London

Battersea Evolution
8 September 2014

SPECTACULAR 1956 FERRARI 250 GT 'TOUR DE FRANCE' LEADS RM AUCTIONS' £22 MILLION LONDON SALE

RM Auctions successfully concluded its eighth London sale in Battersea Park, bringing 80 fabulous motor cars (and one rocket) to market in a £21,811,945 ($36,348,733 USD) auction extravaganza. With an impressive 86 percent of all lots sold, the central London sale, held in partnership with the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace, rounded out RM's 2014 European calendar in spectacular style, attracting a packed room of international bidders.

Top sales honours went to the highly anticipated 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione 'Tour de France,' chassis 0563 GT, one of only nine built by the Maranello factory. With extensive period racing history, including two top-10 finishes in the legendary Tour de France road race, the purebred competition Ferrari attracted strong interest from bidders in the room and on the telephones, eventually selling for a remarkable £4,872,000. The second-highest sale of the evening went to another rare Maranello car, a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB, chassis 08199, one of only 60 constructed with alloy bodywork. Freshly restored, this magnificent matching-numbers example achieved £1,960,000. Proving that not every big-selling car needs a prancing horse on its badge, the third top sale went to the awesome 1964 Shelby 289 Competition Cobra, CSX 2430, which rumbled its way onto the block, shaking the seats of the excited audience before achieving £1,176,000.