The World’s Most Expensive Car!
The Ferrari 250 GTO is a GT car which was produced by Ferrari from 1962 to 1964 for homologation into the FIA’s Group 3 Grand Touring Car category. The numerical part of its name denotes the displacement in cubic centimeters of each cylinder of the engine, whilst GTO stands for “Gran Turismo Omologato”,[1] Italian for “Grand Touring Homologated.” When new, the GTO commanded an R180,000 purchase price in the United States, and buyers had to be personally approved by Enzo Ferrari and his dealer for North America, Luigi Chinetti.
36 cars were made in the years ’62/’63. In 1964 ‘Series II’ was introduced, which had a slightly different look. Three such cars were made, and four older ‘Series I’ were given a ‘Series II’ body. It brought the total of GTOs produced to 39.
In 2004, Sports Car International placed the 250 GTO eighth on a list of Top Sports Cars of the 1960s, and nominated it the top sports car of all time. Similarly, Motor Trend Classic placed the 250 GTO first on a list of the “Greatest Ferraris of all time”
The Ferrari 250 GTO was recently solf for R520 million by car collector, Paul Pappalardo, who’s owned it since 1984. That’s a 49 per cent increase on the previous most expensive car in the world – an Stirling Moss Ferrari GTO – which sold for R345m last June, and R96000 when new.
