Ferrari becomes most expensive car after being sold for $51.7m

Sotheby's auction makes it the most expensive classic car sold in the world this year

The V-12 racer takes the top spot of the most expensive cars sold this year. Courtesy Sotheby's

A 1962 Ferrari by Scaglietti, the prestigious Italian coachbuilder, sold for $51.7 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Monday in New York City, making it the most expensive Ferrari ever to sell at auction.

The sale of the 330 LM / 250 GTO also made it the most expensive classic car sold publicly anywhere in the world this year, Bloomberg reported.

Jim Jaeger, a prominent collector in Ohio and co-founder of the company that makes Escort radars, owned the car for nearly four decades before the sale.

A representative from Sotheby’s did not identify the new owner.

The final hammer fall was for $47 million, but a buyer’s premium of 10 per cent took the total price to $51.7 million.

Despite the record, the final sale price was lower than expectations. In the days leading up to the sale, Sotheby’s had listed the value of the vehicle “in excess” of $60 million.

“Its place in history is undisputed,” Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby's Europe, said at the start of the sale.

Painted scarlet and bearing a No 7 racing livery, the car is special because it is the only Ferrari GTO example originally equipped with a 4-litre engine and the only factory GTO Tipo 1962 to have been raced by Scuderia Ferrari.

In 1962, it earned a class win and a second-place finish overall at the Nurburgring 1,000km race.

In 2012, it won the Best in Show award at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in Florida.

The car sold in less than 20 minutes and started at $34 million. Bidding stayed consistent between primarily phone bidders and ended in the final moments as two bidders waffled around $47 million.

The car and the winning bidder were present during the sale, a representative said.

The V-12 racer takes the top spot of the most expensive cars sold this year.

It has been a banner year for Ferraris, the de facto blue-chip asset of the car world.

Twelve of the top 15 cars sold at auction this year bore the prancing pony badge, according to data compiled by Classic.com, a website that sells collectible cars and tracks their values.

The latest Ferrari auction price was passed only by that of a Mercedes 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe that went for €135 million in 2022, the auction house said.

AFP reported that would be $144 million at today's exchange rate.