Engineering lasted quite a while, from 1959 through 2007. Over the course of that time, they made a number of different models in varying quantities and each successive car looked like an evolution of the design before it (with one major exception). For example, compare the overall look of this TS500 to 1970’s Marcos 3-Litre.

The TS500 was an updated version of the company’s Marcasite TS250. Instead of a 2.5-liter V-6, the TS500 features a 320 horsepower, 5.0-liter Rover V-8. Sixty mph arrived in about four seconds and the car tops out around 160 mph.

Only a handful of these were made before Marcos switched up production to focus on the TSO before ultimately going out of business. This car was the original factory prototype and press car. It’s a 15,000 mile car with service records. A rare treat from a lost British sports car manufacturer, this convertible should bring between $33,000-$40,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Noble M12 GTO-3

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2003 Noble M12 GTO-3

Offered by Coys | London, U.K. | February 17, 2018

Photo – Coys

I have a soft spot for the Noble M12. The U.S. distributor (or one of them) was located not far from where I grew up and I saw them a lot when I was younger. This is the GTO-3 – the mid-range model, introduced in 2002, two years after the original 2.5 version.

The “3” signifies that it is powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter Ford V-6 making 352 horsepower. It could hit 60 mph in under four seconds and topped out at 170 mph. It was a decent power bump over the 2.5-liter model and it had enough performance improvement to justify the increased cost.

It is thought that only 116 examples of this model were produced (there was also an even more hardcore GTO-3R). The M12 has been molded into other cars after Noble stopped producing them, but this is an actual Noble from 2003. It is expected to sell for between $45,000-$53,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

DB AR1

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2003 Aston Martin DB AR1 Roadster by Zagato

Offered by Bonhams | Knokke-Heist, Belgium | October 6, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

The Aston Martin DB7 went on sale in 1994 with a straight-six engine. The V-12 arrived in 1999. By 2003, when the variant you see above was introduced, the DB7 was pretty long-in-the-tooth. Before this, there was a DB7 Zagato Coupe built from 2002 and 2003 that helped spice up the range. This is essentially the roadster version of that car.

And it’s a true roadster – there is no top. And I guess, technically, it’s not even a DB7 at all, since that “7” doesn’t appear in the car’s name. “AR1” stands for “American Roadster 1” and just 99 examples were produced. This is #23.

The DB AR1 is powered by a slightly tweaked version of the DB7 Vantage’s 6.0-liter V-12 that, in this car, makes 435 horsepower. All that power helped set a record of sorts – this is the world’s fastest true roadster, with a top speed of 186 mph.

The first owner of this car was American. Then it made it’s way to it’s third owner in Luxembourg by way of its second owner in Switzerland. It’s a 2,000 mile car and a gorgeous one at that. Aston and Zagato go hand in hand and this car is drivable proof. It is expected to sell for between $300,000-$420,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Bentley Woodie Wagon

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2003 Bentley Arnage T 4WD Station Wagon by Pininfarina & Genaddi Design

Offered by Artcurial | Monaco | July 2, 2017

Photo – Artcurial

The Bentley Arnage, Bentley’s big sedan that they built from 1998 to 2009, was, and still is, a great-looking car. It was a front-engine, rear-wheel drive, four-door sedan. But what happens when your giant luxo-barge doesn’t have enough room from the groceries, the dog, and a sheet of plywood? Well you go spend $900,000 at a few posh design shops and transform that big British boat into a wagon. And then you put wood paneling on the side, Ford Country Squire-style.

I love it when people with too much money don’t know what to spend it on so they build a ridiculous car (pro-tip, you can always just send that spare change my way). The Arnage T was introduced in 2002 and is powered by a 459 horsepower, twin-turbocharged 6.8-liter V-8. Top speed was 170 mph and 60 arrived in 5.5 seconds. Pretty stout for a 15-year old sedan weighing over 5,000 pounds.

This one owner car was sent to Genaddi Design in the U.S. to be turned into a wagon, something Bentley didn’t build. He also needed it converted to four-wheel drive because this was to be his exclusive transport at his house in the Alpine village of St. Moritz, Switzerland. The 4WD system has a Cadillac Escalade to thank for its engineering (and some parts).

When completed it was shipped to the owners home in Monaco, but they weren’t happy and sent it to Pininfarina to add some final touches (and re-do the interior). This is the kind of car that draws strong opinions one way or the other and for the record, as big fans of wagons and the Arnage, we love it. If you’re the kind of person who needs his or her Bentley to be rarer than your neighbors Bentley, then here’s your ride. It should bring between $90,000-$180,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

DB7 Zagato

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2003 Aston Martin DB7 Vantage Zagato

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | December 4, 2016

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

While the Aston Martin DB7 may be one of the most beautiful cars ever put into production, that doesn’t stop people from trying to improve upon it. Enter Aston Martin collaborators, Zagato. They hadn’t touched an Aston since the 1960s and they chose the DB7 as their next canvas.

The first thing they did was shorten the chassis. Then Zagato crafted a muscular and sporty body to wrap around it – including a double-bubble roof, Zagato’s signature styling touch. Power from the 6.0-liter V-12 was increased to 440 horsepower. Top speed is 186 mph, although this example probably never got there as it’s covered less than 600 miles since new.

Only 99 of these coupes were produced between 2002 and 2003. This one was sold to Latvia and is now up for sale. These tend to come up for sale less than the DB AR1, Zagato’s equally rare followup Aston. This car is expected to bring between $300,000-$350,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams.

Update: Sold $390,262.

Saleen S7

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2003 Saleen S7

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 30, 2016

Photo - Barrett-Jackson

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

The Saleen S7 was America’s home-grown supercar that debuted in 2000 and was built up through 2006 (for the base model. There was a Twin Turbo built from 2005 through 2009). Steve Saleen made his name tuning Mustangs and turned to building his own supercar at the end of the supercar-crazy 1990s. This thing definitely looks the part.

The powerplant is a mid-mounted 7.0-liter Ford V-8. This car is equipped with the “Competition Package” – one of four such naturally aspirated cars. In this trim, the engine puts out 625 horsepower (75 more than stock).

The auction catalog states that only 78 of these were built but it isn’t clear if that number represents all S7 production, or just the naturally aspirated cars. At any rate, they are rare (but they do come up for sale here and there). When new, the Twin Turbos cost over a half million dollars. This car should go for somewhere in the $300,000 range. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $451,000.