When it comes to the most expensive cars ever sold at auction, Ferrari is king. They have quite a few examples that occupy the top ten, including the crown jewel that is the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. Back in 2014, one pristine GTO sold for a mind boggling $38,115,000 at the Bonham’s Quail Auction during Monterey Car Week. Ferrari might currently hold the top spot, however, McLaren is quickly moving up the ranks thanks to the legendary F1. Just this past weekend at the 2017 Quail Auction, this stunning silver 1995 F1 sold for a record $15,620,000

It might seem absolutely ridiculous to spend that kind of money on a single car, however, there’s no telling how high the value will grow as time goes on. Take the F1 for example, with a price tag over $1 million brand new, it was never considered an inexpensive car by any means. But in just 22 short years the value of the car has literally exploded and now each one is worth a small fortune. I think in the business world they call that a massive return on investment.

Photo: automobilemag

Selling an F1 for over $15 million is incredible, there’s no doubt about it. However, that’s still less than half the price of the 250 GTO sold only a few years back. But there’s something that needs to be pointed out here, the F1 has been around for just 22 years, where the 250 GTO is more than double that with a whopping 55 years (52 at the time of the record sale). Basic logic tells you that if the value of the F1 continues to grow at the rate it’s going now, by the time its fifty-something years old it has the potential of actually dethroning the might GTO. Wouldn’t that be something?

I don’t mean to compare the two cars because they each have their own unique characteristics and each made a significant impact on the automotive world in their given era. I’m actually implying that we could be looking at the ultimate collector car from the future.

This particular McLaren F1 is a 1995 model and it’s an all original car with the chassis number of 044. It has 10,000 miles on the odometer and the only reason it’s that high is that the owner of the car took it on a cross-Europe road trip shortly after taking delivery of the car. Since then it has been meticulously maintained and stored in the best possible conditions. To my knowledge, the only replacement part on the entire car was the fuel cell which was replaced back in 2009. Not too shabby for a car that’s 22 years old right?

Photo: automobilemag

So while it may not seem like a smart investment to buy a car and sit on it for the next 20 years, and for the most part, it isn’t, it would obviously depend on the type of car, the model, and the rarity among other things. You surely wouldn’t want to buy a Chevy Camaro or something along those lines and have the expectations that it would be worth millions one day. Maybe, just maybe, if it was limited numbers special edition I guess it could be theoretically possible, but even still not even close to being on the level as say the F1.

Nonetheless, it’s safe to say that there was both a happy buyer and an extraordinarily happy seller at the 2017 Quail Auction. Actually, there were quite a few of those because, during the auction, Bonham’s reportedly sold $56,430,000 million worth of cars with an 80% sell rate which is up from $34.8 million at last years event.

The most expensive car ever sold at auction, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO
Photo: cnbc
Photo: automobilemag
Photo: automobilemag

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