The world record for most expensive car ever sold was just smashed during Pebble Beach’s Concours d’Elegance. A 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO took the title in just twelve minutes during the RM Sotheby’s sale. The price? Oh just a casual $US48.4 million.
The previous record sat at US$38.1 million back in 2014, and was for another Ferrari — a 1963 250 GTO.
Expensive sales are nothing new to Pebble Beach’s Concours d’Elegance — a classic car show ripe with collectors and buyers. But $US48.4 millions is a huge wad of Benjamins to be dropping, even in Monteray.
Although 250s generally sell for top dollar, this 250 GTO is particularly special. Only 36 were ever made and this one-chassis 3413 was only one of four that were upgraded by Scaglietti. It was also only one of seven to have this particular body. So yeah, it’s rare.
It also won the Italian GT championship back in 1962 and went on to claim 15 more victories over the next three years.
We don’t know who the buyer is, as they were bidding via an agent, the seller was avid car collector and former chief software architect for Microsoft. During his tenure he developed the standards for BASIC compiler line as well and worked on the enterprise support systems for Microsoft Office.
This record breaking sale came mere days before a new partnership agreement was struck between RM RM Sotheby’s and Aston Martin, which was sealed with the sale of a 1963 Aston Martin DP215 Grand Touring Competition Prototype, also at Pebble Beach, for $US21.45 million.