Rare Ferrari sells for staggering £10 million

A RARE FERRARI representing a key early stage in the history of the sports car manufacturer has sold at auction for £10.7 million.

The sale of the 375-Plus at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, was a world auction record for a Ferrari sports racing car.

A spokesman for auction house Bonhams also said it was the third highest price paid for any car sold at auction.

The brutally-fast 375-Plus was Ferrari's ultimate weapon to win the 1954 Sports Car Championship, with just five made.

Fitted with a 4.9-litre V12 engine developing 330 brake horsepower, the car was entrusted by the Scuderia Ferrari works racing team to only the most skilled racing drivers.

These included Argentinian Jose Froilan Gonzalez - dubbed the Pampus Bull - and the renowned Italian road racer Umberto Maglioli.

The car was the 1954 works entry driven by Maglioli in the Mille Miglia, then piloted to victory by Gonzalez at Silverstone.

In later years, long-running title disputes broke out over the car between two families, which Bonhams helped to resolve.

It was sold with a spare period works block engine and its original body panels, still bearing traces of the 1957 Cuban Grand Prix race colours.

Peter Kantor, Bonhams' head of motor cars for mainland Europe, said it was rare for a Ferrari team works car with continuous history and undisputed identity to come up for public auction.

Last year a world record price for any car sold at public auction was set at Goodwood when Bonhams sold the former Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes-Benz W196 for £20 million.

Bonhams' co-chairman, Robert Brooks, said: "We've had a truly diverse range of spectacular motor cars at our sale this year, causing great excitement in the sale room for both spectator and bidder alike, and achieving an outstanding result."

By Tom Pugh, Press Association