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Leith Cars Blog

This $52 Million Ferrari 250 GTO Is the World’s Most Expensive Car Ever

The most expensive car in the world is a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO—at least, so far.

A car is worth however much someone is willing to pay for it, so if Bill Gates wanted to buy a Mitsubishi Mirage tomorrow for $5 billion, that would become the world’s most expensive car.

However, the most money ever recorded being spent to purchase a car was for the Ferrari mentioned above.

According to Bloomberg in October 2013, it sold for $52 million from collector Paul Pappalardo to an anonymous buyer.

What Makes It So Great?

As you might imagine, this is a special car. What you might not imagine is the reason for that hefty price tag. According to one dealer, the GTO has something no other car possesses.

“It’s like the Mona Lisa,” says Don Williams of Blackhawk Collection. “It has a mystique. If you have a GTO, you have a great collection.”

Only 39 GTOs were made. This particular GTO won the 1963 Tour de France road race—not the bicycle version—with famed driver Jean Guichet piloting it.

But Can You Tell the Difference?

This is like owning John Lennon’s guitar, or at least the one he recorded the albums with and played all the biggest shows with. It’s more than a car: it’s history.

Put simply: anyone can go out and buy a Lamborghini or a Rolls-Royce, or even a Ferrari. But to own the one that made history? To sit where legends sat? To hear the same sound that only a few other people in the world have heard? And to hear it while getting milk?

That’s something else. And it begs a question.

If you sat in a car that expensive, and didn’t know it, would you notice? It’s hard to say. Particularly if, like this author, you’ve never sat in a Ferrari before.

But one day, a car will cross the $100 million mark. And we wonder if it won’t be this same GTO.