…is Juan Fangio’s fantastic '56 Ferrari, which was just sold at auction in NYC for $28 million.
The younger forum members may not know the name of Juan Fangio, but those of us of a certain age can recall when he was one of the top drivers on the Formula One circuit, and this was one of the cars that he drove. As the article mentions, because this car was never damaged in a collision, its condition is excellent.
My brain just broke. It cannot understand what would justify $28,000,000 for a car… ANY car.
But, then, we had this thread already. And I still don’t get it.
TSM…I’m with you. The only car that would be worth $28 million dollars to me would be one with $27 million+ in cash piled up on the front seat.
@mountainbike Heck, the Mona Lisa is a small painting and in my opinion not the most beautiful. But it would fetch more than Fangio’s Ferrari. Perceived rarity and value is all that matters.
Stirling Moss and Fangio used to battle it out in the 50s and 60s on the Grand Prix circuits of the world.
When Fangio retired he ran a Mercedes dealership in Buenois Aires, his hometown.
He passed away not so long ago, adding to the value of his cars. There was a national day of mourning in Argentina.
bet from 1960-1970 u could have got it for <$100k. And everyone would have said u overpaid.
In one race, Juan Fangio spun out and ended up far behind the leaders. He drove fiercely and eventually won the race. The second place driver said that he actually won the race because no mere mortal could have done what Fangio did.
All points well made. But I still don’t get it. Never will.
On the other hand, Janis Joplin’s Porsche… well, that’s different! 
Neither do I, but because neither of us has made the type of absolutely insane salaries that are commonplace today for people in leadership positions in industry and in finance, it would be difficult for folks like us to comprehend the amount of money that some of these folks have amassed.
They–literally–don’t know what to do with their money, so they chase material objects whose price is driven up exponentially by other folks like them.
Sounds like Fangio basically raced it in one Mille Miglia (finished 4th), then dumped it. A year later it was retired to collectors. So the $28mil is for the Fangio connection.
Yeah, I know. But even if I had a gazillion dollars, I still don’t know if I’d do that.
In reality, a lot of these purchases are made as “hard assets”, considered safer than financial vehicles and subject to tax reporting only on initial purchase as an investment and upon disposition as a capital gain. These transactions are made during financially advantageous time windows, in context with an entire portfolio. Some owners never even see the cars.
There’s a world famous designer whose name escapes me that has a collection of multimillion dollar classics that he keeps on displays (lit stages, some animated) in a warehouse in another country that he rarely even visits. He collects them as a form of art. Like Picassos and Renoirs. The choice of country is probably driven by tax laws.
I guess I’ll never understand unless I become a “global citizen”… which is highly doubtful.
Y’know, we picture these bidders of multimillion dollar auction cars as being filthy rich playboys with a bit too many aged grapes in them, but I suspect the true profile is that the bidders are mostly professionals purchasing as proxies for very wealthy investors.
Sounds like Ralph Lauren, but i believe that most of the collection lives in the US when he’s not sending out cars for museum display. At least in other videos most of the cars are on New York plates.
I’m not sure it’s him I’m thinking of, but it just might be. I don’t remember the details of what I read very well. It was a long time ago.
If I had that kind of money (to “invest” in something that’s not going to pay me a regular cash dividend), I’d buy a piece of property in some remote location, drop in a big fallout shelter, and then line the walls with monster boxes of gold and silver bullion. Repeat the process over and over again as funds allow. Of course, maybe these folks are already doing that; we just don’t read about THAT on the “news”. Cars, paintings, sculptures, etc are easily destroyed, although I suppose they’re well-insured for that.
I’d guess that for many of these guys the cars are just one part of their portfolio.
But I confess that when it comes to the portfolios of the super rich, I have no idea what I’m talking about. 
Fangio was the greatest driver who ever lived. He was beating younger drivers when he was in his 40’s!
The second best (IMHO) was (is?) AJ Foyt.
I just watched Craig Jackson of Barrett-Jackson auctions on the news saying the most expensive car sold in a private sale was reportedly sold for $52 million. The car was a 1963 Ferrari GTO sold in 2013. In 2014 a Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta sold for $38 million at auction. This set a new auction sale record for the highest sale price.
Very rare cars offered to eager buyers. Supply and demand at its most obvious.
I used to read about Fangio in high school. There were many tales. It was assumed his cars were only good for one race, because he either won or destroyed the car trying.
In one race, someone spilled oil in a curve. The first five cars spun out on the oil and crashed all over the place. Fangio went racing through the debris of wrecked cars and won the race.
In another one, he won but had to push the car some distance by hand to do it. He was so far ahead he had time to push it quite a ways.
Some newspaper once had a political cartoon showing him pushing what would be described as a Ferrari wheelbarrow. just the chassis and front wheels.
I have a doctor riend here in Mexico. He now contemplates his own mortality. But, for a long time he drove really fast. Once he borrowed $5,000 to finish his new clinic. We drove some distance to the bank. They gave it to me all in 50 peso bills. A large office envelope with bills sticking out every way. We went walking out of the bank with this large container obviously of money.
I told him. “We are going to get robbed!”
He said, “Once we get in my car we are okay.” And, were we ever. There would have been only two ways to get us. One of the Federal transitos high powered Dodge Chargers, or a helicopter.
In those days, when he was driving, he was in one of two modes. Either the throttle all the way to the floor accelerating as fast as the Chevrolet would go. Or, with the brakes all the way down, screaming curses at whoever or whatever impeded his passage. It was some experience. His nurse once rode somewhere with him, and said, NEVER AGAIN.
I once compared his driving to Fangio. He was pleased!
This is really amazing. I would love to get one by using the loan under my convention collective automobile in my industry.
The reply by BarbarJelly is SPAM…please remove.
Back when I first moved out east, I met a guy who is friends with the owner of this establishment-
https://paulrussell.com/rPortfolio/
He was generous enough to get me a personal tour of the entire facility, including the storage area where many famous people have their cars stashed away. One entire building is dedicated to housing cars owned by Ralph Loren. A portion of his collection I was told. I got to see all of them up close and personal…
The restoration work they do is concours quality, down to the finest detail. It was an amazing experience and one I’ll never forget.