Italy’s Ferrari has been synonymous with speed, beauty, luxury, and punishing expense for so long that it’s hard to believe that when former race-car driver Enzo Ferrari founded the company (and named it after himself), in 1947, the cars wouldn’t be taken seriously as collectibles for decades. Indeed, the very first book on Ferrari’s glorious mechanical legacy, detailing what was already a fast-moving parade of jaw-dropping offerings, wouldn’t be written until 1968. And even then, rare, exotic Ferraris—machines that now sell for tens of millions of dollars—sold secondhand in the low, single-digit thousands.
But classic-car values have climbed to stratospheric heights since, with Ferrari leading the pack, and so has interest in contemporary models of Italy’s most formidable sports car. If you need any proof of the former fact, just look at the results of prestige-car auctioneer Gooding & Co.’s latest sale in Amelia Island, Florida. Half of the Top 10 lots were Ferraris, including the aquamarine-colored 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider, which sold for $18,045,000, the most valuable car ever sold at auction in Amelia Island. (As an aside, a replica of that model was the car star of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.)
