The Pope’s Ferrari Enzo heads £100million RM Sotheby California auction
RM Sotheby's Monterey sale expected to break records
Two Bugatti Veyrons, an immaculate Ferrari 250 LM and Pope John Paul II’s Ferrari Enzo will join more than 20 other incredibly valuable supercars in RM Sotheby’s 2015 Monterey Auction. Titled The Pinnacle Portfolio, the collection’s cars will go under the hammer in California on 13 August.
Amongst the most valuable cars on sale is a 1964 Ferrari 250 LM. Chassis number 6105 was the 23rd 250 LM to be built, and was used in multiple hill climb events with British racing driver Ron Fry at the helm. It’s joined by the second-to-last road-going McLaren F1 LM to ever be built, a car that’s also one of just two to be built by McLaren Special Operations (MSO) with an LM-spec engine and ‘extra high downforce package.’
Even amongst such an alluring line-up of cars, eyes will likely be drawn to the collection’s 2005 Ferrari Enzo. As the 400th and final Ferrari Enzo to make production, the car was gifted to the late Pope John Paul II, before being auctioned off to raise money for tsunami victims. Aside from the car’s Catholic links, the tiny 180km total mileage should help it secure a previously unprecedented sale price.
Other key cars included in the auction include a Ferrari F40 LM, F50, a Koenigsegg CCXR, Lamborghini Reventón, Toyota 2000GT and the very first publically-sold Bugatti Veyron. Last year’s auction set a new benchmark, generating $143.4million in sales - about £93.4million. The 2015 sale is expected to do even better, with a strong chance of the total exceeding £100million.
‘While many of the world’s most impressive collections were established in the public eye of the car-collecting world, The Pinnacle Portfolio was assembled with a clandestine, surgical precision unlike any other that has come to market,’ explains RM Sotheby’s car specialist, Shelby Myers. ‘The listing provides the most serious car collectors an exclusive opportunity to own the pinnacle model of each of the world’s most celebrated marques.’
The Portfolio will be presented for sale on August 13, the first of three days for the Monterey, California auction. A full listing of the auction’s cars can be found on Classic and Performance Car.
