$51.7 million auction price for a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sports automobile made it the second most expensive car ever sold. The auction house stated that the Mercedes 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe, which sold for 135 million euros in 2022, was the only vehicle to surpass the auction price of the bright red roadster, which had been owned by an American collector for the previous 38 years. At the current currency rate, that would be $144 million.
After a brief period of bidding in the auction room on Monday evening, the 250 GTO was put up for sale, albeit it didn’t get the more than $60 million that the auction house’s luxury automobile affiliate, RM Sotheby’s, had anticipated.
According to RM Sotheby’s, the legendary Scuderia sports car, chassis 3765, with a four-liter engine producing 390 horsepower, was built in 1962 and placed second in both the renowned 24 Hours of Le Mans and a race lasting 1,000 kilometres on the German Nurburgring circuit. The team was forced to withdraw from the race due to an engine failure.
The vehicle was sold and sent to the US in the late 1960s following several years of competition in Sicily and on the Italian mainland.