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1965 Le Mans winning Ferrari 250LM tops Paris Retromobile week sales with record 34.88m euros performanc (£28.96m with RM Sotheby's premium)

For the second time in 5 days, Sholto Gilbertson's world record establishing gavel determined the next guardian of an historically significant motor car, the 1964-manufactured,1965 Le Mans winning Ferrari 250LM chassis 5893 with still matching 3.3 V12 Motore 211.

The first rear-engined Ferrari sold to the paying privateer market overtook the pre-sale estimate of 25,000,000 euros (£20,750,000), to sell in Les Salles di Carousel to 'Bidder 7851' on RMS Specialist Oliver Camelin's telephone, versus under-bidding contestants in the seats, for 31,000,000 euros hammer, costing the winner 34,880,000 euros gross (£28,958,581 including premium).

As with the world's second highest priced car auctioned at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart last week - the 51,155,000 euros (£42,458,650) Fangio and Moss raced 1955 W196R GP Streamliner - the NART (North American Racing Team) entered 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Ferrari 250LM, driven by 'Kansas City Flash'  Masten Gregory and posthumous World Champ Jochen Rindt, had been consigned by the Indy Motor Speedway Museum, where chassis 5893 had been well preserved by 54 years display.

After Ford's bid to acquire Ferrari had been unsuccessful, 1965 Le Mans promised to be an epic contest between their  prototypes. Ford/Shelby US fielded 5 Daytona Coupes, 4 GT40s and 2 new 7-litre powered GT40s. Opposing them were 12 Ferraris with the 330 P2 and 365 P2 in the Italian front line, piloted by Pedro Rodrigues and Nino Vaccarella. Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Chris Amon, Innes Iraland and John Whitmore had been armed with Fords.

60 years ago, the famously specs wearing Masten Gregory, for whom 1965 was his 10th Le Mans, with the ascending star Jochen Rindt, who the GP team talent scouts were chasing, shared the stints in one of 5 250LM run by Ferrari's National Racing Teams. By the 21st hour, the American and Austrian were leading a Ferrari 1-2-3, the 6th 250 LM chassis buiilt finishing 5 laps ahead of  the Pierre Dumay/Taf Gosselin's 250LM with Willy Mairess/'Beurlys' 8 laps back in Ecurie Francorchamps' newly homologated 275GTB.

Chassis 5893 also raced to an 8th overall for Posey/Zeccoli in the 1969 Le Mans and 7th overall at the 1970 Daytona 24 Hours crewed by Chinetti Jnr/Young, the 250LM's final assignment before period retirement. Since then however, 5893 was shown at Monterey Historics in 1994, Santa Fe Concorso 2015, Pebble Beach Concours four times, Amelia Island Concours and Petersen Automotive Museum in LA three times each, demonstration laps on YouTube in 2021 driven by F1/Indycar driver Roman Grossjean and Bricks weekend 2023 at Indy driven by Indycar driver Jack Harvey.

By the end of the Wednesday 5 November evening RM Sotheby's sale, among 21 cars to change portfolios under the hammer in the French capital of the euroze, the second biggest collector car economy after Trump SA, were - 2015 LaFerrari 3,548,750 (£2,946,294), 2022 196k Pagani Huayra R 3,042,500 euros (£2,525,988), 2011 Koenigsegg Agera 1,917,500 euros (£1,591,924), 1931 Alfa Romeo 6C Grand Sport Spider 1,833,125 euros (£1,521,923), 1974 Mercedes-Benz 600 6-Door Pullman Landaulet 1,355,000 euros (£1,124,967).

The preceding Tuesday 4 February session saw 100% sold results with all 73 out of 73 Retromobiles getting hammered, but then they had all been wisely vendor-consigned 'Sans Reserve'. After the Wednesday evening, RM Sotheby's first 2-day sale in Paris, 89% of lots had sold for 69,073,275 (£57,330,818) and EU collector automobile auction history had been made. Another 9 exhibits from the Indy Motor Speedway cross their block in Miami 27 February during ModaMiami. RH-E

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  • 1955 M-B W196R Streamliner fetches 51,155,000 euros (£42,458,650!) in RM Sotheby's stand-alone M-B Museum Sale

    After a 1 February 2025 bidding battle over the phones and in the room, auctioneer Sholto Gilbertson's record breaking gavel crashed down at £46.5m bid. Raced by Stirling Moss around the banked curves of Monza during the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, the Stromlinienwagen W196R chassis became both the second most valuable collector car auctioned and the world's top priced racer.

    For in the same Mercedes-Benz Heritage GmbH room in Stuttgart in 2022, the same global market leading house also hammered the most expensive car ever sold at auction, the 300SLR 'Uhlenhaut Coupe' flying to a stratospheric 135,000,000 euros with premium (a £112,050,000 world record), making it an all Merc front row!

    One of the very few Silver Arrows to be in a private quiver was gifted in 1965 by the then Daimler-Benz AG Unterturkheim factory to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, who had consigned their 70 year old exhibit to RM Sotheby's, the proceeds to benefit the restorative upkeep and expansion of their Indy 500 themed collection of over 150 vehicles and more than 55,000 artefacts.

    Few historic racing cars resonate as strongly as the famous Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows that dominated Pre-F1 Grand Prix racing in the immediate pre- and post-war era, admired for their advanced technology and spectacular speed. From the ashes of WW2 defeat, the W196R was developed to meet new regulations for engines with up to 2.5-litre displacement introduced in 1954, and it soon proved to be the car to beat in the hands of legends such as Juan Manual Fangio and Stirling Moss. RH-E


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