This is the most expensive used car ever sold

28 August 2014 - 10:59 By Sapa-dpa
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The Ex-Jo Schlesser/Henri Oreiller, Paolo Colombo, Ernesto Prinoth, Fabrizio Violati 1962-63 Ferrari 250 GTO
The Ex-Jo Schlesser/Henri Oreiller, Paolo Colombo, Ernesto Prinoth, Fabrizio Violati 1962-63 Ferrari 250 GTO
Image: AFP Relaxnews ©Bonhams

This bright-red Italian sports car has been driven hard, was involved in several nasty accidents and the cost of spare parts is astronomical.

None of the drawbacks stopped the Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta from selling at auction recently for around R403 million - the price of a small airliner. The winning bid at Bonhams made it the most expensive secondhand car in the world.

Only 39 examples of the model were built between 1962 and 1964 and all of them have survived. As car buffs will know, Ferrari built the closed two-seat coupé at the Maranello factory in order to contest a series of endurance races. The tale of what happened to chassis number 3851 GT is altogether more fascinating.

In the horse-carriage era the name Berlinetta meant "little saloon" of a sporting type popular in the German capital Berlin in the 17th century. The 250 GTO looked nothing like its namesake but it has become a motorsport icon and in many eyes the most handsome Ferrari every fashioned from metal.

Some were painted black, green or blue and there was even a silver and yellow version. Yet red was the dominant hue and 23 of the 39 were finished in vivid colour which symbolises the Prancing Horse marque.

Owners included a large proportion of rich and famous. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren had a 250 GTO in the garage, along with Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and Walmart heir Robson Walton.

Among them was also Fabrizio Violati, the scion of a wealthy Roman family with considerable business interests in agriculture and mineral water bottling and distribution. Violati bought chassis number 3851 GT for 2.5 million - Italian lire that is, a price which equated then to some 4,000 US dollars.

Violati did not tell his family about the car and to prevent his parents finding out about the purchase he only drove the Ferrari at night. The sports car was registered with the numberplate MO 80576 for Modena which it still bears today. After flirting with yachts the Italian decided to enter the 250 GTO in historic races.

"Characteristically, Fabrizio Violati always raced just for the fun of it. He drove hard, and very fast, and always pushed even his historic cars to the limit and beyond," to quote the notes which went with the car when it was offered for auction at Quail Lodge in Carmel, California.

The 250 GTO was joined by other Ferraris, and in latter years it went on display in San Marino as part of Violati's collection of cherished Maranello-built sports cars, a display endorsed by the great Enzo Ferrari himself.

The car is still an impressive performer, even by modern standards. With its 3-litre, V12 engine, 3851 GT can accelerate effortlessly up to 200 km/h, with a top-end speed well beyond. Fuel consumption is not given but Ferrari owners are not interested in minor details like that.

Violati died in 2010 after many happy years with 3851 GT which he bought as a used car despite its dark provenance. French privateer racing driver and former ski ace Henri Oreiller died at the wheel of this 250 GTO. A tyre burst while he was competing in a race near Paris on October 7, 1962 and the car overturned. Oreiller was dragged from the wreckage alive but the 36-year-old died in hospital.

The car was rebuilt by the factory and sold to another gentleman racer who also careered off the track a few years later. The badly-dented Ferrari was knocked back into shape and within weeks 3851 GT was competing again.

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