The sale of the Ferrari 375-Plus at the Goodwood Festival of Speed was a world auction record for a Ferrari sports racing car. It went for 18.3 million USD.
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 liter V12 engine developing 330 BHP, the car was entrusted by the Scuderia Ferrari works racing team to only the most skilled racing drivers.
Expensive Ferrari 375 Plus.
These included Argentinean Jose Froilan Gonzalez – AKA the Pampas Bull – and the renowned Italian road racer Umberto Maglioli.
This 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 colors.
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 STG 20 million.
