Value
The Most Expensive Ferrari Ever Sold
The most expensive Ferrari ever sold is a 250 GTO at $70 million — chassis 4153GT, privately, in June 2018. The auction record is lower and separate: $51,705,000 for chassis 3765LM at RM Sotheby’s in New York on 13 November 2023. Both are the same car in different rooms, and the gap between them is the whole story. Our own Ferrari is a 488, at $1,999/day.
| Ferrari | Figure | What kind of number that is |
|---|---|---|
| 250 GTO, chassis 4153GT | $70,000,000 | Private sale, June 2018. No room, no gavel, no premium. |
| 330 LM, chassis 3765LM | $51,705,000 | RM Sotheby's New York, 13 November 2023, premium included. |
| 250 GTO, chassis 3413GT | $48,405,000 | RM Sotheby's Monterey, August 2018, premium included. |
| 250 GTO, chassis 3387GT | $44,000,000 | Private sale, 2017. |
| Ferrari 488 GTB | $1,999/day | Our Ferrari, and the dearest car in the whole garage. |
Two records, and the bigger one has no auction behind it
Every other marque in this series has one answer. Ferrari has two, and they disagree by eighteen million dollars. The largest figure ever attached to a Ferrari was paid in private, and the largest one paid in public is a different car on a different night.
This distinction gets flattened everywhere else and it should not be. An auction result is a public event with a house, a date, an underbidder and a published premium; anybody can check it. A private sale is a figure two parties and their advisers agreed, reported afterwards by people who were not in the room. Both can be true. Only one is verifiable, and it is the smaller one.
So the columns stay apart, and the one Ferrari a reader can be handed the keys to sits in our own garage rather than at the end of this article. It is a 488, it is red, and it sits several orders of magnitude below every figure in this article.
Why it is always a 250 GTO
Ferrari built 36 of them between 1962 and 1964 — thirty-three with the original bodywork and three with the 1964 shape. The engine is a three-litre V12 making 300 PS at 7,500 rpm, which by any modern measure is not a lot; a current hot hatchback will beat it to sixty.
The value is not in the performance and never was. The GTO was built to be homologated into the FIA's Group 3 Grand Touring category, which is to say it exists because of a rulebook, and every one of the thirty-six was built to race and mostly did. That combination — tiny number, competition history, a body most people consider the most beautiful shape Ferrari ever signed off — is what fifty million dollars is buying.
Two rules, because they are where these lists break
A private sale is a report, not a receipt. $70 million for 4153GT is widely accepted and may well be exact. It still has no house, no published premium and no underbidder, so it belongs in its own column rather than at the top of a list of auction results.
Chassis numbers, not model names. Four 250 GTO figures appear above and they are four different cars with four different histories. There is no single price for “a 250 GTO”, and the spread between them is larger than the entire value of most collector cars.
The record Ferrari lost, and to whom
For years the answer to “what is the most valuable car in the world” was a Ferrari, and specifically a 250 GTO. That stopped in May 2022, when a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé made €135 million at RM Sotheby's inside the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart — roughly $142 million, and nearly three times the highest price ever paid for a Ferrari at auction.
It is worth being precise about what changed, because most reporting was not. Mercedes took the auction record by a distance that is not arguable. The private record is a separate question and the $70 million GTO still sits below the Uhlenhaut there too. What Ferrari retains is depth rather than the peak: the marque has more cars above forty million dollars than anybody else, which is a different and arguably more impressive claim.
What about the modern ones?
Nothing Ferrari has built since is close, and the gap is not narrowing. The limited-run modern cars — the halo hybrids and the series of low-volume specials — sell out instantly and trade above list, but they trade in the low millions rather than the high tens of millions.
The reason is the same one that explains Porsche and Lamborghini in this series. The cars at the top of the market were built to race under a rulebook that limited how many could exist, and they then went and raced. A modern special is rare because Ferrari decided how many to make, which is a decision rather than a constraint, and the market prices the two kinds of rarity very differently.
The most expensive Ferrari in Los Angeles
None of the cars above exists in a rental fleet. Thirty-six GTOs, four 330 LMs, and a market where the cars change hands between people who already know each other.
We hold one Ferrari: a red 488 GTB at $1,999/day. That makes it the most expensive car in the fleet outright — above the Huracán Evo and the Maybach GLS 600, both at $1,799/day — and it is the only Ferrari anybody rents to us or to anyone else in this city at this level.
The 488 is a twin-turbocharged V8, which matters because it sits on the other side of a line Ferrari crossed in 2015 and has not crossed back. If the reason you are reading about a three-litre naturally aspirated V12 is that you want to hear one, the 488 is not that car, and the honest place to say so is here rather than in the car park.
What it costs, and how it reaches you
The 488 carries a $2,000 refundable deposit, back 5–7 business days after the car returns. Multi-day blocks exist but on a car at this end they rarely beat the days they cover, so the figure to trust is the one the quote produces on the car's own page rather than anything typed here in September.
Collection from our lot on Robertson Boulevard is free and delivery to the partner hotels in Beverly Hills is complimentary. Airport delivery is priced per direction: $75 standard, car left in the airport parking structure with a free shuttle out to it, and $150 VIP, car at the terminal when you walk out. Mileage on the exotics is lower than on the saloons and SUVs, and anything past the allowance is charged per mile at the rate in your agreement. The rest is in the terms.
The short version, with the two records kept apart
The most expensive Ferrari ever sold is a 250 GTO, chassis 4153GT, at $70 million privately in June 2018. The most expensive one sold in public is chassis 3765LM, a 330 LM, at $51,705,000 with RM Sotheby's in New York on 13 November 2023, premium included.
Thirty-six GTOs were built between 1962 and 1964, to be homologated into a racing category. That is the whole reason for the number: they are rare because a rulebook made them rare, and then they raced.
Ferrari lost the outright auction record to Mercedes in 2022 and has not got it back. What it kept is depth — more cars above forty million dollars than any other marque. The most expensive Ferrari in Los Angeles is our red 488, and at $1,999/day it is the dearest thing in the whole fleet.
6 photographs from this guide are free to use under CC BY 4.0 — download them →
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Frequently asked questions
What is the most expensive Ferrari ever sold?
A 250 GTO, chassis 4153GT, at $70 million in a private sale in June 2018. That figure is widely accepted but it has no auction house behind it. The highest price paid for a Ferrari in public is $51,705,000, for chassis 3765LM at RM Sotheby's in New York in November 2023.
Why are 250 GTOs worth so much?
Thirty-six were built between 1962 and 1964, and they exist because of a rulebook: the model was made to be homologated into the FIA's Group 3 Grand Touring category. Almost all of them raced. The engine is a three-litre V12 making 300 PS, which is modest today, so the money is buying rarity, competition history and the shape rather than performance.
Is a Ferrari the most valuable car in the world?
Not any more, at least not at auction. In May 2022 a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe made EUR 135 million at RM Sotheby's in Stuttgart, about $142 million, which is nearly three times the Ferrari auction record. What Ferrari still holds is depth: more individual cars above forty million dollars than any other marque.
What is the difference between the auction record and the private record?
An auction result is a public event with a house, a date, a published buyer's premium and an underbidder, and anybody can check it. A private sale is a figure agreed between two parties and reported afterwards by people who were not there. Both can be accurate; only the auction one is verifiable, which is why they belong in separate columns.
Which Ferrari can you rent in Los Angeles?
One: a red 488 GTB at $1,999/day, which is also the most expensive car in our fleet. It is a twin-turbocharged V8 rather than a naturally aspirated V12, so if the sound is what you are after, it is worth knowing that before you book. None of the cars in the ranking above is rentable anywhere.