There are 2,755 billionaires worldwide, according to Forbes, and 500 more popped up in the past year. It is also estimated that there are more than 20 million millionaires lurking among us worldwide. That’s a lot of private jets, big houses, and enviable collections of cars out there.
And among these super-rich there is an elite car club – “The GTO Club“. This is an exclusive club of Uber-rich members ready to part with staggering sums of money to grab what can only be called the trophy of all cars – the great thing Ferrari 250 GTO.
Some examples of these lucky club members include: fashion mogul Ralph Lauren, Walmart heir Rob Walton, and Canadian businessman and co-owner of the Aston Martin F1 racing team, Lawrence Stroll.
The exclusive “GTO Club”
Via TheTelegraph
If you look at some of the sales of GTOs to date over the past decade, you can get an idea of what it actually costs to become a member of this pompous club. Loud and excited British DJ and TV presenter Chris Evans bought a 250 GTO from RM Auctions in 2010 for $ 17.7 million.
In 2012, an anonymous buyer picked one up from a UK real estate agent for $ 31.7 million. And that same year, Craig McCaw, an American telecommunications taunt, privately bought one for $ 25 million to expand his 400-plus car collection. The following year, a GTO traded hands in another private sale for a cool $ 52 million.
Then, in 2014, auctioneer Bonhams hit one of those coveted rides for $ 52 million. Three years later, Gregor Fisken, former racing driver and vintage car dealer, spent $ 44 million to join the prestigious GTO club.
If you are already gasping at some of the numbers above, you will be even more surprised by what happened in 2018. Because that year a man named David MacNeil from Chicago, USA, the founder of the auto accessory manufacturer WeatherTech bought a silver one 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO (Chassis number # 4293GT) for a stunning $ 70 million. The highest price ever paid for a car.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the things you could spend $ 70 million on (excluding donating to charities or using the money to make the world a better place). If you’re looking for peace and quiet, you can get yourself a 3,000 acre island in the South Pacific (near Fiji) to relax and top up your tan. Or, if you fancy a property, you can buy Richard Branson’s Caribbean Mansion on beautiful Necker Island, which you can rent for $ 42,000 a night if you want to bring in a little extra cash.
Or maybe you are a football fan and would like to build your own stadium, you can personalize the seating so that you get the best seat in the house for every game. Or if you are into jewelry, you can buy the flawless 60ct Pink Star diamond from a South African mine that would make a lovely piece of jewelry for your home. Or, if you enjoy watching movies, you might prefer to direct and produce your own Hollywood blockbuster. You could give yourself the headline, the lead, and even choose who to be your co-star. How cool would that be?
Seriously, the classic car values seem to have risen sharply in the last few decades. Initially, we saw big increases in the 1980s, followed by fairly significant decreases in the 90s. In 1994, a 250 GTO grossed just $ 2.7 million, and it wasn’t until the late 1990s that they began to rise again. And they’re still rising at a fascinating pace today.
One has to ask – when does it stop? Or are we likely to sell one of those rare Italian cars for $ 100 million soon (grimace)?
So what makes this no-frills old Italian racing car so attractive?
The trophy: Ferrari 250 GTO
Via Wikipedia
Well Ferrari only made 36 of these between 1962 and 1964, so they are extremely rare. The sheer scarcity of these fantastic rides is an important factor in their attractiveness. When money is not an issue and nothing is out of your reach, you will likely turn to things that are out of your reach. The GTO has become a target for many car enthusiast billionaires who love the hunt for the purchase as much as the object.
But the 250 GTO also has an interesting history. During the development of the car, Enzo Ferrari and his then chief designer Giotto Bizzarrini had a big argument that culminated in the dismissal of most of the Ferrari engineering team. And when Ferrari put the car on the racetracks in 1962, they somehow managed to evade the FIA regulations.
The FIA rules of the time required an automobile manufacturer to build one hundred production units of a car before it could qualify for a place on the racetrack. But Ferrari only built 36 GTOs. They cheekily skipped the chassis numbers and shuffled cars in different locations to give the impression they were compliant with the FIA regulations and it worked.
Another big reason is that the GTO is just great to look at. With its aerodynamic body designed by Scaglietti, the long, curved bonnet, the beautifully designed cockpit and the cut-off tail, it is absolutely breathtaking. Ferrari produced the 250 in different colors, but the most famous one is the bright red “Rosso Cina” which really stands out from the rest. However, David MacNeil’s car is painted silver and has a French tricolor stripe along the length of the car.
If you look inside the car you can really see the racing focus. To keep the weight down (to just 1,940 lbs), Ferrari used aluminum for the body, minimized the dashboard, left out carpets, used fabric seats, and didn’t care about a headliner. Under the hood they were stuck with a 3 liter Tipo 168/62 Colombo V12 engine that made 296 hp, which gave it a top speed of 174 mph and a time from zero to sixty of 5.4 seconds (according to top speed). So you can have a lot of fun with this car on a racetrack; if your insurance allows (smile).
Via Pinterest
At the top of any potential buyer’s wish list is a rich racing history; This can add millions of dollars to the value of one of these amazing cars. The $ 70 million car took its first race win at the 500 km race in Spa in 1963 and won class wins at Le Mans, Tour de France, Zolder and Reims.
And on these tracks it would have competed against Jaguar, Aston Martin and Shelby Cobra. Many GTOs suffered accidents during their racing careers, but if you can find one like David MacNeil’s that, as you can see, wasn’t damaged from racing, it can bring in an even bigger premium. Today his car is stored underground in a vault under the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, where it just sits around and increases in value.
As the number of billionaires and Ferrari collectors increases, experts predict that these exclusive 250 GTO cars, the number of which will remain constant, will continue to appreciate. It’s so remarkable that this car had an original retail price of only $ 18,500! I wonder if Enzo Ferrari had an idea in the ’60s that these early racing machines would become the hottest cars ever, and that the value of each one could potentially be equal to the value of a small country’s gross national debt.
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Rob Charles
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Rob Charles is a freelance writer with a passion for cars.
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