Forza Ferrari! RM fires on all 12 in Maranello

Those who thought Wednesday night’s lacklustre London sale was a portent of things to come in Italy were wrong. Headed by the €8.3m ‘charity sale’ Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta, RM grossed €59,567,750*, selling all but six of the 42 cars offered.

The entire proceeds of the sale of the yet-to-be-built, 210th LaFerrari Aperta will be donated to Save the Children for an international programme focusing on education. The generous and determined buyer will have to fork out a further sum for Italian taxes on the entire purchase.

At a glance (from provisional figures):

* €59,567,750 gross
* Percentage sold by number 86%
* Top-selling car the LaFerrari Aperta at €8,300,000
* Maddest result? 2016 Ferrari 488 Spider 'Green Jewel' (est. €320k to €380k, pictured, top) hammered at €960,000, or €1,090,200 with buyer’s premium
* Most money paid for a car Ferrari won’t let you actually drive? €2,120,600 all-in for a LaFerrari Prototype

The LaFerrari Aperta was the final lot in a 42-car (plus automobilia) catalogue that saw the Canadians return to Maranello after an eight-year gap. Pre-sale buzz in the slightly low-key tent centred on the alloy-bodied ‘Daytona’ (sold for a good €1,807,500 gross), the 250 GT Lusso (sold for a middling €1,695,000 all-up) and Keith Richards’ Ferrari 400i. The latter attracted bids like teenagers to a Stones gig in the early 60s and went for a walloping €345k with premium.
 

Aside from novelties such as this and the new cars, the mood was less bullish. The LWB California Spider with an unhappy history and presented today in a non-original colour was swiftly hammered away for €7m against a €7.5m to €9.5m estimate. The white Series 1 Pininfarina Cabriolet sold below its lower estimate, grossing €4,719,000. That’s around $5.67m. Neither the 500 Superfast nor the non-matching-numbers 250 GT SWB Competizione sold on the night. The latter generated no meaningful bids.

Everyone loved the delicate colour of the early 512 BB Paris and Geneva Show car and it did well, selling well over top estimate for €425k with premium – that’s comfortably over the $500k mark. The long-nose alloy 275 GTB, at €2,927,000 gross (say $3.5m), showed these cars can often outrun four-cams in the saleroom

The Dino GTS was highly original and it showed (according to Simon), bearing in mind the high standard of modern restorations, but went all the way to €100k over upper estimate: €529k, or around $636k.

As a high-profile event associated with Ferrari’s 70th, it’s hard to glean too much from the results. Remember, too, that RM boosted the buyer’s premium specially for this sale, so gross prices are higher than normal.

The older cars did not do so well, unlike the newer ones – in one case unbelievably so. For a Ferrari collector with broad tastes, it was a mixed message.

But as Keith and the boys would sing, you can’t always get what you want.

*Postscript: In its official results RM declared the following lots sold post-sale: Lot 123, 1950 Ferrari 195 Inter Coupé by Touring €790,179 net, €900,000 gross; Lot 149, 1966 Ferrari 500 Superfast Series II €1,446,429 net, €1,635,000 gross. This brings the gross for motor cars to €62,111,710.

RM Sotheby’s in Maranello, 9 September 2017 – Published Results

Total gross cars: €62,111,710
Number of cars not sold: 4
Total number of cars: 42
Number sold: 38
Percentage cars sold by number: 90%
Percentage by value average low/high estimate: 80%
Percentage of cars sold below low estimate: 50%
Percentage of cars sold not met avge of estimates: 68%
Percentage of cars sold met/exceeded top estimate: 24%
Average value of cars sold: €1,634,519
Average year of cars offered: 1982
Percentage of cars offered at No Reserve: 19%

Photos by Thomas