A new world record for a car at auction was set this evening when a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sold for $48,405,000 at an RM-Sotheby's auction in Monterey, California. The 56-year-old breaks the existing car auction record of $38.115 million set in 2014, also for a Ferrari 250 GTO.
The new record holding car (Ferrari 250 GTO #3413GT) has been owned for the last 18 years by Dr. Greg Whitten, the former Chief Software Architect for Microsoft.
Whitten built the foundations upon which the Microsoft Office suite of applications (Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint) were constructed. A complete rundown on the car and the 250 GTO owners club can be found here.
Automotive auction records have been toppling over the last 72 hours during Monterey Car Week, with a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ selling for $22 million. The Duesenberg SSJ is one of of just two made, with this car being owned by famous actor Gary Cooper, and being the world's fastest pre-WW2 road car.
In selling for $22 million, the Duesenberg SSJ became the most valuable American car and the most valuable pre-WW2 car ever sold.
Prior to this week, only eight cars had ever sold for more than $20 million at auction, but in the last two days another three cars have now joined that elite club, with the third car being a 1963 Aston Martin DP215 GT Competition Prototype that sold for $21.455 million.
