This evening at a modest function in London, Bonhams auctioneers announced the forthcoming sale of the late Fabrizio Violati's Ferrari 250GTO '3851 GT'. It is to be offered at their Quail Lodge Sale near Carmel during the Monterey Historics event, on August 14-15.
The car's first owner was Jo Schlesser who co-drove it with Henri Oreiller in the 1962 Tour de France Automobile. They finished a notable second, but within weeks Oreiller was dead, having crashed the car during the Coupes du Salon meeting at Montlhery. Through that winter, in parallel with continuing 250GTO batch production, the car was rebuilt by the factory and sold on to Italian gentleman driver Paolo Colombo. He hill-climbed the car very successfully through 1963 before selling it on to Ernesto Prinoth. He continued to hill-climb the car and also took in a number of quite significant circuit races during 1964. He then sold it to Fabrizio Violati early in 1965... in effect a one-owner tenure that has lasted for a GTO record 49 years.
The car is offered for sale at no reserve. In other words if the traffic's bad and only one bidder emerges in time, you too could own a GTO for a dollar...
DCN
Edited by Doug Nye, 01 July 2014 - 08:00.