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Yikes ... the buyer is undoubtedly a member of the More Money Than Brains Club!
22 December 2023
You might think this one comes way out of left field. The only good reason to think that is because, well, it does. It’s a controversial pick and I’m pretty sure it won’t be a popular one, but the twisted $1.875M hunk of Ferrari absolutely is my choice for Sale of the Year, 2023 edition. But I’m not choosing it just to be different. I genuinely think it was a great buy.
The car, which at one time was a Ferrari 500 Mondial, put a smile on my face when I first read about it. An even bigger smile appeared when I first saw it in person. But the idea of actually buying and restoring it? It sounds both stupid and savvy, impossible and life-affirming, wrong on every level yet just so right. It’s a moonshot, but also one with all the roadmaps firmly in place. It’s a picture of destruction, but also that of a path to redemption. It’s like an O. Henry story, a Dickens story, and a Hemingway story all wrapped up in an old Italian race car.
To be specific, it’s a 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial Series I by Pinin Farina, serial number 0406 MD. It crashed heavily sometime in the early 1960s, and it sold out of the “Lost and Found” collection at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction this August for $1,875,000.
First, a little bit about this “Lost and Found” collection, which belonged to Florida real estate developer Walter Medlin. In 2004, Hurricane Charley gave the Sunshine State a Category 4-sized smack, and among the casualties was the barn housing Medlin’s 20 Ferraris (including the Mondial). The structure collapsed, raining debris down on the cars. Later relocated to Indiana and stored for another decade, the cars were finally brought out for sale in Monterey.
The sort of living diorama, set up by the RM staff to display the cars outside the Portola Hotel in downtown Monterey, certainly played to a “Lost and Found” theme. It gave off vibes of a desert island, a long-forgotten post in the outback, or an abandoned junkyard in a remote clearing. Placed as far away from the main viewing area as was possible, it nevertheless served as a celebration of the rundown and wrecked nature of what was on offer. In the Mondial’s case, however, it wasn’t so much wrecked as it was utterly demolished.
We like to say that all you really need to restore a wrecked race car is a serial number plate, time, and a wad of cash. Okay, maybe a metric ton of cash, but the point stands. Is this a rich guy’s folly, then? A waste of time, money, skills, and resources? A tax write off? I say none of the above, and this was a smart purchase. If, and only if, you have (or have access to) those critical ingredients listed above.
RM Sotheby’s RM Sotheby's
As a 1954 Ferrari, it’s a very early car in the history of the Ferrari brand, and not one single early Ferrari is worthless. Most are worth the cost of restoration, even if that restoration involves every single nut and bolt. When the subject is a race car from the early 1950s, the value is such that an owner could afford a truly extreme restoration, in this case a full rebuild. According to Ferrari, “around 15” (others say 13 or 14, welcome to the world of early Ferrari record keeping) of the 500 Mondial Spiders were made. They were all equipped with a 2.0-liter (1984.8ccc) Lampredi-designed four-cylinder engine. Most have good race history, and this one made appearances at the Imola Grand Prix, the Mille Miglia, and Targa Florio. Significant events, those three, and big assets for the car’s resume.
Putting a price tag on incredibly rare automobiles with varying histories can be difficult, but here are two previous Mondial sales to ponder. Gooding & Co. sold one, chassis 0434 MD, in 2018 at their Scottsdale sale for $4,455.000, against a pre-sale estimate of $5,000,000 to $5,750,000. In 2019, RM Sotheby’s sold chassis 0448 MD at their Villa Erba sale, Lot #148, it hammered, including fees, at $4,166,013, against a pre-sale estimate of $4,762,759 to $5,323,083. Importantly, both of these cars were sold with what was said to be their original engines; our 2023 example did not sell with its original powerplant but rather a later 3.0-liter unit.
Looking purely at the math, is it even possible to get to a potential value of $4M? In a nutshell, that answer is yes. Will this chassis be worth a bit less than that because of the later engine swap? Possibly. Restorations on cars such as this are expensive, but done correctly and with proper methods and craftsmen, you can bring the invoice in under that $2,000,000 delta between purchase price and comparable sales, perhaps monumentally under. Now, it’s just up to the new owner to figure out how.
But where does one go with such a hunk of metal and eventual goals of touring at pace in the world’s most elite collector car events? There are shops in North America, or the fine folks at Ferrari could address this Mondial’s needs in exquisite fashion, to be sure. There are other, more economical alternatives, too. Craftsmen in the hills of Italy, or former Eastern Bloc countries like Poland, could shave two-thirds off the restoration price—and create an end product to match the best. We don’t know the resources the new owner possesses (though most of the time someone picks up a fixer-upper for nearly $2M, they usually can afford a top shop), but there are many options, and the restoration story is one we can’t wait to hear.
So, here’s to the gamblers, the independent thinkers, the craftspeople and artisans that will be involved in the recreation of this car, which very much deserves to be brought back to life. There are headaches and heartbreaks ahead, but in the end, the results will be worth the efforts. I for one can’t wait to see the resurrection and public presentation of this car—and to see it drive under its own power—be it at The Amelia, Pebble Beach or Villa d’Este.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/hagerty-insider/this-pile-of-twisted-metal-is-our-sale-of-the-year/
22 December 2023
You might think this one comes way out of left field. The only good reason to think that is because, well, it does. It’s a controversial pick and I’m pretty sure it won’t be a popular one, but the twisted $1.875M hunk of Ferrari absolutely is my choice for Sale of the Year, 2023 edition. But I’m not choosing it just to be different. I genuinely think it was a great buy.
The car, which at one time was a Ferrari 500 Mondial, put a smile on my face when I first read about it. An even bigger smile appeared when I first saw it in person. But the idea of actually buying and restoring it? It sounds both stupid and savvy, impossible and life-affirming, wrong on every level yet just so right. It’s a moonshot, but also one with all the roadmaps firmly in place. It’s a picture of destruction, but also that of a path to redemption. It’s like an O. Henry story, a Dickens story, and a Hemingway story all wrapped up in an old Italian race car.
To be specific, it’s a 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial Series I by Pinin Farina, serial number 0406 MD. It crashed heavily sometime in the early 1960s, and it sold out of the “Lost and Found” collection at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction this August for $1,875,000.
First, a little bit about this “Lost and Found” collection, which belonged to Florida real estate developer Walter Medlin. In 2004, Hurricane Charley gave the Sunshine State a Category 4-sized smack, and among the casualties was the barn housing Medlin’s 20 Ferraris (including the Mondial). The structure collapsed, raining debris down on the cars. Later relocated to Indiana and stored for another decade, the cars were finally brought out for sale in Monterey.
The sort of living diorama, set up by the RM staff to display the cars outside the Portola Hotel in downtown Monterey, certainly played to a “Lost and Found” theme. It gave off vibes of a desert island, a long-forgotten post in the outback, or an abandoned junkyard in a remote clearing. Placed as far away from the main viewing area as was possible, it nevertheless served as a celebration of the rundown and wrecked nature of what was on offer. In the Mondial’s case, however, it wasn’t so much wrecked as it was utterly demolished.
We like to say that all you really need to restore a wrecked race car is a serial number plate, time, and a wad of cash. Okay, maybe a metric ton of cash, but the point stands. Is this a rich guy’s folly, then? A waste of time, money, skills, and resources? A tax write off? I say none of the above, and this was a smart purchase. If, and only if, you have (or have access to) those critical ingredients listed above.
RM Sotheby’s RM Sotheby's
As a 1954 Ferrari, it’s a very early car in the history of the Ferrari brand, and not one single early Ferrari is worthless. Most are worth the cost of restoration, even if that restoration involves every single nut and bolt. When the subject is a race car from the early 1950s, the value is such that an owner could afford a truly extreme restoration, in this case a full rebuild. According to Ferrari, “around 15” (others say 13 or 14, welcome to the world of early Ferrari record keeping) of the 500 Mondial Spiders were made. They were all equipped with a 2.0-liter (1984.8ccc) Lampredi-designed four-cylinder engine. Most have good race history, and this one made appearances at the Imola Grand Prix, the Mille Miglia, and Targa Florio. Significant events, those three, and big assets for the car’s resume.
Putting a price tag on incredibly rare automobiles with varying histories can be difficult, but here are two previous Mondial sales to ponder. Gooding & Co. sold one, chassis 0434 MD, in 2018 at their Scottsdale sale for $4,455.000, against a pre-sale estimate of $5,000,000 to $5,750,000. In 2019, RM Sotheby’s sold chassis 0448 MD at their Villa Erba sale, Lot #148, it hammered, including fees, at $4,166,013, against a pre-sale estimate of $4,762,759 to $5,323,083. Importantly, both of these cars were sold with what was said to be their original engines; our 2023 example did not sell with its original powerplant but rather a later 3.0-liter unit.
Looking purely at the math, is it even possible to get to a potential value of $4M? In a nutshell, that answer is yes. Will this chassis be worth a bit less than that because of the later engine swap? Possibly. Restorations on cars such as this are expensive, but done correctly and with proper methods and craftsmen, you can bring the invoice in under that $2,000,000 delta between purchase price and comparable sales, perhaps monumentally under. Now, it’s just up to the new owner to figure out how.
But where does one go with such a hunk of metal and eventual goals of touring at pace in the world’s most elite collector car events? There are shops in North America, or the fine folks at Ferrari could address this Mondial’s needs in exquisite fashion, to be sure. There are other, more economical alternatives, too. Craftsmen in the hills of Italy, or former Eastern Bloc countries like Poland, could shave two-thirds off the restoration price—and create an end product to match the best. We don’t know the resources the new owner possesses (though most of the time someone picks up a fixer-upper for nearly $2M, they usually can afford a top shop), but there are many options, and the restoration story is one we can’t wait to hear.
So, here’s to the gamblers, the independent thinkers, the craftspeople and artisans that will be involved in the recreation of this car, which very much deserves to be brought back to life. There are headaches and heartbreaks ahead, but in the end, the results will be worth the efforts. I for one can’t wait to see the resurrection and public presentation of this car—and to see it drive under its own power—be it at The Amelia, Pebble Beach or Villa d’Este.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/hagerty-insider/this-pile-of-twisted-metal-is-our-sale-of-the-year/
