It was Ferrari’s 70th birthday party, but RM Sotheby’s took home a nice present this past weekend as well with its Leggenda e Passione all-Ferrari auction at the historic Fiorano test track generating €63,068,110 ($75.15 million) in sales. That figure was produced by the sale of a mere 38 of the 42 cars offered, a 90 percent sell-through rate.
The average sales price per vehicle for the auction was an amazing $1.977 million.
“It has been a fantastic experience to return to Maranello and to conduct a sale in the company’s 70th anniversary year,” RM Sotheby’s car specialist Augustin Sabatie-Garat was quoted in the auction company’s post-sale news release.
“The atmosphere throughout the whole weekend has been incredible and it was clear that buyers were keen to secure the very cars that we had on offer.
“The sale exceeded all our expectations and the enormous sum raised for charity through the sale of the 2017 LaFerrari Aperta was a wonderful way to end the evening.”
That last lot of the auction was a recently announced addition to the docket — a one-off and yet-to-be-built Aperta to be sold to benefit the Save the Children charity. As many as a dozen collectors bid on the car, which finally sold for €8,300,000 ($10,043,000), not only the high sale of the auction, but a world record for a car produced this century, RM Sotheby’s noted.
And all of that money goes to the charity; RM Sotheby’s did not add its usual buyer’s fee to the sales price.
The car will be the 210th Aperta and will wear unique livery in Rosso Fuoco with a double Bianco Italia racing stripe. The interior will feature black Alcantara with red leather inserts in the seats, red stitching and black carbon fiber trim.
The sale was the second major charity effort by RM Sotheby’s and Ferrari in recent months. In December, at a Ferrari event in Daytona Beach, Florida, the 500th and last LaFerrari brought $7 million at a special auction to raise money for the reconstruction of central Italy after a series of earthquakes.
But while saving the best for last, there were plenty of other highlights through the sale. For example, there had been a lot of pre-auction interest in a barn-found 1969 F365 FTB/4 Daytona, the only road-going, alloy-bodied car of its ilk, discovered after 40 years of storage in Japan.
After what RM Sotheby’s termed “spirited bidding,” the car sold for €1,807,000 ($2,186,470) , making it the highest-riced Daytona coupe ever sold at public auction (and that price, as well as the others reported, includes the buyer’s premium.)
Another car causing pre-sale pricing speculation was the manually shifted 1983 400i coming from the collection of rocker Keith Richards. The Rolling Stones legend had owned the car since new and had kept it in what RM Sotheby’s called “exceptional, original condition,” showing only 3,267 kilometers driven. The car sold for €345,000 ($417,450), which, RM Sotheby’s noted, was a world-record for that model.
Yet another special offering was the 2016 “Green Jewel” 488 Spider, offered by the Ferrari factory as an as-new car in special livery. Again, after a bidding battle, the car sold for another model-record price — €1,090,200 ($1,319,142).
The sale also included a 1959 250 GT LWB California Spider, a standard among collector cars. The car, chassis No. 1503 GT and the 35th of 50 produced, was originally sold to a young Venezuelan socialite and doctor, who was robbed and murdered and left behind the wheel of his sports car.
The car was repaired and reconditioned and imported to the U.S., where it underwent a complete restoration in the late 1980s, won class honors at Pebble Beach and Meadow Brook. The car sold at the auction for €7,855,000 ($9,504,550).
Top 10 sales, RM Sotheby’s Leggenda e Passione 2017:
1. 2017 LaFerrari Aperta, €8,300,000 ($10,043,000)
2. 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider by Scaglietti, €7,855,000 ($9,504,550)
3. 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series I, €4,719,000 ($5,709,990)
4. 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza, €3,375,000 ($4,083,750)
5. 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO, €3,263,000 ($4,958,340)
6. 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy, €2,927,000 ($3,511,742)
7. 1953 Ferrari 250 Europa Coupé, €2,871,000 ($3,474,920)
8. 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spider, €2,479,000 ($2,999,590)
9. 2004 Ferrari Enzo, €2,311,000 ($2,796,310)
10. 2017 Ferrari LaFerrari Prototype, €2,129,560 ($2,576,767)
(Prices 2-10 include buyer’s fees.)
The alloy-bodied Daytona came out of long-term barn storage in Japan, and sold for nearly $2.2 million, that being the "highest-riced"…now that was clever!!
The more I stare at that red 250 GT LWB California Spider, the more I’m convinced God has allowed genius to now and again take the form of an automobile.