A rare 1967 Ferrari sold for a record $27.5 million at auction on Saturday. The auction price opened at $10 million. But just minutes later, the final gavel fell with a new world record.
Cheers got louder as the price quickly climbed higher in Monterey on Saturday night.
The ultra-rate Ferrari 275 GTB/4*s NART Spyder is officially the most expensive road car ever sold at auction, reports The Los Angeles Times. And it will go to the same family that originally purchased it brand new.
The sale was understandably a highlight for RM Auctions, though the entire auction showed strong sales for the company. In all, the auctioned cars brought in more than $149 million on Saturday night alone.
RM, rival Gooding & Co., and other auction companies have sold $244 million in rare vehicles in the past week — a 15 percent increase over what they made last year.
While there were several cars of note in the auction, it was the 1967 Ferrari 275 NART Spyder that caught the eye of everyone. Bloomberg notes that the car is incredibly special.
It was entered by the family of the late North Carolina businessman Eddie Smith Sr., the car’s one and only owner. The vehicle was estimated by RM to be worth between $14 million and $17 million, but the auction exceeded that number quickly.
Only 10 of the NART Spyders were ever built, and Canadian fashion entrepreneur Lawrence Stroll, a racing enthusiast, was named by some in the room as the auction’s winner. However, the auction house has not disclosed the winner. While the Ferrari definitely set the record for the most expensive road car, it didn’t beat the record for any car sold at auction.
That honor goes to a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W 196 race car, which was sold in July for a cool $29.6 million.The family chose to auction the Ferrari, because they said it wasn’t being driven as much as its original owner would have wanted. They hope its new owner will do so.
Would you buy the 1967 Ferrari at auction if you could afford it?
[Image via Wikimedia Commons ]
