A classic sports car from the heydays of automobile racing has just been sold for a wild amount of money. Well, at least we think it’s a wild amount of money.
Classic car auction house Gooding & Company has announced the private sale of an unrestored Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa on Friday. Not only is this the only one like this in existence, it’s one of two 250 Testa Rossa envelope-bodied race cars from Ferrari’s whirlwind 1958 racing season.
Ferrari made the 250 Testa Rossa from 1957-1961. It came in different specs depending on customer tastes. But the most winningest versions swept Sebring, Targa Florio, and Le Mans during a brilliant racing season in 1958. These versions were envelope-bodied cars that were designed by Scuderia Ferrari itself. Only three of these envelope-bodied cars were ever made.
This particular Testa Rossa is from 1957 and is chassis number 0704 TR. And according to Gooding & Company, it has had a unique history over the last half-century.
0704 TR was campaigned exclusively by the Scuderia Ferrari works racing team during 1957 and 1958. It was driven in period by some of the most important names in motoring, including Phil Hill, Olivier Gendebien, Maurice Trintignant, Peter Collins, Mike Hawthorn, Wolfgang Seidel, Richie Ginther, and John von Neumann. The victorious Testa Rossa won the 1958 12 Hours of Sebring and Buenos Aires 1000 Km outright, and also participated in the 1957 and 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 1958 Targa Florio, and the 1958 Nürburgring 1000 Km. It would go on to join the Henry Ford Museum Collection, where it remained for three decades from 1967 to 1997.
Since then, it was featured in an issue of the Ferrari enthusiasts magazine Cavallino in ’09-’10 and was displayed at Pebble Beach in 2014. Now its been sold to a private buyer for an undisclosed amount of money that Gooding & Company only described as “considerable.” To get an idea of just how much one of these things can go for, Gooding & Company sold the first 250 Testa Rossa built in 2011. The sum? A cool $US16.39 million. Another one — a 1957 — sold back in 2014 for a rumored $US40 million. So at least we can gauge that whatever this particular Testa Rossa sold for, it cost as much as a huge mansion in Bel Air somewhere.