The V-12 racer takes the top spot of the most expensive cars sold this year. Courtesy Sotheby's
The V-12 racer takes the top spot of the most expensive cars sold this year. Courtesy Sotheby's
The V-12 racer takes the top spot of the most expensive cars sold this year. Courtesy Sotheby's
The V-12 racer takes the top spot of the most expensive cars sold this year. Courtesy Sotheby's

Lifestyle

Ferrari becomes most expensive car after being sold for $51.7m

Sotheby's auction makes it the most expensive classic car sold in the world this year

The National

November 14, 2023

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A 1962 Ferrari by Scaglietti, the prestigious Italian coachbuilder, sold for $51.7 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Monday in New York City, making it the most expensive Ferrari ever to sell at auction.

The sale of the 330 LM / 250 GTO also made it the most expensive classic car sold publicly anywhere in the world this year, Bloomberg reported.

Jim Jaeger, a prominent collector in Ohio and co-founder of the company that makes Escort radars, owned the car for nearly four decades before the sale.

A representative from Sotheby’s did not identify the new owner.

The final hammer fall was for $47 million, but a buyer’s premium of 10 per cent took the total price to $51.7 million.

Despite the record, the final sale price was lower than expectations. In the days leading up to the sale, Sotheby’s had listed the value of the vehicle “in excess” of $60 million.

“Its place in history is undisputed,” Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby's Europe, said at the start of the sale.

Painted scarlet and bearing a No 7 racing livery, the car is special because it is the only Ferrari GTO example originally equipped with a 4-litre engine and the only factory GTO Tipo 1962 to have been raced by Scuderia Ferrari.

In 1962, it earned a class win and a second-place finish overall at the Nurburgring 1,000km race.

In 2012, it won the Best in Show award at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in Florida.

The car sold in less than 20 minutes and started at $34 million. Bidding stayed consistent between primarily phone bidders and ended in the final moments as two bidders waffled around $47 million.

The car and the winning bidder were present during the sale, a representative said.

The V-12 racer takes the top spot of the most expensive cars sold this year.

It has been a banner year for Ferraris, the de facto blue-chip asset of the car world.

Twelve of the top 15 cars sold at auction this year bore the prancing pony badge, according to data compiled by Classic.com, a website that sells collectible cars and tracks their values.

The latest Ferrari auction price was passed only by that of a Mercedes 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe that went for €135 million in 2022, the auction house said.

AFP reported that would be $144 million at today's exchange rate.

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It's up to you to go green

Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.

“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”

When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.

He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.

“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.

One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.  

The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.

Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.

But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”

Updated: November 14, 2023, 12:46 AM`
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