1956 Ferrari Sells For 28 Million

[prousonhairy]

1956 Ferrari fetches $28 million at NYC car auction (from @ap) http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:e2314ea184144f2ca02063adbd6d5f32

 

[TexRex]

For those who are curious:

 

[cmbeal317]

Ferrari 290 MM by Chris Beal, on Flickr
Ferrari 290 MM by Chris Beal, on Flickr

 

[niky]

The only thing I find surprising about this news is that it's not a 250GT.

The car, though, is mighty purty.

 

[Stotty]

Beautiful.

 

[Tornado]

Bleh. The provenance is immense, but most of the racing cars from this period tend to blend together.

 

[Cowboy]

Only the removal of the blue and yellow on the front could make me like this more.

 

[Anathema]

Is this the one mentioned in the "Cars you've never heard of" thread that Fangio drove in the 1956 Mille Miglia? Apparently, there's four of these, and after research, I've seen photo evidence of three surviving examples out of what is said to be four built (possibly four.)

#14 (no yellow/blue on nose)

#15 (yellow nose)

#600 (yellow/blue nose, this IS the one Fangio drove)

After this it gets confusing. Browsed Google images for about half an hour, found weblinks to a few different things, such as photos of a #551 from a movie called Checkpoint that apparently used actual footage from the 1956 Mille Miglia.
The, there's this one;

There's also this picture, which I'm unsure of the date it was taken because of the relatively modern cars in the background. Also says that this is chassis 0626, which is the chassis number of the #600... making this even more confusing.

Anyone else have info to share?

 

[prousonhairy]

Is this the one mentioned in the "Cars you've never heard of" thread that Fangio drove in the 1956 Mille Miglia? Apparently, there's four of these, and after research, I've seen photo evidence of three surviving examples out of what is said to be four built (possibly four.)

#14 (no yellow/blue on nose)

#15 (yellow nose)

#600 (yellow/blue nose, this IS the one Fangio drove)

After this it gets confusing. Browsed Google images for about half an hour, found weblinks to a few different things, such as photos of a #551 from a movie called Checkpoint that apparently used actual footage from the 1956 Mille Miglia.
The, there's this one;

There's also this picture, which I'm unsure of the date it was taken because of the relatively modern cars in the background. Also says that this is chassis 0626, which is the chassis number of the #600... making this even more confusing.

Anyone else have info to share?

The car auctioned finished 4th in the Mille Miglia. It's one of 4 ever made. It's in the article

 

[McLaren]

Is this the one mentioned in the "Cars you've never heard of" thread that Fangio drove in the 1956 Mille Miglia? Apparently, there's four of these, and after research, I've seen photo evidence of three surviving examples out of what is said to be four built (possibly four.)

There's also this picture, which I'm unsure of the date it was taken because of the relatively modern cars in the background. Also says that this is chassis 0626, which is the chassis number of the #600... making this even more confusing.
Anyone else have info to share?

According to RM, this car was built specifically for Fangio & the Mille Miglia. It is Ferrari Certified & considered the finest example of the 4 cars; #0606, #0616, #0626, & #0628. That #5 car is something else, or another chassis, as #0626 has not changed since her creation.

 

[iName]

Please drive it just a little bit, owner guy.

 

[Tyger]

Is this the one mentioned in the "Cars you've never heard of" thread that Fangio drove in the 1956 Mille Miglia? Apparently, there's four of these, and after research, I've seen photo evidence of three surviving examples out of what is said to be four built (possibly four.)

#14 (no yellow/blue on nose)

#15 (yellow nose)

#600 (yellow/blue nose, this IS the one Fangio drove)

After this it gets confusing. Browsed Google images for about half an hour, found weblinks to a few different things, such as photos of a #551 from a movie called Checkpoint that apparently used actual footage from the 1956 Mille Miglia.
The, there's this one;

There's also this picture, which I'm unsure of the date it was taken because of the relatively modern cars in the background. Also says that this is chassis 0626, which is the chassis number of the #600... making this even more confusing.

Anyone else have info to share?

Odd, to me the first pic looks very much like a 250 Testa Rossa, see how the nose and grill protrude beyond the lights/wings rather than blending together? No doubt you are right though, I know many Ferraris varied even within their specific model designations (see the 250 GTO)

EDIT: Google reverse image search indeed shows it's a 290, very similar though!

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

I feel this has less to do with being a classic winning Ferrari racer and far more to do with who drove it, just like the Mercedes that Fangio drove selling for more than this just as easily. You're paying for the legend and by some the greatest racer ever.

If it were anyone else who drove the car then I'd be surprised by the number, but when I saw it was the 600 thus Fangio it was all too obvious.

 

[Scuderia Paul]

Anyone else have info to share?

Yes, it was a Christmas present to myself.