A new record
was set for the highest amount paid for a car at a vintage auction by a 1961
Ferrari California Spyder selling for $10,894,900 after auction fees. The sale
was at RM Auction's second annual "Ferrari Leggenda e Passione"
auction in Maranello, Italy, and the obviously wealthy
buyer was popular British radio host Chris Evans.
The car, described as the
'Leonardo da Vinci of motoring', would have cost £6,000 when it was new in
1963. Only 36 were ever made. Evans collects Ferraris as investments and is
understood to have sold three of them to fund his latest acquisition. Last
month he sold a 250 GT LWB California
Spyder and a 250 GT SWB Berlinetta for a combined figure of £4million.
RM Auctions, which sold the car
on behalf of a Japanese collector, said it had been bought by 'a very
enthusiastic British buyer'. Asked if the buyer had paid £12million, a
spokesman said: 'That is the sort of price you would expect to pay.' Last
summer Evans said: 'I want to earn enough money to get a 250 GTO. It'll never
happen, they are making £16million these days. How the hell am I going to
manage that.'
In 2008 Evans had paid a record
£5.6million for a Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. In the same year a British
buyer bought the same type of rare GTO that Evans has just bought for a record
£15.7million. The arrival of his dream car comes in the week that Evans marked
an all-time record radio audience, beating that of his predecessor, Sir Terry
Wogan.
Official figures showed
9.53million listeners tuned in each week to his Radio 2 breakfast show, the
biggest audience for any radio show since current research methods began in
1999. Evans chalked up over a million more listeners than Sir Terry had when he
bowed out. The DJ, who famously left breakfast shows on Radio 1 and Virgin
Radio under a cloud, has admitted he will have to continually 'prove' himself
if he wants to escape his controversial past.
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