5 Of The Most Expensive Ferraris Ever Sold At Auction

Ferrari has been one of the standards for high performance automobiles, pretty much since the moment Enzo Ferrari founded his namesake company in the late 1930s. Of course, when Enzo's first car rolled off the production line in 1939, it actually wasn't allowed to bear his name thanks to a non-compete clause with his former employer, Alfa Romeo. Likewise, it was an Alfa Romeo racing car that first wore the galloping pony logo that Ferrari vehicles would later immortalize. However, by the mid-40s Enzo was allowed to use both his name, and that iconic logo on his cars, and the automotive world has never been the same.

More than 75 years later, Ferraris have evolved in ways that even Enzo likely couldn't have anticipated, and the vehicles have made the brand among the winningest in the history of auto racing. Ferraris also rank among the most expensive vehicles in the automotive realm, with base models of new builds selling for almost $250,000 on the low end. Even still, a quarter-of-a-million bucks might be considered a steal when compared to what a vintage Ferrari will cost you on the auction circuit.

Yes, a vintage Ferrari in good repair can be expected to fetch millions when offered up under the gavel of an auctioneer. Some Ferraris are, however, a bit more coveted than others, and the ones we've listed here rank among the biggest sellers to ever grace the auction block.

Though Ferrari had already been manufacturing celebrated performance vehicles for roadways and racetracks for a couple of decades, a case could be made Enzo and his design team really hit their stride in the 1960s. Not surprisingly, vehicles from that era are extremely sought after at auction, and tend to bring in some of the higher sales numbers when the gavel falls. That was certainly the case for a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spider convertible when it was offered up in 2013.

If you're wondering what the NART designation means, it stands for North American Racing Team, whom the Spider was commissioned for. As the story goes, it was NA Ferrari dealer Luigi Chinetti who convinced Enzo Ferrari to give the 275 the Spider treatment, initially ordering 25 of the vehicles. In the end, only 10 were ever built, ranking them among the rarest Ferraris around.  

However, that only explains part of this Ferrari's massive auction price. Making the particular Ferrari 275 NART Spider that sold for close to $30 million even rarer is its ties to a Hollywood legend, Steve McQueen. Yes, the Spider that sold in the 2013 auction was the very same "red Italian thing" that made a brief cameo in McQueen's 1968 classic "The Thomas Crown Affair." With the combination of scarcity and a bona fide Hollywood tie-in, pushed the price of the '67 Ferrari up to a whopping $27.5 million.

Of the 1950s Ferrari cars that burned up the auction block just as they did the racetrack, the '56 Scagliotti 290 MM Spider is a particularly dashing model, with fronted rounded edges all around and a stylishly intimidating hood spoiler to boot. It only packed 320 horsepower under the hood and a top speed of almost 170 mph — but for its time, not too shabby.

What the 290 MM Scagliotti Spider lacked in raw power, it made up for in scarcity, as only four models were manufactured by Ferrari in 1956. Each of those was produced to compete in the '56 Mille Miglia race, with Scuderia Ferrari also hoping the cars would help them take home the World Sportscar Championship that year. Per reports, the 290 MM that turned up for auction at RM Sotheby's in 2015 was the vehicle that Juan Manuel Fangio famously piloted solo in the Mille Miglia.

Fangio was apparently the only Ferrari driver to make it across the finish line that day without crashing his 290. The same vehicle would later finish first at the Swedish Grand Prix with Phil Hill and Maurice Trintignant at the helm, and would indeed net Ferrari the '56 World Sportscar Championship. Racetrack cred like that does not come cheap, with the 290 MM selling for just over $28 million by auction's end.

Even Ferrari super fans who think the brand was at its best in the 1960s might agree Enzo and legendary designer Sergio Scagliotti delivered their single most beautiful design in the late 1950s. One look at the '57 335 Sport Scaglietti that hit the auction block in 2016 might make a believer out of any automobile lover. Yes, the rounded grill, rolling front and rear end tire wells, and curved side panels donned by this sleek racer are the very definition of "wow factor." So are the 335's under-the-hood credentials, with a 4.1-liter V12 engine producing 400 horsepower and a top speed of 190 miles per hour.

With that kind of power under the hood, you'd be right in assuming the '57 335 Sport Scaglietti was a force to be reckoned with on the racetrack. As it happens, this particular vehicle's on-track credentials are a big part of what boosted its auction price north of $30 million. It was reportedly driven in competition by such European racing legends as Sir Stirling Moss, Wolfgang von Trips, and Mike Hawthorn. The vehicle in question was the winner of the 1958 Cuba Grand Prix, and finished second in both the 1957 Mille Miglia and the '57 Swedish Grand Prix.

Heading to the sales floor at Paris' Artcurial auction house, the vehicle was expected to fetch between $30 and $34 million. In the end, the '57 335 Sport Scaglietti blew even those estimates away, claiming just under $36 million – $35,958,420 to be exact.

Of the celebrated race cars Ferrari manufactured throughout the 1960s, the 250 GTOs easily rank among the most revered by enthusiasts. As such, the vehicles are hot commodities on the rare occasions they go up for auction and tend to command stupendous amounts of money under the gavel, as one particularly stunning Berlinetta build did in 2014. And just to be clear, it is extremely rare that a '62 Ferrari 250 GTO actually does go up for auction.

Such as it is, the Ferrari sharks were out in force when one hit the block through RM Sotheby's in 2018, with the vehicle in question pushing up against the $50 million dollar threshold at the final bang of the gavel. As with most of the top-selling Ferraris, the vehicle's rarity helped drive up the final price, as only 36 250 GTOs were made in '62 (the first year of production for the build) and it seems not many of those made it off the racetrack in one piece. Per Sotheby's, the vehicle's rarity was bolstered by its Series II GTO/64 bodywork, making it one of only four to receive the Scagliotti upgrade.

The vehicle in question was a force on the racetrack as well, winning over 15 class and overall victories and taking first-in-class at both the 1963 and 1964 Targa Florio events. Given its astonishingly well-kept condition, the final sale price for the GTO 250 was $48.4 million, ranking it among the best auction sellers in Ferrari history.

The $48.4 million taken in by the GTO 250 was a record-setting sale for a Ferrari at auction, but the record didn't stand long. Just five years later, another pristine Ferrari from 1962 would eclipse the sale by several million dollars, and thus become the only vehicle from Enzo Ferrari's automotive bloodline to eclipse the $50 million mark at auction.

The record-breaking Ferrari is the '62 330/250 LMB GTO. Though it bore the 250 designation, this 330 build GTO differentiated itself with a longer wheelbase and a different chassis. It also came with a significant engine upgrade, running a 4-liter V12 as opposed to the 250s 3-liter build. The 330 GTO was also produced in incredibly small numbers, with only four models making it off the Ferrari production line.

The specific car sold by RM Sotheby's in 2023 was the only one driven by Ferrari's factory race team in 1962, winning its class at the Nürburgring 1,000 kilometer and competing that year's 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Participation in that fabled road race (which Ferrari has won 10 times), and its direct ties to Ferrari's in-house team, surely helped make it all the more covetable to Ferrari diehards. After a brief stint with an Italian owner, the vehicle made its way to the states in 1967, where it's remained since. The 2023 auction was the first time the super-rare Ferrari was offered for public sale at auction, with one buyer ponying up a mind-boggling $51.7 million to call it their own.