RM Sotheby’s Offers Pinnacle Ferrari 250 GTO

One Lifetime, One Car, Once Chance. That’s the headline on RM Sotheby’s site regarding the upcoming sale of the 1962 Ferrari 330 LM / 250 GTO, s/n 3765. 

This car will be crossing the block at RM Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Art sale in New York on November 13.

Ferrari built just 39 GTOs, and for a time they were the dominant force in international motor racing, just prior to the mid-engine revolution. Each of these cars represent the pinnacle of a golden age of motorsport, where style, substance and performance joined together, and where the lines between  GT cars and top-level competition were not quite as stark as they became later in the decade. 

As such, today every GTO is a halo car. But some are more than that. 

This example, s/n 3765, is the only factory-owned 250 GTO that was campaigned by Scuderia Ferrari in period. It took a class win and second place overall at the 1962 Nurburgring 1,000 km. It was driven by Mike Parkes and Lorenzo Bandini for Scuderia Ferrari at the 1962 24 Hours of Le Mans, and it was the 1965 Sicilian Hillclimb Championship runner-up.

Two of the top three all-time auction sales records are held by GTOs — with the most recent being the #2 car, S/N 3413GT, sold in August 2018 at RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale for $48,405,000. Reportedly, another sold privately that same year for around $70m.

These cars simply don’t come to auction often, and when they do, they tend to set record pricing. This is the first time we’ve seen a GTO come to auction in an art sale setting — and if there’s ever a car that crosses over into the art realm, it’s a Series I GTO.

Learn more here.