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HomeMediaGilles Villeneuve’s 308 GTS, gift from Enzo, joins Monaco docket

Gilles Villeneuve’s 308 GTS, gift from Enzo, joins Monaco docket

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RM Sotheby’s already has announced two Formula One cars on the docket for its Monaco auction and now releases yet another vehicle with F1 heritage. The docket for the sale May 12 will include the 1978 Ferrari 308 GTS that Enzo Ferrari gave to Gilles Villeneuve.

According to RM Sotehby’s Villeneuve received the car at the start of his six-year drive with Scuderia Ferrari. The car is being offered with 36,000 miles on its odometer and “in highly original condition,” and with several special features.

Villeneuve sat here

“Used regularly by Villeneuve, the 308 GTS remained with the driver until his tragic death at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix,” RM Sotheby’s said in its news release. “It is said that he would often use the Ferrari to drive from his Monaco home to Ferrari’s Maranello base in Italy – a distance of 432 km – and legend has it that he once completed the journey in just 2 hours 25 minutes, with an average speed of over 110 mph.”

RM Sotheby’s said Villeneuve’s son, Jacques, also an F1 racer, recognized the car as his father’s when the Ferrari went into a private collection in Denmark. 

“The 308 has been kept almost as it was since the last day Gilles drove it,” said Augustin Sabatié-Garat, RM Sotheby’s Europe auction manager. “As a gift from Enzo, to one of Ferrari’s most-revered drivers, this car represents a celebrated era of motorsport.

“It’s not just the highly original condition of the car that is important, as the signed documents, brochures and pictures that come with it only add to its sentimental value. This is a collectible car from a classic era of grand prix racing, and is evocative of Gilles Villeneuve as we remember him, a great character and huge personality.”

Car has been in a collection in Denmark

Also on the Monaco docket are the Benetton B192 raced by Michael Schumacher in 1992 and the Jordan 199 raced by Heinz Harald Frentzen in 1999.

“These two historic motorsport lots represent an important age in Formula One,” Sabatie-Garat added. “The ex-Schumacher car will be of immediate interest to any motorsport fan and would-be collector, while the Jordan car was highly successful in its own right.

“Undoubtedly, these 1990s cars represent a bygone age of motorsport – before the widespread introduction of the many electronic driver assistive technologies of today. The louder V10 engines in Formula One are missed by many, but now is the chance to secure one of your own.”

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Larry Edsall
Larry Edsall
A former daily newspaper sports editor, Larry Edsall spent a dozen years as an editor at AutoWeek magazine before making the transition to writing for the web and becoming the author of more than 15 automotive books. In addition to being founding editor at ClassicCars.com, Larry has written for The New York Times and The Detroit News and was an adjunct honors professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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