Would You Spend $60 Million on a Ferrari?
A bright-red 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO with an asking price above $60 million will go to auction this fall in a classic-car market that has continued to accelerate its prices even as other collectibles categories have slowed down. The race car, whose sale will take place in New York during Sotheby’s major fall sales series, is a particularly rare model—one of only 34 produced by Ferrari. It is also one of two GTO models ever raced by Ferrari’s own team, Scuderia Ferrari, before being sold, according to Gord Duff, global head of auctions for Sotheby’s car-auction arm, RM Sotheby’s.
GTO models are coveted by classic-car collectors because of their race history, Duff said. From 1962 to 1964, GTOs took home victories in world races such as the Tour de France Automobile and the International Championship for GT Manufacturers. The car initially sold for about $6,000 in 1964, Sotheby’s said, which would be about $59,000 today.
In 1985, it was purchased for approximately $500,000, or about $1.4 million today. The last time RM Sotheby’s sold a 250 GTO was in 2018, a 1962 model that went for $48.4 million. “People will definitely understand why we’re asking the price we’re asking for," Duff said.
The Ferrari belongs to Jim Jaeger, 75, an Ohio resident who bought his first sports car when he was a teenager. He said he began hunting for the ultimate Ferrari in the 1980s and quickly realized what he wanted was a 250 GTO. In 1985, after a lengthy search that took him across Europe, he bumped into someone at a race who knew an owner looking to sell the exact model he wanted.
The car was sitting in Detroit, just four hours from his Cincinnati home. “After looking over the car and driving it, I knew that this was the one," Jaeger said. “It
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