expensive, fast cars: the most expensive sports racing cars ever sold at auction
TRANSCRIPT
Expensive, Fast Cars
The Most Expensive Sports Racing Cars Ever Sold at Auction
Ian Whittock
The self-powered motor vehicle is attractive, not simple because they’re a vital mode of transportation, but these
accessible, complex and emboldening machines also attract members of the public because of its aesthetic, propulsion,
body style, technology, and engineering.
The most expensive cars to be sold at an auction, carries all of these attributes in spades. One of the most expensive cars to be sold at
auction, a 1957 Ferrari 335 S Spider Scaglietti once raced by Peter Collins has sold for £24.7 million because of the rarity of the sports
racing car. Want to know the name of some of the other most expensive cars ever sold at auction.
1. The 1964 Ferrari 250 LM, which was priced at $14.3m (£9.4m at today’s exchange rate), was the
last Ferrari to win (24 Hours of) Le Mans, the world's oldest active sports car race in endurance racing.
2. Billed at $12.8m (£8.5m at today’s exchange rate), the 1953 Ferrari 340/375 MM Berlinetta 'Competizione' was name the 10th most expensive car to be sold at auction. This stunning vehicle was raced by three World Champions: Nino Farina,
Alberto Ascari, and Mike Hawthorn.
3. The 250 GT SWB California Spider, a 1961 Ferrari, was priced at $15.2m (£10.0m at today’s exchange rate). Ferrari
drafted just 56 examples of the 250 GT SWB California Spider, the one that was old at the Pebble Beach auction
happened to be one with a removable hard-top.
4. The Testa Rossa, a 1957 Ferrari 250, was $16.4m (£10.8m at today’s exchange rate). Numerous versions of the Testa Rosa won the Le Mans, in years 1958, 1960, and
1961. However, the Testa Rossa sold at 2011’s that Gooding & Company was merely a prototype.
4. The 1954 Ferrari 375-Plus Spider Competizione was sold at the Goodwood Festival of Speed by Bonhams for £10.7 million --though it’s priced at $18.4m (£12.1m at today’s exchange rate). The car possess the fist of only five examples of a V12-engined racer,
which helped Ferrari win the 1954 Sports Car Championship. Billed at $12.8m (£8.5m at today’s exchange rate), the 1953 Ferrari 340/375 MM Berlinetta 'Competizione' was name the 10th most expensive car to be sold at auction. This stunning vehicle was raced by three World Champions: Nino Farina, Alberto Ascari, and Mike Hawthorn.
6. One of the 59 classic 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider sold at auction last year was sold after being found in a barn last year. Priced at $18.5m (£12.2m at today’s exchange rate), the car was once owned by French actor Alain Delon, who was photographed in it with American actresses Jane
Fonda and Shirley MacLaine.
7. There were just three 1964 Ferrari 275 GTB/C Speciale ever created, which is likely why the vehicle is priced at
$26.4m (£17.4m at today’s exchange rate). Each of the three vehicles were built with a 316bhp 3.2-litre V12 engine and
aluminum body work.
8. Only four 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spider, priced $27.5m (£18.2m at today’s exchange rate), were ever built in open-top.
Those vehicles were constructed after following a direct request from Ferrari’s North American importer at the time, Luigi Chinetti.
The NART Spider that sold for $27.5 was driven by Steve McQueen in the film “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
10. The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO was designed to race. Priced at $38.1m (£25.1m at today’s exchange rate), the car was raced by five-time World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio. The car won a
passel of Grand Prixs and it was sold for a then world record price during the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed.
