Apparently someone thought the price tag of 40 million dollars seemed about right. \u00a0A red 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta, which was once involved in a fatal accident, has set the world record for a car sold at auction, going for $38.1 million at a sale in California, auction house Bonhams said.<\/p>\n
The price offered on Thursday by a bidder whose identity was not disclosed surpassed the $30 million (all figures U.S.) paid last year for a 1954 Mercedes Benz W196 race car, also sold by Bonhams, the auctioneers said in a press release.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always maintained that we would exceed the current world record and that the car would bring between $30-$40-million and today the GTO did just that,\u201d Robert Brooks, chairman of Bonhams, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Some reports prior to the auction had said the car might fetch as much as $70 million, but a Bonhams spokeswoman said these were based purely on speculation.<\/p>\n
The Ferrari was the jewel in the crown for Bonhams\u2019 annual Quail Lodge event on the Monterey Peninsula in California.<\/p>\n
The auction house said that it was the world\u2019s longest single-ownership for a Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta, effectively held by one family for 49 years from 1965 to 2014.<\/p>\n
The car sold from the Maranello Rosso Collection and stamped with chassis number \u20183851 GT\u2019 was the 19th 250 GTO Berlinetta made by Ferrari and completed on Sept. 11, 1962, Bonhams said.<\/p>\n
It was delivered to the leading French racing driver Jo Schlesser, to be co-driven by himself and French ski Champion Henri Oreiller in the 1962 Tour de France Automobile.<\/p>\n
Oreiller later crashed the car during a race at Montlhery Autodrome, south of Paris, and died of his injuries in hospital. A newspaper report at the time said the Ferrari careered off the track and flipped twice after a tyre burst.<\/p>\n
The car was repaired by Ferrari in Italy and was sold to Italian gentleman driver Paolo Colombo in time for the start of the 1963 competition season.<\/p>\n
In 1965 young Fabrizio Violati, the scion of a wealthy Italian family, bought the car. \u201cI saved the car from scrap and hid it from my parents. I only drove it at night so nobody would see me\u201d, Bonhams quoted him as saying. \u00a0This car is a collectors item but it will be hard to feel it for any more than what this man purchased it for.<\/p>\n