Story and art by Wallace Wyss
Only a few months after a series 1 Ferrari 250 GTO was rumored to have been bought by an Illinois man for $70 million, another of the fabled GTO models is coming up for sale. The public venue is Monterey, at the Sotheby’s RM sale taking place at the Portola Hotel during the prime weekend of “Car Week.”
Would you like this image on a 11 x 17 poster on heavy art paper? Shipped in a tube and signed by the artist for only $60. Or, for an embellished giclee which can be ordered in a variety of sizes, contact Photojournalistpro2@gmail.com for pricing.
The interesting thing about the car is that, although it is a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, it was one of four rebodied in the original era with a later body which resulted when Pininfarina, muscled in with their design, no doubt chagrined that the GTO made its debut in 1962 with a Bizzarrini-designed body and won dozens of races.
Wallace Wyss is the artist who depicted this car in oil on canvas, inspired by a picture taken by Hughes Vanhoolandt. Information about obtaining a canvas giclee of this painting can be gained by writing Photojournalistpro2@gmail.com
The major styling difference is the series 2 car has a recessed rear window, a la Ferrari 250LM and a wider grille mouth. RM explains in their press releases how rare the 250 GTO is. There were only 36 built.
This particular car has a racing history, winning the 1962 Italian National GT Championship and finishing 1st in class at both the 1963 and 1964 Targa Florios.
Plus it has matching numbers (engine matches the chassis number) and has never been in an accident.
Sotheby’s-RM is predicting it will bring in bids in excess of $45 million, which they say “would make the Ferrari the most valuable car ever offered for public sale,” separating it from the series 1 GTO sold recently from Europe to an Illinois man for $70 million because that was a private sale and the actual price was not made public by the buyer or seller.
In contrast to many racing sports cars of that era, many of which literally had the wheels driven off them, and crashed and were totaled, all 36 of the GTOs survived. They are remarkable machines; while they can be driven all out at Le Mans at over 170 mph, they can also be driven to the grocery store (I know because Chuck Queener, a famous Ferrari artist, took me for a ride in Steve Earle’s car back in 1970 down Sunset Strip) Right after that time period, Le Mans race cars got more purposeful for racing only, and so uncomfortable they couldn’t be street driven unless you can take the heat.
The auction company claims: “The model was one of the most successful road/racing cars that the marque ever built, claiming overall victory or 1st in class in nearly 300 races worldwide.”
Since chassis 3413 GT is only the third of the 36 examples built, and began life as a series I car, you wonder if the new buyer will go back to a series 1 body? And would it be more, or less valuable, having lost an original body?
The car is linked to many famous drivers, among them Phil Hill who used it as a test car for the 1962 Targa Florio. The first owner, a privateer customer, was Edoardo Lualdi-Gabardi, who ran it in 10 races in 1962, winning all but one (in which he placed 2nd in class) which won for him the Italian National GT championship that year.
Lualdi-Gabardi bought a second GTO in 1963 and sold chassis 3413 to then race car driver Gianni Bulgari, whose name became later famous for his jewelry company. (Oddly he became famous for collecting Buicks!) The car ran a total of 20 races in period, yet was never involved in an accident, and never failed to finish. Chassis 3413 retains its original engine, gearbox, and rear axle. The new owner might decide to keep the rarer series 2 body as it is a period piece as well, wrought by Scaglietti in 1964.
The auction company brags that this car has “an unbroken chain of ownership,” which is key to a car this valuable. you don’t want any periods where it was ‘disappeared’ and time enough to build a replica. In fact there is a hardbound book on the car published in England. (You have to be quite a car to merit your own book just about you…)
Sotheby’s RM names the seller as Greg Whitten who bought it in 2000. Whitten is Chairman of Numerix, and a former chief software architect at Microsoft. He ran it in vintage events worldwide over the last two decades, as well as appearing in four of the GTO anniversary tours.
Whoever buys it will join a very exclusive club whose members include Nick Mason and Ralph Lauren. See more details at RM Sotheby’s.
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is an automotive historian. As a fine artist, he currently is accepting commissions for portraits of sports cars. He can be reached at Photojournalistpro2@gmail.com
In the late 70’s I was taking photos on the hanger straight at Sebring, it was just getting dark and the light was just about perfect for catching the brilliant display of exhaust flames and overused brake rotors. There was a gentleman standing by the fence separating us from the track surface and he mentioned I might want to photograph a car close by. I followed him and low and behold there sat a series two GTO. I stopped dead in my tracks and was overwhelmed at it’s beauty. We started talking and he opened up a cooler on the ground and offered me a beer, never turn down a beer from a guy with a Ferrari ! It got completely dark by then so i never got a photo of it that night but did the next day. I still have that photo to this day and maybe with Pete’s help I’ll post it to this site…jack
Jack, just send the pic to me at vack@cox.net and I’ll get it into the story…
One of the best days of my life: Summer of ’77, I was finishing my MechEng degree at Univ of Florida, pumping gas on weekends to pay the bills. I loved watching for sports cars driving by, but never saw anything truly exotic in Gainesville Fl, so it really made my day one Saturday afternoon when a Ferrari 275 GTB idled by.
The next day, I was driving home from church when a 1963 Ferrari Series II GTO passed by going the other way, followed by a pickup truck towing a trailer with the 1967 Ferrari 330 P4 Can-Am car on it! Something huge had to be happening, so I made a U-turn in the middle of Main street and pulled up behind the GTO with my little ’70 Fiat 124 Spider, bound and determined to follow him at a polite distance until I knew what was happening. We passed the edge of town and continued NE on back country roads. At one stop sign, the GTO driver decided to give it free rein, and accelerated full throttle into the distance. I’ll never forget the impression it made as it squatted down on it’s rear haunches, tucked it’s wings in like an F-16 going supersonic, and disappeared to the ripping scream of that beautiful V-12. About a mile ahead, was Gainesville Raceway (home of the Gatornationals), and a parking lot full of Ferraris. Turned out the Ferrari Owner’s Club – S.E. Div were having a regional meet, and they’d incorporated the dragstrip as the beginning of an autocross course with part of the parking lot used for the return run (The road course wasn’t added until 2000).
Initially the F.O.C. were allowing untimed ‘familiarization runs for drivers to become acquainted with the course. I noticed a 365 GTB Daytona approaching the start line and asked the driver if he’d mind a passenger. He was really cool about it. Turned out he’d been practicing all morning. He got up to 100 mph on the quarter-mile straight and was completely comfortable diving into the hairpin at the end still doing 60 mph. All of my senses were telling me we wouldn’t make it; but a few breathtaking moments later we were out the other side and heading back through the twisty-turny bits outlined by traffic cones.
Later, in the parking lot, they fired up the Can-Am car and it was ungodly noisy. I peered over the engine as a mechanic was blipping the gas, and the slide valve throttles were barely opening 1/8th inch – yet my eardrums were being shredded.
I thanked God I’d gone to church that morning or I never would have enjoyed the amazing collection of Ferraris in town that day.