14 replies to this topic

[Stirling]

From The Times
May 18, 2007

Own a dream machine - if you have £5m
By Richard Owen in Rome

Ferrari, maker of some of the world’s most desirable cars, will mark its 60th anniversary this weekend by hosting the auction of what may become the most expensive vehicle in the world.

The 330 TRI/LM Testa Rossa, a legendary sports-racing model that was driven to victory in the 1962 Le Mans 24-hour race by the American Phil Hill and the Belgian Olivier Gendebien, carries an estimate of €7 million (£4.8 million). The privately owned car will be sold at the Fiorano test track at the company’s Maranello factory, with a host of cars and memorabilia, some owned by the company. Keen bidding could push its price beyond the record £5.5 million paid for a Bugatti in 1987.

Bids start at a more modest €2 million for a 1960 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione. The sale also includes last year’s Ferrari 248 Formula One winner and prototypes of Ferrari’s first two supercars, the 288 GTO and F40. The auction will lift spirits at Maranello by focusing on the glory days of the “Prancing Horse” rather than the sporadic strikes that have overshadowed Ferrari’s 60th anniversary celebrations so far. Ferrari workers have been downing tools every Saturday since March to demand higher bonuses, among other grievances.

Although Ferrari’s Maranello plant is consistently voted the best place to work in Europe, trade union leaders say that they fear the quality of Ferrari cars is declining as Fiat, the parent company, raises its production targets.

“Ferrari is a national asset and should be a quality product,” said Renzo Ferri, a union leader at Maranello.

The company denies that the quality of Ferrari has suffered and emphasises that the strikes do not include workers producing Formula One racing cars. Ferrari makes three models for the general market: the F430, the 612 Scaglietti and the 599 GTB Fiorano, with a waiting list of up to two years.

At Sunday’s auction Ferrari enthusiasts unable to afford the Testa Rossa can bid for the overalls worn by Michael Schumacher for the British Grand Prix two years ago, estimated at €10,000. “Even though he didn’t win, this is a really lip-smacking item,” said Elio Gamberini, secretary of the Ferrari Club in Castiglione Olona, near Varese. “We are determined to get it.” Also on offer are a racing helmet that Schumacher wore in 1996 (€20,000), and the watch that Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the company, gave to the Dutch driver Joki Maasland in 1954 after he was injured during a race (€5,000). For more modest pockets there is a Schumacher red Ferrari short-sleeved T-shirt (€1,000), racing gloves worn by Kimi Räik-könen (€2,000) and the green and yellow shoes worn by Felipe Massa for the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix (€2,500).

Massa said that auctioning the shoes made him feel as if he were part of history. “They are quite special – they’ve got my name on the heels. I hope they give whoever buys them the same luck they have given me,” he added Sotheby’s, which is conducting the auction with RM Auctions of Canada, said that Ferrari memorabilia appealed to men in their forties and fifties able to indulge in “something stupendous”. “Ferrari sells dreams,” Jean Todt, the company’s chief executive, said.

The fast and the furious - and the most expensive

—1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupé, sold by Christie’s in 1987 at the Royal Albert Hall to an anonymous Japanese buyer for £5.5m

—1929 Mercedes-Benz 38/250 SSK – sold for £4.18m in 2004

—1931 Bugatti Royale Berline de Voyager – £3.64m, 1986

—1962 Ferrari 330 TRI/LM Testa Rossa – £3.63m, 2002

—1966 Ferrari 330 P3 – £3.15m, 2000

Sources: forbesautos.com, Times archives

[hipperson]

This might be of interest.....

[Arjan de Roos]

I suppose Mrs. Joke Maasland in meant, daughter of Simon Maasland, the first Ferrari importer to Holland.

And wasn't the 330 P4 0856 the record sale for a car at 10M$ in 1988ish?

[Stirling]

I can't find today's auction results on the web - has anyone heard how much the '62 Testa Rossa went for?

ciao,
Stirling

[Jack-the-Lad]

The 330 TRI was hammered at Euro 6.5MM + premium. (I got this from a third party, not directly from RM or Sotheby's, so is subject to confirmation).

Jack

PS: I am not the new owner. :

[MKIVJ6]

http://www.anamera.c...Hash=627f792743

[MKIVJ6]

http://www.rmauction...FTOKEN=11841353

[jcbc3]

No record then.

[chuckbrandt]

That's a really pretty car. I am defiintely warming up to the two radiator opening cars, especially the F1 car. They didn't do that for long. Is there a particular designer that is responsible?

EDIT: I see from my google search they are called "shark nose" cars. Learn something new every day.

Chuck

[Stirling]

Thanks for those updates, Jack and MKIVJ6! And you're right, Chuck, it is a pretty car, isn't it - pretty expensive too, though! It didn't beat the Bugatti auction record, but 6,876,000 euros is pretty good going, being just shy of £4,700,000 - I suppose taxes and buyers premium will tip it well over the £5m.

I liked the following from the auctioneer's catalogue description of the 330's history:

In the meantime it has even been used frequently for commuting in city traffic, recalling Hisashi Okada's many years commuting in New York, and making 0808 surely the only Le Mans winning Ferrari to serve two owners as a commuter car.

As Dr 'Bones' McCoy might comment, "It's life, Jim - but not as we know it!"

ciao,
Stirling

[scags]

Also, I'm pretty sure it was the last front engined car to win the 24 hrs of le mans.

[RA Historian]

Originally posted by scags
Also, I'm pretty sure it was the last front engined car to win the 24 hrs of le mans.

Yes it was.

Anyone know who the new owner is?

[aldo]

The 330TRI/LM was sold at the telephone, not to someone sitting in the auction room: quite strange when paying such a huge pile of money. RM released an astonishing "100% sold" list, with 9 over-1 million euro sales. Both figures are rather unusual even with Ferraris.

The car is a old workhorse of auctions going under the hammer for the third time in 5 years, which is also very unusual for such an unique and well-known car with a body fully rebuilt by Fantuzzi in the mid-Seventies.
In 2002, RM sold it from Bardinon to Mr. Spiro in Monterey for $ 6,490,000. It was unsold at euro 6,200,000 in that failure of an auction in Maranello 2005 by Sotheby's.

On May 20, 2007 someone phoned to buy it for $ 9,240,000 at today's exchange rate. It means that Mr. Spiro (if he was still the owner) made $2,750,000 (+42.4%) added value in less than 5 years. Strange for a car with low/zero demand, whose market value should be quite stable.
Let's look at the sale from another viewpoint: 2007 sale price (commission included) is about par, maybe lower, with the unsold value reached two years ago.

Funny market, isn't it?

[MKIVJ6]

When Jim bought the car the Euro was .94 now it's 1.34.

[Rob Miller]

That's a really pretty car. I am defiintely warming up to the two radiator opening cars, especially the F1 car. They didn't do that for long. Is there a particular designer that is responsible?

EDIT: I see from my google search they are called "shark nose" cars. Learn something new every day.

Chuck

Fantuzzi was the person responsible, having first used it on a Maserati 250F in 1958. How he talked Enzo Ferrari into it is a bit of a mystery; it only lasted a couple of years.

Personally I think the car is not at all pretty. The high windscreen regulations were mainly responsible.