Saturday, June 9, 2012

World’s Most Expensive Car is Vintage 1962 Ferrari GTO

Built for Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (British racing driver), this apple-green 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, is one of only 39 pieces that were ever produced. Today, this Ferrari has become the most expensive car in the world, when it was sold for a whopping $35 million, in a private transaction.

In 2011, another vintage Ferrari was listed as the world’s most expensive car. It was a 1963 GTO 250, which sold for $32 million in Britain. This year, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO with its artistically crafted machinery has shattered all previous auction records, with its almost unbelievable sale price of $35 million.

The vintage Ferrari had been listed amongst high-end sales on Anamera.com, an excusive website for dealers of classic cars. It was sold by Eric Heerema, a Dutch-born businessman (who owns the Nyetimber Vineyard in Sussex, UK), to US based telecommunications magnate Craig McCaw, who recently listed his private island near Vancouver in Canada for sale.


Previously, Eric Heerema had acquired the rare 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO from a Japanese vintage car collector named Yoshiho Matsuda, more than ten years ago. He had bought it for a comparatively low price of $8.5 million.

About the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO

Considered the ‘most desirable Ferrari’ by many vintage car collectors, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO was crafted for Sir Sterling Moss in 1962, to compete at various Grand-Touring car races, like the Le Mans 24-Hour race. Unfortunately, a bad car crash in 1962, left Sir Moss paralysed on the left side for six months, and ended his racing career. Later on, Sir Moss’s British team-mate Innes Ireland raced the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO at the Le Mans 1962, where it was finally retired. Soon after, the Ferrari entered the expensive world of private car collectors.

While the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO may not have participated in any car race after the Le Mans 1962, it has certainly won the race of the most expensive car in the world. It has been noticed that vintage car collectors usually prefer Ferraris as an investment car. In fact, over the last few years, a good number of the most expensive classic cars sold were Ferraris. This includes a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa that sold for $16.39 million, and a 1957 Ferrari 625 TRC Spider that recently sold for $6.5 million.

What do you think of the world's most expensive car? Were you expecting something else?

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