The collector car world’s holy grail
Following the alleged recent 70m-dollar sale of a Ferrari 250 GTO, RM Sotheby’s has consigned a fine example of Ferrari’s ultimate dual-purpose Grand Tourer to its Monterey sale in August. This GTO, chassis 3413GT, is the third of 36 examples built and began life with the more classical Series I coachwork, before being re-bodied as a Series II by the factory in 1964. After Phil Hill tested the car at the Targa Florio in 1962, it was sold to Edoardo Lualdi-Gabardi, who won nine out of 10 races to clinch the 1962 Italian National championship. It also has two Targa Florio class victories under its belt and, perhaps more remarkably, has never been involved in an accident, retaining its original engine, gearbox, rear axle, and Scaglietti bodywork.
Today, 3413GT is owned by Greg Whitten, a former chief software engineer at Microsoft, who has displayed and demonstrated the car at various events around the world over the last two decades. With an attached pre-sale estimate of 45m dollars, this Ferrari 250 GTO – a car commonly considered the ‘holy grail’ of the collector car world – will surely become the most valuable car ever sold at auction when it roars across the block in August.
Photos courtesy of RM Sotheby’s © 2018
