This 1963 Ferrari Racer Could Fetch $20 Million at Auction

After years of Ferrari’s motorsport success being built on sports racers configured with the engine mounted ahead of the driver, this 250 P prototype from 1963 was the very first of its kind to position the engine behind the pilot. It was a formula that changed everything for the Prancing Horse. In the car’s first season on the track, when it was part of the official Scuderia Ferrari race team, it took second place at the 1963 12 Hours of Sebring and third at that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Shipped to the U.S. in 1964, it joined the North American Racing Team (N.A.R.T.) run by Ferrari‘s official U.S. importer, Luigi Chinetti. In its first outing, the car was driven by Mexican racing legend Pedro Rodriguez, finishing second overall at the Bridgehampton Double 500. Weeks later, he claimed victory in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Now, after 63 years of being a blueprint for many Ferrari road and competition cars, this iconic 250 P, wearing chassis No. 0810, is being auctioned at Gooding Christie’s flagship sale in Northern California’s Pebble Beach on August 15, during Monterey Car Week.

“This 250 P stands among the most important Ferraris of all time, and among the most significant Ferrari competition cars ever offered at auction,” David Brynan, senior car specialist at Gooding Christie’s, tells Robb Report. “It really does represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a truly landmark racing Ferrari.”

The car’s comprehensive lot description from Gooding Christie’s explains that throughout the 1950s, Ferrari enjoyed remarkable success with such masterpiece sports-racers as its 250 Testa Rossa, 290 MM, and 315 S—each one embracing Enzo Ferrari’s mantra that a proper racing car should be a front-engined machine.

Even when his Formula 1 cars switched to having mid-mounted engines, it seems Il Commendatore remained unconvinced, arguing that the weight of a V-12 behind the driver in a sports-racer would compromise handling.

The development of the 250 P (the “P” stands for”prototipo“) by Ferrari’s young chief engineer Mauro Forghieri, working with Ferrari’s newest driver, John Surtees, was a game changer. Their creation featured a lightweight tubular chassis carrying a longitudinally mounted 3.0-liter Testa Rossa-type V-12, with a rear-mounted transaxle, fully independent suspension, and inboard rear disc brakes.

Designers at Pininfarina were called on to pen the elegant, flowing lines of this low-slung, two-door racer, which Modena’s Carrozzeria Fantuzzi hand-formed in aluminum. It seems Forghieri even persuaded Ferrari to authorize full-scale wind-tunnel testing of the car at the University of Stuttgart to fine-tune the aerodynamics. The work resulted in the dramatic shape of that low, wraparound windshield and distinctive aerofoil over the cockpit.

As the very first 250 P, chassis No. 0810 was the car unveiled at Italy’s Monza racetrack on March 4, 1963. Less than three weeks later, it was on the grid at Florida’s Sebring circuit for the opening round of the FIA World Sportscar Championship.

For the race, Ferrari had entered a second 250 P, chassis No. 0812, piloted by Surtees and Italian racer Ludovico Scarfiotti. By the checkered flag, the duo had narrowly beaten chassis No. 0810, which was driven by Lorenzo Bandini, Nino Vaccarella, and Willy Mairesse. But finishing first and second in the model’s inaugural appearance confirmed the engineering brilliance of the 250 P’s mid-engine layout.

During chassis No. 0810’s 1964 N.A.R.T. season, it continued to be refined with engine updates from Maranello. The first was a switch to a 3.3-liter V-12, then came a 4.0-liter version. When the season ended, Chinetti sold the car to one of his most important customers, Pittsburgh industrialist William McKelvy, whose Scuderia Bear racing team subsequently campaigned the car everywhere from Lime Rock to Bridgehampton, and again at Sebring.

In 1966, McKelvy had a “for sale” sign on the car. His asking price was just $12,000. “It’s an interesting reminder of an era when yesterday’s works Ferraris were simply used racing cars, rather than the treasured historical artifacts they are today,” says Brynan.

The 250 P’s next steward was Gordon Tatum, a Maryland-based auto dealer and weekend racer. Tatum repainted the Ferrari dark blue, to match his 250 GTO, and campaigned it in SCCA events up and down the East Coast. It later passed through the hands of a succession of well-known Ferrari collectors before being acquired in 1987 by Scottsdale-based Ferrari racer and collector Harley Cluxton III. Cluxton is maybe best known for becoming the youngest authorized Ferrari dealer at the age of 26. 

A year later, and after a full restoration, he sold the car to its current owner, New York–based Ferrari collector Anthony Wang, for a reported $3 million. Formerly president and C.O.O. of computer software giant CA Technologies, Wang boasts one of the world’s finest assemblages of Ferrari classics, including a pair of 250 GTOs, a 250 Testa Rossa, a 250 California Spider, and a 330 LWB.

Wang is exceptional in that he not only displays his cars, but, together with his wife Lulu, regularly exercises them. At the 2024 Monterey Historic races, he was seen driving the 250 P aggressively around the demanding Laguna Seca track.

“To me, this is the very best Ferrari we have ever handled at auction,” says Brynan. “It was a works car, a Chinetti car, it raced at Sebring three times and Le Mans twice. It has everything a Ferrari connoisseur could ever desire.” Its rarefied résumé is reflected in its current estimated value of between $15 million and $20 million.

Click here for more photos of this 1963 Ferrari 250 P.