There are some mixed results at the Monterey auctions this year. Several record prices have been broken. A few have been smashed. There have also been some major duds and some big no-sales. There have been some successful flips, and there have been some failed ones.
We’ve also noticed some changes around here, with the growing presence of modern supercars both at the auctions and out on the road during Car Week. Indeed, some of the most surprising sales of the week have been for later-model exotics. But something that hasn’t changed, and what sets these auctions apart from everywhere else, is that this is where you see the absolute tippy-top of the car market, out in the open. It’s where the rarest and most special and most expensive cars change hands publicly. It doesn’t get much rarer or more special or more expensive than this week’s star auction car, a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider Competizione.
Its presale estimate was “in excess of $20,000,000”, so it was almost certainly going to bring more than anything else this week. And with a $25,305,000 final price, it did. (It’s worth noting that a 2025 Ferrari Daytona SP3 also sold at RM Sotheby’s for $26,000,000, with proceeds going to charity. Such charity-driven auctions, however, are not determinative of how a market values a given example.) A car that ticks just about every expensive box, it’s the highest-priced California Spider ever sold at auction as well as the most expensive car ever sold by Gooding Christie’s (formerly Gooding & Co.), according to the auction company.
Anyone remotely into cars or anyone who’s seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off knows that a Ferrari 250 GT California Spider—”Cal Spider” for short—is a special car. Ferrari built barely 100 copies. No two are exactly alike, and whether it’s a short wheelbase (SWB), long wheelbase (LWB), open headlight, closed headlight, steel body or alloy body, any flavor of Cal Spider is a seven- or eight-figure affair that can be the crown jewel of a collection or the highlight of an auction. Gooding had a remarkable three Cal Spiders on offer in Pebble Beach this year, including the 1957 prototype, which sold for $7.265M, and a 1961 no-sale, but this car—chassis 2383 GT—had everything going for it.
Its later, sportier short wheelbase configuration makes it more desirable than the LWB cars. Its closed headlights also make it prettier (and pricier) than the open-headlight examples. Its aluminum hardtop and external fuel filler are also desirable details that, on a car this valuable, add up. What makes it stand out even further is under the skin, as Ferrari built it as a competition car with alloy bodywork and a hotter version of the 2953-cc Tipo 168 V-12 engine with high-lift cams, Testa Rossa–type cylinder heads, an Abarth exhaust, and 9.5:1 compression for an estimated 280 hp, 40 more than standard. Chassis 2383 GT also got a ribbed gearbox, limited-slip differential, 120-liter duralumin fuel tank, and Miletto shocks. Just two short-wheelbase California Spiders were built with alloy bodywork and full competition equipment.
Its first owner was a German gentleman racer named Ernst Lautenschlager, who wanted a coupe but “somebody in their wisdom at the factory determined that a Spider with a hardtop was pretty much the same.” Lautenschlager collected the car, originally finished in Grigio Argento (Silver Gray), in Düsseldorf and proceeded to race it at circuits and hill climbs in both Germany and Austria, often entering events under a pseudonym, because “It was not necessary that the tax man know everything.”
Lautenschlager racked up several wins in 1961 and ’62 at minor events, and in 1963, he sold it to another German who repainted it red and reportedly took it camping in the Alps a few times. By 1968, the car was in the U.S., and in the mid-1980s it sold to Ferrari collector and TV producer Greg Garrison, best known for The Dean Martin Show and the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. The current owner bought the Ferrari 250 GT from Garrison in 1999 and then had it restored, including a color change to the current Grigio Fumo (Smoke Gray) over tan.
Up to now, the most expensive California Spider ever sold at auction was a barn-find car, famously dug out from under a pile of old magazines in France’s Roger Baillon collection. It sold for €16,300,000 ($18,586,482) back in 2015, so 2383 GT broke a record that was over a decade old. It also showed that cars like this still rule the roost at the Monterey auctions. In the last 10 years of Monterey auctions, an Enzo-era (1947–73) Ferrari was the top sale six times. This one makes seven out of 11, and 2383 GT is now the 13th most expensive car ever sold at auction.
Report by Andrew Newton for hagerty.com
