6 Stupidly Expensive Ferraris That Prove Silly Season Is Still On For Supercar Prices

We know Ferraris are expensive: it’s the only thing stopping us from buying one for every day of the week. But as an auction containing some 42 of them is about to show, prices are getting insane. Mecum Auctions is hosting its 2017 Daytime Auction in Monterey, California, and the estimates are eye watering.

According to the lot listings there are 42 pre-owned Ferraris going under the hammer, from a 1975 Dino 308 GT4 to a devastatingly tempting 330 P2 racer. Convertibles, 1960s classics, 1980s monsters; they’re all there, but we’ve picked out a handful that are set to raise the real cash sums. We can practically hear Mecum rubbing its metaphorical hands together from this side of the Atlantic…

2015 LaFerrari - $4.5-4.7 million

Let’s start with a nice, modern hybrid, shall we? Hybrid it may be, but the LaFerrari isn’t exactly a tree-hugger, with 950bhp being shot at the rear wheels past a deeply lovely carbon construction and a price tag almost as large as the 6.3-litre V12 behind the rear seats. Yours for around £1 million before customisations, you were only offered one new if you were deemed worthy by Ferrari.

This one is yours in the relatively rare Bianco Fuji paint with a red leather interior. There’s classy white contrast piping on the seats, and the dashboard is two-tone red and black, so as not to overdo it. Sadly the two-year-old car has covered just 209 miles and may never have been near its claimed 217mph top speed, but it’s not like any of these things stops us wanting it. Mecum estimates the selling price at a rather deflating $4.5-4.7 million, marking a 350 per cent-ish profit on the original investment. It’s okay to swear.

2003 Enzo - $2.7-3.0 million

If you’d prefer to ditch the hybrid gubbins in favour of pure V12 symphony, the 14-year-old Enzo on the auction’s list looks like a bargain. You get a 6.0-litre Tipo F140 B; a high-revving V12 masterpiece on top of rear-wheel drive, making its 650bhp output feel like plenty. Just 349 were built, and it’s also slightly faster than the LaFerrari, topping out at 218mph.

Bid for this one and you get the classic Rosso Corsa over a black interior, carbonfibre trim accents, Scuderia front wing shields and the Skyhook suspension system later adopted across many of the Fiat Chrysler Group’s more expensive cars. It’s still on its original and correct Bridgestone Potenza tyres, which is probably not a good thing if you want to drive it, but we’re sure a new set of boots won’t stretch the budget if you can afford the $2.7-3.0 million purchase estimate.

1965 Ferrari 275 GTB 'Long Nose' - $1.9-2.2 million.

Now let’s go way back to the mid-1960s. Some (I) say that this was Ferrari’s greatest era for design. Bring a stretcher and take me to my happy place: this thing is stunning. With just the right amount of patina on the engine and around the rear luggage straps to indicate a car that has been used, it’s actually a magnificent restoration of a standard 275 GTB that was involved in a heavy front-end crash.

The owner bought a genuine, brand new complete Long Nose front end from the factory and instructed some of the best classic car restorers in the US to begin the work. Depending on your level of commitment there are still a few small jobs to be carried out, and with a 47-year history with its current owner, documenting every bit of work done, what better base to start from? There is, sadly, the small matter of the price: estimated at $1.9-2.2 million.

2017 F12tdf - $1.35-1.5 million

The F12tdf, a special 799-car edition dedicated to the Tour de France (not the bike one), was described at its release in 2015 as ‘the purest expression of Ferrari right now’. It was, and is, an absolute leviathan of old-school performance. It doesn’t need hybrid tech; it just squeezes that glorious front-mounted 6.3-litre V12 up to 769bhp – more than 100bhp more than the legendary Enzo – and raises the bar versus the F12 in just about every measurable way. Zero to 124mph is smashed in 7.1 seconds; faster than an ND Mazda MX-5 makes it to half that.

Of course this one is yellow, and it comes with all the usual tech wizardry like four-wheel steering, the lightning-quick gearbox and (gasp!) a matching Ferrari luggage set. It’s a beast that you’d never tire of trying to tame, but its £339,000 price has gone up a bit. To get this near-new 84-miler you’ll pay something in the region of $1.35-1.5 million; potentially more than triple what it cost new. Dang.

1972 365 GTB/4 Daytona - $850,000-$1,050,000

Now, then. We’re coming to the more affordable end of the flagship cars that Mecum has listed for this weekend’s auction, but this breathtakingly good-looking Daytona still doesn’t come cheap, even with almost 20,000 miles under its shell. It’s one of Ferrari’s coolest designs ever, with that lovely long bonnet and laid-back styling that never seemed to be trying hard in the way that Ferraris sometimes do: you just fell in love with it anyway.

This one was supplied to a California owner via a dealer in Vancouver. The bright red Rosso Chiaro covers a tan and black interior that’s so 1970s we might burst. Chromed Borani wire wheels can’t distract from mod-cons like air-conditioning and an AM/FM radio receiver. Nice. It could be on your driveway for, ahem, as little as $850,000 – its lower estimate.

2015 458 Speciale Aperta - $700,000-$750,000

One of the most surprising/shocking things we noticed among the Ferrari prices at the weekend’s auction was that this two-year-old open-top 458 Speciale is predicted to be almost as expensive as the classic and legendary Daytona. It’s built in the lovely Giallo Modena yellow and has a leather interior in a concession towards luxury made by its first buyer.

The Speciale redefined the meaning of the word ‘immediate’ in all of its responses, but this one has some practical tech you might not expect, like front and rear parking sensors. It also, of course, had the more powerful version of the razor-sharp 4.5-litre V8, with 597bhp to play with. You would join just 498 other global owners if you were to win the auction, but that could reach as high as $750,000, if the predictions are accurate.

Insert all the ‘the world has gone mad’ comments you like, below, and let us know whether you’d have another from the list. An understated 330 GT, maybe, or a 612? Maybe even a 599 SA Aperta; there’s one of those, too. Get voting with your keyboards.