Worlds Most Expensive Car Sold At Auction For $34.65 Million

The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, with a somewhat dark past, was just sold by Bonhams for $34.65 million. That blew away the previous record, held by a Mercedes-Benz racer that sold last summer for $31.6 million including auction fees.

“The market right now is just so strong,” said Marcel Massini, a leading Ferrari historian and adviser to collectors. “And this is one of the big prizes in the entire collecting world.”

Ferrari GTOs are among the holy grails of the car auction world. Ferrari made only 36 of them (or 39 if you include different versions), and they were the dominant race cars of the mid-1960s.

GTOs rarely come up for sale, and when they do they often trade in secret, private sales that can rarely be verified. Last year, a GTO sold in a private sale for $52 million, experts said. But it’s been over a decade since a GTO has been sold at a public auction. While many types of high-end collecting cars have gone up in value in recent years, GTOs are now in class by themselves. Just 10 years ago, GTOs were selling for around $10 million.