The only white copy of the series put up for sale

It is one of the attractions of Pebble Beach week that has just opened and will know its peak with the auctions at the end of the week and the elegance competition on Sunday on the lawns of Carmel golf course, on the edge of the Pacific. Maison Mecum Auctions takes advantage of the presence of all the biggest collectors and merchants on the planet to exhibit the Ferrari 250 GTO Chassis 3729 GT which it will sell at auction in Kissimmee in Florida next January.

Twelfth of the 36 Ferrari 250 GTO with 3 -liter engine produced between 1962 and 1964, this chassis has the particularity of being the only copy of the series out of the factory in white. Unlike a fairly widespread idea, the GTOs were not all red. Some came out of the factory, especially in metal gray, BP green, water green, brown. Her white painting that she found in the early 2020s after spending a large part of her life in red earned her to die a new ceiling? For a long time the most expensive car in the world, the Ferrari 250 GTO was exceeded by the Mercedes 300 SLR Coupé Uhlenhaut awarded 135 million euros at auction in 2022. The last copies of the Ferrari ceded over the counter approached the $ 70 million. However, the last model presented at auction in November 2023 appreciated $ 51.7 million. It was the 3765 LM chassis with 4 -liter engine, a model classified apart from the GTO nomenclature.

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Being part of the Ferrari 250 GTO owners’ club, one of the most select clubs in the world, encourage the auction? Its new owner will win his ticket for the rally that the owners of the Queen of Grand Tourism between 1962 and 1964 have been organizing every five years, since 1982. The next will take place in 2027 for the 65 years of this podium star.

If the GTO is as followed, it is because this racing berlinet has reigned for three seasons on all the sporting, on the road and on the circuit. The GTO won the Tour de France in 1963 and 1964 and if it failed to add its name to the list of victorious machines of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, its Sarthois route can still take advantage of two 2^e Place to general and victory in GT, in 1962 and 1963. The GTO n ° 3729 GT does not have the most glorious track record. Commanded new by English John Coombs who made GTs run and mainly Jaguar Type E, she only participated in tests in England. The F1 World Champion Graham Hill, however, led him to second place in the 1962 Tourist Trophy, disputed on the Goodwood circuit.

The queen of the Microsoft pattern collection

The gentleman Driver Jack Sears acquired it in 1970. He will keep it for twenty years. In 1990, the GTO which was repainted in red crossed the Atlantic to integrate the collection of American enthusiastic Jon Shirley who has just sold the operational direction of Microsoft. He will nevertheless remain at the company’s management committee until 2008. Fortune made, this active collector constitutes one of the most beautiful collections of classic cars in the world. In addition to the GTO with which he participates in several birthday birthdays and competitions in the United States, his garage includes some of the most emblematic Ferrari: 166 mm, 500 in the world, 250 TR, 250 GT Spyder California Short frame, 275 GT Spyder Nart, 365 GTS/4 Spyder Daytona, and even 375 mm n ° 0456/AM Pinin Farina that Italian director Roberto Rossellini offered his wife, Ingrid Bergman. His collection also included the most popular pre-war Alfa Romeo: 8C 2900 BERLINETTA, P3, 8C. With La Berlinette Unique Rossellini, Jon Shirley obtained the Best of Show in Pebble Beach in 2014. Supreme consecration for a collector. Since then, the 375 mm has returned to Europe where it was sold via the English merchant Simon Kidston. Today it is seized by Italian justice for a dark tax matter. Entrusted in 2022 to Simon Kidston and seen in London and then exhibited in Rétromobile in 2024, the 250 GTO turned the Atlantic. The proof that collectors are only guards, this racing beast is about to change hands. It may be just the first in a long list. The oldest owners of GTO, including Nick Mason, Ralph Lauren, Peter Sachs, Sir Anthony Bamford, and Robson Walton may want to hand over. At 87, Jon Shirley decided to line up cars.