First-ever Ferrari Testa Rossa sells for $14.9 million

In what appears to be the highest price paid at public auction for a collector car, the first 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa sold for $14.9 million Saturday night at the Gooding auction in Monterey. Gooding officials are still tabulating the final price with premiums, but that figure easily surpasses the $12.2 million (with buyer’s premium) paid for another 1957 Testa Rossa at RM’s 2009 Leggenda e Passione sale in Maranello, the prior highwater mark for Ferraris and collector cars in general.

According to Gooding’s description of the Testa Rossa, chassis No. 0666 TR, it is not only the first 250 Testa Rossa built, but was also campaigned by Scuderia Ferrari when new. It has since been treated to a restoration by Dennison International and taken first in its class at the 2006 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Though the $14.9 million is the highest auction price paid, it still does not qualify the Ferrari for the title of world’s most expensive car. That goes instead to the 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, sold in a private transaction (also brokered by Gooding) to the Mullin Automotive Museum for between $30 million and $40 million last year.